Introduction
Procter and gamble is an information technology company which is aimed at achieving a paperless working environment through implementation of electronic ways of handling and storing data. Pare work has been a tedious venture for most businesses which have to keep track of their records through stacks of papers. This is also space consuming as filing paper work in cabinets and drawers requires a lot of space. In their quest to eliminate this menace, the company is involved in the implementation of an electronic device which will assist business store and retrieve their records easily. The company business model is aimed to assist in the migration process to electronically supported data storage which will reduce the pare work and tedious process of retrieving such information. To ensure security, this system will be authenticated by signatures of the users for identification purposes. The cost of administration and research and development for most companies is expected to reduce after implementation of this system as retrieving documents will be easy and fast.
The major product provided by the company is the electronic record keeping system which is accompanied by the document signature for identification. This has identified as SAFE which is legally acceptable and easy to be managed by the users (Greengard, 2008). This also makes it easy for auditors to analyze the users and personnel’s accessing the documents. The files are stored in a format which is easy to retrieve and view the contents easing the pare work done by companies. Their services, therefore, encompasses this signature which is affixed to the electronic system ensuring both compliance with the regulatory requirements and easy access of the documents by business organizations.
The major challenge in using electronic data storage systems is the security and authenticity of such data. Data security involves ensuring the secrets of an organization are not exposed to outsiders or competitors. This has become challenging due to the increase of system hackers who can retrieve such data from the electronic system. In their system development, the company had to develop a system which was secure and could not allow hackers to access such information. This led to the introduction of the signature system which involved verification so document users before access are given to them. The initial development process of the system became challenging as the company had to identify a manner of identifying the people signing in on to the system.
Establishment of a legally compliant system was also another challenge facing the company during the initial period of establishment. The government is an active third party in every development project which as an external factor influences the success of any business. The management of P & G was, therefore, faced with the challenge of ensuring that the system was legally compliant to reduce any conflict with the government. It was also essential to identify the cost involved in establishing this legal system to ensure it was profitable to the company. The disadvantages involved with the use of bulky paperwork required establishment of an effective and user friendly system which would sell in the current business market (Becker, 2003). To achieve this, the company had to tackle all these challenges and ensure that people felt compliant and secure while using the system. The legality of the system had to be offered to the legal system in the company to ensure the signatures developed were not illegal in any manner. This, therefore, involved ensuring the development of a secure and legally compliant system for the company.
Implementation of the electronic system required the initial solving of the identified problems I the company to reduce any complaints form the user companies or the government. This required the company to undertake excessive IT research to come up with an acceptable solution to the identified problems. By 2005, the company introduced the Signatures and Authentication for Everyone (SAFE) system which was meant to ensuring securing of the data stored (Greengard, 2008). This is a signature driven system which ensures that the people using the data stored are identified and analyzed before access is offered to them. This was an encouragement to most companies to move to the paperless manner of storing data and embrace the electronic system.
At the same time, SAFE also ensured compliance of the system as it was legally acceptable. This increased the probability of the companies suing the system to network with different regulatory authorities and the government. The signature is attached to the files in which companies keep their documents increasing the efficiency and fairness of conducting audits. It has, therefore, made it easy to track users of the files reducing the probability of hackers accessing the files unnoticed. The signature is specific to different signers which makes it easy for the companies to keep track of the signers to the files. P & G also developed the Adobe LiveCycle Reader and PDF Generator for easy management and review of the data stored. Companies are involved in composure of large volumes of data and files thus this system would assist in reviewing and management of such volumes (Becker, 2003). The LiveCycle Generator ensures authentication and security of the data through creation of PDFs with the research collected which requires an addition of a digital signature. It has, therefore, assisted in the establishment of a fast system which reduces the cost of R&D in companies and management of documents.
Document management and database technology
Document management involves different computer programs which are established with the aim of tracking the users of electronic documents. This system also stores these documents thus it is capable of storing and at the same time tracking the users of such documents. Any modifications made on the documents by the different users are also traced by the document management system (Rainer & Cegielski, 2011). It has different components which indicates its functions including integration with different applications, indexing unique documents and metadata which involves the specification of the data.
On the other hand, database technology is involved with building of complicated and effective computer systems which have the capability to keep track and handle large volumes of data. The major concept in this involves large data sets which are stored, analyzed and the system also has the capability to search specific information form the data set. Building such a system required development of different software’s and computer languages which can be unde4rstood when the instructions are given. Database technology also involves development of the concepts required in processing and storing the data (Rainer & Cegielski, 2011). The end result of this is simplifying the process of accessing data and ensuring it remains adaptable when any new applications are input in the system. This makes handling large data volumes efficient and reliable thus limited or no data is lost in the process.
References
Becker, S. A. (2003). Effective databases for text & document management. Hershey PA: IRM Press.
Greengard, S. (2008). A Document Management Case Study: Procter and Gamble. Baseline. Web. Retrieved on June 8, 2013 from http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Document-Management/A-Document-Management-Case-Study-Proctor-Gamble/
Rainer, R. K., & Cegielski, C. G. (2011). Introduction to information systems. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
