Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Provided there is negligible chance that the document can have been tampered with.

The Commonwealth Evidence act of 1995 states that a document can be used as evidence if it " (i)is or purports to be a copy of the document in question; and (ii)  has been produced, or purports to have been produced, by a device that reproduces the contents of documents "

This interpretation of "document" means that a digital copy is adequate to represent the original PROVIDED the opposing party is unable to cast doubt on the reliability, integrity or security of the system used to create and store the electronic document.

The Webrecs repository provides a high level of security and can provide an audit trail for every document to show who accessed it and when.  In addition , our scanning processes are highly secure and all personnel who work with your documents are under a non-disclosure agreement and a confidentiality clause. There is a negligible chance that evidence would be able to be produced casting doubt on the reliability, integrity or security of the Webrecs system.

Yes.  The safety of your documents is the number one priority at Webrecs.  We have a implemented a number of measures to ensure that it is almost impossible for you to ever lose a document, or just as importantly, that no-one has unauthorised access to your documents.  To prevent data-loss we have implemented a number of measures :

Firstly we use best-of-breed hosting practices such as multiple redundant hardware (no single point of failure) , offsite backups and a fully secured datacentre. It is very, very unlikely  that a hardware failure or disaster (fire/flood) will cause downtime. However that is not enough for us ...

Secondly , our use of virtualisation means that your data backup contains EVERYTHING we need to get you up and running again on new hardware in a matter of minutes in the extremely unlikely event of a hardware failure or disaster . But even this is not enough ...

Thirdly we offer the Webrecs Datassure™guarantee - which pretty much says that even if all else fails, we will get your Webrecs system up and running at YOUR premises

Lastly you can order Relocatable User Backups of your data (containing EVERYTHING) on USB drives or memory sticks at a nominal cost

The data security measures (to prevent unauthorised access to your data ) we implement are on 3 levels :

The data link - since your traffic is going over the internet we don\'t want anyone accessing your data on its way to our secure data centre, so we use 128-bit SSL to encrypt all your documents to and from the data-centre. This is the same security banks use for their transactions over the web.

On the server - our use of virtualisation means that the server is YOURS - we do not share databases, applications or caches across multiple customers (as is the case with many competitors) - there is NO way in which another user can accidentally or maliciously access your data without YOU authorising it.

In the data centre - Access to the physical servers is strictly controlled with a state-of-the-art security system including 24 hour monitoring, separate secure server cages and CCTV . No-one except for security-screened service technicians have access to your hardware, and even then, they have no access to your application data.

No. Your security is our highest priority. Our application is based on Open source software which has been scrutinised for security flaws by thousands of developers worldwide and is universally recognised as the most secure software around. Read more about how seriously we take your document security in "Are my documents safe"

Yes, you certainly can. Be prepared for a very steep learning curve, however. In common with much Open source software Alfresco requires plenty of experience, experimentation, and the ability to extract information from sometimes rudimentary documentation.

If this is what you wish to do, let Webrecs help you get a head start with our consulting services - we have a great deal of experience in Alfresco and ECM in general.

If you are in the market for this and have the technical skills, also consider the Webrecs DIY plan - you get most of the heavy-lifting work done with a preconfigured Alfresco system, you can customise to your hearts content and you don't have to worry about the  costs of hardware, administration, backups, upgrades etc.

Webrecs provides specially tailored hosting plans so that you need have NO special IT skills. The interface is intuitive, user-friendly and familiar to all who have some experience using the Web. Our experience is that most users are completely at home with the product within a couple of hours. All the backend stuff is taken care of for you by virtue of the hosted nature of our solutions. You really don't need any IT skills in-house - however you do need someone who can create and manage users and the hosting plan using our control panel and the Alfresco admin console.

Webrecs also provides a DIY plan which caters for those businesses who wish to customise their ECM beyond one of the preconfigured solutions. For this there is a requirement for solid IT skills in Linux , XML and depending on the extent of customisation , Java, JSF , scripting and Javascript.  Webrecs consulting services are available to help out here as well .

For base functionality, no. The Webrecs solution is purely browser-based, which means that ANY PC which has a supported browser is immediately Webrecs-capable. From home, airport lounges, hotels, laptops ...

However , for extended functionality (specifically the CIFS adapter which allows mapping of filesystems onto Windows explorer) it is necessary to install some software from a small download which Webrecs makes available here . This software provides a secure "tunnel" between the Webrecs host and the PC to maintain the high security standard set by Webrecs.

OK , here are some nitty-gritty technical details about our security measures :

• Datacentre is ASIO T4 and ISO 27001 compliant
• All https traffic to and from the site is encrypted with 128-bit encryption .
• Keys are Openssl generated 1024 byte using Webrecs as CA
• CIFS traffic restricted to OpenVPN tunnel through redirected ports
• No external ftp
• Transfer of scanned images over SFTP or VPN
• SSH screening for DoS attacks

The cost of scanning documents can be broken down into 5 basic components :

1. Batch costs - Cost of physically transporting and handling the batch of documents. Typically not related to the number of documents or pages.
2. Document preparation costs - Cost of physically sorting the documents, removing staples, inserting document separators and indexing sheets, smoothing, straightening and aligning. Typically a per-document cost.
3. Document indexing costs - Cost of adding indexing data to documents (keying costs) and ensuring that all automatic indexing (eg. barcodes) is correct. Typically a per-document cost.
4. Document QA costs - Cost of checking each page and document to ensure that the scan-quality is good and that the indexing data is correct. Typically a per-document cost.
5. Page-scan costs - Cost of physically running the paper through the scanner, clearing paper-jams, cleaning rollers, amortisation costs of scanners etc.  A per-page cost.

From this it is clear that the number of pages per document is important in determining overall costs - remember that there is only one index per document, so for a ten-page document there is one-tenth of the indexing cost and around the same reduction in document preparation and QA cost too.

So the most cost effective way of scanning in documents is to have documents with large numbers of pages where most of the document preparation is already done, where there are few indexes required on the document and most of the indexes are automatically picked up (with eg. barcoded separator pages) .

For this reason Webrecs has introduced the concept of ScanPacks™s which allow you to choose the amount of preparation you wish to do in order to reduce costs.

Webrecs provides 7 methods of document import :

Scan.  You can scan your own documents in yourself, save them as files, import them as normal image files using one of the below methods and index them manually. Alternatively you may want to avoid the hassle and investigate our scanning solutions or purchase ScanPacks™ to allow you to deal with your paper with minimal headache.

Add file from local drive. From within the Alfresco application you can choose an "add document" action which allows a file to be selected from your local PC or network and imported into the current folder

Drag n drop. With the Alfresco CIFS adapter setup you can use your Webrecs repository exactly like any other Windows explorer drive, with all folder structures and files replicated through a secure tunnel across the Web. You can drag and drop files to and from the Alfresco file system directly in Windows explorer.

Mail. You can forward any mail or attachment to user "webrecs@[mycompany].hosts.webrecs.com (where [mycompany] is of course your company name in your subscription ).  The Webrecs auto-importer will import the mail body and all attachments your Webrecs repository where they will be available in the validation area for rehoming, searching and viewing. Note that by using a mail user name other than "webrecs" the mail will be processed for that particular user instead of the company and will be rehomed to that user directory. This is particularly useful for customers or staff.

Create new. Within Alfresco you can create a new text-based document directly in the folder. Webrecs provides a rich-text editor to allow you to create rich text and html documents.

ftp. Webrecs provides an ftp gateway to allow files to be accepted and added to the the repository. All files end up in the validation area. This is ONLY possible through your secure OpenVPN tunnel ie. you can only ftp files to address 10.8.0.1 - inherent security flaws in the ftp protocol prevent Webrecs opening up this method to insecure networks.

Webdav. Webrecs provides a Webdav adapter as well. However this is not recommended especially on Windows because of some quirks with the implementation of Webdav

Very easy. Simply select the "Upgrade plan" option in your Webrecs hosting plan Control Panel and choose the appropriate upgrade step. Everything else happens automatically - your existing payment method will simply be incremented by the upgrade amount.

Quite simple. If after a month you decide that the Webrecs subscription you purchased is not for you, we will refund your first month's subscription provided that :

• You have not taken advantage of the Webrecs Datassure guarantee
• You and no-one in your company has previously held a Webrecs subscription

Your subscription, your Webrecs application and all your data will be erased, it is up to you to ensure that you have backed up all your data manually.

Webrecs supports and has tested the following browsers :

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0.x

Firefox 2.0.x

Anecdotal evidence suggests that other browsers (Safari, iPhone) work but we do not explicitly test on them.

Browse the Alfresco web site to get an idea of the features and functionality of "vanilla" Alfresco ECM (you can even download it and get it up and running on your PC). Bear in mind that the standard product is designed to showcase the range of functionality and configurability possible with the product but are not really suitable for serious use. The hard bit is customising and configuring the default application to make it work for real-world needs which is precisely where Webrecs comes in. Webrecs has taken the default build and customised it to provide a much more business imaging-oriented platform with the addition of the following features :

• More business-document focussed data model with indexing data based on real-world business needs
• Removal of unnecessary and confusing UI elements
• Standard folder structures
• Custom agents for creating new users, products, customers/patients and suppliers
• Strong integration with our scannning bureaus through a custom scanned-document importer
• Batch approval workflow
• Automatic OCR capabilities
• Automatic conversions to PDF
• Tightened security for ftp and CIFS
• Full SSL encryption
• Custom mail gateway and auto-import
• Default users and groups
• Custom space actions for automatic document workflows
• Custom templates for indexing, validation and rehoming

See redundancy

Webrecs is not planning on going out of business any time soon :-)  However, the question does need to be asked and answered.

The answer is the Webrecs "Datassure guarantee" . You are guaranteed that if the worst comes to the worst, you can have a fully featured working application with all of your data which you can continue to use or, if required, export to another application or file-system. AT YOUR PREMISES. (Albeit with the associated inhouse costs and lack of Webrecs support). You are definitely NOT up the creek without a paddle - you are in an infinitely better position than is the case with our competitors.

Webrecs has pioneered the use of the "Relocatable User Backup" or RUB. We believe that this is the ONLY way in which you can feel truly secure in a Saas environment. When you order a RUB from your Webrecs control panel you are getting a backup of your entire system , both data and application , including customisations. This is by virtue of the fact that your subscription is hosted in a lightweight , virtual container which can be backed up and restored in its entirety, and run at your premises if required.

See the Webrecs Datassure™guarantee and Sass

A Webrecs ScanPack_tm is a package which facilitates the outsourcing and batch-scanning of documents. It comprises 4  elements :

1. 1. A process for preparing, collecting, transporting, scanning, indexing, quality-assuring, validating and returning/destroying your documents
2. 2. A container with your company specific details for organising the documents to be scanned
3. 3. A number of separator sheets with space for ad-hoc (hand-written) and barcoded (sticky-label) index fields
4. 4. A number of sheets of sticky barcode labels for attaching to separator sheets

1. Process

The process begins with the order of a ScanPack. ScanPacks can be ordered through your Control Panel once a Webrecs hosting plan has been purchased.

See a sample Webrecs Scanpack order form here.

From the details you enter into the online form, we can give you a cost estimate of how much the batch will cost, and what elements need to be included in your process. For example, the mastering of DVDs, the return or secure destruction of documents or whether specialised OCR is required.

We also prepare your ScanPack barcode sheets to cater for the indexing requirements you specify on your ScanPack order form.

All the scanning, indexing and preparation requirements are relayed to the scanning bureau via the cover page delivered with your ScanPack box - it is vital that this page is the uppermost page in your ScanPack box.

The most important thing for you to do is to prepare the documents in accordance with the ScanPack level (see below)  and sort them according to the foldering / indexing requirements you have decided upon. See the Wiki article "Scanning Guide" for more details .

Once the documents have been scanned and uploaded into your Webrecs repository you will be informed and will be required to do a quick validation in the validation space , before confirming that the batch is complete. At this we do a reconciliation of the batch and either debit or credit your account with the difference between the quote and the final figure. Note that differences can be due to :

• Fewer or more pages in the batch than the purchased box size
• Fewer or more average pages per document
• Imcomplete or overdone document preparation according to the purchased ScanPack level
• Double sided pages
• Difficult or incomplete indexing

Finally , the documents are returned or destroyed, depending on your order

2. ScanPack box. 

You place as many documents as you can fit into the ScanPack box. Do not overfill and do not worry about separator sheets etc. taking up space. You will only be charged for pages which are yours - separator pages get dropped out anyway once the indexing data has been removed from them. Remember , the better your document preparation the lower your cost.

3. Separator sheets

To greatly ease the scanning process, separator sheets are used to separate documents (particularly when documents are unstapled is is the case with bronze and silver ScanPacks) as well as provide indexing data for the document. Depending on the ScanPack level and indexing requirements you will need to stick one or more provided barcoded sticky-labels on folders and/or separator sheets and/or write manual indexing values in the space provided by the separator sheets.

4. Barcode labels

For convenience Webrecs provides a number of sheets of barcode sticky-labels, containing standard date, document type and document subtype. These should be stuck onto separator pages or folders containing documents of a particular date, type or subtype and the relevant documents should be batched together according to these groupings. More than one barcode can be attached to a page or folder, both will be read.

Scan-pack levels

Bronze

This is the most cost-effective Scan-pack . You are required to do all your own document preparation, batching and indexing, which involves

• Removing staples from multipage documents and re-grouping them using separator sheets
• Batching the documents in the box according to date and/or document type and/or document sub-type and/or other indexing fields as specified in your Scan-pack order
• The scanning bureau will do quality assurance. They will perform document separation if possible during the QA process but this will be charged as extra
• The scanning bureau will do no indexing at all. All indexing and document separation is done through the barcodes and separator sheets you set up.
• You need to manually correct and/or index  documents which are not correctly indexed.

 Silver

This requires a similar degree of document preparation from you but significantly less post-scanning indexing than with Bronze

You are required to do all your own document preparation, batching and indexing, which involves

• Removing staples from multipage documents and re-grouping them using separator sheets
• Batching the documents in the box according to date and/or document type and/or document sub-type and/or other indexing fields as specified in your Scan-pack order
• The scanning bureau will do quality assurance. They will perform document separation if possible during the QA process but this will be charged as extra
• The scanning bureau will perform manual indexing of  1 manual field per document (this is a hand-written value on the separator page) . Automatic  indexing done through the barcodes is corrected as per the order
• You should have little or no manual indexing to perform during the validation phase.

 Gold

This is the easiest option. All you are required to is document batching which allows for  the indexing of documents and involves :

• Sorting documents into folders and/or batching them in the ScanPack box according to date and/or document type and/or document sub-type and/or other indexing fields as specified in your Scan-pack order
• The scanning bureau will do staple removal and other document preparation
• The scanning bureau will perform manual indexing of  2 manual fields per document (these are the hand-written values on the separator page) . Automatic  indexing done through the barcodes is corrected as per the order
• You should have little or no manual indexing to perform during the validation phase.

In summary YOU choose how much work you are able to put into the document preparation to reduce your costs. At the end of the day, however, getting your documents properly scanned, indexed and in a digital format will save time and money whatever the ScanPack used. Guaranteed.

Alfresco is the world's leading Open source  ECM  system.  We use it because we believe it is the most flexible, scalable, function-rich,and stable platform on which to base our hosted product suite

Rehoming is the movement of documents from the validation area to their final destination. This applies only to mail-in documents and ScanPacks.  The Webrecs re-homer makes the best guess at what this final destination might be, however it is easy to change this during the validation process.  It is also possible (though not recommended) to re-home automatically using the Webrecs defaults.  The rules are fairly simple :

• The document-type defines the main folder
• The document sub-type defines the first sub-folder
• Item names (staff, supplier, patient, product etc.) define the next level
• The date defines the final level

If any of these are undefined, the document ends up in the catch-all "Misc" folder at the level where the indefinition starts.

Webrecs has taken the Saas (Software as a service) concept one step further to provide "Software as a Secure Service". Sass.

With Webrecs you are more secure than your normal cloud-based Saas provider because of our strong security coupled with our Webrecs Datassure™guarantee and your ability to create RUB's (relocatable user backups).  Your data is ALWAYS yours and yours only. That is security.

The Control Panel is a web-tool you have available to control many aspects of your subscription, including

• Resource monitoring
• Access to Webrecs support
• Performing or restoring customer-initiated backups
• Ordering relocatable user backups
• Ordering Scanpacks
• Upgrading subscriptions
• Viewing billing history
• Maintaining contact details

It is separate from your Webrecs Alfresco subscription which is your online Document and Records repository.

You can access it from here

All documents imported into a Webrecs system via ScanPacks or email go into a "QA" or "holding" or "validation" area. From this area there is a quick and easy process to OK the document and send it to its home folder or space.  We use this technique for 2 reasons :

• When using ScanPacks you need to validate the quality and completeness of the batch. This allows quality issues to be addressed while the documents are at the scanning bureau, before return or destruction.  No further steps are taken with the documents until you have OK'd them
• It gives you the chance to make last-minute indexing changes or change the home space (or folder)  of the document. Even though all documents are searchable across all spaces through the sophisticated search engine, it is always a benefit if the document ends up in a folder which is familiar and relevant (often mirroring a filing cabinet ) . In most cases the defaults chosen by the Webrecs "rehoming process" are correct, in some cases there might be some fine-tuning (typically through lack of indexing data) required.

Documents added by other means are under your control so clearly this is not relevant - you copy documents to the space you want to and associate them with the correct indexing data at the time of import. 

Webrecs provides 3 ways of ensuring that your data is backed up.

Automatic backups

Webrecs backs up all subscriptions nightly and maintains a minimum of 4 weeks prior backups. Backup media are rotated every Monday and stored offsite. Restoration of backups can be done by contacting Webrecs support. There is no charge for restoring a backup for an online backup (that is, a backup for any date up to and including the previous Monday). The charge for restoring a backup for an offline backup (that is any backup prior to the previous Monday ie. the last Sunday and before ) is $80. Out of normal business hours or in an emergency this increases to $145

Manual backups

Webrecs DIY customers also have the ability to create up to 3 of their own backups on the server for special development purposes - for example after a major change of functionality, or for rolling back changes during the testing process. This functionality is available through your Control Panel

Relocatable User Backups

Relocatable User Backups are special backups which you initiate through your control panel. Because the backup size is larger than a normal backup, it is required to copy this to a USB drive or a USB memory stick on the server at the hosting premises. You specify whether you require the drive couriered or return-posted and you confirm your address when you order. The cost is $50 for the service and the cost of the backup device (depending on your backup size this will vary from $20 to $120 ) . These backups are the only ones which can be used for restoring your system on a local PC as per the Webrecs Datassure™guarantee

All backups are of your entire Virtual machine ie. on restoration you have everything including data and application

At Webrecs we are mindful of the fact that you are entrusting us with some of your company's most valuable assets, and as such believe that you are entitled to retrieve your assets at any time. Storing your documents with Webrecs does NOT LOCK YOU INTO A PLAN which is impossible to get out of. Quite simply we believe that our service and value must be worth the monthly subscription you pay else we are failing you. Apart from the backups we do, we encourage you to maintain your own backups in-house to give you unequalled peace of mind.

The Webrecs guarantee states that :

Webrecs guarantees the ability to take a backup of the Virtual Machine corresponding to a user subscription, and the ability to subsequently restore this backup to an appropriately specified PC (see below) in a manner which allows the original online functionality to be largely duplicated with the following restrictions :

• Requires Webrecs Live CD
• Single PC only - no networking
• No mail-in, or autoimport functionality
• No mail-out functionality
• No drive-mounting
• No SSL
• Read only

Should you take advantage of this guarantee, you need to have relocatable user backup of your system as per the Webrecs relocatable user backup intructions. A minimum service charge of $200 is payable for this service, which includes the provision of instructions and the Webrecs Live CD. Any extra time spent by Webrecs support staff resolving issues with your local system will be charged the standard hourly support rate.

Webrecs will provide the instructions, Webrecs Live CD and (where requested) the full user backup to perform this task within 30 days. The customer is responsible for the provisioning of the PC.

The minimum specification for the target PC is :

An Intel-based machine with CPU of at least 2.5 GHz clock speed with a minumum of 2G of RAM, disk space of at least 100 GB or 20% greater than the snapshot size , DVD ROM and 2.0 USB port

Yes, you not only get your data, but the whole application for you to keep working on !

Our recipe for creating a winning product suite has been :

• Thoroughly investigate the open-source ECM market and choose the best-of-breed open-source ECM product for a hosted ECM platform. (the product turned out to be Alfresco )
• Spend many thousands of hours extending, integrating, customising, configuring, testing and USING the product to provide robust, uniquely tailored packages for different business environments using a mix of Alfresco and other open source products.
• Host the applications in the most secure possible way to make it available on the web.
• Run the applications inside a virtual machine to provide a fully-encapsulated , upgradeable and self-contained user container

Webrecs Development Support is available to customers who have purchased a DIY subscription. It is a forum for answering technical questions to do with the customisation of the Webrecs DIY subscription. This is over and above the normal Webrecs support and is provided at the following monthly rate : First hour free Second hour at $60 ph. Subsequent hours at $100 ph.

Webrecs uses state-of-the-art hosting facilities which implement redundancy measures such as :

• A/B Power feeds
• Multiple Redundant UPS Systems
• Multiple Redundant Backup Generator
• VESA fire monitoring and suppression
• 24x7 Manned NOC
• Dynamic BGP routing with Optus, Verizon and UUECOM for data redundancy
• Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)
• Service Level agreement 99.99% Network Uptime

However it is in the area of redundancy where the value of virtualisation really comes in. Because every virtual machine is backed up in its entirety it is really quick and easy to redeploy the entire application plus data on completely different hardware within the space of a couple of hours.

So it is not necessary to keep standby applications - only standby servers. And Webrecs maintains spare server capacity of around 20% .

In the event of total and complete destruction of the hosting facility it is a question of a couple of hours to retrieve the backup tapes from their secure off-site storage location and redeploy new virtualisation servers at another hosting facility. We estimate that in this worst case we could have you back up and running within 2 days.

Webrecs chose open source Alfresco to deliver fully functional content management at a fraction of the cost of traditional enterprise products. We have worked with many of the world's leading enterprise products and we believe that a correctly configured and customised Alfresco solution provides is the most flexible, stable, configurable, scalable and feature-rich ECM platform around.