Virtual Cabinetry

The portability, ease of use and accessibility of document management solutions are attracting many resellers targeting the SMB marketplace. Not only do these offerings reduce the obvious paper clutter issues, but they provide affordable security and storage capabilities previously unrealized by small businesses. Resellers are now reaping decent-size margins on the initial sale in addition to the ongoing revenue wrought by managed services, which ultimately is the driving force behind this technology. Case in point is vendor Cabinet NG and its partners.

Designed exclusively for the SMB class, Cabinet NG, from the maker of the same name, based in Madison, Ala., is software that offers automated electronic data management. Touting that it removes the tedium of manual processing and creates paperless solutions, the vendor says its software also has an open API that fully integrates with most Windows-based programs and streamlines with various software—such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Access and Intuit's QuickBooks, to name a few—to create storage systems that meet modern-day needs.

Although priced with the small business in mind, according to several Cabinet NG partners cost is the least determining factor when courting prospective small-business customers. Partners believe the key is that they can provide a service customers can't achieve on their own—because of either lack of resources or staff—and can offer storage security in a world besieged by mounting long-term document-retention requirements.

"Primarily what people are the most interested in is the reduction of storage space, ease of retrieval, and moving documents through a workflow," said Jim Moomaw, president of Fairport, N.Y.-based Cabinet NG partner Integrated Filing Systems.

Advantage Data Systems, another Cabinet NG partner, makes good use of the accessibility the vendor provides, especially when going down the services route. "Cabinet NG provides ongoing updates; we value-add," said Roger Veach, CEO of the Chillicothe, Ohio-based VAR. In addition, if solution providers keep their membership with Cabinet NG, they can load updates 24x7, according to Veach.

"The thing about Cabinet NG's channel program [is they're] down to earth. You can call and talk to the CEO," he said. "You get a lot of hands-on with them. The product margin is [about] 35 percent. Where you make money is on the services very easy product to support, not buggy," he said.

Once deemed technology specific to the medical and human resource vertical industries, many resellers shied away from document management solutions, avoiding the intricacies of policies such as health care's HIPAA and cumbersome paperwork. But VARs say the Cabinet NG software is organized like a filing cabinet, is highly scalable and can be used for both large and small businesses in any industry.