Introduction to RecFind 6.0

In our last newsletter we announced the development of RecFind 6.0 due for release in 2007. The new RecFind will be a total rewrite and will also be a 100% .NET product like Knowledgeone. It will however, have a similar look and feel to RecFind 5.0, unlike Knowledgeone.

So that you can familiarize yourself with the direction of RecFind 6.0 - its architecture, prerequisites, licensing, compatibility etc we have created a short 'preview' paper, titled Introduction to RecFind 6.0.

Click here to download the paper 'Introduction to RecFind 6.0'

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Product Decommission Notices

Periodically every software vendor needs to decommission old products in order to release support and development resources for newer products. In our case this means releasing people (programmers and support specialist) and servers.

On October 24, 2006 we released Decommission Notices for the following products:

• All versions of Professional and Corporate prior to version 4.0 (i.e., versions 2.5, 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2) will be decommissioned on December 31, 2006 ... more »
   
• All versions of RecFind-Professional will be decommissioned on March 31, 2007... more »

Because we have a large number of sites still running these products (like you, we are astounded that our old 16 bit products are still working under Windows XP) the situation at each site will vary.

If these notices cause you any concern please contact your account manager or email Sales with your concerns.

Customer Focus

Here are some comments from customers who have recently taken the leap from RecFind to Knowledgeone:

BSES Limited

BSES Limited is the principal provider of research, development and extension to the Australian sugar industry. Formed in 1900, BSES has a long history of applying good science to problems facing sugarcane production, and developing effective solutions that benefit the whole industry. Today, they work closely with Australian sugarcane growers, millers, harvest contractors and government to find ways to make sugarcane production more profitable and environmentally sustainable. They also undertake international consultancies, and have close working relationships with Papua New Guinea and Indonesia just to name a few.

BSES Limited have been using RecFind since 1994 to manage files and documents. BSES ceased using RecFind and started using Knowledgeone (K1) on the 1st November, 2006. They intend to implement whole-of-organisation K1 usage early in 2007.

Debbie Martin, Librarian and Records Archivist and Eve McDonald, Communications Coordinator were the team leaders for the K1 project. Their IT Department also assisted with the project.

When asked what advice they could give to other users upgrading to Knowledgeone Debbie and Eve answered as follows:

“Make sure you know and plan exactly what you want to get out of K1 first. Ensure you have someone who really understands a relational database to assist. It is wise to attend all the K1 training courses first and to learn about the K1 Security”.

“Also make sure that you dedicate some serious, un-interruptible time to the implementation process”.

“Map out exactly what you want to do. With BSES for instance we corporatised on the 1st September 2003 and therefore decided that only records/files/boxes entered on the 1st September and onwards were going to be a part of the K1 product. Records/files/boxes pre September 1 would remain as RecFind data”.

”Plan, plan, and plan until you get it clear in your mind what and how you want to use K1. We also documented the processes necessary to add a document profile, attach an electronic document, add a file etc. This process was used to train a part time records person and then refined accordingly. This documentation will eventually be used to develop procedures, and on-line training tools for the remainder of our staff, management included”.

“Run a dummy exercise and have a play with K1 before converting. We spent a good part of our time in the dummy exercise, reading, testing, and tweaking not only K1 but the DRM module as well before final conversion”.

When asked how long the upgrade process took, Debbie and Eve answered, “Loading the software and converting – took a few hours overnight so not to interrupt work during the day. Implementing and setting up – took a couple of weeks”.

Mind you with just a team of two people working on it, and working on it periodically due to other duties, Debbie and Eve think they “Did OK”. They said that perhaps it could have been done quicker had the team of two been able to dedicate some serious time to the project. For them it was a matter of slotting it in when time permitted.

Realistically though they still haven’t quite finished the K1 implementation as they still need to set up other users, customise the search results columns to meet their staff needs, and undertake off-site testing. “Setting up the other users will not be a big job as we plan to use the clone function within K1”, said Eve.

They also intend to produce an on-line training tutorial, to document the K1 processes, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation to deliver to local and regional staff. They also wish to change some of their screens before developing the tutorials and introducing K1 to other contributors and users. By producing on-line tutorials, current and new staff can revisit the processes at their leisure.

At the moment BSES is using K1 as an electronic document management system for the entire organisation, capturing all of its business transactions. They do not, at present, use K1 for personnel or accounts departments.

The records person that was introduced to K1 is working quite comfortably with it now, entering documents, attaching electronic files, moving files, creating files etc and is quite impressed with the simplicity of use.

Debbie and Eve believe that Knowledgeone will be an important resource tool for the entire organisation and that maximum exposure will be required to gain absolute maximum benefit to the organisation. “This is an exciting time for BSES as currently our off-site locations use different methods to capture incoming and outgoing correspondence. Implementing K1 will streamline the process and bring the company together as one”, said Debbie.
 

Tips & Tricks

2007 Training Schedule

Australia

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