A tale of two fileplans: Top-down and bottom-up approaches

Like it or not, a huge chunk of corporate information is held in file and folder structures, in SharePoint, legacy network drives and EDRMS.

This talk compares two folder migrations, a decade apart, their outcomes and what we learned from them.

First: expert information management professionals created a functional file plan for the entire organisation. Teams would work outside organisational structures, share information by subject, and be able to see similar work by distant colleagues. The project had to sell the structure to users, address concerns, and oversee a gigantic file and folder migration.

Second: organisational structures were retained, and the team members did most work themselves. The IM team provided advice and guidance on how to set up a structure and name documents to help the whole team find the information they needed. The challenge was getting people to engage with the process and make it a priority.