Document management system requirements checklist

How to use this document management system checklist before you choose a platform

This checklist lists the requirements to settle before you shortlist a platform for a document management system, explains how to verify each one, and identifies which answers separate one platform from another. It is written for a team replacing paper files or shared drives with a governed repository and that has not yet chosen a product. The two platforms in scope are Paperless-ngx and Alfresco Community Edition, and the requirements below are the questions they must answer well before any demonstration or pilot. Treat the checklist as a sign-off document: records management, security, legal and the business owner should each approve the requirements in writing before anyone compares products, because a platform chosen on features alone often fails the retention or audit questions that only the approvers can answer.

Work through the requirements in the order that constrains the others. Start with what the system must hold and who may see it, because that determines capture, metadata, permissions and encryption. Record the document types, their volumes, the sources they arrive from (scanners, email, shared folders, line-of-business exports) and the regulated categories they fall into. Then ask each approver to name the retention periods, legal holds and disposal approvals they require, and confirm whether any category falls under a specific rule. For example, a broker-dealer's communications sit under a preservation rule such as SEC Rule 17a-4(b)(4), which requires preserving communications for not less than three years, while a health provider's records touch the technical safeguards in 45 CFR 164.312. Those obligations are the baseline. Your own legal team must confirm which rules apply to your organization; the checklist does not decide that for you.

For each requirement, write a verification step that a vendor or partner must demonstrate in a test instance using your own sample documents, not in a slide. Examples include running OCR on a batch of scanned pages with your worst-quality originals, exporting the audit trail for a single document across a version change, and showing that a departing user's access is removed without leaving orphaned owners. Record the answer as pass, fail or needs work, with the named approver who accepted it. Confirm the release and support status of any candidate directly with its maintainers, because version numbers and support windows change. Requirements that no platform can meet on its own, such as independent audit evidence or validation, should be assigned to a process owner before selection begins.

Which functional requirements a document management system must meet

This table lists the functional requirements to settle before choosing a document management system, what each one asks for, and how to verify it. Each row should be tested with a sample drawn from your own records, not a vendor demonstration set. Treat any row you cannot test with your own documents as an open risk.

Requirement	Why it matters	How to verify it
Capture and input channels	Documents arrive by scanner, email, folder import and upload. Each channel can strip metadata, rename files or skip pages, which breaks the record trail.	Feed a batch of 200 or more real documents through every channel in production-like conditions and confirm count, page order and original file retained.
OCR languages and handwriting	Searchability depends on the OCR engine and language packs. Handwritten annotations and stamps often fall outside what standard OCR reads reliably.	List the languages and scripts your records use. Run OCR on a sample of your worst scans and measure word accuracy by document type, not an overall average.
Poor scan handling	Skewed, faint, low-resolution or photocopied pages produce garbled text and misclassified documents, which surface later during a records search.	Include deliberately degraded pages in the test set. Confirm the system flags low-confidence results for review rather than storing silent errors.
PDF/A and archival output	Long-term readability depends on archival formats. Confirm whether the platform writes PDF/A and keeps the original file alongside the derived copy.	Open sample outputs with a PDF/A validator and confirm both the original and the archival copy are stored and linked.
Document types and mandatory fields	Retention, access and disposal rules attach to document types. Missing mandatory fields leave records impossible to retain or dispose of correctly.	Define each document type with its required fields in writing. Test that uploads missing a mandatory field are blocked or routed to a review queue.
Controlled vocabularies and automatic tagging	Free-text tags drift over time and make searches unreliable. Automatic tagging rules can misassign documents if they are not reviewed.	Load the approved term lists and check that tagging rules match only the intended documents on a labelled sample. Measure false matches.
Versioning and check-in/check-out	Auditors and quality reviewers need to see which version was current and who changed it. Locking prevents conflicting edits to controlled documents.	Create, revise and withdraw a controlled document with two users. Confirm version history, reviewer identity, timestamps and that superseded copies remain retrievable.
Search and retrieval	Records requests and audits depend on finding documents by metadata and full text within a deadline. Search must respect the same permissions as the viewer.	Run a timed set of retrieval questions drawn from real request types, executed by a user with restricted permissions, and confirm results match what that user may see.
Retention and disposal rules	Retention periods must follow the schedule that applies to each record class. Disposal must be authorized, logged and must not delete records under legal hold.	Apply a sample schedule to test documents, advance the clock or set dates in a test environment, and confirm holds block disposal and disposal events are logged.

Why capture and classification decide the rest of the document management design

Document types, metadata and classification should be defined before you choose a platform, because they drive almost everything that follows. Permissions, retention periods, search filters and audit reports all depend on knowing what a document is, who owns it, which business process it belongs to and how long it must be kept. A contract, a patient referral and a supplier certificate may share a folder today but need different access rules, different retention clocks and different evidence in an audit. Write down the document classes, the mandatory metadata fields for each (for example, client identifier, document date, owning department, retention category), and the controlled vocabulary for tags and correspondents. Those decisions are platform-neutral, and they determine whether Paperless-ngx's tags and document types or Alfresco Community Edition's content model can express your rules without workarounds.

Capture quality sets the indexing workload more than most teams expect. Test OCR on your own scans, not on clean sample PDFs supplied by a vendor. Measure how the engine handles skewed pages, low-resolution faxes, handwritten annotations, mixed languages and stamped signatures, and record how many documents need manual correction. Then map every import path: scanner output, mailbox ingestion, network folders and any upload from business applications. Each path can add duplicates, wrong metadata or missing text layers, so decide which path is authoritative and who reviews exceptions. The OCR and import capabilities of Paperless-ngx and Alfresco Community Edition must be confirmed in a test against your documents and your scanners, using the versions your partner will deploy. The companion guidance on scanning and OCR for paperless office digitization covers back-scanning projects in depth, so this checklist only asks whether capture is good enough to support the classification model you have defined.

Which security requirements to write into a document management system brief

A document management system holds contracts, client files and regulated records, so its security requirements have to be written as testable controls before a platform is chosen. The cards below cover identity, audit, encryption, administration, patching and secrets, and each one names a check to run in a test environment and a question to put to the platform vendor or implementation partner.

Unique identities and role-based permissions

Every user needs a unique identity, and access should come from roles with explicit inheritance rules, so that a folder's permissions do not silently pass to subfolders or documents that should be restricted. Confirm whether the platform supports directory-backed login through LDAP, OpenID Connect or SAML, and whether group membership can be removed without manual clean-up. Test: create a restricted folder, add a user through a child group, and confirm that access is removed when the parent group membership is revoked. Ask: how does the platform handle permission inheritance when a document is moved between folders?

Audit logging of views, edits and deletions

Auditors and security teams need a record of who viewed, changed, deleted or re-shared a document, and of every permission change. Logs should be written somewhere the application administrators cannot quietly edit, and they should be retained for the period your policies require. Test: perform a view, an edit, a deletion and a permission change as a test user, then confirm that each action appears in the log with user, time and object. Ask: can audit records be exported to a separate log store, and are they tamper-evident?

Encryption in transit and at rest with key ownership

Traffic between browsers, editors, scanners and the server should use TLS, and any backend connection to the database or object storage should be encrypted as well. Encryption at rest is not something to assume: confirm with the platform vendor and your partner whether the storage layer, the database or the operating system encrypts data, and who holds the keys. Test: inspect the storage volume and the database files from the host, and confirm that document content is not readable in plain form. Ask: where are the encryption keys stored, who can rotate them, and what happens to the data if the key store is lost?

Separation of administrator duties

The people who run the server should not be able to approve their own access, change audit settings or alter retention rules without a second person involved. Define which administrative actions require a separate approver, and keep the root or database administrator accounts out of day-to-day document work. Test: attempt to change an audit setting or a retention rule with an administrator account that has no approval, and confirm that the change is blocked or logged for review. Ask: which administrative roles exist by default, and can they be split so that backup operators cannot read document content?

Patching and vulnerability handling for OCR components

The application, its web server, its database and its OCR engine each have their own vulnerabilities and release cycles, so the patching plan must cover all of them. OCR tools process untrusted files, which makes them a common attack surface. Agree on a patch window, a test step in a staging copy, and a rollback path before go-live. Test: apply a patch to a staging copy with a sample archive, then confirm that search, OCR and permissions still work. Ask: what is the support window for each release line, and how are security fixes delivered to a self-hosted deployment?

Secrets management for database and storage credentials

Database passwords, object storage keys and SMTP credentials should not sit in plain configuration files that anyone with server access can read. Store them in a dedicated secrets store or an encrypted vault, restrict who can retrieve them, and rotate them on a schedule and after any staff change. Test: search the application directory, container images and backup archives for known credential strings, and confirm that none are present. Ask: how are credentials injected at startup, and what must change in the configuration when a credential is rotated?

How retention and audit trail requirements change by regulation

The same document system can need very different controls depending on the rules that apply to the records it holds. Before you settle retention and audit trail requirements, list every regulation that touches the content, then translate each into specific settings. Two examples show the range. Under SEC Rule 17a-4(b)(4), broker-dealers must preserve originals of communications received and copies of communications sent relating to the business, including inter-office communications, for not less than three years. A general document repository that holds scanned correspondence may therefore hold records the rule covers, even when nobody filed them as communications. Under the HIPAA Security Rule, 45 CFR 164.312(b) requires audit controls that record and examine activity in systems containing ePHI, and 164.312(e)(1) requires technical measures that guard against unauthorized access to ePHI sent over an electronic communications network.

For each obligation, write three artifacts and assign an owner. The first is a retention schedule entry that names the record class, the retention period, the trigger event and the disposal method. The second is an audit report that a reviewer can run without vendor help, showing who viewed, changed, downloaded, exported or deleted a document and when. The third is a named owner, usually a records manager or compliance lead, who approves the schedule and signs off on quarterly access reviews. Check whether the platform's audit log captures deletions, permission changes and failed logins, and whether those logs can be exported and protected from edits by the administrators they monitor. Confirm these details against the release you plan to deploy, since capabilities differ between Paperless-ngx and Alfresco Community Edition and between their versions.

Then confirm with counsel or your auditor whether a general document system satisfies each obligation or whether a separate compliant archive is needed. Ask specifically whether the regulator or examiner accepts your planned audit trail, whether the retention and disposal mechanism meets the rule's preservation language, and whether immutable or write-once storage is required. If the answer is no, plan a separate archive or a third-party compliant arrangement and keep the general system out of scope for those record classes. Record the decision in the requirements document so that the choice of platform, the storage design and the rollout plan all reflect it.

Which integrations a document management system needs from day one

A document management system is only as useful as the systems that feed it and read from it. The integrations below decide who can log in, what reaches the archive, how paper enters, how files are edited, where records go, and where copies live. Settle each one before platform selection, because each changes the permission model, the storage design and the evidence you can produce later.

Directory and identity integration

Ask whether the platform authenticates against your LDAP or Active Directory and whether it supports OpenID Connect or SAML for single sign-on. Nextcloud documents LDAP and Active Directory login and also lists OpenID Connect and SAML backends, but Paperless-ngx and Alfresco authentication options differ, so confirm each one against the release you plan to run. Joiner, mover and leaver handling matters as much as login: a departed employee's access must stop when the directory account is disabled, and a transferred user must lose old folder rights. Test: disable a test account in the directory and confirm the document system denies login and existing sessions within your agreed window.

Email ingestion

Ask how documents arrive by email: whether the system polls a dedicated mailbox over IMAP, how it treats attachments versus message bodies, and whether it records the sender and original message for later evidence. Decide which mailbox owns the intake and who can read it, because intake mailboxes often hold personal data. Confirm how duplicates are handled when the same attachment is sent twice. Test: send a multi-attachment message with a known sender to the intake mailbox and confirm each file is stored once, tagged to the correct source, and that the original message is still retrievable.

Scanner and multifunction device connection

Decide how scanners reach the archive: a network scan-to-folder share, a scan-to-email route, or a watched import folder inside the network. Each route has different authentication, file naming and access implications, and a shared scanner account can break the unique user ID expected for audit trails. Confirm the scanner can write PDF or PDF/A output at the resolution your OCR needs, and that the import path rejects unreadable or empty files. Test: scan a multi-page set from a named user account, then confirm the document shows the correct owner, the file is searchable after OCR, and failed scans are reported rather than dropped.

Office editing integration

Users who edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files from the archive need an editing service. ONLYOFFICE Docs is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Collabora Online source code under MPL 2.0, and both licenses carry obligations that your legal team should review before deployment, especially if you modify the code or offer it to outside parties. Confirm which document formats open and save correctly, that co-authoring respects the document permission model, and that edits are logged against the user. Test: open a restricted document as a user without edit rights, confirm the editor blocks changes, then edit an authorized file and confirm the save appears in version history under that user.

Reporting and export to records systems

Ask how the platform exports documents, metadata and audit records to a case management, records or archive system, and whether the export keeps document identifiers stable so references do not break. Confirm the format of the metadata file and whether checksums accompany each file. Decide who owns the export job and how failed transfers are retried. Test: export a sample set of documents with a known retention class and legal hold, import them into the target system in a non-production environment, and check that identifiers, dates, owners and checksums match the source.

Backup and storage targets

Identify where document files, the database and search indexes will be stored, and where backups go. Nextcloud documents backing up before every upgrade and offers BorgBackup-based backups in its All-in-One package, but database and file storage must be captured together to restore a consistent state. Confirm whether the storage target is object storage, network file storage or local disks, and whether backups are encrypted and kept off the primary system. Test: restore a backup to a separate host, open a sample of documents, verify their checksums and confirm search and permissions work on the restored instance.

Which operational requirements decide whether a document system stays supported

This table compares the operational requirements that keep a self-hosted document system supported after go-live, with the evidence to collect for each. Read each row as a question to settle in writing before selecting a platform or signing a support agreement. The main takeaway is that a document system is only as recoverable and supportable as the restore tests, upgrade plan and handover records behind it.

Requirement	Why it matters	How to verify it
Backup and restore testing	Backups only count if a restore returns documents, metadata, permissions and audit records intact. Recovery objectives must come from the business, not the platform defaults.	Document recovery time and recovery point objectives with the business owners. Restore a full copy into a test environment on a schedule and record the results, timings and any gaps as evidence.
Upgrade path and release cadence	Major releases can require stepwise upgrades. Nextcloud, for example, does not allow skipping major releases and asks administrators to back up before each upgrade and disable third-party apps until they are confirmed compatible.	Confirm the current supported versions, end-of-life dates and required database and PHP versions with the vendor before writing them into a contract. Map the upgrade sequence against your own add-ons and integrations.
Staging environment for upgrades	Upgrades that work on a clean install can break custom metadata fields, OCR pipelines, scanner imports or editing integrations.	Maintain a staging copy built from a recent production backup. Run document capture, search, permission checks and a restore test on staging before every production change, and keep the test log.
Monitoring and capacity planning for storage growth	Scanned pages, PDF/A copies and version histories grow steadily, and OCR and search indexes add load. Storage exhaustion often surfaces as failed ingestion, not as a clear alert.	Track storage consumption, ingestion queue length, OCR failures and backup size each month. Set alert thresholds with the owner and review the growth trend against the retention schedule each quarter.
Documentation and handover	Documented configuration, permission models and runbooks let internal staff or a new partner operate the system after the implementer leaves. Undocumented customizations are the most common cause of stalled upgrades.	Require as-built architecture diagrams, configuration exports, admin runbooks, the permission matrix and a list of custom code or plugins. Test the handover by having internal staff perform a restore or upgrade from the documentation alone.
Support model: community, subscription or partner retainer	Community releases carry no contractual response times, while vendor subscriptions and partner retainers define who fixes what and how quickly. Security patch responsibility must be explicit.	Compare written response times, patch timelines and escalation paths for each option. Confirm with the vendor which features and tiers are covered, and with any partner which systems, hours and out-of-scope items the retainer includes.
Access and change records for administrators	Administrative changes to retention rules, permissions or backups are high-impact events that examiners and auditors ask about.	Confirm that administrator actions are logged and reviewed, and that change tickets link to upgrade and configuration records. Sample a set of changes each quarter to check the trail is complete.

How to test the checklist against a shortlisted platform in four stages

This sequence turns the requirement list into evidence: each shortlisted platform is tested against the same agreed criteria, and the result is a recorded decision that the people accountable for records, security and operations can defend. It moves from agreeing what must be true, to proving it on realistic documents, to proving that data can be recovered and upgraded.

Confirm the requirement list and owners
Start by turning the checklist into a numbered requirement list in which every line has a single named owner, such as records management for retention, the security team for permissions and encryption, and operations for backup and upgrades. Each requirement should state the pass condition in plain terms, for example that a deleted document is removed from search and backups within the retention rule the records team set. Ask the compliance lead and the business document owners to review the list, because they will be the ones who must accept a failed test. The output is a signed requirement list with owners and pass conditions, approved by the CISO or head of IT before any platform is installed.
Build a test corpus from real documents
Assemble a test set from the documents the system will actually hold, including poor quality scans, skewed or low-contrast pages, multi-page PDFs, Office files, email attachments and records with personal or regulated data. Copy samples from production archives under the same access controls that apply to the source, and record who approved their use in the test environment. Include a labelled set of expected results for classification, metadata and retention so that each test has a known answer. The output is a documented corpus with an inventory, a classification of sensitive content, and expected outcomes, so that every platform is judged against identical inputs.
Run capture and classification tests
Load the same corpus into each shortlisted platform through every intake path you intend to use, such as scanner folders, email ingestion, upload and API. Measure how well OCR output supports search, whether automatic tagging and document types match the labelled expectations, and how the platform handles documents it cannot classify. Record which failures are caused by scan quality and which by the product, because the remedy for each is different. The output is a capture and classification results sheet per platform, reviewed by the records owner who decides whether accuracy is acceptable for their document types.
Test permissions, retention, disposal and audit trail
Create test users and groups that mirror your directory structure, then check that access is granted and denied as the requirement list specifies, including inherited permissions, shared links and external users. Apply a retention rule to a test set, confirm the platform blocks premature deletion, and run a disposal and confirm what remains in the database, search index, previews and backups. Review whether the audit log records who viewed, changed, moved or deleted each document, and whether logs can be exported and protected from edits by administrators. Confirm the outcome against the control expectations of the regulation you are preparing for, without assuming that a platform supports a specific rule. The output is a test result set and an audit log sample, signed by the security owner and the records owner.
Rehearse restore and upgrade
Take a backup of the test instance, delete a sample of documents and metadata, then restore them into a clean environment and compare checksums, metadata, permissions and search results against the originals. Time the restore and record each manual step, because the runbook must be usable by the operations team without the original installer. Then rehearse an upgrade on a copy of the instance, following the vendor's documented path, and check that custom configuration, integrations and third-party components still work afterwards. Confirm whether the chosen edition has a supported upgrade route, and if the vendor publishes a version support window, record the dates from the vendor's own schedule. The output is restore evidence and an upgrade rehearsal report that the operations lead and the platform owner sign.
Document results and record the decision
Compile the results from all four stages into one decision record for each shortlisted platform, showing each requirement, its owner, the test performed, the result, and any gap with the proposed mitigation or the reason it is accepted. Gaps that need custom development, third-party tools, encryption added around the platform, or a commercial edition should be listed with the cost driver and the question to put to the implementation partner. Ask the CIO or CTO to approve the decision, and ask the compliance lead to confirm which evidence will be kept for assessments. The output is a signed decision record and an evidence pack that stays with the system for its life, so that later changes can be tested against the same baseline.

What buyers ask before hiring help to define document management system requirements

What does defining document management requirements cost and what drives it up?

The cost is the time of the people doing the analysis, paid to whoever runs the work, which is usually an internal team, an implementation partner or both. No public price applies here, and DeployOpen does not publish a price list; a quote follows from the written scope. The main drivers are the number of document types, the volume of back-file records to classify, the number of regulations that set retention and access rules, and the number of systems the archive must connect to, such as email, scanners, line-of-business applications or identity directories. Each additional regulation or integration adds review and testing work. Ask any provider to separate one-time analysis from recurring items such as support, upgrades and continuous testing, and to state which assumptions the quote depends on.

How long does the requirements phase take before implementation starts?

The duration depends on how many document classes, retention rules and approval paths the organization has, and on how quickly its owners can answer questions. A single department with a few document types and one regulation moves much faster than a multi-site organization with several regulators. Delays usually come from unresolved retention questions, waiting for legal review, and sample documents that arrive late or do not represent real cases. Ask for a timeline in the written scope with named milestones and client dependencies, and confirm how many review rounds the price includes.

What does the client organization need to provide during requirements work?

Four roles matter most. A records owner should decide which document classes exist and how long each must be kept. A security reviewer should set access, encryption and logging expectations and check them against the organization's policies. Legal or compliance should sign off retention periods, legal hold handling and disposal methods. Finally, the team needs a representative set of sample documents, including scanned paper, digital originals, and edge cases such as handwritten notes or poor-quality scans. Without these inputs, the requirements document will describe assumptions rather than the organization's actual obligations.

Can our team define document management requirements without a partner?

Yes, a capable internal team can write the requirements, especially if it has a records manager, a security reviewer and someone who understands document workflows. A partner adds the most value when the organization faces several regulations at once, when the archive must integrate with existing identity, email or line-of-business systems, or when the team has not yet compared open-source candidates against the same criteria. An outside reviewer also tests whether the requirements are specific enough to be checked during evaluation and acceptance. Whichever route you take, keep ownership of the final decisions on retention and access inside your organization.

Can an open-source document management system meet a regulatory retention rule on its own?

Usually not on its own. Open-source platforms can store documents, apply retention metadata, record audit events and restrict access, but a regulation sets obligations about the records themselves, their preservation format, the integrity of the archive and how examiners can retrieve them. For example, the SEC rule 17 CFR 240.17a-4 requires broker-dealers to preserve communications for not less than three years, and a general document system generally needs an additional compliant archive or third-party arrangement to meet that duty. Confirm each rule with counsel, map each obligation to a platform capability you have tested, and document the gaps and the controls that close them.

Which security requirements should be settled before choosing a platform?

Settle unique user accounts, role-based permissions, directory integration, audit logging, encryption in transit and at rest, backup and restore testing, and vulnerability handling before comparing platforms. For systems holding protected health information, the HIPAA Security Rule at 45 CFR 164.312 expects transmission security and audit controls that record and examine activity, so write those expectations into the requirements. Also confirm which encryption layers the candidate platform provides itself and which you must add at the storage or infrastructure level. Ask the platform vendor or community to confirm each capability in writing, because documentation can differ from the version you deploy.

What should we ask a partner to include in a written requirements scope?

Ask for these items in writing before work starts:

The list of document classes, owners and volumes in scope, with explicit exclusions
The regulations and internal policies the requirements must satisfy, and who confirms them
The requirements matrix, showing each requirement, its acceptance test and its status
Candidate platforms compared against the same criteria, with known gaps listed
Deliverables, review rounds, client dependencies and a dated timeline
Handover documentation and what happens to working files after acceptance
Whether ongoing support, upgrades or testing are separate retainers

A fixed-scope written agreement makes these points enforceable and easier to compare across proposals.

How should we compare quotes for requirements work from different providers?

Compare the written scope before the price. Two quotes are only comparable when they cover the same document classes, regulations, integrations and deliverables. Check whether each provider includes sample testing, compliance mapping and an acceptance checklist, and whether it lists the client inputs it expects. Note which costs are one-time, such as analysis and migration planning, and which recur, such as support or upgrades. A low quote that leaves out compliance mapping or acceptance testing often shifts that work back to your team.

Which questions separate Paperless-ngx from Alfresco Community Edition

Paperless-ngx is built around capturing and indexing scanned paper and incoming files, so the questions cluster around ingestion, OCR quality and tagging. Ask how the version you plan to run is deployed and maintained, and what your team owns after go-live.

Capture and OCR: Which ingestion paths (scanner folders, email, direct upload) are supported in the version you will run, and how OCR accuracy is measured on your own sample documents, including poor scans and handwriting.
Metadata and classification: How correspondents, tags, document types and custom fields are created, who may change them, and whether automatic matching rules can be reviewed before they file documents.
Permissions and audit: How document and group permissions map to your directory groups, and what record of views, edits and deletions the system keeps, where it is stored and for how long.
Encryption and retention: How stored files are encrypted at rest, who manages the keys, and whether retention and disposal rules can be enforced and proven with a disposal log.
Upgrade and support: Which release line is supported, how upgrades are tested against your custom configuration, and whether a support agreement is available from the vendor or partner.

Confirm each answer against the exact version you plan to deploy, and ask the partner to demonstrate it with a sample of your own documents.

How DeployOpen scopes, delivers and supports document management system selection and implementation

DeployOpen turns document management requirements into a written, fixed-scope plan before any platform is installed. We plan, implement, customize, integrate, harden, back up, document and support self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks.

How we scope

Workshops map document types, capture channels, scanning volumes and owners for each business unit.
Retention schedules, disposal rules and audit trail expectations are written down as testable requirements.
The written scope names deliverables, responsibilities, timelines and exclusions before work starts.

How we build

Test OCR accuracy and metadata classification on a representative sample of your own documents.
Configure permissions, groups and retention rules, then test them with named users from each team.
Set up encryption, backup and restore tests, and confirm the editing integration works with your Office files.

How we hand over

Deliver runbooks for administration, upgrades, backup restores and onboarding new document types.
Document permission design, retention configuration and audit log locations so your team can review them.
Walk through the handover with your administrators and record open items with owners and dates.

How we support

Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer after handover.
Plan upgrades one major release at a time, with backups taken and third-party components checked first.
Confirm with your team which support tier, response times and maintenance lifecycle your platform edition provides.