The Reward Of Hard Work

"The reward for a thing well done is to have done it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most of my youth was spent in a swimming pool. For 12 years, I was driven to become the best swimmer that I could be. My dedication paid off with numerous trophies and medals. Yet today, all of these awards are packed away in boxes in the back of my closet. Why? Because the awards are merely representations of my achievements, the real value I took away from swimming was the experience.

Learning From Experience
I think VARs and integrators gain similar value from experiences involved in different customer projects. So much is learned when a VAR for the first time...

• designs a storage area network (SAN)
• implements a solution to image millions of documents
• builds a wireless network to extend communications for remote employees.

The examples of unique integration and installation projects are endless. So, it's no surprise that when the Business Solutions' staff of editors selected the winners of the 2001 Channel Connection Awards, we had some difficult choices. There were many qualified applicants for the awards program that recognizes leading VARs and integrators selling enterprise content management solutions.

Winners were selected for the Channel Connection Awards based on the scope of the installation, integration complexity, and the user benefits and return on investment.

Recognizing Top Installations
The winners of the 2001 Channel Connection Awards included:

• Innovative Document Management Installation - Healthcare - IDP Companies Inc. won for its medical records solution for Northwood Health Systems. The solution, which includes products from Caere, Microsystems Technology, and IDP, will save Northwood $75,000 annually in record retrieval costs. The solution also found $25,000 in additional revenue for medical services that were not being billed.
• Innovative Document Management Installation - Government - Third Wave Corp. won for its solution for the City of Carlsbad, CA. The $1.2 million solution, which includes products from FileNet, Kofax, Fujitsu, Vidar, Compaq, and VERITAS, is estimated to pay for itself in two and a half years due to employee productivity gains.
• Innovative Document Management Installation - Law Enforcement - Hershey Technologies won for its content management, imaging, and workflow solution for the County of San Diego Sheriff's Department. The solution, which includes products from OTG, Kodak, and Kofax, has provided authorized users with Web access to over 2.5 million pages of documents.
• Innovative Forms Processing Installation - Insurance - R2K, Inc. won for its medical claims processing solution for Empire HealthChoice. The solution, which includes products from Captiva and ActionPoint, will pay for itself in less than 15 months.
• Innovative Forms Processing Installation - Education - Hershey Business Systems won for its solution for California State University. The solution, which includes products from Microsystems Technology and Hershey, has sped student application processing by three to four weeks.

Winners were recognized at a Channel Connection luncheon, sponsored by Tech Data, on May 3rd, at the AIIM 2001 Exposition and Conference in New York City.