Title: Ontario Document Management: Guidelines for Successful Implementations
1Ontario Document Management
- Guidelines for Successful Implementations
2Ontario Document Management
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- With every Ontario document management system,
you want to make sure the implementation is done
right the first time. To do this, you and your
vendor must follow industry best practices that
will lead to a successful outcome. The key is to
have a vendor solution match your requirements.
3Ontario Document Management
- Companies must explore all practical
considerations when purchasing and implementing
an Ontario document management system. You must
understand all the components typically included
in a system and how your company will benefit.
Its important for you and your team to go into
any document management project with your eyes
wide open so you can make informed decision.
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- The first stop in any document management
project is to understand your company and its
vision. You must analyze how technology will
help you achieve your goals. The project should
address where in your company youre deficient
and where you have the greatest opportunities. - Starting with a holistic view will better
position your solution within your organization.
For example, you need to consider how documents,
information and automation will affect all
departments and business units within your
company. If you dont, you could waste valuable
resources and miss opportunities to gain
efficiencies and cost reductions. You want to
create cohesive indexing plans, search strategies
and records management plans so you can save time
later.
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- In addition, you need a thorough understanding
of your companys political landscape, including
who makes decisions and how they typically make
them. Your Ontario document management
implementation may fail if you dont pay
attention to political ramifications. - Executive management, functional department
managers and IT managers should all understand
the requirements for a solution and agree on the
overall vision. They need to have consistent
views on how the technology will fit now and into
the future within the company. Everyone needs to
agree on the projects goals and make sure theyre
logical, relevant and scaled properly.
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- All sides must work together to establish the
vision, goals, plan and implementation schedule.
And, critically important for best practices, is
to select the right Ontario document management
system for the organization. The solution must,
without a doubt, solve the business document and
information challenges. The implementation must
be done in a way to produce the optimum results. - Furthermore, the team must keep focused on what
will best achieve the companys goals and product
the most meaningful results. Companies often get
side-tracked by focusing too much on all the
bells and whistles that come with different
solutions. But, sometimes this doesnt provide
whats needed. Instead, you need to find the
best match for your short- and long-term
requirements and implement it based on the plan
you and your team developed.
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- With any Ontario document management system, you
need to follow some basic rules. The following
list of items will help you get, and stay, on
track to a successful outcome. - Â
- Select a vendor with a solution that will
integrate with your current applications and any
additional applications you plan to purchase in
the future. - Develop an agreement that is comprehensive and
all-inclusive in terms of what the vendor will be
providing. You dont want to leave anything open
to misinterpretation. - Make sure a complete list of all solution
components is provided to you before the project
begins. This includes all hardware, software,
resources and other things you must have
available before the vendor can proceed with
implementation. If you dont understand
everything thats need to start the project, you
might experience significant delays and cost
over-runs.
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- Schedule regular project meetings between you and
the Ontario document management vendor to review
project status. - Develop a project time table that includes
milestones and estimated completion dates for
each step in the Ontario document management
project. Indicate expectations for communicating
progress at each milestone. - After implementation, make sure you document all
suggestions from your solution vendor. Identify
how you will handle upgrades, support and other
things once implementation is completed. You
want to have clear-cut plans for maintaining your
Ontario document management system for many years
to come.
9About the Author
- Kevin D'Arcy is VP of Sales and Marketing for
MES Hybrid Document Systems, Ontario's leading
document scanning and document management
supplier. - For more information about our Ontario Document
Management, visit http//www.mesltd.ca/pages.html
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