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Integrated Document Management System

The Problem

Companies generate and use thousands of documents in the course of their business. Implementing systems such as ISO9000 may add many hundreds more. Administering these documents and finding the relevant information is time-consuming and often ineffective. Important documents go missing and problems such as missed contract renewal deadlines happen frequently.

Description

The integrated document management system (IDMS) comprises several components that work together to provide an effective solution to many document management problems. Major components of this system include:

1. Microsoft Office document upload assistant. This component helps document owners to prepare their documents for upload according to agreed web publishing guidelines.
2. Intelligent document upload component. This component comprises one or more web pages that upload the documents and direct them to the correct locations on the company Intranet or web site. This component can also work with the update notification service (see Product Note: Intranet Update Notification Service) to notify interested users when the content of specific topic areas is updated.
3. Document indexing. The documents are automatically indexed by Index Server for rapid full text and document property searching.
4. Structured document browsing. The uploaded documents are automatically categorised and structured and are therefore readily browsed.
5. Functional document searching. This feature allows clients to specify custom document searches such as 'contracts due for renewal', or 'major customers' or other custom criteria related to the business needs of the client.

The objective of the IDMS is to allow ordinary web users to upload documents in an informal, but well organised fashion, with minimal input from the company IT or computer support department. Web users includes company employees on the company Intranet as well as customers or suppliers on the Extranet.

The IDMS automatically uploads the user documents to the correct location, after ensuring that they conform to the document specifications. For example, a contract document specification may require that contract start, end and reminder dates be defined, so that users can browse 'current contracts', 'lapsed contracts' or 'contracts due for renewal'. The IDMS also organises the documents when browsing so that users see the documents correctly categorised and ordered.

Using the IDMS allows companies to create comprehensive, easily searchable document archives for contracts, reports, customer correspondence and the like. Once the system is configured and the client components installed, no additional document maintenance is required from the IT department other than the normal network and server administration (load balancing, backup etc).

The IDMS is well suited to the document management needs of ISO900x implementations.

Requirements

The system requires Internet Information Server Version 4 (or better) with the integrated Index Server component. The system is primarily designed to support documents generated by users equipped with Microsoft Office 97 (or better) although there is support for other document formats. The price for this service does not include additional software for either the server, or for the end users.

This product is part of a suite of Intranet components developed by Intexnet to provide business value for our customers. These components are designed to be modular and inexpensive. You choose what you need and Intexnet will integrate the modules together and into your Intranet or Extranet.