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Electronic Document Management Questions
warder808
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi all.
Im going to start a new job. There will be lots of paper involved and it needs to be tracked and organized. I dont have much experience in this venue. Anyone want to share their processes in this area. I assume I can either get a scanner or use a big xerox machine and have it scan directly to a shared drive.
What are the best ways to organize this, what are the best ways to easily retrieve and share this information.
Im going to start a new job. There will be lots of paper involved and it needs to be tracked and organized. I dont have much experience in this venue. Anyone want to share their processes in this area. I assume I can either get a scanner or use a big xerox machine and have it scan directly to a shared drive.
What are the best ways to organize this, what are the best ways to easily retrieve and share this information.
warder808 on
0
Posts
Whatever the system, make sure you have a policy set out before you do it, and make sure it's followed. Otherwise you'll have files in folders all over the place and it will as bad or worse than paper.
Do you have something like sharepoint? or any kind of system like that? that makes things a bit more accessible (don't have to map drives, etc) but it's essentially the same as a network drive unless you customize things.
There are also systems out there you can purchase/subscribe. Encompass is the one that comes to mind.
As long as your employer is cool with it, it makes things so much easier.
I would start by asking, "What kinds of documents do we use, who uses them, and what are they doing with them?"
Figure out what the business is doing with each document, and then craft the technology to match. A company that has, say, insurance claim forms that have a very linear process of going from one person to the next is going to work very differently from a company that is building up an internal searchable library of technical documentation.
If you can make a flowchart of the lifespan of a document, that will help you get a vision for your technology.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Scanning a file at a copier, having it OCRed and deposited into a shared folder? That's a no-brainer. Most current copiers will do that.
Have it deposited into a different folder based on a drop-down menu the user selects on the copier? Also possible, but you want to talk to the copier manufacturer about it.
You can have the text of the PDF summarized and inserted into a searchable SQL database. That's what software products like Xerox Docushare, EMC Documentum, or open-source alternatives like Alfresco do.
You can have the server automatically email certain people when certain types of documents are stored to tell them "Hey, there's a new form up in Claim Forms. You need to look at it and approve it." Again, that's done by document management software like Docushare or Alfresco. Some of these programs will do that through a web interface, others through a software program that runs on Windows and shows you the documents in a Windows Explorer-type interface.
It really depends on what you're doing, who is doing it, and what your budget is.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Basically what feral said.
Also: I'm disappointed by the lack of flowcharts in this thread.
I will post back when I hear more. My main fear is that some of the people may be really old school, and resistant to some of this.
You need to check your institution's document policy first, and probably sit down with your dept. head to make sure this is all cool. I'd hate for you to waste your time if they're just going to give it a thumbs down. Educational institutions often have physical document policies which make electronic records a burden and unnecessary, in some cases, even when it's a clearly better choice.
Most of the software companies keep track of versioning, and are auditable so unless there needs to be notary stamps, original signatures, and stuff, there's really very little need for retention of the paper files themselves.
Regardless of their willingness to adopt DM, i've found that if a form needs to cross a lot of desks, a workflow checklist is nice to make sure everyone's touched it that needs to. However, that wont help you track down a file if someone's broken the chain. It's a CYA move mostly. Being the file monkey sucks, but it usually is not difficult once you've gotten the flow down of your particular office. Good luck!!
A lot of it really may not even have to do with entrenched ideas, either. Unless things have changed since 2008ish, a lot of the issue is government and oversight requirements to work with a physical file.
Usually, the chances of getting software or hardware purchased anew in this situation are exactly zero.
No matter how eloquently you describe it, most management will just hear, "Wahhh! My job is too hard! Spend a bunch of money to make my job easier!" even if your suggestions are very good. After you've been working there six months or a year, the situation will be different, (hopefully) you will have built up some trust in the people you work with. But as a newbie entering a new job, you usually have to do things the way they want you to do them no matter how stupid and clunky it is.
However, if they have existing resources in place, you may be able to utilize those to your advantage. For instance, maybe they already do have a copier that can easily scan a PDF to a shared drive. Maybe you can use it for that purpose. Maybe you can set up a logical subfolder hierarchy on an existing server.
All I'm saying is: keep your eye out for ways you can make efficient use of resources that they already have... and keep your expectations low.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Yeah, there will always need to be hard copies of some stuff. but at least in my environment (Accounting) people hang on to WAAAAY too much actual paper, when an image would be plenty sufficient.