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I am in need of some feedback in pretty short order. I have been looking at Document Management systems to implement throughout the company that I am consulting for. I have a short list of some very capable vendors & out of right field the Director of IT has now presented that Confluence / Atlassian / Jira should be used since they have it inhouse already.
I can respect that they are very good at what they do (Intranet / Collaboration / etc.) but I believe the lack the structure & capabilities within those systems themselves to be a viable option. I believe they would need a number of add-on'[s which would increase licensing costs & create an integration nightmare but it is very tempting when an Executive Committee is presented with using a system that is already in house for them to go with it.
Does anyone have experience, knowledge or resources on the specific areas that are lacking or a comparison with an actual Document Management system?
Thanks in advance!
Hi,
Well, first, Confluence and Jira are from Atlassian, so they’re note really separate things. Not sure what sort of organization yours is, but Jira is specifically targeted at software/product development type scenarios. Confluence is pretty purely a collaboration tool. As such it has the ability to contain documents, but not manage them (as far as I know). I believe what’s missing likely includes things like:
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Metadata management
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Definable information architecture
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Security structures
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Governance capability
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Some form or records declaration (if not records management)
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Scoped searches
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Governed sharing
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Document routing
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Workflows including review/approvals
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Validation capabilities
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Control over what content can/can’t be used on what devices in what conditions (i.e. on/off the corp LAN/WAN, personal devices, etc.)
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Audience targeting
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Content ID structure/naming convention management
(and probably lots more that doesn’t occur to me off the top of my head or that I don’t know of) Not sure if that helps or not, but hopefully it does!
I apologize that this is a duplicate because I chose to send response to sender only originally.
Thank you Lorne for the quick & thorough message!
I agree with everything you have listed but was hoping to find some factual evidence of that online that I could point to vs. them taking my word for it. So far, I have put together a comparison matrix with sections for M-Files, Jira (alone) & Jira (w/add-ons) to show what is lacking. Honestly, there is an add-on for almost everything you listed as a shortcoming but the issue I see with that is the additional cost for each add-on & the integration nightmare as well. I feel better that you have confirmed what I believe & I should just move forward with my comparison & let it do the talking.
You’re quite welcome.
Now, speaking ONLY from my experience, in the situation where you have a director with a vested interest in something (as it sounds like might be the case here), having all the factual comparisons in the world typically doesn’t achieve the necessary traction to matter. Something that did work for me in one such instance was to setup ‘scripted’ vendor demos and just ensure the script covers all the aspects you can gather documented internal supporting req’s for and let the demos speak for themselves as far as the ‘facts’ of what each solution can and can’t do. Obviously, ensure the director attends along with a dead minimum of 1 person from the c-suite that it is difficult for the director to overrule. IF that works, then you _only_ have to deal with the investment discussion.
Oh, and maybe try and get the director to attend the AIIM webinar next week as he/she might learn something, LOL! (full disclosure: I’m one of the presenters, so I admit to an ulterior motive there).
Thanks again!
The demo’s are a great idea, I will definitely get that set-up because only a limited number of people have seen either. I will also have the facts in my back pocket as well.
If nothing else, I will make sure & be in attendance next week but his attendance is highly doubtful (don’t take that personally).