CHALLENGES

• The system should be able to deal universally with any document or file type – MS Office documents, Pictures, PDF files, text files, diagrams, including types we were not yet using.
• All documents can be stored and retrieved with a ‘Unique ID’ which should, if possible, be embedded in the document’s properties (where that could be done) and form part of the file name and be visible on printed copies.
• The system should be able to retrieve documents via filename, categorisation, Unique document ID, current editor and original author.
• The system should only make current version of the file available (with the possibility of going back to previous drafts if required).
• Users must be able to enter brief ‘metadata’ information against each item to explain what the document was for and its context, and a brief statement of how it had been altered.
• All documents can be created from a selection of pre-defined templates (allowing also for a ‘blank’ document) – and for any piece of software installed now – or in the future on the user’s computer.
• Documents must be uniquely named – and the user warned if another document of the same name existed when it was created.
• Any existing (old) document could be used as a basis for a new document without altering the original. Externally stored documents, which are not in the system, could be imported readily into the system as and when needed.
• Only one user at a time can ‘check out’ a document – and other users would be prevented from working on it whilst it was allocated to someone in order to maintain strict version control.
• Documents can be arranged in a pre-defined cycle if required e.g. DRAFT, FINAL, CONFIDENTIAL, PUBLISHED, ARCHIVE.
• If appropriate to its context, a document could be ‘published’ to a public area (in this case an Intranet) with facility for other members of the Faculty to read via a standard web browser.
• The system must allow for passing document on to and between multiple Authors for comment and updating, tracking the comments made in passing it to others, as well as the fact it was changed and by whom.
• Safety and security of confidential items such as staffing information – which would prevent those unauthorised persons from even knowing the file even existed – and which would allow to them to work with it fully once they were authorised.
• A detailed audit trail must show the history of the work done on a document – who did what to it and when – including who it was sent to outside the system, and when it was returned to it and by whom.
• Unlike a conventional message system which attaches documents to emails in a personal email system like Outlook, the new system would centre on the document store and attach messages to the Document – so that all users can have a clear picture of its status and related correspondence.
• The system must have a mechanism to send a document to someone external to the department and Document Management system for reference.
• The system must be able to send a document to anyone on the internet by email, so that they can edit the document locally wherever they were, and then return it for re-insertion into the system. This would allow users to enforce version control even when a file was temporarily out of the system – which would clearly mark the document as ‘checked out’ to an external editor.
• It would be possible to delete, move and rename documents (retaining an audit history of such activity) and to base one document on a pre-existing document in a way that would keep track of its origin.