Document Management with. first impressions

Transcription

1 Document Management with first impressions Jul 2010

2 Contents Alfresco pros/cons Document workflow in Ontotext with Alfresco Proposal for structure & policy of the DMS Next steps Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #2

3 Executive Summary Satisfies our requirements for a DMS Open source, web based Flexible access control Versioning & auditing Tagging + hierarchical categorisation Very powerful search Very powerful business rules functionality Comments / discussions Plus Good documentation (300+ pages, videos, wiki, ) Active community & support forums MS Office / Open Office integration Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #3

4 Contents Alfresco Pros & Cons Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #4

5 Pros 1. Open source, Java, 100% web based 2. Versioning Locking (offline editing) Approval requests 3. Flexible access control Fine grained (space -> folder -> item level) Hierarchical groups (i.e. Ontotext -> CG -> Board Members) 4. Tagging + hierarchical categories Search on a category will match sub-categories too Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #5

6 Dashboard Content changes Site updates (filters + RSS) Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #6

7 Pros (2) 5. Powerful business rules On: create/update/delete items, enter/leave folder Conditions Attribute value (author, date, tag, category) Aspects Actions Send mail, run script, run workflow, transform content, extract metadata, 6. Powerful search (Lucene) Google syntax Wildcard, proximity, fuzzy, range Field/attribute Term boosting Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #7

8 Document view preview actions tags Access control Direct links versions Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #8

9 Search Search content ( ЕГН ) Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #9

10 Search (2) preview Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #10

11 Pros (3) 7. RSS On individual folder level, or global updates User/pass protected 8. Discussions / comments On each item Discussion forum 9. WYSIWYG wiki/blog editor 10. MS Office 2003 / OpenOffice integration 11. Extensive documentation 300+ pages, videos, wiki, forums 12. Active user community Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #11

12 More extras 13. WebDAV, FTP, SMB/CIFS access Useful for large files 14. Links Integration with external RSS feeds Manually posted URLs 15. Blog 16. Calendar (only global) 17. Lists templates (meeting agenda, task list, contact list, ) 18. Semi-automated metadata extraction (extensible) 19. In-bound server Upload document, workflow interaction Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #12

13 More extras (2) 20. In-memory cache (performance) 21. Lots of performance tuning options 22. Option for replication (Sofia -> Varna) 23. Inline create documents HTML/text Google docs 24. Content transformation (extensible) 25. Custom CSS theme 26. LDAP integration Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #13

14 Problems and open issues Wiki is not very good (+) It has flexible access control (+) WYSIWYG editor (-) no integration with the Document Repository, i.e. one has to link to documents by full URL (as external links) (-) access control managed from a different (admin) tool Lists not integrated with Users but only with document repository Calendar is only global (visible to all users) Sometimes unstable, some obvious bugs client & server running on my laptop Workflow customisation is not intuitive Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #14

15 Contents Document Workflow in Ontotext with Alfresco Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #15

16 Document Workflow HR Problem CVs exchanged as attachment difficult to find the right CV in the last minute Can t link to the CV from calendar Comments/discussions on the candidate are not preserved Proposal CVs are stored in the DMS (limited access only to HR team + Project Managers) Only links (no attachments) are exchanged by mail, also added in calendar for last minute access Opinions are not exchanged by mail but as comments on the DMS item Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #16

17 Document Workflow (2) Business trips Problem Plans are exchanged as attachment Conflicting versions may occur (update from author + minor corrections from Admin office) Not too easy to locate an old travel plan Proposal Plans & Reports are stored in the DMS (no special access control?) Versioning provides safe updates The Request approval action for the document can be used when the author updates travel plan/report to notify Admin office Simple reporting Categories or tags (project name, conference name, ) can be assigned to travel documents provide easy way to group and find related documents Easy to locate all travel docs for some person within some period Easy to locate all travel docs which are still not accounted (category/tag) Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #17

18 Document Workflow (3) Collaborative editing E.g. EC reporting, market analysis, etc. that involves not only technical people Problem Currently stored on a filesystem (no versioning) SVN is always an option but not too convenient for non-programmers Difficult to locate the proper files in SVN, cannot search contents Collaboration needs some sort of workflow (usually happens by ) Proposal Everything goes into the DMS (with the proper access control) Versioning provides safe updates Actions (request for approval, notify) can be specified for the document Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #18

19 Contents DMS Structure & Policy (proposal) Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #19

20 Proposed structure Full access Read only No access Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #20

21 Proposed policy There is only one document repository, everyone from Ontotext has an individual account No attachments in mails, only links to the DMS Different sections have different access control Different groups Ontotext everyone else (EE) can read/write System Admin, Office Admin upper level can read/write, EE has read access Sales / BizDev upper levels can read/write, EE has no access CG upper levels can read/write, EE has no access Top secret (CIA clearance only ;) EE has no access Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #21

22 Proposed policy (2) One shared repository for key external partners and Ontotext (same accounts) Different sections have different access control (Ontotext has full access) Different groups per project/partner Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #22

23 Contents Next steps Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #23

24 Next steps Set up a test DMS Populate a small repository Access control, users, structure, etc CG & BizDev/Sales start using it Test for problems & issues Are they satisfied with the functionality Provide ideas for structure & customisation Meanwhile everyone can access Full functionality (xxxxx is my IP for the day, Skype me), user admin, pass admin limited functionality, user santaclaus, pass Tralala123 Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #24

25 Q & A Questions? Document Management with Alfresco Jul 2010 #25