Software to index/archive/retrieve all in- and out- bound documents/faxes/emails ?

Factual Questions
1

Ok, I’m not quite sure how to word this… and I can’t seem to find anything on the net… but I’ll try explaining it as clearly as I can…

My bro’s setting up a small business, and he needs some sort of electronic document tracking and filing system.

Scenario: Let’s say he has 10 clients to begin with.

Each of these clients would have an entry in the software, which would be their electronic file. These main entries would then have subfolders such as “Sent”, “Received”, “Issues”, “Notes”, “Internal Memos”, etc.

He would then communicate with these clients in either one of the following ways:

Send:

  1. A document is typed and saved on the comp, then printed and mailed out.

  2. Through emails

  3. Through e-faxes or normal faxed documents that are scanned into the comp and saved as word docs or image files.

Receive:

  1. Printed document that is scanned and converted to either a word doc or saved as an image file.

  2. Through emails

  3. Through faxes, received either through the comp or through the fax machine. Faxes received through the fax machine are scanned and saved onto the comp in electronic format.

Now, each document (any form/type) that is sent to Client 1, is stored under the Client 1 main folder, in Client 1’s “Sent” subfolder, and similarly every document received from Client 1 is stored under Client 1’s “Received” folder.

Each document that is filed is tagged with, say, date/time stamps, reference numbers, other relevant data, etc.

A search option would allow easy retrieval of all documents tagged with a specific reference number, or all documents sent/received within a certain time bracket to some particular client, or any such combination.

Question: Does a software that does this, or something similar to this, exist ? Could you point me there ? Would an email software such as Outlook 2002/XP be able to handle such a task ? Is there some software that can integrate with Outlook to handle this ?

I’m looking for something that runs under Windows 9x/ME/XP.

Thanks a lot. Appreciate your time.

2

I know just the software - or I would if I could remember what its called. I’ll sleep on it and check in again tomorrow - if no one else chimes in maybe I’ll remembered by then.

3

OK, I was thinking of DTSearch. It isn’t exactly what you wanted, but take a look at it anyway.

www.dtsearch.com

4

Thanks for the link, Khadaji. Although DTSearch is good for data mining, it’s not really what I need.

What I’m looking for is something that works more as some sort of electronic filing system that indexes all entries according to the criteria mentioned in my OP, and then allows searching, or at the least, browsing.

I’m hopeful that someone out there has used a software that does this and could tell me about it…

Thanks…

5

I don’t have an answer, but do have a few thoughts:

First, a couple of years ago, I tried this. It seemed like a great idea, to have everything online. It looked like it would save tons of time and effort. Actually turned out to be a big pain in the ass, and I soon discarded it. a) The technology I wanted wasn’t really available, b) scanning everything is a royal pain, and the biggest issue:

c) 99% of everything I scanned in, I needed to keep a paper copy of anyway (signed contracts, receipts, etc.). And of course all of those docs had to be organized as well, so I still had to keep file cabinets with stuff.

Which meant I didn’t do less work, I did far more. And for a small business, I found it was as quick to look stuff up in a file cabinet as online. If we were some huge corporation, it makes great sense to have stuff accessable from anywhere on a computer, but for us, everybody worked in the same office anyway.

Do a search on “paperless office”. You’ll find several folks selling something like what you want. Also, many scanners come with included software that will do this.

6

I just use the Windows structure of files and folders and it works fine for me. You can have a folder for each client / case/ whatever and then subfolders like archive, pending, documents, images, project 1, project2 etc. there I can have faxes and any otehr documents. The faxes enter and leave through my computer so it’s not like I have to scan them again. I am lucky that most of what I do is by email and other electronic support and I don’t have many papers to scan or keep. Give the files and folders a good structure of names and you can easily search and sort. It works fine for me although I do tend to have a folder for email in the Outlook Express Structure and another for the rest of the stuff in the regular disk.

7

You’re looking for document management software. A search on Google for “document management software” came up with a whole ton of hits. You might want to try taking a look at some and see if anything will work for you.

8

If your email client handles rules, then you can set it up to place recieved and sent items in specific folders based on chosen criteria, such as sender, subject matter, recipient, etc. Most clients have at least a rudimentary capability for this, and there may be add-ons that increase the client’s ability to do this sort of stuff.

I don’t have any info on faxes, though the recent Microsoft OS’s have at least some capability for dealing with them.