Archive document management system for DeVisu

Afortio has successfully finished a project for development of Archive Management System for DeVisu, Ltd. DeVisu is a big Ukrainian audit company which works on Ukrainian market since 1994 and specializes in providing audit services to mid-size and large-size companies.

During every audit DeVisu auditors work with a large amount of multifarious documents which are to be archived later on. Frequently, customer faced the challenge to find necessary document among others. Initially customer stored all documents directly on a server file-system, which was acceptable when number of documents was rather small. However, as document volume grows, the tasks of retrieving necessary documents and keeping archive in a secure and consistent state became a serious problem for customer. Understanding the necessity of keeping such a critical data in a secure and manageable storage, customer requested Afortio to create a system in which all documents are kept in proper order and are easy to categorize and retrieve.

Afortio approach to the development of Archive Management System was to make a universal storage for documents (Document Management Engine), providing fast, reliable and secure access to the documents of any type, tailored to the needs of auditing companies. Such approach allows future extending the Archive Management Engine and adapting the Archive Management System into the needs of other vertical markets.

Key functions of this system include:

• Importing of documents of various formats into a storage
• Document retrieving
• User rights management and administration.

After importing all documents are stored in the system twice – in their original format (binary) and as text content. Additionally, during importing Archive Management System automatically or semi-automatically extracts all meta-information from the documents being imported to allow specific queries be later executed against the storage. They include audit-specific fields like company names, periods of audit, responsible persons, etc. Binary document format allows later access to the original document with all formatting and specific appearance kept, while the text-only content allows quick searching and previewing the documents.

Document retrieving module allows user to manage properly all records in storehouse, to find essential data and possibility to see all relations from document being checked to other documents, giving an auditor the whole structure of the audits. Thanks to meta information collected, results of audit are not just set of various files stored somewhere on server, but organized entity from database, which has its own properties (like Name of audit, period of audit, responsible persons, etc) and allows working with all collected data from standard interface. System also supports export of documents back to Word or Excel formats.

The rights management and administration module allows fine-tuning user rights, allowing access only to information user has rights to. It also includes powerful backup module with instant and scheduled backups support.

The system itself is based on the 3-tier client-server architecture. The following technologies were used: MS SQL Server, MS VC++ and Delphi

The Archive Management System greatly simplified the workflow of DeVisu employees, while keeping all data in manageable and secure way. Now the management of the company considers further development of Archive Management System, to store in archive newspapers, magazine publications, etc. Customer also thinks about extending the system up to be able to sell it as 'box product'.