Document Repository Administrators' Guide:
Chapter 1
Introduction

This document, the Document Repository Administrators' Guide, provides instructions on how to administer the document repository. For instructions on using the repository please refer to the Document Repository Users' Guide.

 

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Overview

Collective Technologies has grown large enough and complex enough to require a centralized repository for its documentation. Various groups, such as Finance, Information Technology, Legal, Marketing, Recruiting, and Sales, produce documentation. Regions and districts produce documentation for and about clients. Often the documentation produced does not take advantage of previously-produced work. This project intends to centralize all documentation in a single "one-stop shop" and provide various information about every document so documentation authors and information gatherers can search for existing similar documentation.

The major goals of the project are to provide a single place on the CT network for all documentation to be created, updated, stored, and searched, while being minimally intrusive on the users of the documentation. This should allow CT to enforce a common look-and-feel for all documents within a certain type and for consistency in content as well. Minor goals include the ability to update content in exactly one location and have that change propagated throughout all relevant documentation.

We've identified 53 categories of documentation that we eventually (in the long term) want to track in the Repository:

	Administrators' Guide		Handout		Proposal
	Analysis		HR/Insurance		Report
	Article		Job Acceptance		Requirements
	Blurb		Job Offer		Results
	Book		Kudos Letter		Review
	Case study		Letter of Intent (LOI)		Schedule A
	CI query/response		Meeting Minutes		Self Evaluation
	Code documents		Methodology		Service Offering
	Column		Paper		Spec Sheet
	Contract		Policy		Statement of Work (SOW)
	Course		Poster		Style Guide
	Dev Plan		Practice Offering		TechTalk
	Fact Sheet		Presentation		Techout
	Financial (W4, I9)		Press Release		Users' Guide
	Fireside Chat		Product Offering		Web Page/Site, External
	Frequently Asked Questions		Profile		Web Page/Site, Internal
	Func. Specification		Project Fact Sheet (PFS)
	Graphics/Diagrams/Movies		Project Plan		Other (unspecified, catch-all)

 

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Interim solution

Because the process to identify our requirements, identify what vendors are out there that are in this space, analyze which vendors are most likely to meet our requirements at an affordable price, and so on, we've decided to implement an interim solution for the most important documents (the "solve 80% of the problem" concept). This Repository will provide a searchable index for all documents in a database, though the documents can live anywhere on the web. The database tracks the URL together with author information, state and permissions, what Practices and SPECTRA codes apply to the document, and so on.

This document discusses the use of the repository.

 

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Long-Term Solution

While the Repository will fit our immediate needs, tracking client deliverables (proposals, results, etc.) and marketing and sales literature (case studies, success stories, proofs of concept, etc.), it doesn't address the needs of several of the longer-term Repository users (especially Finance, HR, and Legal).

We have identified our specific requirements in a software tool. We are actively researching vendors in this space and will submit an RFP to the top 5 or 6 who look like they meet our needs. The analysis and drafting of the RFP are currently in progress. We do not have a time frame for their completion at this time.

Once we have the RFP results we can do the cost-benefit analysis and determine which (if any) of the vendors to go with, or whether it makes more sense to adapt the Repository for longer-term use.

Back to "Contents"

On to Chapter 2, "Deleting records"

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