At a earlier job (authorities contractor, so authorities adjoining, however with further penny-pinching), almost 20 years in the past, we used an Entry database to maintain observe of publications. (It had changed a spreadsheet, and labored fairly properly, till we had too many information/publications, and sometimes a document would turn out to be corrupt.) We requested for a content material administration system (CMS).
As an alternative we received:
1. A do-it-yourself Oracle database introduced in by the enterprise we had purchased to be aggressive for contract bids. We couldn’t pull the experiences we wanted, and the one who made the database was lengthy gone, so no person knew methods to do any substantive adjustments to it. We had to make use of it, as a result of a special division used it to assign sure federal necessities (there was usually a publication facet).
2. OnBase, which had been bought for various wants (conserving observe of discrete folks information). Management was bored with “shopping for a bunch of various techniques for various causes,” so we began receiving inside requests for publication by means of it. Sadly, we additionally couldn’t pull the experiences we wanted, and nonetheless needed to get some gadgets by means of e-mail. And obtain to a drive.
3. DomDoc, which was one of many worst doc administration techniques I’ve ever used. Fortunately, it was solely used for SOPs, and so forth. Purely inside and universally hated.
4. MS Entry, which we by no means stopped utilizing, regardless that it stopped being supported, as a result of not one of the different techniques did what we wanted.
5. In my final 12 months, we did get a CMS, however just for our web site. Listserv and bulletins nonetheless have been on their very own.
I do know from a former coworker that each one these techniques have been nonetheless in use just a few years in the past, lengthy after I left.
I now work in an precise authorities company, and we do have some very outdated and outdated legacy techniques that may value rather a lot to interchange, however no total division has to make use of them for all their work.