We’ll bet that over the years, your Laserfiche system has evolved into a critical contributor to the productivity of your organization. Or it should be. If you’d like some suggestions, here are a few ways to take advantage of your system by making some changes that will make a measurable distance in a short time.
Appoint a Project Manager for Laserfiche (please!)
This is a best practice that if overlooked, could be seriously problematic. And we know, everybody is busy and has twelve jobs. However, if everyone owns the system, no one owns the system. Going forward, you need a project leader to oversee your system moving forward. Optimally, the person has an IT or records management background, but if someone steps up from another operational area consider giving them the opportunity. This person should be thoroughly trained (including admin) so they can operate most aspects of the system. In addition, they should have some flexibility in their daily role to give training and address questions or concerns from other staff. Ideally, you want a get-it-done, personality who is not afraid to try new technologies. Also, consider some formal project management training for this individual, it will really pay off.
Manage Access Rights and Privileges
Another important best practice you'll want to implement involves defining access rights for every file and document in your system and privileges for users. Keep in mind that not every employee is going to need access to every document in order to properly do their jobs. The number one rule about rights and privileges is knowing what they give access to before granting them.
When setting up security, each Laserfiche repository will be different and have different requirements to consider. Without careful planning and regular updates as your system grows and changes, it may become disorganized and unsecured. Here’s a link to an explainer video that reviews best practices for access rights.
Privileges are account rights that give the ability to manage a Laserfiche repository. They can be different for distinct types of administrators. Some privileges have repercussions across the entire repository. For example, a user with the Manage Tags privilege can grant security tags, and a user with the Manage Entry Access privilege can browse the entire repository. The individuals granted those rights, might not be the ones you want browsing your entire database. Be careful and thoughtful.
Empower Collaboration
Laserfiche has some excellent collaboration and automation tools. They will have an almost immediate effect on your organization. Automation takes dreary, time-consuming tasks like keying invoice data away so employees can work on more strategic projects or collaborate on content creation. In fact, collaboration should be a focal point for all your Laserfiche efforts.
Many government agencies use Laserfiche for cross-jurisdictional collaboration. However, email correspondences, meeting notes, document drafts, and other communication vehicles are often forgotten or discarded once a goal is reached, limiting the value of collaborative projects to a single instance. Even when these details are retained, how can they be reused effectively in the future? By storing them in Laserfiche and tagging them with the appropriate metadata. IT managers are using Laserfiche to gather, organize and reuse valuable project and experience-based information that typically disappears when projects are completed.
