e-filer

Description

The initial release of this software will be in test only form within Version 2 of the SharePoint Portal.

We were asked by clients to build them some software which allowed them to file their emails properly within their systems. We achieved this - but actually now have the outline of a full document management solution for our clients. However, it is being used as a stand-alone email filer for clients who are happy with the general document management solution that they have in place.

e-filer contains two elements. The first is an Outlook add-on which allows you to file emails with the click of a button. The button sends the email from Outlook into our e-filing system. The second part is the customised e-filing system within the SharePoint portal. This will automatically file many emails - and other documents - and provides tools to allow you manually file those documents which the system does not have sufficient information to file.

The beauty of SharePoint is that it allows you to be very flexible in how you wish to store your documents. However this flexibility means that you have to set clear business rules as to how you want documents filed. At the present time we prefer to offer clients the flexibility to choose their own system rather than imposing a structure, though this does mean that there is inevitably more consultancy time in understanding your needs and deciding what filing structure you want to impose. For example, do you want your audit team to be able to modify the tax department documents, or to see but not alter them?

e-filer is the first half of our document management solution - document archiving. The second half is document generation. Document generation will be in the Workflow modules that are available as part of the SharePoint Portal. At the present time these are built individually for customers based on their existing templates within Office. Over time we will be combining the best into a standard package. The advantage of driving document generation from templates is that the information to automatically store the document within e-filer can be added behind the scenes, reducing the work for users.

There will be no cost initially for the basic package provided that you are buying the Portal software. Call us for further details or email andrew@ppautomation.com.

Technical Summary