TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: Document Control Systems From:"Morton, Christopher" <CMorton -at- caiso -dot- com> To:"Clare Turner" <cturner -at- redflex -dot- com> Date:Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:36:26 -0800
No, I'm at California ISO now, where Documentum is in use. At HP, they were (feebly) attempting to use M$ SharePoint. They had some other iteration-control tools in place, too (I forget the names of the products), but user licenses were scarce and the company had let its support option lapse (hence older versions of the software).
Like I said, I'm impressed with Documentum's capabilities; it (or a comparable tool) is what HP needs. The only negative, though, is that CAISO runs a pre-EMC version of the software that is bit sluggish. And without any end-user training (What? Training?), some of its advanced features (round-robin doc approval) are a bit difficult to quickly grasp.
It's apparent that the prior developers of Documentum needed something to revamp a good software tool and make it great. Though I have no hands-on experience with the newest EMC version of Documentum, I would hope that company has addressed my negatives; their current Fortune 100 client list is pretty impressive, I'd say.
> Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Clare Turner [mailto:cturner -at- redflex -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:12 AM
To: Morton, Christopher
Subject: RE: Document Control Systems
So that would be at HP? Have you (personally) used any other systems?
Clare Turner, Technical Writer
Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc.
15020 N. 74th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480.607.3583
-----Original Message-----
From: Morton, Christopher [mailto:CMorton -at- caiso -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 10:10 AM
To: Clare Turner; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Document Control Systems
Hi Clare,
We're using Documentum here. It's a pretty good solution, though we're using a previous version and it's a bit slow to respond. Its capabilities are super, though.
> Chris Morton
www.ca-dreaming.com
Help stamp out and abolish redundancy and repetition.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cmorton=caiso -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cmorton=caiso -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Clare Turner
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 8:58 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: FW: Document Control Systems
I have been tasked to select 5 "document control systems" and make a recommendation to our management team for a company-wide "solution". The ONLY criteria I've been given are: "We want to have an application, preferably web based, that allows all employees to have read-only access to ALL technical and user documentation based on user access. We want it catalogued and searchable in a user-friendly way so folks can easily find documentation. We want it to have good version control tracking and good controls on who has write access to each document. The issues keep coming up that we have multiple copies of documents spread all over the network and nobody knows where to find anything."
At this time, everyone keeps whatever they want (or create) on whatever portion of whatever server on our "LAN" that they have access to (or on their own desktop). We DO NOT have a formal intranet (this is another subject and one I've been harping about since I started, to no avail). I have not been given a price range - only that I should select "2 cheap, 2 middle and one cadillac". We are a Windows server and XP shop (tho' I think there are Linix servers, too - not my area). Most files created are in one of the MS Office applications, with the exception of construction diagrams created in a CAD program (no, I don't know which one).
Finally, because much of our data can be considered evidence in court proceedings, a hosted solution is not an option. This needs to be in-house.
Any suggestions/help/direction would be *greatly* appreciated!
Clare Turner, Technical Writer
Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc.
15020 N. 74th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480.607.3583
Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as CMorton -at- caiso -dot- com -dot-
Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot-
