Document Management - White Paper (ID 5277).pdf Jul. 2014 | Page 21

Ease of Use
While the decision to modernize operations is a rational one, the
success of a document management implementation often hinges
to a large extent on users’ willingness and enthusiasm to adopt
and use the system.
Simply put, no benefits will be realized (or at a minimum they will
be greatly reduced) if end users resist the solution and look for
ways to work around the system. Ultimately, usability should be
one of the heaviest weighted criteria for document management
system selection.

A good way to anticipate staff reaction is to reflect on how much the
system asks personnel to change their current work habits. At best,
technology should be unobtrusive, allowing users to keep working as
they have in the past. Nonetheless, it is unfortunately all too common
for technology solutions to ask users to go out of their way to adapt
instead of the other way around.
The Forrester survey mentioned above describes the reasons why
staff might reject new software implementations. Some resulted when
solutions were mandated from the top. For instance, the system was
selected because it satisfied the needs of management but the staff
members who had to use it daily regarded it as more work and more
headaches for them.

According to one Forrester survey, the most frequent roadblocks
for Document Management System (DMS) initiatives are not
technical, but human -- in cases where a user group essentially
rejects hard-to-use software by simply reverting to old procedures1. Even a sideways transition -- expanding a software application that
works in one department to another -- can prove problematic when
the real day-to-day impact on the other department is overlooked.
As a subjective quality, ease of use might seem difficult to
measure, however, it becomes fairly obvious after testing an
Those faced with selecting a DMS should recognize the importance
interface as to whether it will enhance or detract from existing
of ease of use and the impact of a new software solution on all users.
procedures.

BSA LifeStructures
Architectural firm experiences the two extremes of DMS usability
“We actually began to implement one electronic document management system, but it was too
difficult for the user,” recalls Brett Bonenberger, CIO of Chicago-based AEC design firm BSA
LifeStructures. The IT team encountered significant resistance among the design staff.
“In the previous system, users were forced to log in to the product to find what they were looking
for. Once they got in and initiated searches, the results were there, but there were also some
features missing in the process,” explains Bonenberger. “Overall, users felt they had to go too far
out of their way to access the repository.”
The team then discovered M-Files in a magazine. “We played with the free version and could not
believe what we were finding,” says Bonenberger. “We investigated the solution further, and soon
we made a decision to go ahead and pursue M-Files and begin migration from the prior system.”
M-Files offered a simple solution to maintain document organization that followed the familiar
steps of opening and saving files that BSA employees used alrea