I borrowed this quote from Ed Esber, President of Ashton-Tate, who in 1986 said basically the same about computers and managers (just replace software with computers and process with managers).

Most people probably agree with the above statement. Considering this it is even more surprising that many people and companies do not act accordingly. They spend large amounts of money for new technologies, such as electronic document management, ERP or PLM software, simply to do the same things they did before, just with a different tool. But does this automatically result in an improvement?

In most cases, it does not. Here's an example: Company XYZ *) had a completely manual and paper based document control. Although many records were generated electronically in CAD systems and office automation tools, every document was printed out when completed, routed manually for review and approval, and then stored in the company's file cabinets.

To avoid that the native electronic files were changed inadvertently, document control moved them to a write protected directory on the company's main server at the time of release. In addition, document control created a neutral PDF file of each released document to allow everybody in the organization to view it electronically. When a change had to be made to an existing document, a copy was made of the original CAD file or office document, changed, printed out, routed for review and approval, and eventually the previous paper document revision stored in the file cabinet was replaced with the new revision. In addition, the new revision of the native electronic file was moved to the write-protected release directory.

At some point the company realized that maintaining all documentation in paper form was inefficient, unsafe and error prone. In addition, the required file cabinets took up a lot of expensive office space. So the company decided to implement an electronic document management system and tasked their document control manager with the evaluation and implementation of such a system. Focused on improving document control, he selected a system that allowed storing all released documents and its revisions in a neutral, non-editable electronic format in a central database, thereby allowing the company to get rid of the physical file cabinets.

Unfortunately the company did not take this opportunity to analyze how the entire process could be improved with the use of a new technology. By limiting the focus only on document control, the company simply replaced one silo with another, with very little effect on the existing processes. If anything, it had actually made them more complex.

Because only neutral, released documents were managed, the release and change processes had not improved. It still required new or changed documents to be printed out and manually routed for review and approval. But in order to add the signed documents to the electronic vault, they now had to be scanned at the end of the process. And because the document management software did not manage native files, such as CAD models and drawings and office documents, document control still had to handle native electronic files the same way as before, moving them manually to the write-protected release directory.

The final results of the document management software purchase were that the company was able to regain the office space previously occupied by file cabinets, but at the same time had to create additional administrative activities to ensure that the software would work properly within the existing business processes.

A better approach would have been to first analyze how the company's release and change processes and all data could be better integrated and managed with a new software tool, define new processes if necessary, and then identify the best software tool to support and enable these processes.

The company is now considering doing this as a next step. They will very likely have to replace the previously selected document control software with another software that is capable of managing native CAD data and office documents and automate company-wide release and change processes through electronic workflows.