‘All organisations and business units are focussed on digitisation of records’
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Sivakumar Ramachandran, Proprietor and Venkatesan Vaikuntam, CEO, Athena Global Systems, in an eInterview with Industrial Automation.
Digitisation of documents is a growing need. What are the highlights of DMS offered by AGS?
Athena Global Systems (AGS) is offering digitisation and Content and Document management system through Contentverse – a (CMS/DMS) software with the following special features:
- On-demand scanning and indexing
- Customisable Cabinet/Drawer/Folder structure for storage of documents
- Supports both Windows-based Client and browser-based application
- In-built File viewer supporting 400+ file formats
- Search on Content as well as on indices
- Manage Document Versions and revisions
- Audit Trail – Track on each activity done on the document
- OCR facility
- MS Office Integration – also drag and drop emails directly into DMS
- User rights and permissions from cabinet to document level
- Retention feature to meet compliances and regulatory requirements
- Active Directory/LDAP Integration for easier user management
- Work flows to automate and streamline business processes
- SOAP based API’s for Third Party Integration with any application, and
- Mobile Application available for both Android and iOS.
For the storage of digitised records, what are the options offered? How reliable is the system in terms of hardware and software?
For storage, we offer both options of storing in your premises (NAS/SAN level) or in cloud. The solution is reliable as the documents are encrypted while storing and we adhere to various compliances to meet the requirements.
How effective is the retrieval service in terms of recalling a specific document?
We have retrieval based on index search and content search. Retrieval of documents is immediate using the set retrieval parameters, which are customisable. The retrieval can be done at folder level, file level or documents level and search results can be brought out in csv format for reporting.
When it comes to records, security and confidentiality are of paramount importance. How is this aspect handled?
All documents stored in Contentverse irrespective of the file format (scanned or electronic) are encrypted (128 bit). On top of that another 128-bit encryption can be enforced on documents, if required. Feature to Redact (hide certain portion of an image) is available.
For security, first level of authentication can be done by integrating with Active Directory/LDAP. Then various levels of security (rights/permissions) can be enforced right from the Cabinet level going down to document level.
Recruitment services is another AGS speciality. What are the advantages you offer?
We offer both staffing on contract and recruitment services. In contract staffing, we manage all the statutory compliances of the staff and will work in the client’s project. We have talent pool of more than 10000 and can provide staffing at any level. We provide services for short term, medium term, and long-term projects. The client can focus on their core competency whereas we manage all the staffing, payroll and compliance issues.
In recruitment we offer services on the entire recruitment process outsourcing till back ground verification. We offer free replacement if the selected candidate leaves within 3 months from date of joining.
Getting the right skills is major issue facing the industry today. How do you address this?
Yes. We not only look for talent and try to identify his/her passion towards the job. We have multi-level interview selection process involving SMEs wherever required. We source talents from a wide range of talent pool to ensure that we do not leave out on potential candidates. We check the candidates for both soft skills and hard skills
What are the industries you service and can you tell something about the client base?
We have a client base of around 75 customers. We service various industry segment like IT/ITeS (IT enabled Services)/BPO/KPO/FMCG segments, banks, financial institutions, chemical and pharma industries, customs clearing, freight and forwarding, sales/marketing, etc.
We look forward to the challenge of taking on any new industry and providing staffing services, if need arises.
How large is the market for these two segments (DMS and Recruitment), and what are the growth prospects?
As the world is moving towards paperless organisation, all Government organisations and business units are focussed on digitisation their old records. In future all the transactions will happen online. Hence having a robust DMS application will be of utmost importance to ensure timely retrieval of information to take faster decisions. Organisations having operations across the world, will benefit through the cloud storage of the images and retrieve them at the click of a button from anywhere in the world.
On one side there is unemployment and on the other side there is huge talent pool passing out of institutes every year, making it very important to map the talent pool to the appropriate opportunity. A wrong talent in a wrong place is only a waste of time and money for the organisation and after spending considerable time grooming the talent, the organisation will have to reinvent the wheel again. Also in this competitive world, it is important to have focus on the business and the core competency. Hence, it is important to outsource the talent acquisition and other allied services to reliable back end partners.
Given the above situations, it can be easily understood that the opportunities in these two segments is huge.