Vicky

Hello, my name is Gregg Long. Have you thought about an RFID based system?
Systems such as these would allow you to set up "zones" in your office to
track the physical location of files or to use a portable RFID scanner to
search for that missing file. I can't say I've fully researched the current
costs of such systems or their technological maturity but having worked in
the legal field I can completely understand your problem and think this
might be a solution. 


http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/rfid_tracking_solutions/home/pro
ducts/rfid_tracking_system/

http://www.filetrail.com/WS_RFID/index.asp


Gregg M Long JD, CRM
MML Enterprises, Inc.
423-316-5554
[log in to unmask]




-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Vicky Rapley
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 1:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: File Tracking

Hello There

We are a small Govt organisation, about 35 staff.  But I have a major
problem trying to keep track of files as they move around the office.

Our current way of doing things is this:

All files are barcoded upon creation and scanned into the compactus.

When a file is removed from the compactus it is scanned out by the
removing staff member........now this is where the problem
begins.............

Another staff member may need to borrow the file, so they will take
the file and then it may move on to another person etc, before making
its way back to the compactus and being scanned in.

This amounts in numerous emails during the week saying "has anyone
seen this file" etc.

Staff members are shown at induction and again regularly during the
year how to manually change the location of the file using our
database, it is not that difficult, perhaps a 3 step process.  It
just seems that no one bothers with doing it.
They tend to rely on the file audit, which is only done once a week.

We do need to keep track of where these files are as they relate to  
our core
business and they need to be quickly available for legal requests, etc.

Has anyone else come up against this problem and how did you solve it
or do you just keep banging your head against your desk top :-)


Regards

Vicky Rapley l Records & Development Support Officer
Heritage Council of WA
108 Adelaide Terrace
East Perth  WA  6004
Australia
t:    08 9220 4143
f:    08 9221 4151
e:    [log in to unmask]
www.heritage.wa.gov.au

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