Documentum, Document & Records Management

Naming Conventions

2009-01-24T20:17:00.002Z

Naming conventions, in most Global organisations this is the last thing managers or teams give priority to or even fully understand the meaning of the term.

Well, it actually transpires that Naming Conventions are the basis for retrieval of all Electronic Data from Network Drives and Electronic Document Mgmt Systems.

If we name all electronic and hard copy documentation with a naming convention which has been created per an organisation/sector and departmental document types, then anyone who creates or has to file documents and data will follow the consistent approach and always know how a document or file should be named at the point of creation or how it should be classified and named prior to import to the system.

A Naming Convention should be drafted AFTER the business analysis has been performed with all departments and teams who are migrating to a new System. On completion of the analysis a list of common document types will be collated and from this list numerous meetings and agreements must be reached with all personnel within the departments and teams. The easiest way to achieve commonality and approval from departmental staff is to create an Excel spreadsheet with a worksheet for each department and team, itemising all core documents and proposing how the naming convention should be achieved by a naming convention with underscores between naming convention title(s). This spreadsheet should be presented to teams at regular intervals and updated to reflect their advice on document types and the correct way naming conventions should appear, remember these naming conventions will be consistent and at the point of migration from 1 system to another can be utilised within the properties/attributes field to ensure the migration runs smoothly.

Now, think about Good Housekeeping, and that's not the recipe book, we'll cover it next time...

Pre Implementation of an Electronic Document Management System OR Change to File Strucuture

2009-01-14T13:53:00.003Z

So, the IT or Document Management department have had numerous complaints from users throughout either a small, medium or large organisaion that they cannot retrieve documents or files which they know exist within a folder structure on network drive OR within the recently implemented Records Management system. Yes, these complaints are frequent within all sizes of organisations and how often do you hear the term 'they've disappeared in the Black Hole'...

Simple rules apply to the pre implementation of a Document Management system or a change to existing folder structures. A comprehensive analysis of the business and processes within all departments must be performed and documented. From the documentation and workshops a clear picture will evolve of the most concise way to store the documentation and files, make no mistake this exercise is time consuming and must be performed by personnel or Consultants who have dealt with this in the past and can bring with them Lessons Learned from previous implementations and deployments.

Taxonomies, can be as complex as a Consultant wishes to make them, but again the fundamental rule is 'Keep it simple' and you cannot go wrong. By holding regular meetings with the various teams and departments to ensure all documentation and files are covered within the taxonomies things will run smoothly prior to Migration of all Data to the new system.

Naming Conventions also hold a key to future search and retrieval. By creating and training all personnel on the unique naming conventions, codes and identifiers all documentation will be correctly named EITHER prior to import into system OR at time of creation within the system.

Ok, next steps to consider -
key users - what?
naming conventions - what to think about and how do you involve personnel to follow the steps you have created for them
migration plan, where do I start?
More to follow....

Classification and Cataloguing

2009-01-12T22:22:00.002Z

Let's take the analogy again of the Dewey System in Libraries to provide a basis for visualising how a concrete structure for classified electronic document and file retrieval should operate. We shall also investigate how the fiction section of a Library can be associated with the Generic documents and files which are also essential documents to any business.

Firstly, the non fiction documents and files such as Drawings, Project Documentation, Marketing Authorisations, Dossiers. Similar to the Dewey decimal system, a classification can also be created which is specific to a type of sector eg Pharmaceuticals and their unique document types. The Dewey system is categorised per subject and then sub divided by unique identifying numbers for all topics within the subject. Further to the analysis of Document types per business team and departments, unique classification schemes can be created and each document or file assigned a unqiue identifier which would be added to the Properties or Attribute of each document.

For the Fiction section within a Library documents are filed by Author in alphabetical order, the same can be achieved with the General documents which are unique to every business team and department, ie minutes of meetings, out of office diaries, templates for all departmental core documents etc.

By replicating the logical order in a hard copy Library and transposing this methodology to an Electronic Document system or Network Drive then search and retrieval of documents and files will be effortless... More to follow soon.

Ok, Taxonomies aka Folder Structure and Filenames

2009-01-08T21:23:00.004Z

Are you ever confused by the New Techno Jargon which the IT/Computer Industry creates? A little like 'The Emperor's Clothes' in that ah well if they say Taxonomies and Meta Data are the buzz words then they must be...

Well, if you take these words and review in an English Dictionary you shall find confusion - let me put things in simplistic/pragmatic terminology.

Taxonomy is a new and confusing word for plain old fashioned filing structure ie creation of a classification scheme and there you go, you can bring order out of chaos, but taxonomies leads to blank faces and oh my god where do we start with the classification and cataloguing of hundreds of thousands of electronic and hard copy documents and files.

Meta Data, well what can I say, I searched everywhere in the early days to find a definition which fulfilled my quench for knowledge and also to prove I was a Document and Records Mgmt professional to the masses..! In the end I emailed a former colleague to ask 'what is the definition in simple terms please?' The answer came back 'straight forward, it's the term given for all additional information pertaining to each document or file, held within the attributes or properties field of a document'. Hey, is that all...

So, think about the Dewey System in your good old fashioned Library and non computer era and think order and placing your hands on books as and when you need them. Think of the good old fashioned wooden (in case of you youngsters you may not remember) index cabinets with 5x3 inch cards which catalogued all books/files and led you to the shelf they could be found on. Do you remember the additional information on those cards ie publisher, additional authors well there's your meta data.. If you transpose the wooden catalogues to the computer and think classification structure per business department and process, then you have the 1st and fundamental steps; keep it simple and you will always find the documents and files by browsing the online folders and by adding as much meta data/information as possible then electronic advanced searching will retrieve the relevant documents immediately.

Ok, enough for now, more to follow..... and Happy New Year 2009!

Happy Hogmanay and Here's to 2009

2008-12-31T11:15:00.003Z

Ok, so we are now Hogmanay 2008 and what a year, here's to 2009 being a good one..

Let's focus on searching and retrieval of valuable data within the Oil/Gas and Pharma industries. Where would we be without our Boolean searching, but actually folks retrieve data by the way in which they feel comfortable - folder structures and locations commonly used by themselves.

The focus and emphasis on storage audits and reviews should be to create as simplistic a folder structure as possible to accommodate core/reusable documents and data.

A constant overview/audit of documents and data should also be performed in order to retain/discard core and invalid documentation.

All in all, remember that business jargon and buzz words should be exchanged for pragmatic, realistic and common sense approaches.

Ok, happy hogmanay and look out for next installment

Importance of Fileplans and Naming Conventions in Document Mgmt Systems

2008-12-27T20:57:00.006Z

In my extensive experience of working on the implementations and continuous improvement of Documentum within the Oil/Gas and Pharmaceutical organisations, I have seen the constant need for constructive fileplans (folder structures) and naming conventions.

There is a misconstrued concept that by implementing an electronic document management system all the problems of document and file retrieval will be removed or reduced, but actually there must be extensive analysis performed prior to the system becoming implemented.

The Document Types and Business Processes must be comprehensively analysed and considered prior to the creation of Fileplans and Naming Conventions. There will not only be the Search facility within the system but also the users will require an ability to browse folders and document titles, for their own retrieval.

Thousands of pounds are spent on implementations of electronic systems, but with a pragmatic approach and review of existing folder structures, there may not be a need for a new system to be implemented..