Case Study 8 - Document Management and IT Review
Background
One of our a associates, Stuart Oliver,
has recently engaged with a leading Scottish accountancy firm to
conduct a review of their entire technology infrastructure.
Over the last 4 years, this firm has grown through acquisition and
inherited a number of IT systems through this process. This has led to
a number of chllenges being created which include;
- no centralised
filing system. There are a number of server instances operating across
the group for staff to store files. The lack of a single storage area,
for all client data, causes confusion when sharing documents across
company departments.
- unreliable network access. The company uses
Citrix to provide virtual desktops to all staff. This is an excellent
way of having controlled desktop environments which, in turn, greatly
assists the IT support function. However, Citrix requires a network
data connection that is both high bandwidth and reliable, between
desktops and the Citrix server. When the internet connection, between
offices, has a problem this is immediately noticed as it affects all
users desktops.
Approach
Stuart is now working with the company to implement a
document management solution. This solution will create far more
benefit to all users than using a network drive to store files.
Firstly, the folder structure will be created based on clients so that
there will only ever be one folder per client. Within this all
documents such as client correspondence, accounts backups, tax returns,
companies house returns will be stored. All users will have access to
this platform but their access may be customised either by client or
document type.
There are occasions where some files are for viewing only
by partners and so these will, automatically, have permissions created
to prevent viewing by others.
Another benefit of the solution is that
it will not be possible to either accidentally delete files or
overwrite existing data. Staff cannot delete a file once it is stored
within the solution and, when editing a file, a new version is created
automatically when the user saves the document.
This means that no data
is ever lost and also that previous versions may be returned to in
future. Network access is currently being monitored using tools within
the offices and at the server locations.
The results of this monitoring
will allow the best, alternative, solution to be designed. This
recommended action is likely to include using higher bandwidth
connections with redundancy so that, in the event of line failure, the
office can continue to function.
This is an important part of the
solution as all staff charge clients by the hour and so, across a few
hundred staff, downtime is many tens of thousands of pounds per hour.
Related to this, it is worth mentioning that once the document
management solution is in place, it will allow authenticated access
from any location.
This is particularly helpful to staff when there are
working on a client site and need access to files and the ability to
save files within the company's client folder structure.
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