Documentum FAQ: Common Questions and Concerns About Documentum at NEF
Documentum FAQ: Common Questions and Concerns About Documentum at NEF
Documentum FAQ
Scott Fordin
Revision 1.0
December 2006
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to address some common questions and concerns that have been
raised by NEF employees during the planning and implementation phases of the Documentum project
at NEF. Please note that this document is subject to change as the Documentum project progresses.
This document is not intended to provide either a comprehensive introduction to all features of
Documentum or detailed instructions on its use. Rather, it is intended to help smooth the transition
to Documentum for NEF employees by setting expectations about what Documentum can provide,
and to provide a basis for defining document management workflows that fit the individual needs of
each person at NEF.
What is Documentum?
Documentum from EMC Corporation is a unified content management system that provides tools for
working with many types of content — documents, drawings, scanned images, hardcopy — in a single
repository that can span multiple departments and functional areas within NEF.
Find information by means of full text searches, keyword queries, database-style SQL queries, and
Windows Explorer-like navigation through disk directories
Maintain audit trails and records for the purposes of regulatory compliance
Together, these benefits can mean increased efficiency, better decision-making, greater security, and
reduced operating costs for NEF.
Documentum is not an operating system, nor will it require you to use unfamiliar applications. You
will be able to continue using the Windows applications and tools with which you are familiar, like
Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Adobe Acrobat, and SAP.
Because Documentum is a true object-oriented relational database system, many types of database
queries, content relationships, and workflow automation are possible. For example, workflows can be
defined such that a document can be automatically forwarded through review, sign-off, implementation,
and archiving phases, with each step acting as a programmatic “trigger” for subsequent steps.
Complete information about workflow automation is beyond the scope of this document, but will be
covered in more detail during the Documentum rollout and training periods.
The Documentum Webtop makes it easy to quickly get up and running with Documentum, and
provides several built-in features that can enhance productivity. Some of these features include:
Integrated search tools to leverage Documentum database queries and content services
Digital thumbnails that make it easier to locate a wide range of digital media assets
A personal, customizable desktop that you can access through a Web browser from anywhere on
the NEF intranet and, depending on VPN access, even the World Wide Web
Click through the hierarchical folder tree, just as you would in Windows Explorer
Enter a database query using one or more search criteria, such as keywords, dates, descriptions,
owner, and workflow status, among others.
Electronic documents, such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, AutoCAD drawings, and
Acrobat PDF files.
Hard copy documents in the form of pointers to actual physical locations; for example, “Drawing X
is located in Building 2, Room 5, Cabinet 7, Drawer 3 on the Eunice campus”
Documentum also includes transformation services that make it easy to convert documents from one
format to another. For example, you can easily convert an AutoCAD drawing to PDF format, or an
Excel spreadsheet to HTML.
Database Objects
Every version of every content item in Documentum is stored as a database object. The important
thing to remember about database objects is that they have various properties — characteristics,
attributes, and behaviors — that they share with other like objects and which they inherit from their
parent objects. So, for example, in the NEF implementation, every child folder and document in a given
parent folder inherits the properties of that parent folder, such as access permissions, default
templates, and workflow triggers.
From the standpoint of the typical NEF user, you do not have to worry about specific object properties,
as these are created and passed along as part of the core Documentum implementation.
Customizations to these properties are certainly possible, but are beyond the scope of this document.
Functional Areas
The content in the NEF implementation of Documentum is based on NEF functional areas. So, for
example, content in the Human Resources, Fire Safety, Training, and Plant Maintenance areas each
have their own “local” hierarchical content structure, with their own sets of default object properties,
content templates, and business process workflows. Having said this, because all content is stored in a
single Documentum repository on the NEF network, it is easy to access and share information across
functional areas.
Symbolic Links
Another important capability made possible by Documentum’s object-oriented database architecture is
symbolic linking. Symbolic links are references to other documents, similar in some ways to Windows
shortcuts, but rather more like the symbolic links available in UNIX and Linux. This makes it possible,
for example, to have convenient links on your Webtop to folders and content that may in fact be deeply
buried in your content hierarchy or located in the hierarchy for another NEF functional area.
In Documentum, symbolic links are true database objects, and are not merely “pointers” as with
Windows shortcuts. Consequently, symbolic links can be programmatically referenced, accessed, and
tracked. A detailed discussion of symbolic links is beyond the scope of this document, so for now
simply keep in mind that, when organizing your personal Webtop, you can create convenient symbolic
links to the content you access most frequently and/or which is deeply buried in a content hierarchy.
One of the most important sets of inputs the Documentum team gathered during the development
phase was logical content categories for each NEF functional area. These content categories were in
turn mapped to database objects by the Documentum developer. The next step after the initial
Documentum rollout will be to develop business processes and workflow automation around the
particular needs of each functional area, using these database objects as programmatically controllable
elements in various NEF workflow scenarios.
From the standpoint of a Documentum user, if you want to take advantage of Documentum’s workflow
automation capabilities, please be prepared to discuss your workflow needs with the Documentum
team when the time arises. Your goal should be to define how you want to perform your job functions
— that is, define how the tool works for you, rather than having the tool define how you work. Think
about how you do your job, capture the various steps you perform, and then discuss with the
Documentum team possible ways to automate or streamline these steps to make your job easier and
more efficient.
You will use the Documentum Webtop interface for most or all of your file management tasks,
rather than Windows Explorer. You can continue to use Windows Explorer, if you wish — for
example, for managing personal files on your local hard disk — but content managed in this way
will neither be under Documentum control nor leverage Documentum core services. Remember
that the Webtop interface is similar in many ways to Windows Explorer, but has more powerful
additional features and seamlessly integrates with the Documentum services and features.
When opening or creating new files; for example, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet; you will open or
create it through the Webtop interface rather than using the Excel File->Open or File->New
commands. Using the Webtop interface for these functions will automatically trigger various
template, version, permissions, workflow triggers, and other object-related management features.
Other than these two minor differences, you will continue using all your familiar Windows applications.
You might have to get used to the idea of working on a network drive rather than your local hard drive,
but for most users this difference will be transparent.
Combining these versioning and auditing features with appropriate workflow automation can also
maximize the integrity and consistency of various NEF functions, thereby streamlining many regulatory
compliance processes.
Scan, OCR, and store them as electronic documents; suitable for primarily text documents, such
as contracts, legacy records and logs, paper correspondence, etc.
Scan and store them as electronic images; suitable for drawings, tests with handwritten equations,
vendor catalogs, etc.
Store the original hardcopy in a physical filing cabinet somewhere in the NEF sites.
Scanning
Documentum at NEF will be combined with a scanning extension called Captiva. Captiva provides
business scale imaging features, such as optical character recognition, zonal OCR, high volume
capabilities, and forms processing, among others.
When a document is scanned with Captiva, you will choose the functional area in which the document
belongs, and the resulting electronic document will be placed in the appropriate folder, inherit the
properties of that folder, and be populated with a relevant default set of keywords and other database
attributes. You can further refine these attributes if you wish. These attributes will be available later as
search criteria when you perform database queries in Documentum.
Zonal OCR
Zonal OCR refers to selectively performing optical character recognition an area of a scanned
document that is otherwise treated as an image file. For example, a candidate for zonal OCR might be
a series of drawings that have a consistent block of text, located in the same place in each drawing,
containing information like drawing number and title, company name, date, and so forth. By capturing
such text information, it is much easier to perform full-text searches on the drawing later, rather than
relying solely on database attribute queries.
Glossary
The following is a list of some common terms and concepts with which you should be familiar when
working with Documentum.
Access Control List (ACL): Permission set for an object…who (user groups & users) can do
what (permissions).
Cabinet: Top-level object for organizing content in the docbase. Folders appear within a cabinet.
Content: General term used for objects, their content and metadata.
Lifecycle: A lifecycle is a set of states that define the stages in an object’s life.
Rendition: A rendition is a representation of a document that differs from the original document
only in its format or some aspect of the format.
Workflow: A formalized definition of a business process. In DCTM, this typically relates specifically
to content that is routed to performers for a specific activity (i.e., review and approval).