Make-A-Wish granted better document storage

Computerworld - Usually the Make-a-Wish Foundation makes wishes for others, not itself. But even the most human-centric organization generates a great deal of paperwork, and the situation in the Minnesota chapter was approaching critical mass. The organization needed to digitize 25 years’ worth of paper files -- not exactly the sort of mission that attracts volunteers.

Make-a-Wish is an organization devoted to fulfilling dreams for children from 2 ½ to 18 who are coping with life-threatening illnesses. Chapters are more or less by state, though some chapters span multiple states and some larger states such as Texas and California have multiple chapters -- a total of 71 in the U.S., according to Minnesota Make-a-Wish executive director Tom McKinney. The organization has 28 international affiliates as well. The Minnesota chapter currently serves more than 200 children each year. Twenty-five years' worth of paper files represents about 2,700 children helped, with up to 30 pieces of paper generated per child -- a five-year digitization project, in McKinney's estimation, with additional paperwork generated all the time.

Fortunately for McKinney, one of the members of his board of directors had a better idea. Xiotech Corp.'s vice president of marketing, Mike Stolz, saw the notice, contacted McKinney earlier this year, and said the Eden Prairie, Minn., organization might have a better way to handle the digitization project.

First, Make-a-Wish shipped more than 50 boxes of paperwork -- enough to fill an 8-by-12-by-5-foot storage space -- to a Norwich, Conn., office of Daticon Inc., a document-conversion services company acquired by Xiotech earlier this year, where the documents were scanned by hand. They were then moved to an off-site server running Xiotech’s Archive Management Services. The file backlog was digitized in about two weeks, Stolz said. 

Now, when McKinney’s staff needs to look up a file, it can search on the name of a child, see thumbnail versions of all the documents associated with that child, search for them using metadata and then click on the thumbnail to pull up the document, he said. Previously, when someone requested information, it would take a few days while someone went to the storage area, found the box with that child’s files, and then found the paper, he said.

All files are protected by passwords that only three staff members have, McKinney said. "The privacy of the children is the top thing," he said. The files are more protected in digital form than they were on paper, which is helpful for compliance regulations, said Stolz. Conversely, the data is easier now to mine for legitimate uses such as arranging reunions, said Stolz.