Document management pays off for Coast Guard

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

To the Coast Guard's Paul Herold, a document management system is about as exciting as a new file cabinet. But Herold said his new system, Adept, saves his staff a lot of time and the government a lot of money.

To the Coast Guard's Paul Herold, a document management system is about as exciting as a new file cabinet. But Herold said his new system, Adept, saves his staff a lot of time and the government a lot of money.'If it's done right, it should be very vanilla,' said the chief of the Civil Engineering Technology Center in Cleveland. 'It's hard to get real excited about it.'Herold said his office evaluated different document management systems for six years before purchasing Adept software from Synergis Technologies Inc. of Quakertown, Pa.He paid $715 for each of 273 Coast Guard seats through DLT Solutions Inc. of Herndon, Va., a General Services Administration schedule reseller.There are about 500 Synergis users among Coast Guard engineers and those at naval shipyards, Herold said. The shipyard engineers especially need document management, he said, to maintain their International Standards Organization 9000 process quality certifications.'They bid on jobs as a private company would. They are looking for the most cost-effective way to do business,' he said.Because such systems are changing rapidly, however, Herold said he decided to go with something that was 'easy to get out of,' not necessarily the easiest to use. He wanted it to be interoperable with existing systems and software.'We had been keeping track of documents with metadata,' Herold said. Nothing had to be changed to install Adept, which works with Microsoft Windows operating systems.For client-server or Web use, it requires Windows NT or 2000. Running it in distributed mode, users find documents remotely by linking to document vaults online.Herold said document management will reduce travel for his engineers, because they can get access from any location and don't have to depend on someone else to find and send them what they need.Adept 'makes you look at your business process and see where your holes are and how bad your information tracking is,' Herold said. 'This is an easy one to administer.'Todd Cummings, director of Adept development at Synergis, said the software pulls together information about all the documents into a central CodeBase database from Sequiter Software Inc. of Edmonton, Alberta. CodeBase provides an interface through which users can locate, view and manage the documents.L. Alfredo Montes, a civil engineer in the Philadelphia District of the Army Corps of Engineers, said he bought Adept to replace a 13-year-old document management system based on MS-DOS.The old system could copy document files from the server to the user, lock them so no two users could look at the same thing simultaneously, sign out technical drawings and track where a document had been. But Montes said he bought Adept for 61 seats because of its integrated CodeBase database.His users search the engineering drawings by user names, contract numbers or project names. They can also generate customized reports from the database and quickly search for sensitive or classified material, which makes it easier to remove critical information fast, he said.
Rapid changes require a document system that is 'easy to get out of,' not just easy to use









Used for ISO 9000





















NEXT STORY: @INFO.POLICY

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.