Because I spend so much time visiting NSCA members, I’ve seen some great – and not-so-great – business practices and models. High on the list of not-so-great processes are the ones followed for saving vital information about projects, employees, transactions, etc. to a shared/networked drive.
Along the way, I’ve discovered that almost everyone hates how messy their company’s shared drive becomes over time. It seems like every organization I talk to dreams of one day organizing, reorganizing, and making sense of all the information stored there.
Based on my interactions with companies that have found a way to make it work, here are a few quick and simple shared-drive tips …
- When placing items on the shared drive, make sure that only those who need access have it. Not everyone in your company needs to see every document. Only those signatory to the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) should have access to that information.
- Develop a file-naming protocol so everyone names files the same way. Teach new employees the process as part of onboarding. This will make documents easier to find, whether you’re searching for them by file name or browsing the shared drive for them. Existing employees will also need frequent reminders about this. Consider putting someone in charge of managing/auditing this process, periodically checking file names and encouraging corrections and changes.
- Project-closeout procedures and wrapping up necessary loose ends are often random and rushed activities. Create processes for storing information about these tasks, and stick to them – regardless of the schedule.
- Don’t use your email inbox as a database. Sort through emails with attachments, and place those important attachments into appropriate folders on a networked drive that is backed up in the cloud (or somewhere).
- Record the serial numbers of actual products used in a project. Invest in a barcode system or develop some other method to track this. When a product is picked from inventory or taken from a service vehicle, make sure it’s recorded as the actual product used on the project. This becomes a big deal with extended warranties (which are here to stay). Likewise, you’ll need to know who has which products in case of new regulations or recalls.
- Be consistent in terms of what information is saved. On every job, large or small, develop a checklist to outline what to save in the job file: bill of materials, scope-of-work documents, job costing, warranty information, customer sign-offs, etc. Anything that will help the person servicing that system later should be placed here. Take pictures of racks, equipment locations, measurements and settings, etc. to save in the job folder as well.
- Use collaboration tools like OneNote or Basecamp to share project information rather than using multiple Excel or Word files and storing them all over the place.
I’d love to learn how you have solved these information management and documentation storage challenges – or at least tried to tame them. We could all benefit from following some best practices, and the tips mentioned above only scratch the surface. How do you handle the chaos that is your shared drive? -Chuck Wilson, NSCA Executive Director
Image by: David Castillo Dominici