AUGIWorld Magazine September/October 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Computer File Chaos Why Windows Explorer Fails at Document Management W i indows ® Explorer is far and away the most commonly used document management tool in the world. Its familiar interface provides the basics: folders, ﬁle names and a date/time stamp. It may be an acceptable tool for an individual user, or even smaller workgroups, but Explorer fails to meet the document management challenges of larger organizations. In fact, relying on Windows Explorer’s folder structure leads to computer ﬁle chaos. Mistakes are inevitable: Someone stores a ﬁle in the wrong folder; a document is lost or overwritten; a copy is incorrectly assumed to be a ﬁnal release. These are all hidden costs that have a huge ﬁnancial impact. Plus, problems increase daily as more people create more documents across more geographic locations. Consider the perspective offered by CAD Management consultant Robert Green: “Companies continue to spend thousands on workstations, CAD and Ofﬁce software, email clients, analytical modules and other tools; and then rely on 1980s technology to manage their information.” To understand why it’s time to equip your organization to meet the challenges of the 21st century, let’s contrast Windows Explorer with Adept, an automated document management system. Find Files Fast: It’s easy to ﬁnd a ﬁle in Windows Explorer, when you know the ﬁle name and where it’s located in your folder structure. But when you’re looking for ﬁles created by someone in a different workgroup; or when you’re not sure of the ﬁle name or location, ﬁnding ﬁles is time consuming. Oftentimes, you can’t ﬁnd the ﬁles and you waste valuable time recreating them from scratch. When you consider the time spent by each individual and multiply that by all the people in your company, you’ll realize how much time and money is being wasted. Adept collects the information about each document into a database, so unlike Explorer, you can ﬁnd documents based on any information about the document – project name, part number, job number, description, last user – regardless of its location on the network or the ﬁle name. Collaborate: When you ﬁnd a ﬁle in Windows Explorer, you can’t tell if someone else in the organization is working on it. So it‘s possible for two people to work on the same document. Adept serves as a trafﬁc cop, so the moment a ﬁle is checked out for editing, or moved to the next step of a workﬂow, authorized users see its status. And the system prevents duplicates and overwrites from occurring. Control Revisions: To manage revisions, Windows Explorer leaves you on your own. Such manual processes leave plenty of room for error. Incorrect revisions on a construction site or manufacturing plant create expensive mistakes. Adept ensures that users have access to the latest revision of every document throughout its life cycle. Maintain a Document Audit Trail: Unlike Windows Explorer, Adept’s audit trail tracks the history of a ﬁle including who worked on it, when, their intent, what changes were made, and who approved it. This automated tracking makes it easier to comply with ISO, TQM, LEED or other industry standards. Maintain Relationships Among Files: Engineering ﬁles have built in relationships, like XREFs in AutoCAD® or parts and assemblies in Autodesk Inventor™. Windows Explorer offers no support for keeping these relationships intact when you move, copy, or rename ﬁles. Adept, on the other hand, offers tight integration with these CAD tools to make certain all inter-relationships are maintained. Security and Access Control: While an IT manager can set network folder rights, users can still go into a folder and copy a ﬁle to a local drive, edit it, and pass around an unapproved version. Adept provides security for your documents and more granular control over user permissions. Summary: Windows Explorer is not an effective tool to manage your documents across departments or the enterprise. A document management system helps you ﬁnd ﬁles quickly, control revisions, reuse design data efﬁciently, collaborate across multiple sites, automate workﬂow and approvals, manage complex ﬁle relationships, maintain a document audit trail, and comply with industry standards. These capabilities offer you better overall business results through improved productivity and collaboration, greater project quality, and streamlined processes enabling you to be more competitive and proﬁtable. SynergisSoftware www.synergis-adept.com/stopchaos 215.529.9900 / 800.836.5440 All products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 2007 Synergis Software, a division of Synergis Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.synergis-adept.com/stopchaos

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AUGIWorld Magazine September/October 2007

Contents The CAD Manager Feature: A Good First Impression ADT and SketchUp Team for Presentations Accessing Values: Now or Later Finding the 3D in Map 3D: Surface Visualization Rocks & Rock Walls Autodesk University 2007 Preview The Missing Link On the Back Page

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