Designing a Document Management System (DMS) in Office 365
An organization’s general goal for their DMS is usually to improve office productivity among all employees. This productivity can be improved through a variety of ways, including increased knowledge management; a greater consistency of communication, coordination, and collaboration; efficient data and document development through automated workflows; and easy accessibility to relevant document assets. This continued productivity can be ensured in the event of a disaster recovery scenario by having a DMS located in a secure cloud environment and being able to access that DMS from remote locations on various mobile devices.
Enhancing basic communication within and across organizational departments is an important pillar of a DMS solution. A DMS can help to break down the silo effect that offices and cubes bring to communication. A DMS can place an emphasis on people by placing them at the center of the DMS’s focus. A DMS is the “office of the future” that will help facilitate communication and work activity, including common tasks, not only within the office but also outside of the office, especially within a disaster recovery effort. The work hub will no longer be the physical office but the cloud; managers and staff will be able to work anywhere geographically as if they are physically in organizational offices. In general, a DMS can be a digital workplace for formal and informal professional interactions. Document repositories and document workflows are also important pillars of a DMS solution. Organizational documents that are kept in paper and digital form in multiple locations need to be accessible and searchable in a DMS to maintain and promote organizational knowledge.
A key platform that can support an organization’s DMS is Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 offers communication, coordination, and collaboration tools as well as an online Microsoft Office suite and document repositories that support the development and storing of documents. Documents in Office 365 can be authored and edited using the online Microsoft Office application suite, which includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Document workflows can be automated in Office 365 to ensure process consistency and efficiency; an Office 365–based DMS provides the capability of routing documents for review and approval through defined document-development processes. Office 365 also has e-signature capability when using a trusted, compatible third-party e-signature application. Smaller to mid-size organizations should consider a DMS solution that is built upon an Office 365 platform hosted in the cloud by Microsoft.
Organizational Communication, Coordination, and Collaboration
The first specific goal for this particular DMS solution is to provide basic out-of-the-box features that help individuals, project teams, and departments communicate and coordinate basic organizational information to enhance work activities and help produce deliverables and services with efficiency and integrity. An organization’s DMS will be a digital workplace in an enterprise environment that will provide functionality for professional communication and simple ways of completing common tasks. An Office 365–based DMS includes the following fully integrated, cloud-based applications and repositories to support and improve the City’s communication, coordination, and collaboration activities:
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Calendar
• Tasks
• Contacts
• Social media (within the context of a professional environment)
• Department sites and project sites
• Basic planning and tracking
• Video hosting
Searchable, Secure Online Document Repositories
The second specific goal for this particular DMS solution is to create and maintain a searchable, secure online document repository of organizational documents that is accessible internally and externally via a web interface. The repository should be able to support any records management initiative to securely store and automatically retire organizational records. An Office 365–based DMS solution supports and encourages a records retention policy. The various repositories in this solution can be integrated with the built-in Office 365 email system, so rather than sending attachments, the solution will encourage the sending of links to the integrated document repositories, which will reduce the confusing redundancy of document versions being passed throughout an organization. This will also help to eliminate older organizational documents becoming lost in the email system as attachments.
Tailored Taxonomy and Metadata
This DMS solution addresses the implementation of a tailored taxonomy and metadata framework to enhance the organization and searchability of documents that are published to the organization’s document repositories. A taxonomy and metadata structure should incorporate current standards and best practices as well as serve unique business needs. Adherence to the taxonomy and metadata structure should be enforced across the organization to ensure that the repository’s search ability and filtering is optimized and useable.
A tailored taxonomy and metadata framework should support a document repository file structure that mimics the traditional nested folder directory and subdirectory functionality of classic Windows Explorer but does not employ actual folders. The directory and subdirectory structure can be compiled into a virtual presentation that mimics the directory and subdirectory structure. This structure can be based on the organization’s taxonomy and can be compiled using particular metadata elements. End users can have the option of compiling a taxonomy based a limited set of options that are derived from particular metadata elements. For example, several taxonomy visualizations can be available to the end user: if the end user wants to see a top-level taxonomy by department, the end user can select that taxonomy representation. In this option, if the end user wants to see a top-level taxonomy based on document type, the end user can select that particular taxonomy.
Because the taxonomy is not hard-wired into traditional folder structures but rather compiled from particular metadata elements and compiled into virtual views, an organization will not need to select a fixed taxonomic file presentation over another. This strategy will aid user adoption since individuals usually search for information using their own information models. The taxonomy models available to end users will be limited though since it would not be feasible to predict every information model that end users might think of. Predicting every possible taxonomy and metadata framework per user is not necessary anyway since searches based on metadata indexing picks up where taxonomies leave off: end users can conduct full-text searches for content through typical search engines when they cannot find a document through a taxonomy-based search.
Automated Workflows
The third specific goal for this particular DMS solution is to create automated, customizable workflows that will help to support and standardize document-development and form-completion processes to ensure efficiency and integrity. As a part of these workflows, e-signature functionality should be incorporated into the DMS solution using a third-party e-signature application that integrates with Office 365. While Office 365 already contains a workflow component, an Office 365–based DMS could also use the workflow functionality of that third-party e-signature solution instead of Office 365’s workflow functionality.
One recommended third-party solution is the DocuSign e-signature application system. The DocuSign system was the Microsoft Partner of the Year in 2014, and Microsoft uses DocuSign internally. DocuSign is a subscription-based product that integrates seamlessly with Office 365; DocuSign has connectors that allow it to work with Office 365 applications and platforms. But DocuSign also has several other relevant features as well: its electronic signatures are considered valid legal signatures, document forms can be created directly in DocuSign, and end users can create workflows to automate document routing for development and approval scenarios. End users can also create document forms directly in DocuSign. The DocuSign application can process a flat image of a form and turn it into an editable form; after the editable form is created, it can be sent out for signatures to be collected. DocuSign also has a "fast start" program that helps an organization quickly convert all of the organization’s existing forms into electronic forms. End users can also capture PII data in those forms and can mask that PII data. Organizations are able to store documents in Office 365 but are also be able to temporarily place documents in a DocuSign workflow to be routed. Any document that sits in the cloud on DocuSign servers will be accessible only by the organization; no one from DocuSign will be able to access the documents unless they are given permission to do so by the organization. Any document, including sensitive documents, can be purged out of DocuSign. DocuSign has 24x7 live customer support; both vendors and members can contact the customer support for help with electronic signing.
This particular DMS solution advocates for a mature document-development workflow in either Office 365 or the DocuSign application—whichever works better. As part of this DMS solution, the following general document-development process is suggested for incorporation as a standard workflow in the DMS:
1. Technical Authoring
2. Knowledge Editing
3. Language Editing
4. Layout Editing
5. Management Editing
6. Final Editing
7. Publishing