What have you found to be the best way to organize all of our company files and folde

[mschnack]

We're trying to organize many different types of files (project files, department files, training material, product documentation, learning, ideas & inspiration photo/video collections, brand assets, templates, etc.)

We use a ton of cloud tools and have files and duplicates scattered everywhere... And even worse no one knows where to save anything or where to find it.

Please share some advice, examples, anything - so frustrated and willing to pay for help

 

[LunarMist]

We're trying to organize many different types of files (project files, department files, training material, product documentation, learning, ideas & inspiration photo/video collections, brand assets, templates, etc.)

We use a ton of cloud tools and have files and duplicates scattered everywhere... And even worse no one knows where to save anything or where to find it.

Please share some advice, examples, anything - so frustrated and willing to pay for help

It seems that there may be a people problem, that simply buying more software may not fix. Management may not be in tune to the needs of the business. Is the organizational structure as disorganized as the software?

 

[CougTek]

There are so many ways to do this. There may not be A best solutions, but many good solution. It depends on the size of your organisation, the skills of your technical staff (what they are familiar with, mostly), the network connections at your sites (since you mentionned cloud services, I assume you have more than one office), etc.

As Lunarmist wrote, the management also has to participate. Since you've been able to figure out how to register in the forum, write a readable message AND you are willing to ask for help, I presume that you are not a manager. So whatever system you'll chose to install, be sure to have the support of your boss to enforce it.

 

[Mercutio]

Some things that would be helpful to know are how large your organization is, what desktop and server platforms might be present (do you have Windows Domains? A single sign-on system? Are there Apple or Unix machines? Do VIPs expect to use iPads instead of things that are actually useful?) and mix of desktop/laptop and mobile devices? Do you have an IT staff at all? Is IT centralized or just a role that's handled in each department? Do you have any idea what volume of data you're creating?

Most organizations give end users a personal folder on a file server for storing documents so that they're on a server that's easy to back up, plus shared folders for Workgroup or Project, Department-widel, Company-wide and possibly location-specific data.

Deduplication can be a function of either a storage server technology; Linux and Windows Server both do it just fine and I'd be shocked if every Cloud provider didn't directly support it as well. IT can manage that if they're given the tools to do so (and perhaps also the hint that it's a problem; they might not be aware of the issue).

If your organization is small and has no central organization or obvious single choice of platform, step one is to get a central place to put stuff. The best choice without dedicated IT is probably some kind of mid-range NAS device plus something for off-site backup. Synology has Crashplan Pro support for that purpose, which works great. Synology, Drobo and QNAP appliances all have enough hooks to expose shared files across the internet for telecommuters and mobile users while offering central access within an office. Cloud Storage can work for central storage as well, but it might not be the best choice since most Clouds quickly become very expensive as users and storage demands increase.

As for the purpose of actually organizing data, that's going to come down to the desires of whomever has the vision to organize stuff. You might find it most productive to organize by business function, by project or by date. In cases where massive numbers of small files get saved, it's useful to break things down by year and month as well.

Any more advice than that is going to depend on the specifics that only you would know

 

[LunarMist]

There are so many ways to do this. There may not be A best solutions, but many good solution. It depends on the size of your organisation, the skills of your technical staff (what they are familiar with, mostly), the network connections at your sites (since you mentionned cloud services, I assume you have more than one office), etc.

As Lunarmist wrote, the management also has to participate. Since you've been able to figure out how to register in the forum, write a readable message AND you are willing to ask for help, I presume that you are not a manager. So whatever system you'll chose to install, be sure to have the support of your boss to enforce it.

What's that about manager writing skills?

 

[CougTek]

What's that about manager writing skills?

Yeah, I've noticed that I've screwed up my plural on the word solution. I originally wanted to remove the plural on the first one, but instead did it on the second. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late to edit the post.

 

[ddrueding]

Coug, Lunar just commented on your writing skills. Therefore it must be sarcastic, otherwise he would have responded in French.

 

[LunarMist]

I was comment ing on my writing.