Rewarding the Muses

DocFinity® software helps BMI pay songwriters

BMI was recently honored with the prestigious Kinetic Information 2003 Process Innovation Award.

By Gordon E.J. Hoke, eVisory Consulting, copyright 2003, all rights reserved.

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How many times a day is a popular song played on radio, TV, in films, or over the Internet? How often have disk jockeys spun "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"? BMI knows.

BMI (www.bmi.com), which stands for Broadcast Music Inc., is the non-profit-making company that collects and pays royalties to its affiliate songwriters, composers and publishers every time their music – from jingles to symphonies – is aired in public. Every time a radio station plays “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, songwriter Paul Simon is due a royalty. It is BMI’s job to make sure Mr. Simon, and all other registered BMI affiliates, get their due. In addition, tens of thousands of businesses buy BMI licenses to legally play the affiliates’ music.

The record keeping for 4.5 million compositions from 300,000 affiliates is tremendous, and it involves much more than ledgers. Simply keeping track of ever-moving musicians is a challenge. Contracts, notes, invoices, vouchers, check copies, licenses, and many other documents require serious management. At its inception in 1940, BMI kept these records on paper. A decade later, it began saving document images on microfilm, a medium that lasted 40 years.

By the late 1990s, however, that system bogged down. Requests for documents rose to the point where the lengthy delays became unacceptable. Rather than add staff, the CFO asked then-Manager of Records Retention Steve Emrick to search for a better document imaging system. After detailed research, BMI installed an electronic imaging solution in late 1998.

From today’s perspective, that system seems archaic. While it was a definite improvement over microfilm, workers described the imaging as, “clunky”, “user-unfriendly”, and “painfully slow”. Batch retrievals meant searchers had to look through dozens of screens to find a desired page. It was difficult to associate images with computer reports and database information because that required separate launches and toggles. Most vexing, the system was slow: BMI’s New York and Los Angeles offices waited between two and 10 minutes to log on, even with T1 phone line connections. Branch offices like Miami and London had no access to images.

Needed Change

“By spring, 2000, it became obvious that we would have to do a major upgrade,” reports Emrick, now Director of Imaging Technology. “Since we would have to revamp the entire system, we felt it would be best to look at some other products. I went to AIIM [AIIM International’s document/content managing exposition], bought the benchmark study, went to the booths of the major players, compared their products, and, with a digital audio recorder and camera, gathered as much information as possible.

“Also, I created a matrix that listed the vendors and our required features. It included a scoring system that led to a very objective evaluation. As the solution-evaluation process progressed and we saw various functionalities offered, the features list grew to over 130 items.”

Analyzing the information, Emrick recommended four solutions to an executive steering committee, which looked at demonstrations of each. “One was a toolbox, and it would have required a lot of custom programming to meet our needs,” Emrick recalls. “At another, the company’s financial situation was questionable at best. We really liked a third, but they weren’t advanced in Web functions, and we needed to be browser-based. Also, the third company only sold their software through a reseller, which meant extra fees, agreements, and legal complications. We preferred dealing directly with the software developer.”

The committee evaluated the final four candidates by analyzing the solution matrix, and the winner was the DocFinity Suite of Products developed by Optical Image Technology Inc. (www.DocFinity.com). It scored highest because it was

1. Ready out-of-the-box but still flexible and customizable.
2. Technology that was both advanced and proven, including thin-client (browser-based) architecture.
3. Capable of multi-value indexing combined with table lookup validation. BMI knew that would reduce keystrokes, improve accuracy, and guarantee consistency.
4. A good fit for current needs and scaleable for future needs.
5. Compatible with existing databases and production software.
6. Available from the developer with direct access to software engineers and support.
7. From an independent company that was [and is] debt free, profitable, and stable.
8. An integrated suite of products including Imaging, Enterprise Report Management (ERM or COLD), and electronic Workflow.
9. Intuitive, with a user-friendly interface.
10. Highly configurable
11. Built with robust security.

Getting Real

BMI began a phased rollout of DocFinity: first, document imaging and second, report management. The DocFinity interface proved to be easier to use and much quicker than the system it replaced. Users gave it rave reviews.

Emrick supervised the initial DocFinity system setup for six major departments. His staff designed custom query screens for each, and, where necessary, designed custom queries for individual users. BMI also designed and built a custom MS Access front-end to DocFinity. This logs incoming documents and creates index values in a single pass.

DocFinity’s thin-client architecture immediately reduced congestion on BMI’s Wide Area Network. Retrievals became almost instantaneous in the New York and Los Angeles offices, and other branches, including London, gained first-time access at similar speeds. A fifth of BMI’s workforce is mobile, and this group (which dials into the system through the Internet) enjoyed vital improvements in access and speed.

With its first imaging system, BMI had begun converting requested microfilm images to digital. The team faced the challenge of converting documents from the old, proprietary imaging system to DocFinity’s open format. Identifying the equation was a months-long task with a successful conclusion. The staff changed 5 million images to the new format.

Document conversion is a continuing concern, and Emrick expects to convert about 350, heavily used rolls of microfilm to digital media. Thousands of rarely used rolls will remain on microfilm.

The Accounts Payable Department adopted DocFinity early and uses it to record all checks issued. Accounts Payable stores and retrieves all of its records digitally, and the new system is a time saver. “I remember when check copies were filed manually,” recalls Matthew Berry, AP Associate Director. “It seemed to take forever. Now you call up the image, answer the question, and get on with your day. My first response was, ‘Wow! This is so user-friendly.’ If I want to pull up documents for one vendor or for one employee’s expense vouchers, I get a list. Or if I want to get more precise and go to a particular check number, bam! It’s a quick response. When the auditors come, it only takes me a few minutes to retrieve, print, and take them what they want. And there’s no re-filing!”

A Project Management Perspective

"The implementation of the DocFinity software was a very challenging project." Kevin Major, Project Manager who led the multi-department implementation team at BMI, reports, "Quite candidly, it took some time for our teams to get in synch with each other. BMI manages projects in a very formal manner and OIT had to adjust to this need. We worked through it together. It is a testament to the power of the team."

“There were some functionalities that did not work out of the box,” he continues, "However, we resolved these issues in a reasonable timeframe. OIT stands up well compared to other software vendors. Software flexibility was key. BMI made numerous custom functionality requests that added to the complexity of the project. When we needed functionality, they responded.

“I always look at the end user. Do they have more than before? In this case, the answer is a resounding yes! BMI gets much more than before, including robust security. We entrust some of our most sensitive documents to the system. Also, it is important that DocFinity is not proprietary,” Major concludes. “You don’t want your system in a lock box.”

Objective Advantages

While the users’ perceived benefits from the DocFinity system are profound, the advantages can be quantified as well.

1. Two departments that had worked under the old imaging system experienced an 80% reduction in staffing requirements.
2. While experiencing a steady, double-digit increase in scanning volumes, BMI has not had to add new employees in the Imaging Technology Department.
3. The system indexes images for 8 million pages and computer files at this writing. Based on industry studies, the facility and labor costs to store and maintain that many pages in filing cabinets could approach $1 million a year.

Also, BMI associated its scanned documents with its computer reports into a single, easy-to-use interface. A server on a secure, internal intranet makes this available to all offices and the large, mobile workforce.

Every day, DocFinity delivers on its initial promise at BMI, and Emrick wants to use it to leverage even greater efficiencies in service to the affiliates. The next goal is to automate document capture. He sees significant advantages to turning paper into digital images at the beginning of transaction processing over merely storing the end products as archives.

Automated document capture, however, sets the stage for further automation with tremendous potential benefits: electronic workflow. Emrick looks forward to the day when BMI will scan paper documents as they enter the company and immediately route them to any and all workers who need to address them.

Through faster speeds and lower costs, BMI is better serving the songwriters, composers and publishers who share their gifts with the world.

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Gordon E.J. Hoke, a vice president at eVisory Consulting, has observed, analyzed, and written about document and content management technologies since 1989. A consultant and journalist, he counts over 150 publishing credits. Contact him at (507) 534-2293 or gordon.hoke@evisory.com.

This story originally appeared in the January/February 2004 issue of AIIM E-DOC Magazine.