Active Navigation to review and structure complete business inventory for secondary education trust
SSAT selects Active Navigation to improve employee response time
Southampton 13 May 2008 – The Specialist Schools and Academy Trust (SSAT), a not for profit education organisation, has selected Active Navigation to enhance the document classification and search capabilities of its new Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services 2007 (MOSS) document management system. The new system will simplify its electronic filing system by reducing the number of redundant documents on its server and improving SSAT’s search facility – making it easier for staff throughout the organisation to find and access information and to respond quickly and effectively to external queries, such as Freedom of Information requests.
SSAT selected Active Navigation after a successful proof of concept exercise in which it demonstrated its ability to meet SSAT’s objectives. SSAT is currently rolling out the technology and will be working with Active Navigation partner, Oyster IMS, on the implementation. Active Navigation’s software will review, de-duplicate and analyse the content of SSAT’s legacy systems, which contain nearly 500,000 documents. The legacy content will then be migrated into the new MOSS system using metadata. Active Navigation’s content analysis feature will revise the corporate folder structure, creating a simplified taxonomy for filing documents on the server.
“With 100 of our 390 staff working remotely, it is essential that our tenders, bids, reports and other business information are easy to file, find and access. Active Navigation will help to make this happen,” said Sarah Mitchell, head of information services at SSAT. “Active Navigation’s capabilities combined with the MOSS document management platform will provide us with a robust, easy-to-use system that will equip our employees to reduce the response time to requests and to comply with the necessary government regulations.”
To help SSAT comply with data protection and digital asset management regulations, Active Navigation will also identify and isolate all of the trust’s multi-media files, which will then be stored in centrally managed folders, each with clearly assigned ownership. This will reduce the amount of large files on SSAT’s system, freeing up storage space on the server and speeding up its network performance.
“Active Navigation allows SSAT to be confident of its data quality – a necessity for public-facing bodies in today’s stringent regulatory environment,” said Peter Baumann, CEO of Active Navigation. “SSAT will also be able to review and cleanse its legacy data, as well as to apply and capture metadata in order to simplify and improve its filing system.”
“Our experience of working with blue chip companies in data and information management has proved invaluable with SSAT,” said Josef Elliott, managing director of Oyster IMS. “Data cleanliness, accessibility and privacy are all of key importance to organisations, regardless of whether they are in the private, public or charitable sectors.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Active Navigation:
Active Navigation was originally founded to commercialise innovative hypertext systems research carried out at the University of Southampton. Since its incorporation in 2000 the company has developed software to address the needs of today’s information-laden enterprises.
Active Navigation has pioneered a unique approach resulting in a system that automatically and intelligently manages unstructured information. This enables enterprises to extract maximum potential from their content instead of wasting precious time trying to find it. Organisations also benefit from significant storage savings through Active Navigation’s audit and de-duplication capabilities. Secure, stable, and seamlessly integrated, the software includes elegant and intuitive interfaces that dramatically enhance the user experience.
Today many well-known public and commercial organisations use Active Navigation’s software. Recent and current customers include: the Royal Air Force, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Homeland Security, Halcrow Group, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority, Jane’s Information Group and Lloyd’s of London.
Active Navigation is a privately held company with offices in the United Kingdom and United States of America. For further information about Active Navigation, please visit: activenavigation.com or contact Active Navigation on +44 (0) 23 8076 7678 .
For further press information please contact Xanthe Vaughan Williams at Fourth Day Public Relations on +44 (0) 20 7403 4411 or email xanthe@fourthday.co.uk.
About Oyster IMS:
Oyster IMS provides information management consultancy, project management and implementation services to a wide range of private and public sector organisations. The particular skill sets of Oyster IMS consultants are in designing and implementing document management, records management, data migration and document capture solutions for our clients. Projects include strategic reviews, business requirements gathering, tender management, system selection and full implementation services.
Clients span a variety of sectors and include GlaxoSmithKline, Irwin Mitchell, Taylor Wessing, Monarch Airlines and Partner Re as well as the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. For more information about Oyster IMS please visit www.oyster-ims.com or call 020 7199 0620 .
About SSAT:
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust is an independent, not for profit education organisation. Its aim is to give practical support to the transformation of secondary education in England by building and enabling a world-class network of innovative, high-performing secondary schools in partnership with business and the wider community.