Improved Document Management Workflow the Focus of infoRouter v8.0

The latest version of Active Innovation’s document management software comes with a number of upgrades most of which are focused on improving the workflow module and related tasks. These improvements make it more responsive than previous versions (v7.2 and v7.5) and optimize it for higher traffic volumes.

In terms of  workflow, the infoRouter improvements are specifically related to the steps within the workflow and the number of tasks that can be assigned to each step. Let’s take a look.

Active Innovations And infoRouter

Active Innovation’s infoRouter document management software is an Electronic document management software and content management system that comes with a number of modules including digital asset management (DAM), records management and document archiving as well as the standard document management features like document imaging, scanning, workflow and storage.

The New York based company’s recent release brings it up to version 8, changes to which have been made at the request of its community and the community’s response to the regularly published and updated “feature wish list”.

With this version the community must have been concerned about the workflow, or the increasing importance of workflow in document management software, because that is the focus of version 8.

Earlier infoRouter Workflow Processes

In previous releases, the workflow system came with a number of serial tasks, or steps. Each step contained a single task that had to be completed by one or more users. The only option for these users was to either “Approve” or “Reject” the document. An “Approve” vote advanced the document to the next step whereas a “Reject” vote simply ended the flow.

Once a document was submitted to a flow, all edits to the document were restricted until the document was either approved or rejected.

infoRouter Workflow Version 8.0

Steps

In this new version an almost unlimited number of steps can be created to form the workflow process. Each step in a workflow can now group together a number of tasks. This means that unlike in previous versions a given step may contain a number of different tasks assigned to different individuals.

When a step includes more than one task they are all run in parallel. All tasks on the same step are executed at the same time and independent of one another. When all tasks on the step are completed, the execution of the workflow advances to the next step.

Tasks

The task structure has been improved to include multiple parameters. These parameters allow workflow designers to define the requirements of the task by simply selecting from a list of check boxes.

Workflow designers can make sure that a series of tasks are performed before the task can be marked as completed by the assignee.

Tasks include:

• Edit
• Postpone
• Change Priority
• Change Finish date
• Edit Next step
• Edit user
• Edit all steps

There have also been upgrades to the task distribution lists, task redirection, document edits and document editing. The full list will be available in the release notes due to come out in February 10.

Other Improvements

Apart from improvements to the workflow, there have also been a number of improvements to other features that are worth a mention.

They include:

• New and Improved User Interface: The user interface has been streamlined to introduce navigational improvements. A new set of descriptive icons and artwork has been introduced.
• Import/Export Tool: This tool has been introduced to replace the WebDAV interface and provides a controlled environment to upload and download documents from client workstations.
• Document Tagging: Document tagging allows users to tag documents with a label. This tag gets applied to the current version of the document and can later be used to determine the state of the document at a point in time.

It also comes with support for multiple languages under a single server-based installation which means that infoRouter can work and integrate into multinational enterprises allowing users in different parts of the world to work in their own language.

This version of infoRouter is already available to buy. An upgrade tool has been provided to upgrade from previous versions, while clients participating in the subscription program, the new release can be downloaded free.

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