Proudly Serving West Virginia
West Virginia Document Management Systems Since 1994
Capture, store and manage electronic documents securely.
I first came to know document management with the Sales and Marketing department of Nabisco Planters and LifeSavers out of Winston-Salem, NC when I was hired to do computer programming (legacy term) in Visual Basic on their SQL Server OS/2 Warp based 'Competitive Activity Tracking System' called CATS. I developed the system from scratch. I utilized TWAIN protocol at the time.
This job also gave me insight into how to legally gain competitive information on competitors product in the field. I also learned about 'Coupon Redemption' and other Logix NCR customer offers as it related to retail register based purchases.
West Virginia Customers
Some information I know about West Virginia is I believe the state was admitted or ratified to the United States around or about 'June 20, 1863'. West Virginia is located around latitude '39' and longitude of '-80.5' and has a population of roughly '1,793,716 million'. If I remember correctly the capital is 'Charleston' and the largest city is 'Charleston'.
The Paper Free Environment
Everyone understands the need for a paper free environment. That is where document management systems come into play. Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) as it's appropriately called is a computer-based software system used to store scanned documents single side, duplex (double side) as well as word processor, spreadsheet documents and more.
Word of Mouth
Take a moment to read related case studies and testimonials below around my experience with Document Management.
Case Study
First Med EMS Ambulatory services needed a custom document management solution that encompassed scanning in-house ScanTron styled documents via ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) scanners. The goal was to forgo the purchase of expensive ScanTron equipment and recognize scanned OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and OMR (Optical Mark Recognition).
My solution saved First Med EMS over 100,000 the first month work began on the project with a home-grown Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) which automatically scanned both sides of pages through the Automatic Document Feeders. His scanning engine was smart enough to ignore blank pages on the Epson GT-S50 scanners tested. Resulting scans were slammed into a SQL Server Full Text search database and saved as OLE Blob Image format.
Saving images in the database resolved a huge industry problem of file pointers to disk locations which was slower on retrieval difficult when locating files where folders could have 200,000+ images or more making research painfully slow. I utilized Lead Tools Recognition engine to zone out all OCR/OMR areas for extraction of key values into the database with all appropriate key and search values filled in.
"I knew when I interviewed Eddie, he was what the organization needed. His expertise proved me to be right. He was invaluable and created a Scantron replacement system we are very proud of. Eddie also created a drivers manifest with turn-by-turn directions and built a location system for our ambulances."
December, 2013
Chris Martin | USA
CEO
Life Ambulance Services (First Med EMS)
"Eddie and I worked on a Document management system, OMR/OCR, secure FTP, and scanning applications. The company would often change their programming requirements, but Eddie quickly continued to produce software updates. Eddie's dedication and strong knowledge in .NET, computer networking, and Microsoft SQL helped the company to achieve its goal. He was able to assist in developing custom applications that could not be satisfied by expensive boxed software."
December, 2013
Jeremy Travis | USA
Help Desk
Life Ambulance Services (First Med EMS)
"Eddie, great job on EDMS (Electronic Document Management System), when your back in Wilmington I will treat you to a steak dinner!"
August, 2013
Robb Stone | USA
CTO
Life Ambulance Services (First Med EMS)
"Eddie, EDMS is working flawlessly across 60 stations and the users are not reporting problems with scanning. Great job!"
February, 2013
Jonathan Laughnan | USA
Help Desk
Life Ambulance Services (First Med EMS)
Case Study
When Triad Guaranty needed a Risk Based reporting system, I assisted by writing a solution in Perl/CGI under Apache running on Linux. The resulting system made the newspapers as the first PMI (Primary Mortgage Company) to allow their loan partners to view Risk Based information.
I also wrote an Oracle Blob based Document Management System for Triad Guaranty for pickup and storage of their EDI Fannie and Freddie files saving Triad over $50,000 from the canned software solutions they were reviewing.
Here's where the REAL INGENUITY came in. -> I wrote the Oracle database blobs in a way that even Oracle forms and Oracle Reports couldn't extract the blob files and they work outside the Visual Basic software that I created to access them. Puzzling every Oracle developer who attempted to test reading their first blob. How did I do it? I removed the EOF terminators prior to saving to the blob and simply put the EOF terminators back when my software extracted them to disk.
"We received a message this morning that the Appworx_prod oracle production box was low on disk space. Eddie's program EZ-mon has turned out to be very helpful."
12/12/2002
Kenny McMellon | USA
Accounting
Triad Guaranty
Case Study
My start in the food industry started when we wrote software for Nabisco to manage from a marketing perspective how they stacked up to the competition. Critical to this was the ability to monitor competition. I was given the daunting task of writing a system to monitor at the product and geographical level what competitors were doing with existing product and new product.
I delivered CATS (Competitive Activity Tracking System) which allowed Nabisco and Planters & Life Savers divisions to keep abreast of competitor changes in the market place. This competitive advantage was unheard of in the industry. I cannot disclose how competitive information is gathered in the field but the final system, included actual pre-release product images from actual competitor bagged product, competitor price sheets and more.
I also assisted in implementation of IRI Customer Sales syndicated data for in-house processing (savings in excess of $2 million) which the company was utilizing for competitor information as well by loading the IRI data for easy distribution to the entire organization. This data combined with CATS made for a competitive arsenal still unmatched since 1991.
"Great work Eddie! Clearly the whole company is benefiting from your VB expertise and your continuous sharing of routines you have developed through Townhall."
3/24/1995
Dave Pettigrew | USA
Sales & Marketing
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
"Thank you for all the functions and subs that you put into the libraries. I've only used a handful so far, but they have saved me a lot of time. They are all easy to use and understand"
3/23/1995
Jonathan Shema | USA
Developer
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
"The implementation of the IRI Consumer Sales databases on the MVS machine in Wilkes Barre was a success! All systems GO! Thanks to a tremendous show of effort from our Information Processing Services group, IRI and our dedicated Marketing Systems Team the project has been completed on-time and without any loss of service to users as full access has been maintained through the project. Project savings in excess of $2 million."
7/14/1994
Joe Farrelly | USA
Sr. VP & CIO
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
"I think Eddie has done a good job on reviewing the present market for this type of software; I wish more developers would put this level of effort into it. Eddie's assertion, confirmed by Ahmed, that native DB-LIB is the fastest access path to SQL Server is absolutely correct."
4/25/1994
Greg DiGiovanni | USA
Development Manager
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
"Bruce: My main man (Eddie Drye) has been a great help to me down here.... He has some things published in Townhall y'all might be interested in. Yesterday we the entire process up as a PIF and this is the result. I'm putting this one to bed."
9/22/1994
Larry Leonard | USA
AS/400 Senior Developer
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
"Thank you for your hard work and cooperation on our first validation process. I really appreciate your attitude and initiative in following up through the various stages of this process. I am looking forward to many successful validations to come!"
6/15/1994
Robert Bowden | USA
Sales
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
"Just wanted to add my appreciation concerning the fine work Eddie and Dave did for the first Account Review database update. As you know, support of the Account Review system, Is a top priority of the LifeSavers management team. Your group has done an excellent job assuming these key responsibilities. Thank you!"
6/15/1994
Earl Godwin | USA
Sales
Nabisco / Planters & Life Savers
What Does a Document Management System Provide?
When it comes to your work, time is as important as your paycheck. Opportunity cost proves this: The more time you spend boggled down by administrative tasks associated with paper such as walking to the fax machine or searching filing cabinets for content, the less you are paid for the expertise defining your role. These tasks detract from your value to your organization no matter how talented you or your employees are.
The more time you have to do what matters, the more you can accomplish. Although many view paper-related interruptions at work as 'part of their jobs,' it needn't be that way. With the right document management system technology and a solution-based mindset, your workers will be overcoming the oppression of their professional lives. Relying on an electronic document management system to overcome these inefficiencies can literally change the trajectory of professionals' lives, and the businesses for which these employees work. Document disarray is the number one cause of organizational chaos. Without the means to manage, optimize, and orchestrate information, there will be little if any means for organizations to receive the informational assurance they need in today's era of digital transformation.
If at any point you decide to reach to me just know the area codes I am familiar with for West Virginia are '304, 681'. For Document Management assistance you will find my rates very reasonable for West Virginia. Now just keep in mind my time zone is 'Eastern Standard Time (EST)' and I know the time zones in West Virginia are 'Eastern Standard Time (EST)' in case you wish to call me. Anyway let me continue.
Any file can be stored in a document management system. These documents are then available to anyone with permissions to log in and see the documents in the software.
You know, I don't make it out to West Virginia much but I would like to see the 'Cardinal' state bird. I am a little familiar with the West Virginia 'Rhododendron' state flower as well. However, I do not know much about West Virginia's state tree the 'Sugar Maple'. Fishing is fun to me perhaps I would like reeling in the West Virginia 'Brook Trout' state fish. Anyway, sorry I went off topic. Let me continue.
Industry Use
Now that you have a better idea of what document management is let me explain the technologies, I utilize to make it all happen:
- .NET Framework (Microsoft's Technology)
- #C / VB.Net (Microsoft Languages)
- SQL Server database
Yep! I drank the juice. I prefer Microsoft over Open Source.
Background Nerdy Tip
In 1994, sorting functionality in Visual Basic did not exist except for a bubble sort we wrote manually. No sorting existed for grid based data display. Anyone who knows bubble sort knows it sorts from left to right. In order to sort say column 3 in a grid I would take column 3's data and put in front of column 1's data, have bubble sort do it's magic then remove the column 3 from the front and boom column 3 was sorted. I just had to re-populate the grid.
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Word of Mouth
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