organizing network folders

[blue or red]

What's the best way to go about organizing shared network folders with
multiple users in various departments?

 

[Bob I]

What's the best way to go about organizing shared network folders with
multiple users in various departments?

 

[blue or red]

We already have our folders on a commen server. We have a cumbersome mess
right now. We have grown from 2 office staff to 7--everyone creates folders
and saves documents in different places, but for the most part we all access
and use almost everything. We're looking for a useful way of (more
administrative than technical) of organizing it. Many documents could easily
be saved in various folders. Early on folders were mostly "topical", but I'm
thinking we need to move toward a "Dept." method; even that being the case,
our jobs cross over more often than not so many documents could rightly be
saved in any one of several "dept" folders as well. It seems overwhelming to
begin the task, that's why I'm hoping someone has some experience or fresh
idea on how to get started.

 

[Bob I]

Talk to each other to determine your common needs. It isn't like you
aren't on a first name basis.

 

[Keme]

We already have our folders on a commen server. We have a cumbersome mess
right now. We have grown from 2 office staff to 7--everyone creates folders
and saves documents in different places, but for the most part we all access
and use almost everything. [...]

:

The traditional archival system with key codes and index cards is not
obsoleted by digital filing. On the contrary: due to the increased
volume (measured in count of documents/pages), the need for such a
system is increasing. With this kind of system you can assign multiple
archival codes to a document, thus bypassing the limitation of folder
organizing.

With 7 co-workers it should be possible to organize the files according
to file type, person or subject, and then locate any document again
(depending on the business you're in, of course). Still, you are
probably at a limit. Consider introducing a digital archival system as
soon as possible. It will be easy to expand a working system, but much
harder to implement from scratch as the archive volume grows.

For archive maintenance there are two different strategies:
a - All employees learn the archiving system, and archive their own stuff.
b - One employee is assigned responsibility for the archiving. (Don't
forget to assign resources - notably time - accordingly.)

Both strategies have advantages, depending on usage, workflow, task
diversity, and probably other things as well. It's hard to gjve more
detailed advice without knowing the nature of your archival needs, but
several general purpose document archiving systems are available on the
market.