GW5 Document Management 1

[bbe]

Has anyone tried GW5 doc management system (DMS)? We currently use Soft Solutions and we will soon move to GW55 DMS. Any information on migration and general DMS performance and tips would be appreciated.<br>
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Thanks

 

[DaveBarker]

We have recently rolled out groupWise 5.5 to 200 users. During testing and trialing the new system we had quite a few problems with DMS including docs going missing and not being able to locate documents. This all ended with us having to send the 3 main GW databases off to Novell so they could repair the damage done by Document Management.<br><br>What finally swayed us not to roll it out (if the above isn't enough!) was that our third party support contract people were horrified to hear that we were thinking of using it.<br><br>In a nutshell - it ain't stable. But it's only my personal opinion<br><br><br>Dave Barker<br>Network Engineer

 

[bbe]

We have now implemented GW55 with doc management for 150 users, 600,000+ documents in 12 libraries over a year ago. We have had a few teething problems, but all are resolved now. Key issues are:<br><br>- make sure the post office server(s) are stable. Server crashes cause &quot;orphaned&quot; docs (they can easily be recovered)<br>- definitely have all clients connect to the post office using TCP/IP (client/server). Clients connected via IPX which crash cause database corruption ( as they do in any centralised database system)<br>- keep Netware on your post server and the GroupWise system patched up to date.<br>- do not consider GW doc management with any GW version less than GW55<br><br>GW doc management provides a good, WAN capable, fully featured DMS.<br><br>I am happy to answer further questions via email<br>

 

[dhanna]

I have migrated a law firm from Soft solution to Groupwise 5.5 a year ago.&nbsp;&nbsp;They are quiet Happy with the results.<br><br>There are issues with the migration however, <br>&nbsp;In soft Solutions the Clients and Matter Fields are numerical and the describtion fields are not connected. <br>An Example would be:<br>100034&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sears Corp. Inc&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>100035&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Exxon<br><br>When you migrate&nbsp;&nbsp;only the Numerical fields will Migrate and you will lose the Names. This is not good.&nbsp;&nbsp;Fortunately Novell has a reasonable solution in the way of a migration patch. It will bring over the two fields as one unit<br>100034Sears Corp. Inc. <br><br>I don't know if the patch has been improved or incorporated&nbsp;&nbsp;into the migration package yet but it should be looked to before Migration.<br><br>With only a few minor clitches Groupwise has work well and is liked by the users.<br><br><br><br>

 

[Guest_imported]

does anyone have any idea how to transfer data between MS outlook express and groupwise 5.5?
thank you for help
claudia

claudia.gerger@a-freemail.at

 

[SDM]

We have implemented GW 5.5 but disabled the DM function. We now have a requirement for document management in one of our depts. A third party consultant came in to tell us about GW document management and advised against it saying that in their experience there have been a lot of problems with it; losing docs, lack of proper archive facility, no web integration, limited capture support....and the list goes on.

Their recommendation, even though our paper loads were relatively small, were to stay well clear of GW and opt for either iManage or PC Docs, because the pain of working with GW and migrating away at a later stage would work out more costly.

Any views...?

 

[bbe]

Refer to my posting on this thread of 6 July 2000. I still stand by all comments in that posting. DMS in GroupWise 5.2 had very poor functionality, and some stability problems. Maybe your consultant had experience with or had heard bad reports of V5.2 DMS ? DMS in Groupwise 5.5 SP4 is very stable, and has good functionality. I work in a city in Australia where most major legal firms use GroupWise DMS.

Our staff find it works very well, and like having one interface for all messaging (email, appointments, tasks and documents)