>Does anyone use Zasio's "Versatile Retention" in their organization?  If
>so, what is your satisfaction with the software and would you recommend
>it? 


OH BOY... well, Davis... IT DEPENDS...  =)

What are you planning to use it for, and what is your environment?  

Are you centralized, decentralized, in multiple locations?  

Do you intend for users to be able to access the content or will it be used
by a records group to control assets only?

Are you planning to use it for retention citations and research as well as
asset control?

Are you planning to use the barcoding features?

Will you be controlling electronic as well as physical assets? 

Do you plan to control at the box level, or down to the folder, or even the
document level?

How large is the inventory of assets you plan to control?

All of these factors come into play, along with a ton of others when it
comes to selecting an application designed to provide/perform certain
functions. Until you have made some of these determinations and want to know
how well a product performs those specific features, its tough for anyone to
tell you how well something does something.  And it may work well in some
cases for some people, but not in others.

We use it for physical asset tracking at the box level for about 40,000
boxes to a seat assignment in two physical record centers.  After spending
some time configuring it to perform this task, it works fine for us.  

We decided not to go down to the next level of adding a bar code to a folder
when its removed from a box and then scanning it out and back in later,
because we didn't feel it was beneficial, but this could be a great feature
if you spend the time setting it up.  But it takes time to implement a
system to function with bar code readers at that level- each box, shelving
unit, and seat has to have a bar code and you have to scan them all when you
remove or add an item.  Then if you pull a folder from a box, you need to
print a label and index/enter the folder into the inventory.  But that's a
one-time effort, and you can do it on a day forward basis, no back file
conversion required... but you have to have sufficient staff to dedicate to it.

We don't use the retention research portion of it, because we already have a
retention schedule and like all similar products, it only serves as a
starting point- you STILL need to verify and research the citations to
ensure they are the appropriate ones for your industry, operating
environment, etc. 

Good luck- spend plenty of time doing your needs analysis, and then find out
if the product can natively meet all of your most critical requirements. If
not, ask Warren if they have people they can assign to you and configure
and/or program the balance of the features in a custom manner.

Larry 
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