Description of the situation

GECO, a.s. uses the OpenText Content Suite Platform DMS solution (“CSP”) as a central electronic archive / document repository, primarily focused on the efficient work of the HR department. The existing solution, however, required an extension with a new document scenario for the Documentation Evidence for stores and wholesalers.

Customer presentation

GECO, a.s. (hereinafter referred to as “GECO”) has been operating on the Czech market since 1991. It is an indispensable player in the import of tobacco products and smoking accessories in the Czech Republic. Its dominance in the industry lies in its comprehensive distribution and wholesale business, which covers the entire national market. In parallel, it is developing a network of specialized “TOBACCO – PRESS” stores, which offer not only a wide range of tobacco products and smoking supplies, but also periodicals, public transport tickets, bets for lottery companies and the payment of winnings.

The development of the company did not stop at the borders of the Czech Republic. Since 2000, it has been expanding into the Slovak market and since 2010 it has also established itself on the German market.

The reasons that led the customer to extend the existing DMS solution:

  • The documents of stores and wholesalers were stored unsystematically with different structures in multiple repositories, i.e. they were not centrally traceable and it took a lot of time to find them.
  • It was not clear whether the documents in question even existed, where they were stored, where their last valid version was and whether  the documents were valid.
  • No provision was made for the secure storage of documents in accordance with the legal regulations in case of inspection and their regular shredding in accordance with the law.
  • Access to documents was not protected in any way with more comprehensive access rights, i.e. sensitive documents could be accessed by non-relevant persons.
  • There was no recorded history of work with the documents, so it was difficult to find out what had been done with the particular document in the past.

The aim of the project was to:

  • streamline document storage and retrieval.
  • ensure clarity and transparency of document existence, their location, validity and change history.
  • enable the secure storage of documents in accordance with the legal regulations in case of inspection and their regular shredding in accordance with the law.
  • implement comprehensive access rights management and document history tracking.
  • report expiring documents and unsaved mandatory documents.

Solution presentation

The design of the solution focused on the greatest possible automation and pre-population of data (attributes) for newly uploaded documents relating to individual branches.

Templates have been created with predefined attributes, such as document type and branch information (for example, branch number or location). Users then inserted documents into prepared folders, where they automatically inherit attributes from the folder. Users only need to fill in specific information about the document.

In the example of the home screen, you can see the search masks that allow efficient document searches thanks to the filled attributes and the main folder structure. Each branch is implemented in the system as a “Business workspace”, which can be thought of as a digital space where information about a specific object in the DMS is collected.

Figure 1: Home screen after user login

“Business workspace” is created using predefined templates.

  • During the creation process, the user is presented with a dialog box in which they fill in the required attributes from the “Branch” category.
  • After filling in the attributes and clicking the “Save” button, a new branch will be created in the “Branches” directory.

Figure 2: Retail branch creation

The template has a predefined user interface, where the top row shows the path of the branch and folder the user is currently in.

  • When users open a branch, they see two tabs: Overview and Documents.
  • In the overview, users see three tiles that provide information about:
    • branch management and its employees,
    • branch (e.g. location, year of establishment, branch type, etc.),
    • browsing through the folder structure of given branch (the same as the “Documents” tab).

Figure 3: View of the Branch and information related to the branch

Other functionalities include document validity monitoring, checks for missing documents, and dynamic permission changes according to user groups in Active Directory.

The original documents stored on the file system were migrated to the DMS while the attributes for individual documents were filled in at the same time.

Conclusion

IXTENT successfully implemented the solution according to the customer’s specifications. The benefits of the solution were successfully projected into the customer’s technology. This way, GECO is moving further into the digital business segment.

Customer’s statement

The consultants and developers completed the required assignment and delivered a working extension to the existing DMS system. In addition to the system itself, we also received documentation and procedures for migrating other documents. The described project was also extended by dynamic changes of permissions – the organizational structure of GECO is evolving rapidly and the DMS system must also respond to this evolution.

I would highlight the good project management and the great willingness to adapt the assignment according to the incoming requirements. Everyone was interested in the successful completion of the project according to GECO’s needs.