Lou Franco's ECM Imaging Blog

Windows IT Pro published a checklist for SharePoint Document Management. It covers some of the things you need to think about in addition to just adopting SharePoint (storage, interoperability, backup, security, etc)

Those things are important, but instead of concentrating on the infrastructure mechanics of document management, it’s better to talk about the purpose. If you are sitting in front of your computer looking at SharePoint and thinking about folders, Documentum integration, your SAN, and backup procedures, then something has gone completely wrong.

The reason to use any tool is to get stuff done – pay invoices, process claims, answer inquiries. The more you can get SharePoint and whatever you add to it to put your work in front of you and help you do it, the more you will get out of it.

Here’s my checklist of what to look for in Document Management that will help you get work done.

1. Are all the things you need to process a document organized and easy to get to while viewing it (Annotations, meta-data, document editing)?
   
2. Are related documents readily accessible?
   
3. Can you compare two documents easily? For example, the purchase order and the related invoice or two versions of your newsletter.
   
4. Is search integrated so that I don’t need to leave my management window to bring up another document?
   
5. Can I correct a badly scanned page with an ad-hoc page rescan right from my viewer?

Of course everything needs to be backed up, versioned correctly, integrated, etc. But if that’s all you get, then you won’t get the full benefit. In the end, the ROI will be driven by the business getting it’s work done, so don’t stop at just the infrastructure requirements.