-----original message-----
>>I'm curious to find out if nonprofit organizations
are using
electronic records or electronic document management
software. I'm
specifically looking for recommendations of software that
would easily
apply classification data to all text documents (say, MS
Word) that
employees created, for automatic sorting and then
(hopefully) easy
retrieval by colleagues.
If anyone has experience with specific systems, or reasons
why an
organization decided to (or not to) use an electronic
document
management system, I'd be very interested to hear from
you!>>
Dear Katherine,
Funny that you should ask! One of my clients, Third Sector
New
England, is working on this question at the moment, and I'm
helping
out.
TSNE gets the benefit of hand-tailored advice, but here are
a few
generic points:
- Electronic document management systems can cost a
nonprofit
organization Real Money. Think in terms $25,000 to $50,000
for
starters. That's not including annual training, upgrades,
and
tweaking - should these be necessary.
- Some vendors of document management systems are primarily
in the
business of providing workflow management or scanning
services, and
offer document management as an add-on module. The
advantage to that
is the tight integration with other functions that they can
offer you;
the disadvantage is that document management probably won't
be their
greatest strength. At any rate, be very sure you understand
what the
vendor's core business is, before you buy their document
management
product.
- There is a significant different between a document
management
system model that is essentially a software licensing
arrangement and
one that is an online service. In the former, you install
it on your
server, and your precious electronic data lives in the place
that you
designate. In the latter, you are contracting for a
service, and your
electronic data is stored, maintained, backed-up, and
secured by
specialists on servers of their choosing. Each model has
advantages
but it's important to know which you're choosing.
I hope that this helps you get started!
Best regards from Deborah
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn post.harvard.edu
http://blog.de
borah.elizabeth.finn.com
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