Designing a Document Management Strategy
Article #8:
Selecting the Right Document Management Technology - Part Two
Previous Article: Part One
By Kevin Craine
In the first of this series we explored a process to select the right document management technology solutions to match your particular problem, situation or strategy. With the overwhelming variety of software, hardware and service solutions available to choose from, how do you determine which are right for you? To answer this question, I propose the following three-step process found in my book, "Designing a Document Strategy". Please refer to the archive for the prior column in this series.
- Generate a list of possible solutions.
- Determine the best solutions.
- Select a final solution (and alternatives)
Once you have generated a comprehensive list of possible document management solutions, you must now determine the best options from the solutions you have gathered. It is unlikely that every option is equally capable of producing the results you want or equally plausible to put into place. The following sub-tasks will help you compose a "short list" of the best options.
- Develop criteria for your selections and assign weights to each.
- Apply the criteria.
- Choose the best four to six solutions.
When developing the criteria and weights to use in your decision process you must define each factor clearly. Then apply that criterion in terms of "weight." In other words, will cost be the only factor that drives your decision? Or will other factors be important also? The weighting percentage you use should total 100 percent.
For example:
Criteria |
Defined as... |
Weight |
Ease of implementation |
How easy will it be to implement this solution? |
20% |
Likelihood of success |
How likely is it that the solution itself can be successfully implemented? |
20% |
Effectiveness of Solution |
How effective will the solution be in addressing the causes of the problem? |
50% |
Cost |
How much will the solution cost compared to available funding? |
10% |
|
Total weighting |
100% |
Rate each possible document management solution against your criteria. Giving each one a score on a scale of one to ten. After you have assigned a score to each factor, multiply the score by the weighting, and add up the scores for each solution. You will use these scores next week when selecting a final solution.
Weighting the criteria helps you choose the best solutions. This is a very effective tool because it compares all your potential solutions objectively and guarantees equal consideration for alternative solutions. It also helps make certain someone's favorite solution does not override others.
Additional questions to consider:
- Does everyone involved have the same understanding of what each criterion means?
- Do the total weighted scores seem logical when you compare them with each other?
- Did you choose the solutions with the highest score? If not, why?
- Will you be able to persuade others that this is the right choice? If not, it's probably not the right choice.
Next time, in part three of this series, we'll use a "Paired Choice Matrix" to select a final document management solution that should be the best overall choice. Check out the ACOM archives for prior columns in this series.
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 Next Article: Part Three
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