Search results

The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of the document discovery process, during the implementation of an asset management system for a rail company. This system will deliver comprehensive enterprise asset management information from a single source, with information provided to mobile devices, for use by field workers. This case study presents the challenges encountered in the search, retrieval and management of documentation for use on a daily basis for civil standard maintenance tasks.

Evidence gathered for this paper was a result of direct and participant observation over a period of 18 months from 2014 to 2016. As a member of the project team, certain privileges were accorded to the researcher who was placed in a unique position to act as the main research instrument, able to collect data on the systems used as well as the everyday practices on information capture and document production.

Document quality and standards can be overlooked or deemed as not crucial; the value, significance and importance of documentation are lost when no one takes ownership; the understanding and application of standards, quality management and governance can have a direct bearing on the effective management and control of documents and subsequent records produced.

Research is limited, as this is a single case study.

By highlighting the challenges faced and the resolutions used, this paper hopes to offer a level of practical guidance with the detection process for maintenance tasks for the civil assets discipline for a rail network.

This case study contributes to the understanding of quality management and the role it plays in document management and in turn the search and retrieval process. It provides evidence that documents must be systematically managed and controlled to limit risk both internally and externally.

This article aims to describe how people manage to integrate their use of paper and electronic documents in modern office work environments.

An observational interview type study of 14 participants from 11 offices in eight organizations was conducted. Recorded data were analysed using a thematic analysis method. This involved reading and annotation of interview transcripts, categorizing, linking and connecting, corroborating, and producing an account of the study.

The findings of the study can be categorized into four groups: the roles paper and electronic documents serve in today's offices, the ways in which these documents are managed, the problems associated with their management, and the types of fragmentation that exist in terms of their management and how these are dealt with.

The study has identified the need for better integrated management of paper and electronic documents in present-day offices. The findings of the study have then been used to propose a set of guidelines for the development of integrated paper and electronic document management systems.

Although similar studies of offices have been conducted in the past, almost all of these studies are prior to the widespread use of mobile and network-based shared technologies in office environments. Furthermore, previous studies have generally failed to identify and propose guidelines for integration of paper and electronic document management systems.

This research studied the current document management (DM) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of a road freight transport sector in a South American city with the aim to determine strengths and challenges for improving information management.

The study was conducted using a survey approach based on measuring information management capabilities (IMC) through the following main dimensions: perception about DM practices, DM policies and tools, IT usage, organizational climate, and problems related to document management.

The main results from the work stated the challenges for these companies in adopting electronic document management systems (EDMS) and handling information effectively even though the business experience. Also, the study highlighted the top management commitment in terms of investments for IMC development. Nevertheless, this economic support tends to be not enough to afford the EDMS implementation.

Regarding the importance of information in road freight transport sector, this paper explored DM practices in a field in which no previous studies related to DM had been conducted and set the basis to make decisions to improve information management performance.

This research seeks to explore the potential of ontologies for reorganizing e‐document management in public administration with the aim of supporting administration in organizing cross‐organizational document and information management.

Since ontologies are suitable for organizing metadata for annotation of informational resources, the research question is: How can public administrations make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e‐document management? Findings, based on an action research project in the state administration of Schleswig‐Holstein (Germany).

The research findings indicate that structuring documents and information through ontologies requires a socio‐technical infrastructure consisting of a number of regularities, services and support on the level of organization as well as information technology.

Since the case of Schleswig‐Holstein is typical for governments trying to enter the information age without having the power and resources to be on the leading edge, the recommendations based on this research may support the strategy development and solution finding in other administrations as well.

A rather small government (such as that of Schleswig‐Holstein) must be aware of its strategic goals and step ahead carefully in order to avoid the risks of misinvestment while reorganizing its e‐document management.

The paper systematically addresses the question “How can public administration make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e‐document management?”.

Present and possible future developments in the techniques of document management are reviewed, the major ones being text retrieval and scanning and OCR. Acquisition, indexing and thesauri, publishing and dissemination and the document management industry are also addressed. The emerging standards are reviewed and the impact of the Internet is analysed.

Document Management and Workflow are technologies designed to support, either the productivity of an organisational process or, alternatively, the productivity of the people who comprise an organisation. This paper describes the motivations and anticipated benefits that could encourage an organisation to seek a technology solution to their existing paperlogged processes. In many areas these technologies are being used to good effect. There is increasing evidence that current systems designs which owe much to Taylor and Deining notions of scientific management and quality systems may not always be appropriate. A new generation of technology is emerging sometimes called ‘Workware’. This technology tries to be ‘Idea’ or ‘Work Object’ centric rather than process centric. Workware aims to establish boundaries within which empowered workers are free to achieve their objectives by any appropriate and valid means. These new technologies promise to support ‘real world’ work more effectively. They also present challenges to those who seek to find excellence through the detailed design and measurement of precise processes repetitively enacted. No conclusions are yet available. The best way to support and value ‘Knowledge Work’ within a business process without snuffing the creative spark on which a business depends for its future seems a worthy area for further exploration.

Interoperable, compatible document sharing across your organization and with suppliers and customers will soon be a strategic requirement. Be ready for it.

Information and communication technology rapidly developed over the past decade and provided the means to easily capture, store and distribute documents in vast quantities and at an ever‐increasing speed. To be able to make good use of this information instead of becoming swamped by it, scientific controls need to be applied. Records management provides these controls. This article explains how one software developer combines traditional records management practices with electronic document management features to create an electronic recordkeeping system.

The digitization of electronic document management (EDM) in the construction industry has become more common in nature with the evolution of technology. However, there are still some limitations in EDM in the common data environment which can be improved with the integration of blockchain technology. The purpose of this paper is to identify the limitations of the current EDM system in the construction industry, to determine the potential of blockchain in improving the EDM system in the construction industry and challenges towards blockchain-based EDM.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine (9) respondents with background from the construction industry and blockchain expertise. Content analysis was used to analyze the primary data.

Current EDM system in the construction industry possessed limitations such as system maturity, high cost, slow adoption of technology and security concerns. Blockchain is able to make improvements in the current EDM system in terms of data integrity, data tracking, data immutability, data security, data trustability, and data accountability. Several challenges such as costs, blockchain scalability and industry knowledge, industry culture and hardware need to overcome prior blockchain-based EDM systems can be widely applied in the construction industry.

The research findings provide insight on future EDM in the construction industry and aids future research in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of an approach in which document management systems (DMSs) are based on a formal and explicit document model, primarily in terms of facilitating domain-specific customization.

Within this paper, a generic document model is proposed. The model consists of two layers. A general purpose layer, which represents common features of the documents, and a domain-specific layer, modeling properties particular to application domain. The general purpose layer is based on ISO 82045, providing high degree of interoperability with other systems developed with respect to this set of standard.

Splitting document model into the layers enables DMSs to be tailored for each particular domain of application, depending on the general purpose layer. The existence of domain-specific layer allows documents to be interpreted differently in different domains of application.

In order to enable customization of DMS for a particular domain, the implementation of domain-specific document layer is required. Also, the proposed model does not explicitly deal with document dynamics.

The proposed document ontology is general enough to provide the representation of documents not depending on a specific scope of application, yet flexible enough to enable extensions through which domain-specific document features can be expressed. The separation of document model enables development of core DMS offering services relying explicitly on the general purpose layer on one hand, as well as domain-specific customization of DMS on the other.