Maestro Technologies - Intelligent management software for the construction industry.

Centralize your documents

The information in documents amassed over the years ensures the growth and longevity of companies. Filing, saving and archiving are very important concepts that should not be neglected... In fact, document management is a function in itself, but few companies have a specialist in the field as part of their team. A good internal filing system must allow all employees to easily find filed or archived documents. A misfiled document can affect project timing or cause delays.

Today, in the information age, what was printed information before is now in electronic format and it is still just as essential to be able to find our documents easily. This aspect is so crucial that recommendations on good practices for document management are available to make this type of work more structured and efficient. Without going into the stricter sense of this type of management, many would say that a server and directories could do this work effectively. However, creating huge directories and sub-directories makes searching more difficult. How can you make filing easier and what are the key factors for success?

A good storage and search tool

As mentioned earlier, you can simply use a server and create directories. The hierarchical structure must be thought through and shared by all users. This makes Windows searching easily accessible. There are additional free search applications, such as Copernic Desktop Search, available on the Web. Is this the most efficient method?

There are more powerful specialized applications for document management. You can simply search the Web and find a multitude of specialized tools. These include document management systems, integrated information management systems, electronic document management systems, document management intranets and others. For example, SharePoint from Microsoft is a tool for advanced document management (refer to the "Available Microsoft Solutions" article). This application lets you group documents on one or more sites or in lists and to use the various links, navigation and search options available to quickly access documents. In specific cases, workflows are also used to automatically transfer information among users for better information sharing between the various departments of the company.

Are you using maestro* as management software? Maestro* also allows you to attach documents to an option or transaction generated by the system using the Document Management module. Using this module makes it easier to find information related to a specific transaction. In addition to attaching documents manually, a certain number of documents can also be generated and attached directly in maestro*.

Latest version easy to identify

Regardless of the tool adopted, duplicates of documents should be avoided and it must be easy to determine the correct or latest version of a document. Using an incorrect version of a document can result in problems that are very easy to avoid (lost time, lost money, etc.). This is why it’s so important to have a monitoring log or other method that lets you quickly identify the latest version of a document. Some applications automate document version management (i.e. 1.0 -- published version, 1.1 -- draft following version 1.0, 2.0 -- next published version, etc.).

Keeping older versions

Although using an older version of a document is not generally suggested, you may need to consult an old version for reference purposes. This is why it can be very useful to save older versions of important documents in a clearly identified location on your server or in your application (for example specifications, proposals, price lists and others). You never know when these old versions can be helpful.

Backup copy

As always, documents saved on electronic media should be backed up on a regular basis. Remember that if your computer breaks down, these copies can be very important. It is therefore essential for your company to have a good automated backup system for all of your documents. We have already written an article on this topic in an earlier issue (refer to "Your backups: your past and future in your hands" in our archives).

Whichever tool you choose, remember that it is essential that your information be centralized, structured and classified using a clearly defined method that is used by all employees. Effective searching depends on this.