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February 2010

IN THE NEWS Keeping track of document management

There are many reasons why companies should consider reformatting their documents from paper to digital, reports Richard Mackillican

The history of the rail industry is littered with paper documents, some dating back decades and in need of reorganisation. The arguments for doing so include the security of these documents and the fact they are a major fire hazard. There is also the cost of storage for these mountains of documents along with the issue of convenience when trying to access them in an emergency.

There are three main categories according to Doug Miles, market intelligence director at AIIM, the enterprise content management association. “In the first instance, there are a lot of historical records of plant installations, many of which will be a mixture of wide format drawings (A1s, A0s), along with all of the documentation which goes along with them. They may also exist on microfilm on aperture cards, which is more accessible than paper, but because of the scale of the backlog of documents in this format, it would still be better if they were stored digitally.

“The second instance is around collaborative projects where there are a number of contractors working on a rail infrastructure project, all of whom need to easily exchange documents, such as contracts and plans. Increasingly in construction of any kind, this is done electronically. The software which is used to do this also has the facilities to make changes and sign off changes in these documents.”

An example of this kind of software is Business Collaborator, which the Scott Wilson Group, the global design and engineering consultancy, has implemented as its core software on the firm's Crossrail 'On Network' design project.

Click here to read the full article on the RTM website