SADs based on Free and Open Source Software

In connection with the active development of software solutions to many pressing problems in the field of IT technologies, which are currently widely used in various fields of activity, primarily in such important ones as manufacturing, small business, education, and many others. Everywhere from the above, various normative acts, statements, contracts and other paper documents are used.

Now, it is becoming a very fashionable tendency to transfer an enterprise (institution) to an Electronic Document Management System. It is not only fashionable, but also practical and convenient.

In this regard, there are companies that provide their software products - EDMS, which are sometimes shocking with their prices. However, not everything is so bad, because thanks to proactive and unselfish people, free and open products are born. Examples of this can be two excellent, in my opinion, EDMS: NauDoc and Alfresco.


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NauDoc is a software product for the automation of office work, workflow and business processes, developed by NAUMEN. NauDoc allows you to manage the processing of documents and monitor the performance discipline, receiving comprehensive information on the progress of tasks.

Using NauDoc, it is possible to organize a single repository of documents with differentiation of access rights based on roles, which allows employees to access documents at any time and find all the necessary information as soon as possible regardless of the presence of the document holder at the workplace. Registration logs allow you to register incoming, outgoing and internal documents, tracking the movement of paper copies of documents within the enterprise.

The NauDoc’s availability of control tools for performing discipline allows you to assign tasks to the system in employees, monitor their implementation, track deadlines, send documents for approval and send agreed documents for review to other users of the system. Setting the life cycle for document categories allows you to specify typical document movement routes, configure their automatic routing and assignment of tasks.

All actions with documents and tasks are performed through the web-interface, which allows you to connect to the system from anywhere in the world, thereby creating a single information space of the organization, including remote branches and mobile employees.

Technological features of the system

*A 100% web-based interface allows you to connect to the system from anywhere in the world, creating a single information space for the organization, its remote branches and mobile employees.
* The system is integrated with ABBYY FineReader Scripting Edition text scanning and recognition software;
* the system allows authentication and authorization of users in external directory services, such as LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory;
* the system has a module for working with electronic digital signature (EDS) and the possibility of using the EDS of any cryptographic provider that supports the Microsoft CryptoAPI interface is included.

Features of the electronic document management system NauDoc

*Simplification of work with organizational and administrative documents.

Electronic documents are created according to a predefined template. When creating a document, the user only needs to specify the details in the registration card of the document, these values ​​will be automatically added to the text of the document. If necessary, you can allow the user to change the text of the template.
For each type of document, a specific set of details can be set (requisite cards can easily be changed by the user with the rights of a “Technologist”).
After the document is created, the employee sends it for approval to a certain circle of persons according to the procedure adopted by the organization.
The approval procedure is stored in the system: the scheduled time is automatically controlled, responsible persons are notified and the document approval procedure is notified. The document is
registered in the journal automatically at a certain stage of work with the document: the registration number is assigned to the document and the registration date is fixed.

* Process management.

NauDoc allows you to automate the workflow associated with the production or management processes of the company. For each process, it is possible to customize its presentation in the system, including individual stages, decision makers and regulatory deadlines. The reporting tools available at NauDoc allow you to control at what stage each of the process instances is located, to find bottlenecks and identify responsible persons, because of which there is a disruption in the scheduled deadlines. Based on the collected data, an analysis of the process can be carried out before making changes.

* Simplification of the procedure for vising documents by officials.

After the document is created, the employee sends it for sighting to a certain circle of persons according to the procedure for approval of documents adopted by the organization.
In collective work, all actions are performed with the same copy of the document. NauDoc users who agree on the document gain access to the document during the vising process.
At any stage, a coordination report can be created with the name and position of the visor and the exact time of sight of the document.

* Ability to register electronic and paper documents in the system.

The document is registered in the journal automatically at a certain stage of work with the document.
For paper documents, a special electronic card is created in the system; a graphic image of the document obtained by scanning can be attached to the card.

* Acceleration of the search for documents by details and content.

NauDoc allows you to quickly find a document by the value of a particular attribute (for example, registration number or a short description).
The system allows you to search the contents of documents or the contents of attached files.

* Work with incoming and outgoing correspondence.

NauDoc allows you to work with incoming and outgoing correspondence, receiving and sending e-mail through the company's mail server. Each letter is processed in the system as a regular document.

When processing incoming mail, letters are sent to the secretary, who registers them in the incoming mail journal. The document is automatically assigned a registration number. After preparation, the document is sent for resolution to the head in accordance with the procedure adopted by the organization. After consideration, the document is sent for review or execution to employees of the organization.

When processing outgoing correspondence, the employee creates a letter according to the template adopted by the organization, sends it for approval to the head, according to the procedure adopted by the organization. After approval of the document, it is automatically sent to the secretary. The secretary registers the letter in the journal and sends it by e-mail. In this case, all documents are saved in the system and are available for search.

*Creation of a corporate web portal and company website.

NauDoc allows you to create Internet and intranet sites and manage the placement of content (CMS functionality). Content can include documents, graphics, and other NauDoc objects.
Convenient development and editing of site pages in the built-in WISYWIG editor, version control.
Manage the publication of news, profiles and polls.
Built-in features for developing and changing the design of site pages.
Centralized access control in sections of the site, the ability to coordinate documents before publishing on the site.
NauDoc exists in 2 editions: NauDoc Free and NauDoc Enterprise(about those "goodies" that the commercial version provides, you can find it on the official website; you will find all the links at the end of the post)

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Alfresco is one of the most widely used electronic document management and project management systems in the West. This is largely due to the openness of the code (full Open Source) and the difference from most open-source products with the stability of work and the ability to scale to business tasks of any size. This is not surprising, since the “father” and main designer of the Alfresco system is John Newton, one of the leaders and co-owners of Documentum, the world leader in enterprise-wide electronic document management systems market. Such systems as Activision, American Stock Exchange, Cisco, Electronic Arts, etc., successfully work with the system. The system can work on almost any platform and with any database.

The low popularity of the system in Russia is due to the fact that until recently there were no companies capable of providing professional services for the implementation of support and training for Alfresco users.

Advantages of Alfresco

Alfresco is an EDMS with web access. This is convenient because:
* you do not need to install additional P.O. on users' machines;
* there are no problems with updating client P.O.
* It is possible to work from anywhere in the world, including from mobile devices;
* Alfresco has the most advanced web-interface: convenient fast and beautiful.

But European and American EDMS, including Alfresco, already 3 years ago stopped making the main bet on the web-based interface. Of course, there is support for it, but it is used for remote access to documents and more.

Because when a person is in an office or branch connected to a VPN network, there is nothing more convenient and simpler than working with folders and files in the usual way. Edit documents in office applications. People are used to working this way, they know how to work and will work this way. And the use of any other interfaces, even the web, causes understandable irritation, a decrease in the speed of work, and, as a result, sabotage of implementation.

But how to work with standard folders and files, because they do not support versioning, access control by role, routing, etc.?

The solution has long been found and is used in European and American EDS! Imagine that on your desktop there are 2 folders (Or a different number of folders, this is just an example):
“Documents for consideration”
“Corporate documents”

Open the first. There are 3 documents. You know that if they are there, you must make a decision on them. Open them in the usual MS Word with a double click. And, lo and behold, you can not only read the text of the document, but open any versions, read comments, make decisions and send the document for consideration to arbitrary persons without leaving anywhere from MS Word (MS Excel, MS Power Point). Moreover, there you see your tasks, incoming and outgoing.

Need to create and launch a new agreement for approval? There is nothing easier. Create a document in MS Word and send directly from there along the standard route. Or first create a file and simply copy it to the Corporate Documents / Draft Contracts folder. The document itself will immediately be entered into the EDMS and sent along the standard route.

Nobody also abandons the Web interface. In the Alfresco web interface, you can perform all of these functions and much more. The Web is convenient on business trips, for quick access from a phone or laptop, for performing complex group operations with documents and tasks, and generating reports.

There are 2 major versions of Alfresco: Community Edition and Enterprise Edition.

Community editioncompletely free, can be downloaded and installed in any company. However, the system has no support other than the voluntary assistance of members of the Alfresco user community. But despite this, the editors of the Community remain one of the most common options for electronic document management systems in Europe. The system supports the ability to host servers or a cluster on the cloud, thereby being a well-deserved solution for 10 and 10,000 users. Built-in Databases: MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Enterprise Edition is an industrial edition of the system that runs under the control of powerful Oracle or MS SQL databases. Such systems are certified by Alfresco and system users are provided with a guarantee for stable operation of the system, support and updates.

Key features of the Alfresco system

* full web-interface;
* full-text document search;
* Integration with LDAP, Sharepoint, MS Office, Email, Firefox & IE, Google Gadget;
* versioning of documents;
* comparison of versions;
* flexible role-based access to documents;
* Support for the graphical editor of business processes JBoss jBMP;
* support for simple workflow created using the "creation wizard";
* Built-in project management system based on microsites.

Conclusion The
final decision on which system each one decides to choose, however, in the end I will give a recommendation regardingNauDoc : firstly, the system is quite convenient and has a fairly simple interface. Secondly, it is quickly put on without any “dancing with a tambourine” (with Alfresco you will have to take a little trouble and “paint” the manuals). Thirdly, it has official support for the Russian language (which is not unimportant!), Because it is being developed in Russia, which cannot be said about Alfresco (there is Russian language, but support is provided by enthusiasts).

PS: There are many other open and free electronic document management systems, but for consideration I have chosen two, in my opinion, leaders in this area.
PPS: I did not know in which section to transfer the topic, because I did not find a section with the name "SEDs" or "ECM" (there is reason to think about this for the Habr administration), so he ended up here.

Sources

www.doc-online.ru
www.naudoc.ru
www.alfresco.com
wiki.alfresco.com
myalfresco.blogspot.com
www.sql.ru/Forum

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