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Project CATalog study to determine electronic document storage options

Project CATalog is a study initiated by  J. Michael Gower (VP for Finance and Administration) which hopes to determine if UVM needs to purchase a document imaging and content management system.  This study stems from the decentralized efforts of many departments to create their own process for scanning in paper forms, documents, photos and attempting to store them in a categorized manner.  This decentralized method of storage makes it difficult for interdepartmental collaboration, for any user to find the most recent version of a collaborative or singly owned document or to have a specific configuration, setup, and support model for scanning in documents.

Each administrative and academic unit has designated a point person who will actively participate in the study and relay the needs, questions, and concerns of their department.   These point people will attend meetings, fill out surveys, participate in online discussions, and assist with making the final decision about the campus needs for a Content Management System/Solution (CMS).  Each point person will act as a liaison between you and the Project CATalog study group.  The Project CATalog group intends to present Michael Gower with recommendations by August 2005.

On June 15 and 20, 2005 Daybreak Intellectual Capital Solutions, acting only as a consulting agency rather than as a product vendor, held training sessions for all UVM point people.  This training included the following information:

• Content - finding the good, accurate copy of a document in digital form
• Revision control - know where a document is when you need it, and be assured that it's the latest and greatest  (can only view old versions of a document if a specific search is performed, can restrict write access to old versions)
•  Giving appropriate permission/rights/access to individuals or groups who should have access to a file
• 40% of a knowledge worker's time is spent searching for content!  Labeling "unstructured" content so that it becomes "structured" at a glance will allow us to what files contains without having to open each one to find the right one
• Paper transactions cost 24 times more than electronic transactions - a CMS would save time and money
The success of the CMS will allow us to be successful in other areas:

• Recruiting and retaining the best students, faculty, and staff
• Increasing/sustaining research funding
• Streamlining business processes to reduce cost and time to complete tasks
• CMS can provide version control for an entire website
• Saving content to a repository for the purposes of locking it, checking it out (the file will continue to have read access to any authorized user), and securing it, automating work flow tasks.
• The CMS won't necessarily replace existing repositories, it might just integrate with them.
• For documents that must exist in paper format, a CMS repository entry can be made giving directions to the paper copy (example: in box # on shelf ABC in warehouse XYZ).  This relies on people to enter the information accurately and keep it up-to-date!
• On import into the CMS, an individual file can be saved into multiple file formats
• The repository is available through a desktop-installed application or via the web, so friendly to Mac and PC
• The administrator/keeper of a set of documents can be changed in one location if someone goes on leave or no longer works for the university
• When scanning in a document an OCR reader is built in to recognize keywords from the document for labeling purposes

The CMS product will specifically address needs already identified in the following departments: Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrar, Grant Writing, Administration, Accounting, Human Resources, Supply, Services, Physical Plant Maintenance, Finance and Budgeting.  The academic needs for a CMS repository will be folded into the needs of the departments.

Project CATalog is in the very early stages, and no product solutions have been evaluated yet, so answers to many questions are not yet available.

If you have questions about Project CATalog please contact your department's point person. (Contact your department's business manager or IT support staff if you are curious who your point person is.)

Authors: Stefanie Ploof, CIT Client Services
Carley Tillinghast, Project CATalog

Last modified July 13 2005 11:28 AM