WHAT WERE THE ISSUES THAT SHOULD BE RESOLVED?
Main existing tools for document management: File Servers, Microsoft SharePoint (for a specific part of documents), other business applications, email exchanges and attachments.
The key areas for improvement in collaborative document management come from the following aspects :
- Too many files scattered between PCs, email, duplicates in various folders on file servers,
- Too many emails and too many attachments,
- Wasted time looking for working documents and in some cases version errors,
- Too much or not enough access to the necessary information (lack of cross-functionality),
- Difficulty of access to documents and information remotely (traveling / telecommuting),
- It is difficult to track processes and tasks via mail without a clear framework or reminders, generating a risk of forgetting or non-compliance with business processes by mistake,
- It is complicated to track added / modified content and associated exchanges.
PROJECT SCOPE, BY PHASES
The project management : ICT department - Innovation, Information Systems and Digital Uses of the Haute Savoie Departmental Council.
Phase 1 POC of the GoFAST solution (6 months with more than 50 collaborators) : This project constitutes the 1st phase, aiming to test the GoFAST solution as a collaborative and cross-functional DMS. The scope is restricted to ICT department and some Directorates collaborators associated with cross-functional projects.
Phase 2 Deployment to the entire Haute-Savoie Departmental Council : With the success of the POC, the Department has decided to deploy the GoFAST Collaborative DMS platform to all civil servants and some of its partners: 3,000 end-users.
Technical scope: Dedicated platform, hosted OnPremise (on the Department's infrastructure) with maintenance and all updates performed remotely, in remote administration by CEO-Vision SAS.
PROJECT SCHEDULE
- POC : Start on 29/08/2019 - End on 31/03/2019
- Deployment validated after the POC : from the start of the 2020
OBJECTIVES OF A 6 MONTH POC
- Become familiar with the solution and verify in practice the potential of the GoFAST solution to meet the business needs identified for the POC,
- Study / validate the business needs to prioritize to guide the deployment after the POC,
- Train pilot users and identify "referents" (to promote "best practice"),
- Encourage the collaboration of pilot users
- Analyze the difficulties and propose relevant solutions (for the POC and the suite),
- Validate the opportunities for content recovery (including partial recovery from file server and test of the tool functionality.
OVERALL OBJECTIVES OF POST-POC DEPLOYMENT
- To centralize, secure and be able to manage all types of files, involving:
- File server migration (first server migration: ICT department project documentation),
- The outward migration of Microsoft SharePoint (first projects: Finance-Accounting - Public procurement),
- To facilitate (co) production and document processing,
- To organize collaborative spaces and document sharing with simple access management,
- To optimize business processes (workflow), internal to Directorates and cross-functional,
- To reduce errors and loss of time (duplicates, obsolete versions, omissions ...),
- To completely remove email attachments and reduce the number of emails,
- Telecommuting with access to content and their co-editing, tasks, instant conversations and web conferences from / outwardly via a simple and secure web connection.
FIRST FEEDBACKS: AFTER A 6-MONTH POC
The 1st phase of the project, the 6-month POC, ended with the file server migration dedicated to ICT department cross-functional projects and therefore the launch of the platform. In order to carry out an optimal migration of the documentary base, ICT department has set up support for the analysis and sorting of documents. Once this step was completed, more than 220k files were migrated to the GoFAST platform.
The POC also allows testing the workflow engine with the digitization of the business unit minutes elaboration: creation from a template, office co-edition, version management, verification step, validation, publication in PDF with cross-functional sharing (without duplicate).
35% of the desired features have not been tested (lack of time and waiting for GoFAST version 3.8). 65% of features were tested, nearly 90% were judged "fully or partially provided". Areas for improvement have been identified and an action plan is being launched for the progressive deployment of GoFAST to the businesses of the Department, from September 2020.
Balance sheet: 6-month POC figures
- 69 active users at the end of POC (reminder: 50 initially planned) and 105 at the end of summer 2020,
- Number of documents stored on the platform:> 220k
- 44 "Organizations" (Directorates, Services, etc.) and "Groups" spaces (cross-functional projects, knowledge database, etc.)
- 4 "Extranet" spaces (work with partners)
With 34 departmental advisers, nearly 3000 civil servants working in some 80 different occupations, the Department of Haute-Savoie is responsible for social work, regional development and sustainable development, culture and education, transport and roads, at the service of all its inhabitants.
