Document management systems in utilities

Project start up
After forming a task force and acquiring the services of a consultant to assist in the planning and implementation phases, work began on developing a DMS strategic implementation plan. The objective of the Joint Pole Automation Project team was to:

Replace the old mainframe system.
Bring records into Y2k compliance.
Improve accessibility and file retrieval time.
Decrease manual filing effort.
Eliminate lost files and documents.
Develop a system that could be expanded to include other DMS applications throughout the company.

Our project was divided into four phases:

Preliminary study and strategic plan
Database design and conversion
DMS selection and implementation
Back file data conversion scanning

Preliminary study and strategic plan

Cost Benefit Study
The first step in the project was to determine whether a new electronic system was going to be beneficial. While benefits were intuitively obvious to those who worked every day with the existing system, conducting a cost-benefit analysis was a necessary step to “sell” the project to senior management to ensure adequate and continued support and funding. Work Flow Analysis

Along with a work flow analysis on JP procedures, we also looked at how to use the new technology to possibly improve the way we had been doing business and to incorporate these ideas into our plans.

Database design and conversion

Database Design
The basic database design and report forms were then laid out along with a general idea of how the new computer screens would look and work. This would serve as the basis for the applications programmer in his design of the system. We finally decided to allow our own IS personnel to do the programming for this phase rather than to outsource the effort

Because the IS department had previously selected MS Sequel Server as the standard database of choice, the team did not need to evaluate new databases.

The IS department preselected Powersoft Corporation’s PowerBuilder for report and forms generation. Old existing data on the mainframe was migrated to an NT server into the new relational database .This was followed by several months of testing and tweaking both the data and the PowerBuilder programs.

Document management system selection and implementation

Document Management System
The work flow analysis portion of the project revealed that considerable time was spent by engineers and others in searching for JP pole drawings and sketches. The biggest surprise we found in our cost-benefit analysis was that while the cost of scanning approximately 50,000 drawings was high, the benefits of on-line availability of drawings also offered the biggest “bang for the buck.” Our approach was to scan only drawings initially, with the remainder of documents (approximately 10 to 15 different document types per file) to be scanned at a future date. So, concurrent with developing and testing the JP application database, the team prepared specifications for a document management system.

Web-Based Technology
One of the more recent enhancements to DMS technology that helped reduced costs was the ability to access files through a Web-enabled application using one of the many commercially available browsers that now come with PCs. This workstation access through the Web is referred to as a “thin” client, and does not require a licensed software installation at each workstation. The full software installation workstations are referred to as “fat” clients and are usually only for the system administrator and, in our case, the Joint Pole Coordinator and Clerk. The project team determined that the DMS system would require:

The look and feel of a Windows-based application
Compatibility with our Windows NT environment along with the MS Sequal Server database
A Web server interface through which documents and drawings could be viewed
The ability to view .dgn files
Elimination of the folder icons in a search mode (A browse feature for 100,000 records would have been unbearably cumbersome.)
Scalability to develop into an enterprise configuration
Meeting AIIM DMA industry standards
Printing, plotting or faxing directly from the Web interface
Adding future enhancements such as work flow
Licensing on a concurrent user basis for the thin clients rather than per seat

With specifications in hand, the team evaluated six vendors of DMS systems. After a formal vendor evaluation process, the team selected Filenet’s Panagon product. With the recent trend of many DMS software vendors to use value-added resellers (VARs) as a means of deploying their products, the team ultimately found themselves dealing with a VAR that represented the selected software product. The VAR was then responsible for obtaining software licenses, configuring, installing, testing and maintaining the product for at least one year.