DOCS Open 3.8.2 - Apr/May '00

DOCS Open 3.8.2

Several years ago, my wife gave me a coffee cup with a Gary Larson cartoon on it. It shows a guy with papers stacked helter-skelter throughout his office. His in-box is also askew and a mound of documents is tipping over. There’s also an overflowing wastebasket over his head, and his arms and legs are splayed wildly in front of him as he leans back in his chair. The caption reads “Life is difficult for the organizationally impaired.” This scene depicts me, my office and, most importantly, my disk drives. Enter DOCS Open 3.8.2 from Hummingbird.

DOCS Open is a document-management system built around a SQL database. With it, you can store, locate and manage nearly any kind of documents — word processing, spreadsheets, faxes, e-mail, video, sound — you name it. DOCS Open is an enterprise document-management system. You can use it to store a document locally on a local document server or on a document server in your London office, for instance. Assuming you have been given access rights, you will be able to retrieve, edit, store or even delete the document.

For purposes of this review, I wasn’t nearly as ambitious. I simply wanted to install DOCS Open on single Microsoft NT server and a single workstation. We currently run the NT BackOffice Small Business Server Ver. 4.5, which includes Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. The workstation is operating using Windows 98 Second Edition.

While all of that means something to techies, to end-users, most of this sounds like Martian. In short, DOCS Open needs a server operating on NT, Unix or other network operating system; some version of SQL such as Microsoft, Oracle or Sybase on the server; the client version of SQL on the workstation; and lots of tenacity.

Because I’m not a network administrator and completely unfamiliar with Microsoft SQL and DOCS Open, I had a few false starts. In retrospect, however, the installation was relatively easy. You install the server client onto the work station. Then (again from the workstation) you install DOCS Open.

The next step requires a great deal of planning if you want to fully benefit from the software’s power. First you create a “library.” From there, you enter the “Admin Program Group.” Here’s where you add users and any of what feels like a couple zillion other features and options.

For setting up the program, the most important options include the Library Generation and Library Maintenance functions. The Library Generation function establishes the primary SQL database to which all of the document records are stored. The Library Maintenance module allows you to add users, client names, matter names, document types and a host of other information.

To reap the most benefits from this very powerful program, you need to do a lot of prior planning. Ask yourself the following questions: Who is going to have user access? Who is going to have what administration rights? What applications will be integrated with DOCS Open? (You need to enter clients and matters.) Which documents are going to imported? Are you going to import the documents into DOCS Open or just link DOCS Open to their current location? How do you want DOCS Open to mange versions?

DOCS Open 3.8.2 isn’t a program for the faint of heart. It’s certainly not a program that you can get up and running over a weekend, and then expect to derive full benefits. However, for a multi-user environment in which a large number of documents require tracking and managing, DOCS Open is a powerful solution.

Hummingbird
(800) 933-3627
www.hummingbird.com

Windows 3x/95/NT

$4,000 server license,
plus $349 per workstation

Reviewed by Charles E. Whisonant. Mr. Whisonant is a sole practitioner whose office is located in Newport Beach, CA. Charlie primarily practices in the areas of environmental law, commercial real estate and small business law.

April/May '00 Issue