How much document management could you buy for $1.22 million?

 According to documents reviewed by The Daily Beast, John Thain from Bank of of America spent $1.22 million of company money to refurbish his office at Merrill Lynch headquarters in lower Manhattan. The biggest piece of the spending spree: $800,000 to hire famed celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.

According to the Daily Beast... "The other big ticket items Thain purchased include: $87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room and another area rug for $44,000; a "mahogany pedestal table" for $25,000; a "19th Century Credenza" in Thain's office for $68,000; a sofa for $15,000; four pairs curtains for $28,000; a pair of guest chairs for $87,000; a "George IV Desk" for $18,000; 6 wall sconces for $2,700; six chairs in his private dining room for $37,000; a mirror in his private dining room for $5,000; a chandelier in the private dining room for $13,000; fabric for a "Roman Shade" for $11,000; a "custom coffee table" for $16,000; something called a "commode on legs" for $35,000; a "Regency Chairs" for $24,000; "40 yards of farbric for wall panels," for $5,000 and a "parchment waste can" for $1,400."

Now lest I be accused of criticizing, I thought I should come clean with some of the purchases in my office.

First, I do not think I would like a "commode on legs" at any price.

In the picture at the top of this post, you can see my 20th century credenza.  As they would say on the Price is Right, suggested retail price = $125.

To the right, you can see one of my chairs.  SRP = about $58, except for the one with the coffee stains on it.

And last but not least (to the left), I need to come clean about my simulated wood pedestal table.  This is a pricey item.  New, probably at least $149.

There are some many purchases that will be questioned in organizations as we move into tight economic times.  George IV Desks are definitely out, for example, at least at companies that take a lot of government bailout money.

One thing that should not be out, though, is getting on with the task of automating your core business processes with document management technologies.  We've recently launched a new series of short mini-courses to help organizations get on with deploying document management -- AIIM Essentials.

AIIM Essentials is a series of short online educational programs designed to provide you with an unbiased focus on specific topics relevant to today’s changing technological and business landscape. The technology series delivers vendor neutral perspectives on technology tools and how and what to look for when evaluating solution, while the business series addresses the many challenges of governance and management when applying these technologies to a business problem.

AIIM, in partnership with Industry Experts from around the world, have brought this series together.  Each non-certificate program is approximately 4 – 6 hours in length spread across several modules, using a narrated eLearning format, making it easy to join a session and complete the program at your leisure, from anywhere at any time using your internet connection and browser.

Current offerings include:

1. Fundamentals of Web Content Management Technologies
2. Evaluating SharePoint
3. Fundamentals of Digital Asset Management Technologies
4. Fundamentals of Electronic Discovery
5. Imaging and Recognition
6. PDF/A

A commode on legs?