Alain S
Chief intranet & Knowledge Management at the Canadian Space Agency in St-Hubert, Qc, Canada
Intranet ou système de gestion des documents? How do you decide what content goes on intranet and what content goes on a Document Management System. Is it an issue in your organization?
Answers (14)
Our organization is still implementing Document management systems, but I what should go where is a relatively easy thing to do. we set up workshops and undersdant the needs for document management but local intranets are more about communicating information to users. For instance the document management tool should be accessible through your intranet.
You can use SharePoint to manage your documents
This is big issue for us and we don't yet have an answer or even widespread recognition of the problem. Everyone complains about search but no one seems willing to make the sorts of decisions and investments that are currently necessary to facilitate rapid and accurate search across platforms and business units. Sorry - that's not an answer as much as it is commiseration...! My observation is that most people are just muddling along. I'd love to hear from anyone with a robust system in place.
There is some overlap between these two concepts - and functionality of the systems - but perhaps the following will help distinguish between the two.
Intranets usually contain "published" documents (i.e. content intended for use by a wide audience). To manage this content typically organizations use some sort of web content management system (WCMS). The content tends to be more fluid / dynamic and there is an emphasis how the content is presented.
Document mgmt systems (DMS usually contain matter- or customer-specific documents intended to track / store content related to some sort of transaction for possible reference by a single individual or small group within an organization. DMS functionality tends to lean toward workflow and versioning. Typically this collections can become very large (all the documents related to all the clients for the current retention period).
Of course both contain "records" that need to be managed.
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Alain
In an Organization, Intranets are very useful for publishing information that employees of the organization can view as references or guides on day to day basis. The nature of the documents that are published on the Intranet usually are not Project oriented and does not concern itself with version control and check in/out mechanisms.
Document management systems have a different purpose their purpose is to store and manage documents related to projects or specific functions of the organizations. The nature of these documents is such they need to be tracked and changes to their contents must be controlled in order to provide the intended user with the accurate reference document at any point of time.
An example of what goes on an Intranet is Communication material, Press releases, Employees guides, Events, Announcements, Lost and found or any type of advertisement, etc.
An example of what goes on a Document Management System is structured Projects data, detail Human Resources data, Accounting and financial data, Inventory Management data, Timesheet and Work force management and any other data that is transactional in nature.
Organizations some time mistakenly treat the two the same but they have different purposes. However Organizations do tend to provide access to Documents Management Systems data from the Intranet and that is OK as long as that data is not duplicated in the Intranet.
Regards
Dhafir
The content tends to be more fluid / dynamic and there is an emphasis how the content is presented.
Document mgmt systems (DMS usually contain matter- or customer-specific documents intended to track / store content related to some sort of transaction for possible reference by a single individual or small group within an organization. DMS functionality tends to lean toward workflow and versioning. Typically this collections can become very large (all the documents related to all the clients for the current retention period).
Of course both contain "records" that need to be managed.
If you need tracability (needed when you are doing soft eng.) in your project file, documentation and delivery. All other case, Intranet.
Clarification added June 13, 2008:
Sorry, I miss a word ...
If you need tracability (needed when you are doing soft eng.) in your project file, documentation and delivery use DMS or configuration management system for your file. All other case, Intranet.
Lars H
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Hi Alain,
that all depends on what you want to achieve with the both.
Like pointed out earlier: if you want to track changes to documents and have a large organization in which this is to be achieved, you have to seriously consider putting the document into the document management. Yet if the document is "only" going to be available, then you might as well make it available on the intranet its self for most intelligent systems make PDFs, etc., searchable.
Summing it up: it is a big issue, but a concensus is pretty easy to be reached, I suppose. And even if that compromise forsees that all documents that are something above plain text go into the DMS and regular news or associated descriptions of some sort are put into the Intranet its self. End of the song being, that the documents in the DMS are searchable also and could very well be integrated into the intranet's search results.
All the best and hear from you soon
Lars Hilse
Web Strategist | Speaker | Social Networker | Entrepreneur
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Germany +49 (0)1801 5557775788 | UK +44 (0)870 9749050 | USA +1 206-203-5212
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Lars Hilse is a globally recognized web strategist and (e-)market penetration & customer care specialist.
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Alain, you've posed a very current/common question, and Gordon and Dahfir have suggested some good ideas.
I was going to "weigh in" from a similar perspective, but then they have covered it quite nicely. The only thing I might add is that WCM systems have the potential of being more visually appealing/useful that DM systems, and may perhaps serve navigational/discovery learners better than DM systems.
I've often though that since mose WCM and DM systems are database driven and leverage web services and web technologies, perhaps users could:
- store in DM systems content that for business resons need to exist as permanently assembled documents with self-contained stand-alone context
- store in WCM systems everything else (other content objects that can be "fragmented" and used /reused in different contexts
- and have the WCM system automatically poll and publish linkable lists of documents from the DM system
Example.. there is a series of web pages for a project / program outlining objectives, terms of reference, high-level plan, steering committee members etc. That could be done right in the WCM system. Then it would poll the DM system and auto publish date sorted lists of project updates, project plans, presentations etc. to that project area.
While I concur with answers provided by Gordon, Dhafir and Lars, I might contribute a few additional thoughts.
ECM (Enterprise Content Management) systems (e.g. Filenet, Livelink, Documentum...) provide what are referred to as library services (check-in/check-out, acess control, version management...), and often include a variety of additional modules (BPM/Workflow, WCM, RM, DAM...). They are designed for managing and storing an organization's "soft" assets, and official records in a reliable, secure and perennial fashion. Although most offer thin client interfaces (through web browsers) they tend not to be very intuitive and require varying levels of training for users. ECM systems offer much more than storage, they provide a vast number of services including traceability of all actions applied to content (history), access control at varying depths (storage hierarchy) and granularity (at the content level), integration with other systems (MS Office, Back office apps...).
While both intranets and ECMs provide search and retrievel functionality, ECMs have a tendency to allow more advanced search capabilities (generally based on implicit/explicit metadata values and other qualifiers). Serving mostly to MANAGE content, they are somewhat to pocket notebooks what intranets are to daily newpapers.
Intranets serve mostly to PUBLISH timely information of a temporary nature or content provided for reference in performing daily duties.
In summary I would suggest the following differentitors for the Intranet :
- content that is urgent but not necessarily important (see Stephen R. Covey's Urgency/Importance quadrant)
- reference material (or links to thereof stored within an ECM)
- links to external resources
- content with a short shelf life
- content that is not related to organization's core business (eg. social activities)
- content that is created by a small group intended for a large audience (newsletters, org charts, document templates)
- news feeds
- ...
and for the ECM:
- organizational records, archives (on or offline), knowledge, and soft assets
- content that undergoes a review process, with versioning, and access to specific versions, traceable history of changes (who, what, when, where...), conservation rules and archiving, and requiring other content MANAGEMENT actions
- content that is important but not necessarily urgent (S. R. Covey)
- content with a more complex life cycle and longer shelf life.
This being said, it is quite feasible to cross-store information differentiated above to serve specific needs, as these are at the main reasons why differentitors are recognized in the first place.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Özgen Eryasa
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There are numerous excellent points made here.
I have recently been fortunate enough to be involved in significant intranets and information management system projects both in Europe and the USA and in my opinion modern solutions from vendors allow companies to finally gather significant information volumes into a single web based framework. These cover integrated information sets that range from version controlled application files, online auto updating information for complex policies and procedures, HTML content and Wikis where the information generators are comfortable with that syntax.
All of this can be a searchable volume, robust permission systems make sure that search results and menu systems ( navigation has a significant role for some queries ) are appropriate for every user, and only if the user knows that what they need is in for example a document do they need to even indicate that in the search.
In recent projects I have been involved with I have definitely seen changes in this area – with traditional boundaries as expressed in the question here blurring. A good example would be Policies and Procedures. Until just a year or so ago I absolutely always saw these as version controlled documents in the DMS. But now vendor functionality allows them to be maintained in auto updating online content, rebrandable according to the business unit and republishable in many formats. Making a single version of the truth available appropriately to each user is now possible, and the arena to present this information has in my opinion certainly shifted from the DMS to the Intranet, since locking such content in application files creates a business issue of efficiency and compliance.
It is of course still true that each company needs to decide what their own DMS or Intranet if fundamentally for – and I agree completely that duplication of information must be avoided at all times. Which is easier to say than to accomplish!
I hope this helps.
James D
Senior Consultant at Headshift
Best Answers in: Change Management (2), Enterprise Software (1)
Ideally we wouldn’t need to worry if content is part of the intranet, document management system or any other kind of information management system – storage, transformation and consumption of information would be separated so that ultimately information could be used where ever it is needed. However, the reality for most organisations today is that “enterprise content management” is still something they are moving towards, which is where deciding where to store what becomes a challenge. The information management maturity in your organisation will to a degree determine the balance between elegance (i.e. ECM) and practicality. If you are leaning towards practicality, then I would suggest you identify the most critical information for storage on in your DMS so you can take advantage of features like integration with desktop tools, advanced security, versioning, audit trails and workflow etc. However, as has been pointed out, you may find that you have a WCMS that actually has adequate DM functionality to suit your purposes. BTW If you are actually going to use your WCMS for Record Management purposes, then make sure it is actually compliant with record keeping regulations in your jurisdiction. Another tip, if you do find yourself using multiple systems to store information (e.g. DMS, intranet, Web-based project tools) your users will really appreciate clear guidance on what tool they should use to store what. In this situation, enterprise search is also a really helpful feature for end users to help them discover content from different sources.
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Clarification added June 17, 2008:
I blogged a copy of my answer and received a couple of comments that you might find of interest.
Carol A
Group Manager Information Management & Technology, ACL (a Navitas company)
I agree with Gordon, Dhafir, Pascale and Lars on the distinctions between the uses of an Intranet (solution) and a DMS solution.
Traditionally DM has it roots in complex document vaults accessed by document librarians. They're hard to use, and often not well used. The need for a DMS is determined by the value of the documents and records it would manage - and the importance of tracking their life cycle. (There are some great reference documents at: www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk generally and www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/edrm specifically)
A company will implement a DMS so it can better manage documents where there is need to track and retain document versions and authors, and to have strong check-in/check-out, access control, worklow, versioning, and even record retention rules. The DMS will be used for documents that are likely to be referenced in vital company processes, in audits or which have legal or compliance significance. (I'm sure you can think of Agency documents requiring this).
Many of the larger Enterprise level Content Management solutions (ECMs) use several modules to achieve these management goals: often a CMS (content management solution beyond simple website content management) working with a DMS module and/or even a Records Managements module. (In some solutions the Records Management and Document Management are unified and referred to a DRM.) The resulting suite may well be achieved by the ECM vendor acquiring a niche company which does good DM or RM, so as to integrate these into its own suite.
If an investment has been made in a DMS, since this will have been substantive, and since a DMS is not easy to use, it's best used for documents really requiring this level of tracking.
The second part of your question relates to the Intranet content: I see the Intranet as a web technology context (user interface) which provides the user access to a range of tools and applications, possibly including a DMS. It's all about access to tools, and about communicating with employees. The Intranet is a flexible and general information access point for employees to find what's currently happening, to access training, their starting point into their daily applications. The CEO 's latest newsletter to staff would go on the Intranet; not into the DMS.
Therein lies the Intranet's core difference: it's forward thinking and flexible where a DMS is about capturing the past. If you had a company KM project, the Intranet content would be a key tool in evolving the KM strategy to develop tacit company knowledge and make it explicit. In that context, the Intranet tool chosen would ideally enable (or provide access to tools that enable) employees to connect directly with each other, show their expertise, share ideas, discuss projects. For example, Peter the local company maestro for Product Y may describe his expertise in past projects, and in passing swear passion for his pet chinchilla who inspired him in each project. No need to manage this content in the DMS. However, Peter -- being the project guru that he is -- will also have used the Intranet to access the DMS so he can use the latest version of company-lawyer-approved vendor contract (stored in the Document Management repository) to seal the next new deal.
As an aside to this discussion, we may be seeing the end of this rigid "suite" approach to ECMS solutions in a much more flexible product type which redefines modularity and flexibility. Take a look for example at Alfresco as a leader of this approach: an Open Source, open standards solution which uses strong management, but it simple to use -- and therefore more effective. There 's more at http://www.alfresco.com/products/solutions/ecm/ . (I have no association; only admiration)
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This answer may sound glib, but it works well in practice:
If it could come back to bite you on the bum, put it in the DMS.
The DMS is an arse-covering tool. If you have a document that has any chance of coming back to haunt you or getting people into court, then store it in the DMS.
Everything that people use day to day, that people actually want and need, put it on the intranet.
Sounds glib, but fits nicely with the way people actually think.
(Some of the answers above mention being able to access your DMS through the intranet. I have never seen a well-integrated system like this, but if you had one then perhaps my little heuristic isn't so useful ;-)
Why split them? A well sorted DMS should be able to feed (or be) your Intranet/Internet/Extranet as appropriate - do you really want people having to *think* about where they should put something? Use (a small amount of) meta data to drive the storage, publication & visibility.
