Documents hang on cases
Not in a folder tree whose logic you have to know, but on the job, on the customer, on the case.
Practice / Documents and filing
Documents and filing
Most filing systems in a business have grown over years. Often only one person still understands the order, and not always the person who set it up.
The starting point
The work
in between.
- There is a server, a cloud, a mailbox and a few folders on various machines.
- File names carry a date, initials and a version. Which one is current cannot be read off the modification date alone: copies, exports, editing and syncing all change it.
- People would rather ask someone than search themselves.
- When someone leaves, the order leaves with them.
A suitable design
What needs to
work together.
These components describe one possible individual scope. Scope and rules are agreed with your business.
Search by content, not by file name
In scanned material as well. Whoever searches for the case finds the document without knowing its name.
The old filing can stay
Holdings that are accessible technically and legally are connected over approved routes. Where formats, rights or duplicates require it, a limited migration is planned deliberately.
An example decision card
One document exists in three versions
The same content, three locations, three modification dates. Two of them are older.
Merging deletes nothing automatically. Older versions stay traceable under the retention and deletion rules you set.
How does the system recognise the same thing?
- same client, same case
- largely the same content
- different modification dates
- → probably versions of the same document
07 · To find things
The version that applies, not just any version.
Three files carry almost the same name. Have the fitting sheet that applies shown to you, with its provenance and the versions it replaced.
Looking for
Which fitting sheet applies to the sealing tape?
The search runs on links, approval and validity, not only on the file name.
- Fitting sheet, sealing tape · version 3approved 1 August by the site manager · valid for the north wing hit 1
- Fitting sheet, sealing tape · version 2approved 12 July · replaced on 1 August hit 2
- Sealing tape, manufacturer note 2024general data sheet · no project approval hit 3
- Site meeting of 1 Augustitem 7: the changed overlap in version 3 confirmed link
Search state
4 hitsAn identical file name is not enough to call a version the one that applies.
History
The starting position and the check that ran stay distinguishable.
- Agent · search Asked which sealing tape instruction applies to the north wing project.
An illustration. Project, people and documents are invented; the search runs only through the results shown here.
Finding means declaring what applies
A search hit does not yet answer whether a document is current. Approval, a note that it was replaced and the link to the project make the difference visible.
Old versions do not disappear
They stay available for later questions and for the history, but they cannot be picked up by accident as the current instruction.
The countercheck
Where things
can go wrong.
The reflex is to tidy everything up first. Big changes on a cut-off date tie up a lot of time and carry mistakes with them. So we settle which holdings can be connected safely, where access or formats set limits, and which small migration is actually needed.
A useful first trial includes this failure case explicitly. Fast processing alone is not success if checking and correction create more work.
The connection to the next task
Your first stage
Start where
the work improves.
For Documents and filing, we choose a bounded first outcome with your team. Existing specialist systems can stay where they fulfil necessary requirements. We compare time relief, payments that can end and the cost of the new way of working.
The workshop gives you priorities and a roadmap. You can continue internally or with support from Markus Kirchmair. The choice of model and agent follows the task, with data and rules retained outside an individual chat.
Explore the workshop →Ready for the next change
Keep the work simple.
The first view should show the next relevant decision. Reasoning and sources remain accessible. We leave out unnecessary features and make actual progress visible.
When a rule changes, agents can help investigate the impact, prepare the adjustment and update tests and documentation. A qualified person assesses the result and its adoption.
Try a change →Your first step
Say yes
to less.
Less unnecessary software. More room for your work. Let’s find the useful first step.