This year has given us unexpected challenges when it comes to the workplace. Many offices have had to shut their doors and begin working remotely. While some spaces are slowly opening back up, many are opting to continue working remotely. This presents the challenge of working efficiently and maintaining open communication in the workplace. Weekly or monthly meetings can no longer happen in person, which means that a substitute will have to take their place. There are the options of FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, Google Hangout, and GoToMeeting which all allow companies to communicate with large groups and have regular meetings. These offer the ease of access that working remotely requires, for both formal meetings and more casual workplace virtual happy hours. Connecting with your colleagues is more important than ever with employees having to isolate due to the virus, and it’s important to maintain a personal touch with both colleagues and clients. Another important piece of working remotely is instant communication. Email may not always be the fastest way to elicit a response from a colleague when the task or question is urgent. There are online resources for instant chat such as 8x8 Virtual Office, Slack, Telegram, Mattermost, and Quip which all allow for group or one-on-one communication with your team. You can create specific groups for your sales team, HR team, support staff, and more. This way you won’t clog up email inboxes and can send out personalized messages to specific teams or individuals. While these won’t replace the ease of communicating in person, they are a good substitute. Another worry that managers have is time management and ensuring that projects stay on track with their deadlines. Without being able to have meetings in person to discuss progress, it can feel like projects are falling to the sidelines. While you can hold virtual meetings on the aforementioned platforms to discuss progress, you can also utilize other project management platforms to limit these meetings. Make sure that your workplace is all consolidated onto one task management platform and lay out a clear and concise plan for the project or projects early on to make checking in easy. Your office could use Asana, Trello, Basecamp, Monday, or Teamwork. Each of these different apps offers different features, allowing your company to find the perfect fit for your requirements. These offer options to manage tasks, message and collaborate, share files, report, and easily search the apps easily. This helps to reduce the number of meetings and allow managers to easily check in on the status of a project. Working remotely means that staff won’t always be working from home, which could potentially compromise the security of vital information. It is pertinent that passwords be updated often, and that they are created to be strong. IT support needs to make sure their company knows not to use public Wi-Fi, even if their devices and apps are password protected and encrypted when possible. Businesses need to make sure that devices are set up with up-to-date anti-virus, encryption, and strong firewalls. Email is often a common way for attempts to access company information, and staff should be on the lookout for suspicious-looking emails and the company policy on how to handle these emails. There are many different malware and anti-virus technologies, and it’s important your company finds the right option to stay secure. In summary, there is a plethora of technology available to ease the stress of working remotely but communicating with your staff and colleagues doesn’t need to be sacrificed. Video meetings and calls can help communicate important information, while instant chat can help with rapid responses. There’s no need to worry about projects getting off track with a variety of software options that offer a range of task management options. Security is also an important matter with everyone working from different locations, and IT teams need to be ready to discuss the best practices to keep their company secure. Times are changing, but we have the software and technology to keep up and resume business as usual. We will make it through these uncertain times, together. Do you want help in making your office more remote-friendly? Email the professionals at CDI today at sales@cdi.support.

Integration Update: ArcLF Feature Service v1.3.0 Change/Update: Additional search options make it easier to display only the desired documents and folders on the map. Entries can be searched within multiple folder paths or with specific field values. Information from ArcGIS can be displayed on the map without needing to apply the data to template fields on the entries in Laserfiche. Benefit(s) & Advantages: Additional search options make it easier to display only the desired documents and folders on the map. Entries can be searched within multiple folder paths or with specific field values. Information from ArcGIS can be displayed on the map without needing to apply the data to template fields on the entries in Laserfiche. If you have additional questions about this or any other CDI software update, please contact support@cdi.support. If you are interested in learning more about the CDI ArcGIS/Laserfiche integration and how it can help streamlines your office, contact us at sales@cdi.support.

Integration Update: DocuSign Integration v4.0.0 Change/Update: DocuSign SSO Accounts are now supported by the Desktop and Web Client Integrations. Envelope History tab in the Web Client displays the full audit data of the associated DocuSign Envelope for the selected document. DocuSign Envelopes can be edited from the Laserfiche Desktop and Web Clients. Benefit(s) & Advantages The integrations now offer more flexibility when authenticating to DocuSign. Users are able to sign in with either DocuSign Credentials or a federated DocuSign SSO account. Users are able to view envelope history information directly within the Laserfiche Web Client. Additional template field configurations provide more flexibility when sending envelopes from the Laserfiche Desktop or Web Clients. If you have additional questions about this or any other CDI software update, please contact support@cdi.support. If you are interested in learning more about the DocuSign/Laserfiche integration and how it can help streamline your office, contact us at sales@cdi.support.

Integration Update: ArcLF Feature Service v1.3.1 Change/Update: Performance improvements when loading features on the map. Benefit(s) & Advantages: Performance is greatly improved when loading features on the ArcGIS map If you have additional questions about this or any other CDI software update, please contact support@cdi.support. If you are interested in learning more about the CDI ArcGIS/Laserfiche integration and how it can help streamlines your office, contact us at sales@cdi.support.

Integration Update: AutoOCR version 5.4.1 Change/Update: Bug fixes and performance improvements when generating pages from PDF files in Laserfiche. Benefit(s) & Advantages: Pages are generated more quickly for PDF files in Laserfiche. If you have additional questions about this or any other CDI software update, please contact support@cdi.support. If you are interested in learning more about CDI's AutoOCR/Laserfiche integration and how it can help streamlines your office, contact us at sales@cdi.support.

Integration Update: Redtail Workflow Activities version 1.0.0 (Coming Soon!) Change/Update: New workflow activities for Laserfiche Workflow allow managing contact information from Workflow. Benefit(s) & Advantages: Contact records within Redtail can be created, updated, deleted, and searched for from within Laserfiche Workflow allowing tighter integrations between Redtail and Laserfiche If you have additional questions about this or any other CDI software update, please contact support@cdi.support. If you are interested in learning more about CDI's Redtail/Laserfiche integration and how it can help streamlines your office, contact us at sales@cdi.support.

Each month the CDI Employee Spotlight showcases individual CDI staff members, highlighting not only their tireless work contributions but also who they are as a person. This month’s spotlight shines bright one of CDI's most experienced Business Process Consultants, Ron Race. Ron, how long have you been at CDI, and what responsibilities do you have? "I started at CDI as a consultant back in January of 2011, I’m currently a Business Process Consultant. My job allows me to work directly with our CDI clients to build out and troubleshoot their Laserfiche systems." Tell us about yourself "I have 3 kids as well as a dog Daisy who is a bassador (Labrador basset hound mix). As a family, we enjoy hiking/camping. My wife and I enjoy traveling whenever possible. I have a Bachelors's degree in Computer Information Systems." What are 3 items on your desk and why are they there? "I can’t remember anymore since I haven’t seen my office desk in a month 😊. My workspace currently consists of an old kitchen table in my basement. Currently with a coffee mug and a pile of towels that needs to be put away. Crazy time right now." What is the best part of your job? “I really enjoy assisting our clients and providing a process/system that they are excited about. ” Thank you for sharing a bit more about yourself with us, Ron! Being a CDI staff member for nearly a decade certainly makes you a valuable asset to the team. Our clients are very lucky to have you as a resource!

As of version 10.4, Laserfiche Forms supports the copying and pasting of Process Design elements within a process, or onto another business process. Unfortunately, it does not allow copying of forms or forms elements between processes, which is what we all want! Below, CDI’s Software Trainer, Kyle Knebel, will quickly guide you on how to easily copy and paste elements between your Forms Business processes. To begin, Forms process elements are things like Start Message Event, Exclusive Gateways, Service Tasks, etc. To Copy elements, you will navigate to the process diagram page on the left-pane of the process. Then press and hold the CTRL key and click over the elements you want to copy, like the Message Start Event, Gateways, and User tasks. Once selected press CTRL-C or right-click the elements and select Copy. You will see a confirmation message at the top of the screen: To Paste, press CTRL-V in the process designer screen. As you paste the element(s), they will appear as a hovering group with a hand icon. Position the element(s) on the process design screen and then click the left mouse button to drop the element(s). You can then arrange the individual actions on the design grid as normal. The elements will appear as normal once pasted. They are now ready to be individually edited. That’s it, simple! Thank you, Kyle! It’s quick tips like this that can help save readers a lot of time by using faster and more efficient methods of duplicating elements between Forms business processes. If you have any questions or wish to speak with a CDI professional team member, contact us at support@cdi.support.

Each month the CDI Employee Spotlight showcases individual CDI staff members, highlighting not only their tireless work contributions but also who they are as a person. This month’s spotlight shines bright on CDI's Business Process Consultant, Jessica Zuchowski. Jessica, how long have you been at CDI, and what responsibilities do you have? "I’ve been a Business Process Consultant since the beginning of March and am excited to be part of this great team. I enjoy working on software implementation and configuration projects, which allow me to engage with multiple teams, from development to end-users. I have a lot of fun learning new tools, especially in an environment where I can help others learn as well and we can solve technical problems together. Those are some of the core responsibilities of the Consulting department, which is why I was drawn to this awesome team at CDI.” Can you tell us more about yourself? "I live in the Greater Seattle Area with my husband and our dog, a retired racing greyhound named Roman. We all enjoy hiking and exploring new outdoor spaces, and I like to take macro photos of plants and mushrooms while I’m out. While at home, I try to spend my time cooking, playing video games, working on small craft projects, and tending to houseplants. " Is there anything about you that your clients wouldn't believe or would be surprised to know about you? “I collect insects. I’ve always been fascinated by the elaborate details and intricate articulations displayed in such small creatures. I have some pretty cool exotic bugs hanging on my walls that I’ve purchased throughout the years. When I find new bugs closer to home, I have fun researching them to figure out the scientific classification and learn about their ecology. ” Thank you for sharing your story with us, Jessica! We are very lucky to have you on the CDI Business Process Consultant team. I'm certain our clients are also excited to have an opportunity to work with you more in the future.

Each month the CDI Employee Spotlight showcases individual CDI staff members, highlighting not only their tireless work contributions but also who they are as a person. This month’s spotlight shines bright on CDI's busiest and most versatile Executive Assitant, our new employee, Autumn O'Brien. Autumn, how long have you been at CDI, and what responsibilities do you have? "I have been with CDI for about a month and a half and my role is an Executive Assistant at the Seattle office. I work primarily with Patrick and the other executives and assist with their travel arrangements, coordinating the details of tradeshows and conferences, and managing the in-house Service Bureau. Each week I am tasked with something new, and have been enjoying learning the ins and outs of the company.” Can you tell us more about yourself? "I was born and raised in Idaho and attended the University of Idaho, where I obtained my bachelor's degree before moving to Seattle. I have been in the Pacific Northwest for three years, and enjoy the fast pace of the city, but also getting out and exploring all of the beautiful trails with my dog Chief. I enjoy going to concerts on the weekends; last year I saw over 40 different artists. I love the atmosphere of a live show. I also am an avid baker, and love to try out new recipes and modify them to make them my own, then getting to share the end product with my close friends." Is there anything about you that your clients wouldn't believe or would be surprised to know about you? “I was raised in a small farming town in Idaho, so moving to Seattle was a huge culture shock to me. My town was so small that we had one gas station, two restaurants, no stoplights, and a “traffic jam” was often just a farmer moving his tractor and equipment through town. Teaching myself to drive in the crazy Seattle traffic was a challenge, as was learning how to navigate our crazy roundabouts, six-way stops, and crazy intersections. Luckily, I’m well versed in it now.” Thank you for sharing your story with us, Autumn! We appreciate all that you do to help keep CDI, and the executive team, running smoothly.