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Contents
Solution & Process Requirements The essence of a system is that it MUST allow the users to meet the following criteria: - Perform the business processes simply and easily, and in an industry standard manner,
- Ensure their contractual integrity keeping ALL relevant records,
- Ensure the user meetsISO9001:2000.
If these requirements are not met, then within the fullness of time, the user will meet with serious commercial problems, which will almost certainly result in financial disaster. Return to Contents
Extent of Process - Movements - Paper to EDI As document control is essentailly about communications between disparate parties from consulting engineers with advanced CAD with inbuilt design and management to bricklayers any system should be able to recive from and communicate with other parties in a vriety of ways. Also the full cycle of movement must be managed from the users perspective. Each party will have a different perspective on all information. The necessary methodologies and capabilities are outlined in the diagrams below: 
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List of Solution Types The following table list the various solutions in common use these days for handling technical documents: | Type | Benefits | Consequences | See the associated White Paper | | Manual | | - Very onerous,
Difficult (if not impossible) to obtain reports, - Has volumes and volumes of paper.
| | | Spreadsheet | | - Cannot handle approvals properly,
- Often more than one spreadsheet needed,
- Difficult to obtain reports.
| | CEMDC
(e.g. TDOC) | - Very fast and easy to use - raises ALL the paperwork,
- Comprehensive reporting, especially for expediting the problem documents,
- Can operate WITHOUT infrastructure,
- Can be moved from office to site and back, the number of users expanded as needed.
| | In-House Application Development & Modern Application Development Tools An Objective Study | | EDM | - Automates the "management" of electronic documents.
| - Not designed for construction - requires expensive bespoke configuration and even then does not generate transmittals automatically,
- Cannot operate in "paper" mode when required.
| The differences between EDM and CEMDC | | Portals | - Instantly available everywhere,
- Has an (often huge) list of things for each person to do.
| - Fails to "deliver" documents (user fails ISO 9001),
- No "incoming inspection" (user fails ISO 9001),
- The "data" cannot be "yours" so cannot be relied upon contractually,
- Cannot operate in "paper" mode when required.
| WEB Hosted versus PROJECT Hosted systems for storing and managing Project Data |
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Capabilities of Windows Operating a Control System Once a properly structured system has been defined, it may be operated. There are three natural steps. - Step 1: Configuration: Set up the background information
- Step 2: Operational actions: Recording receipt of documents, Issuing and distributing documents, etc.
- Step 3: Management Use: Reports: Registers, Exceptions, etc.
Windows is Document Centric What does this mean ? It means that the normal operating system found on the majority of PC's will carry out the majority of document management (EDM) functions without any additional cost. Windows also utilises - viz launches - other software (often supplied free with hardware such as Modems, Scanners, and CD writers) which then enables functions such as send and receive emails, faxes, and turn paper into electronic documents.  | | Windows enables (but does not carry out):
- Printing
- Scanning
- Viewing
- Mark Up
- Emailing
- Archiving
All of which tasks are managed from within TDOC |
There are many other elements including FTP etc which are included within the windows operating system. Email should become become the normal method of communication. Some of the areas with document functionality Contract Documents
| Accounting
Invoices etc | Contract Admin
Dayworks etc |
Estimating
Bills Of Quantities etc
|  | ISO 9001
Audits etc |
CAD
Document creation
| Project Management
Instructions etc | | Detail Design |
Document Management
(Work Flow Tool) | Planning |
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Problems with Spreadsheets It is often said that " Great projects start with great systems ! ". However, over 70% of companies use stand-alone spreadsheets for document control as well as for timesheet capture and planning. So why do spreadsheets fail to perform? The following are well documented and well known problems with spreadsheets: - Error Prone: Spreadsheets are a poor corporate data store and are notoriously error prone especially in a multi project environment.
- Excessive Paperwork: Organisations waste days and weeks of management time reconciling multiple spreadsheets across different sources, often with conflicting views of project activity.
- Dirty Data: Besides being extremely unwieldy for processes involving large volumes of data and multiple users, spreadsheets often contain substantial, human errors and inconsistencies.
- Poor Communication: Having data about your projects in a number of spreadsheets makes it hard to maintain one version of the truth.
- No Accountability: Fragmented process based on a spreadsheet model often result in project overspend and missed deadlines because they lacked visibility into what really happened, and even more importantly what has NOT happened.
- Fragmented Processes: Spreadsheets are like weeds sprouting into technical jungles.
For many organisations a simple standard system does not exist and this lack of technical synergy prevents them from working in a consistent environment thus impacting on project performance. What's the solution? Solving these problems is easily done by using The TDOC System, the market leading CEMDC Software. It is modular and provides full process and management capability. - Centralised Document Control: Integrate multiple projects into a single environment.
- Project Accountability: Make projects accountable to the business by gaining global visibility of project performance.
- Accurate Project Data: Eliminate guesswork and ‘grey zones’ due to either inaccurate data, lost information or fragmented processes.
- Online Reporting: Access reports on detailed data that is critical for efficient time and project planning management in real-time.
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Notes on Communications Infrastructure All software whether a spreadsheet running under windows, a CEMDC application such as TDOC, a configured EDM, or a WEB Portal, requires an adequate infrastructure to enable its communications. These include: - User's PC
- Local Area Network
- Local Server
- Client Server Engine (on Local Server)
- Wide area network or internet
- ISP's Mail and or FTP Server
All of these require to be matched in capability. And where there is interconnection then this is reflected elsewhere. Where electronic documents are to be formally received or generated and held in a controlled manner (as opposed to being downloaded from a portal in an uncontrolled manner), then it is best that they arec held on the server local to the majority of the users. Other controlled copies may be issued, or access by authorised users may be allowed over the internet or a VPN. Speed of download, or email delivery of documents is the same whatever type of software is being used. The limitation is the speed and bandwidth available to the user. Local Area Networks are usually between 10 and 100 times faster than Wide Area Networks or VPN's. Return to Contents
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