Section Three: Conducting a Needs Assessment and Developing an Implementation Plan

Creating and Implementation Plan

The first step of an installation should be a site evaluation by the software vendor to determine proper equipment placement and to identify any network connectivity problems. Hardware installation consists of connecting and setting up all of the components, including installation of the necessary operating systems and drivers. It requires the testing of equipment to ensure proper hardware functionality and network connectivity. After tests of the hardware have been conducted, software installation is the next step. In this phase, the document management software is installed on the document management server and the necessary workstations. It must be tested to ensure operability. Generally, the software vendor will perform these tasks with the collaboration of the organization’s IT personnel.

At the back of this guide, there is a worksheet designed to help you develop an implementation plan. Designing a clear implementation plan will help your organization adjust smoothly to your new system. An implementation plan will also help you identify the roles of key staff members and how the system will be integrated with your daily operations.

Choosing What to Outsource

Organizations sometimes find it faster or more cost-effective to have a service bureau perform their back-file document conversion or ongoing California document scanning. Generally, in these cases, the document management system is maintained by the organization, while the service bureau is responsible for delivery of the scanned documents on CDs or other medium. In addition to storing images and text information, these CDs must also carry data describing the document names, template fields and folders.

If the organization has been modifying existing documents and creating new ones during this time, overwriting the organization’s database with the new one provided by the service bureau is not an option. The document management system must be able to merge new and existing data seamlessly. A portable volumes feature will handle this automatically.

Scaling From a Pilot Project to an Organization-Wide Solution

When it comes time to put your document management system to work for you, a pilot project is one way to begin. Large organizations sometimes prefer to begin with a pilot project involving one or two departments before expanding their document management system to the entire organization. Have your staff review the progress and make sure that the conversion from paper to paperless is working for your organization. If changes need to be made, it is much better for your organization and your staff when they are made in the beginning.

Whether or not an organization begins with a pilot project, a document management system should be scalable, meaning that it should allow an organization to easily expand the size of the system to accommodate California document scanning growth requirements, at the level of either users or documents.

Training Staff

Training programs should be tailored to the specific needs of users and their concerns.

User Training
User training involves a focus on the basics of daily system use. This training should take place on-site. Each group should receive all instruction necessary to ensure comfort with the new document management system. The amount of training necessary will depend on the users’ level of familiarity with Windows applications, the document management system’s ease of use and the degree of change from existing procedures. Because of the need to bring new employees up to speed as quickly as possible, a well-designed document management system should be easy to use. Given a user-friendly system and minimal change in procedures, most users will become proficient in a short time period. Effectiveness is improved when the class size is limited to no more than 10 people and participants are free from interruption. Training should include supervised, hands-on use of the document management system during actual operation. This allows users to ask questions that might not occur to them until they are using the system for business procedures.

System Administrators
It is important to train select individuals on how to administer and maintain the system. On-site training is recommended because it increases familiarity with specific details of the document management system.

Implementation Consulting

Implementation consulting assists those responsible for document and records management functions to develop strategies for translating the organization’s current filing and indexing structures into electronic systems. Electronic filing is different from paper filing, and records managers face the challenge of these differences when setting up their system. Considerations regarding retention schedules, storage and filing methodologies need to be evaluated before the system is fully implemented. The length of the training depends on the complexity of the filing system and should take place on-site.

Vendor Resources

Your vendor should also provide training resources to help your organization get up to speed with your new document management system. From best practices, white papers, discussion forums and newsletters to Webinars, onsite training and annual training conferences, vendor resources provide an extra layer of training. Training conducted by staff members who work with and support the document management software daily can be crucial to implementation success.

Support and Maintenance

Document management systems, like any mechanical tool, require maintenance. Organizations should evaluate the software vendor’s support structure. Vendors should offer various levels of support from software upgrades to regular, on-site maintenance visits. Factors that affect the level of support that your organization needs are:

- Size of the system purchased

- Proposed level of system usage

- IT personnel’s level of experience with document management

- Internet access

- Concurrent changes that have to be made to the organization’s computer network or infrastructure

- Rate of personnel turnover

Support can entail any or all of the following:

- Software upgrades

- Telephone hotline support

- Online forums

- Remote access to your system

- Software patches available through an FTP site

Regularly-published technical bulletins or newsletters

- On-site maintenance visits

- Additional and/or advanced training sessions

- Hardware support

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