Xythos' Enterprise Document Management Suite

Collaboration Station

For uploading docs, I chose to drag and drop them from my local file system to my home directory in EDMS using IE's Web folders.

For doc sharing, Xythos maintains one copy of the file on the server, which can be locked to prevent others from changing the file while you're working on it. Xythos doesn't e-mail documents; rather, it uses an intelligent URL link, or intellilink. Admin configuration options for file sharing are accessed from the Manage icon next to the file. This lets you set up collaboration, workflow and file properties, including logging and versioning instructions and user tickets, to define user access to the document with R/O (read-only) or R/W (read-write) permissions and limit access by time.

Let It Flow

Workflow can be designated so a document will be worked on by reviewers seriatim or in any order.

I set the due date, and the workflow algorithm calculated the task length in days using a seven-day calendar. After I saved the workflow, it told me that one of the reviewers didn't have read access to the document under review and asked me if I would like to add her to the access list. Sweet.Next, I alerted colleagues to the document and gave them its location using both standard e-mail and the EDMS task and workflow utilities. Xythos generated an intellilink to point to the document and grant user access as assigned. When a reviewer logged in, the task bar was populated with a new

editing task and a link to the document. With one click, Xythos' intellilink app presented the document in its default file format (in this case, Microsoft Word) for review. Reviewers could edit, add comments, and approve or reject the document. A subscription tool alerted me by e-mail when reviewers accessed or changed my workflow document.

Xythos EDMS is an affordable, full-featured document-management system that will provide users a rich experience in managing and maintaining documents via browser and Web folders. If your enterprise is still e-mailing documents back and forth, Xythos has a better way.

Sean Doherty is a senior technology editor and lawyer based at our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®. Write to him at [email protected]0