metadata

[kalos]

hello

my company has a huge number of various documents

I want to file and archive them efficienctly

is there a good way?

I consider adding metadata for each file, that will accompany each of the file, but not sure how to do it

any idea?

thanks!

[kalos]

I am thinking how much metadata can the current Windows filesystem can take

[IainB]

Windows can probably handle anything you throw at it, but it's unlikely to be of much use if the functionality you would typically require is not integrated within a structured document management system of some kind.
For example, you could do a lot worse than take a look at:
Qiqqa - Reference Management System - Mini-Review
Calibre - e-Book (Personal Library/Document) Management - Mini-Review

[mouser]

The issue of filing electronic documents in a nice organized way and preserving extra info, and be able to search, etc.  is an important one.
There are surely some good articles about it online and some good software for it.
Do some research and let us know what you find -- it would be useful information for many.

[kalos]

The issue of filing electronic documents in a nice organized way and preserving extra info, and be able to search, etc.  is an important one.
There are surely some good articles about it online and some good software for it.
Do some research and let us know what you find -- it would be useful information for many.

-mouser (March 05, 2015, 10:55 AM)

is there any good comparison or review?
for enterprise solutions

[4wd]

If you're going to look at some form of Enterprise Content Management System, Document Management Software, or Digital Asset Manager, I'd suggest the first thing you do is look at and understand the following:

5 Good Reasons to Avoid DAM Software

Especially points 2 and 4.

If you still think you need some form of management software, there's a link to a list of DMS' given.

You need to do the research into this, we can't tell you what your company needs are, (eg. is it always going to be just documents).

[kalos]

let me pose some simple questions please
to explain what I am looking for exactly

I want to store thousands of files in a simple folder
I want each of these files to have encorporated (if possible) or externally associated, some data (metadata)

now, this metadata contains fields that can be created by the user (eg if we are talking about mp3 files, it contains artist, version, date recorded, date composed, etc)
each of the fields will have optional values (eg the field version, will have the values 0.1, 0.2, 1.0, etc). these values will be created by the users and will appear in a drop down menu
that way we will create, during time, a template of metadata, with many fields and each field with many values
each time we will store a file in that folder (remember, no subfolders, just a huge folder with all the files) it will ask us to fill in the values of the metadata fields
there will be scripts that will suggest (by reading the document and matching existing strings with the already stored values of the fields) which values to put
or otherwise, the user that will insert a new file into the folder, will have to enter manually the values (if they are new) or to choose them easily from the drop down menu (which will filter the view by entering partial strings and match via regex)

so, this way, all the files, will have specific metadata
will can be used to find files with specific metadata values
and display a treeview of files of specific metadata in a specific hierarchy

can you understand this?
can you suggest improvements for this model?
can it be implemented easily?

thanks!

[IainB]

@kalos: In answer to your 3 simple questions:

• can you understand this? - Yes. From the information you provide above, there is nothing that seems to be particularly "new" or "tricky" here.
• can you suggest improvements for this model? - Yes I probably could.
• can it be implemented easily? - Yes, it probably could be implemented easily - or at least, with no more difficulty than the many document management and file management system implementation projects that I have been involved with in the past.

However, I would suggest that, if your organisation is concerned to establish a businesslike way ahead for this, then a recommended risk-averse and conventional approach would probably be to get in touch with an IT and management consultancy to help:

• to establish a formal project for this;
• to identify, document, confirm and review the relevant business requirements;
• to draw up an RFI (Request for Information) to send out to potential system/solution suppliers;
• to refine the relevant business requirements in light of the RFI responses;
• to work with your organisation to draw up an RFP (Request for Proposal) for work to implement a solution to meet the refined business requirements, to send out to potential system/solution suppliers;
• to assist in collecting/collating the responses to the RFP, for management to decide on and select the preferred supplier(s).
• to manage the project implementation from the selected supplier(s).

It seems like it should be a very straightforward project, if approached that way.

[kalos]

thanks for your suggestions Ian

my role is simply to conceive and propose the best method to archive a bunch of files, and I came up with this one

is it the best possible?

[IainB]

...is it the best possible?

-kalos (March 06, 2015, 01:59 PM)

I would have no idea. It would all depend on your business requirements really.
What does the business case say for this?

[kalos]

just imagine a company that makes lots of parts for different machines
they generate a vast amount of documents for a specific part for a specific machine
the part has design documents, testing documents, etc
each eg. testing document has testing before modification x, after modification x, etc
each testing document is test type 1, test type 2, etc
each testing document of type 1, is from lab A, lab B, etc
and so on, unlimited ways to categorize these

so I want a way that will be:

1) easy to categorize a file, eg. I have a testing file for part X, that is the low pressure test, from supplier B, etc
I imagine to select values in an exensive menu window, that will guide me about the categories (eg, new subcategories appear when I select a specific category) and that will allow me to create more distrinctive criteria easily

2) easy to retrieve and display files that match specific strings in specific metadata fields
so, if I saved these in a folder hierarchy, I could find all the test documents of a specific part, but not all specific test of various parts
if you know what I mean


any other consideration I should consider?

[IainB]

...any other consideration I should consider?

-kalos (March 07, 2015, 01:11 PM)

Sorry Kalos, I don't think I can help you any more than repeat the above suggested/recommended approach.
What you seem to be focussed on is a semi-technical solutions-oriented approach.
If you have no documented business requirements or business case, then there would probably be a good place to start.
A detailed description and analysis of the business process you are trying to improve or re-engineer could be another.

[kalos]

yes, but this is what I am asking, what would be my business requirements?
sometimes, we don't know what we need, until someone tells us (you will probably need this...) or we realize what we need afterwards, after using a GUI, etc

[bob99]

This sounds a little like it may be similar to ISO 9000 documentation and record keeping?
You may want to look at it from that direction. Check out this site to see if it helps. http://www.9001council.org/documentation-requirements.php

If so, do a search for ISO 9001 software. One of the results I came up with is http://www.isoxp.com/10Products/ISO90ReqBook.aspx there's a pdf here (sample pages button) that provides a checklist.

Here's another from the results. http://www.tech-x.com/iso/doc_control.html

This may also help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_management

[kalos]

yes, it may be similar to ISO record keeping

but also it can go beyond that, eg easily find files, store them in various hierarchies, etc

[IainB]

yes, but this is what I am asking, what would be my business requirements?
sometimes, we don't know what we need, until someone tells us (you will probably need this...) or we realize what we need afterwards, after using a GUI, etc

-kalos (March 08, 2015, 07:35 AM)

Rather than suck the requirements out of your thumb, you ask your users what their requirements are. If they don't know, then postulate what those requirements perhaps could be, then get the business users' buy-in/approval,  and set up a project to trial a prototype system that could meet those requirements. The users will have to agree to commit to being guinea-pigs in the prototype trial.
You could run this trial using some existing software that is available for free/cheap trial - e.g., SharePoint.
The trial will enable you to discover the requirements.