Using Alfresco for highly controled Document Management

[bendy21]

We here at a New Zealand's steel manufacturer are looking for a product that will be able to help us manage the 4000 odd controlled documents we currently have. When an update is required for a document, there need to be a very tight way for the document to be checked out, and for the changes to be made. The document must then not be able to be edited by anyone else (or not submitted into the approval system) so we don't end up with duplicates. A document here goes through several approval processes and at each stage, different people are required to do different things to the document.

There needs to be a way to view where a document is at along the approval process, and if there is the ability to put a document on a review cycle (1,2,3 years or never) that would be good too.

The users have also expressed a need for e-signature capability, but I presume that this could be done outside of the system, or if the process was tight so that we could prove that someone authorised something then that would probably also suffice.

I've downloaded and installed the system and had a small play, i've run through the tutorial, but am unable to really tell if this is the right product. Was it designed for tight document management, or is it more of a collaboration tool?

Your suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated

Cheers,

Brendon Muir

[paulhh]

Brendon

Alfresco is designed for managing highly controlled content, however, the open source release does not currently have permissions provided.  We are reviewing this and it's likely that some permission system will become part of the open release.  I suspect that in your case you want more flexibility and more advanced control, which you can get with our other Network versions.  That's not said as a "sales pitch" and is certainly not something for discussion in the forums.  The best way to follow up is by contacting info at alfresco.org.

Cheers
Paul.