REPORT ON THE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Transcription

1 REPORT ON THE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 12/10/2006 This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by BearingPoint, Inc.

2 REPORT ON THE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR POLICY REFORM II CONTRACT NUMBER: 263-C BEARINGPOINT, INC. USAID/EGYPT POLICY AND PRIVATE SECTOR OFFICE 12/29/2006 AUTHOR: D. JONATHAN TOMAR DISCLAIMER: The author s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

3 Introduction This report will discuss key issues related to the introduction of the document management system at EISA. It is not a detailed implementation plan. That plan will need to be developed in conjunction with the vendor who is awarded the contract and must take their specific needs and requirements into consideration before developing a final implementation plan. Because the award was not made during this visit and because of the need to keep the award information secret, it was not possible to have detailed discussions with the vendor. Current Status of the Project Currently, the RFP has been issued and the responses have been reviewed. BearingPoint has made the recommendation that the contract be awarded to the company Sakhr Systems with their product ArabDox. On 12/13/2006 a meeting was held at EISA with Sakhr representatives. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the capability of Sakhr to import the current DMS data from DocExplorer. At that time Sakhr was unable to demonstrate sufficiently that they were able to accomplish this task. They requested additional time to work on the technical details of this process. In a subsequent meeting held a week later Sakhr was able to demonstrate this capability successfully. It has been concluded by EISA that Sakhr will be able to port the old DMS data to the new system. Major Issues of the Project The main concern with the project at this time is the availability of IT staff to work on this project. Currently, we are undertaking several labor intensive efforts in the IT arena. These are: The installation of a new LAN with the introduction of 9 servers and 90 workstations The updating of all applications to a new release of SQL server Introduction of Exchange and Development of a web portal It is felt that adding the introduction of the DMS at this time will stretch the IT staff resources too far and may result in delay of one or more of the current tasks. It would be better to wait until most of the current tasks are substantially completed before starting full implementation of the DMS. In addition, it has been recommended that an additional person be hired to oversee and manage the DMS. It would also be prudent to wait until this person has been hired before undertaking any training of staff in the new DMS system.

4 Given the above concerns, it is recommended that full implementation of the new system not be undertaken until 6/1/2007 at the earliest. Design Document Naming and Directory Schema This activity was completed in August of 2006 and the document EISA Folder Structure guidelines and Recommendations described the recommended plan. That basic design concept is still proposed. That design requires that there are some common or universal folders and that each department also define their own unique folder structure as well. At this point, we need to discuss with the vendor how to organize our active directory and exchange public folders to coincide with the DMS structure. We need to understand the relationship between these network elements. Develop Document Management Archival Migration Plan There has been much written and discussed about the migration plan. Until Sakhr was able to truly demonstrate their ability to perform this task it was not possible to make a truly informed recommendation. In the report EISA Folder Structure guidelines and Recommendations it was recommended that the DocExplorer files not be migrated to the new system. That recommendation was based on the assumption that the porting of the data would be an extremely time consuming and difficult task for both the vendor and EISA staff. Given the fact that Sakhr has proposed to perform this task for a relatively inexpensive amount of money and they have demonstrated their ability to accomplish this task successfully it is recommended that the migration of the old data be undertaken. As was mentioned in the previous report There is currently very little access of archived files There appears to be very little if any access of existing archived files. This is still true and it still makes the migration a relatively unimportant task. We would not recommend extensive effort be made to capture all the existing data. For example, if a department has very limited and or unreliable data in the current system, it would not be worth the effort to bring that data over to the new system. Even if the data has been exported out of DocExplorer effectively, it may not be worth importing it into the new system. This should be evaluated on a department by department basis. Develop Detailed Cutover Plan A detailed plan for switching from the current DocExplore system to the new DMS needs to be done on a department by department basis. We would propose this be undertaken only after the following conditions are met: The new DMS is installed and fully tested The new document management specialist has been hired Users have been trained in the new DMS SQL server is installed and fully tested

5 Once these conditions have been met, we should develop a pilot program in one department to develop the best method for implementing the new DMS. In developing the pilot implementation the following analysis should be performed. Identify a key individual in the department who will work with the document management specialist and perform the analysis Review the current DocExplorer files for that department o Determine the necessity of importing these files o Review the current document management structure o Assess the work flow procedures currently o Evaluate the current keyword taxonomy Develop the basic file structure for the department including the various levels of common and unique folders (see EISA Folder Structure guidelines and Recommendations) Identify the departmental users of the DMS and their appropriate access rights to the folders Prepare a test of importing the active directory user and group information Develop the file structure and method for integrating s into the DMS Develop a keyword taxonomy for identifying documents for quick retrieval Identify DMS documents and categorize them as follows: o Critical internal electronic documents that will be stored in the DMS o Critical external documents that will be scanned into the DMS o Non critical internal documents not to be included in the DMS o Non critical external documents not to be scanned into the DMS Develop a detailed work flow design for insuring critical documents are entered correctly and stored in the DMS Develop a retention plan to define when documents should be archived and removed from the active area of the DMS Configure and test the DMS backup process Once the basic methodology for implementation has been developed and fine tuned for the pilot site, then it should be replicated in one department at a time. Hire New Document Management Specialist As previously mentioned, it is essential that a document management specialist be hired and trained. This person does not necessarily have to be familiar with ArabDox, but it should be someone with experience with document management and facile with computers in general. As has been mentioned in several reports, one of the main problems at EISA is the lack of IT staff. Much of the work falls on the shoulders of a very small number of knowledgeable IT staff. With all the IT work currently underway, it will drain too much time and energy away from these current tasks, if we just assign the DMS system to the same limited IT staff. Ideally, the new person should be onboard before the inception of the project. The new hire should receive in depth training from the vendor before the system is installed.

6 Train Users on New System The timing of user training is an important consideration. It needs to be timed so that it is not too far in advance of system implementation. It should coincide with the startup in each department of the new DMS. It would be optimal if EISA could develop an in house capability to train users on the system rather than depending on the vendor for all training. In this way, EISA could have some flexibility about the timing of training. Also, the training would be tailored specifically to EISA s file structure and network/ setup. Again, this is a task for the new DMS specialist. Next Steps for the IT consultant It is recommended that the IT consultant return in March to work on the planning for the DMS implementation. During the last visit in December it was not feasible to work intensively on the DMS as it was still in purchase negotiation and we could not work with the vendor. In March, It should be possible to work with the vendor in detail. Hopefully, the migration plan will be developed and we can test the results of the initial migration effort. In addition, the new DMS specialist should be hired. It will be the appropriate time to test the system and prepare for the pilot implementation. As mentioned, there will still be significant work on the network installation and finetuning going on in March. The SQL server should be fully installed in March. It will be possible at this time to connect the DMS and test it on the network. It will be possible to test the active directory migration process as well. The IT staff will be able to assist in these efforts.