This document summarizes a meeting about developing a meeting management system for the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) using the Alfresco content management platform. It discusses the challenges of managing information across multiple VMM locations, the need for improved access controls and versioning. An external company was hired to help develop the solution using an agile process of workshops, sprints, testing and demos. The resulting system provides personalized dashboards, tools for creating and managing meeting sites, agendas, minutes and action items in a decentralized manner. Lessons learned emphasized finding a balance between big and small solutions, and the benefits of an iterative development approach. Future plans include expanding the system to support quality management, project management and case

1. Meeting
management
Alfresco Day Brussels 2016
David Moeyersons
Eric Germonpré

2. 2
Flanders Environment AGENCY
(VMM)
Water
Air
Environment

3. 3
Flanders Environment AGENCY
(VMM)

4. 4
Flanders Environment AGENCY
(VMM)
AALST – BRUSSEL – OOSTENDE – GENT
LEUVEN – HASSELT ‐ ANTWERPEN – HERENTALS – MECHELEN

5. The challenge in
information management

6. What is the challenge we are facing?
In general
Multiple fysical VMM locations from Oostend to Hasselt
Documents on SAN‐structure
difficult to manage
no real versioning
growth of documents is sometimes organically.
Need of a universal classification (business proces)
More automation (efficiency and effectiveness)
No delegated access (IT‐helpdesk)
Information management and lifecycle plan (informatiebeheerplan)
6

7. 7
Project management
Case management
Knowledge management
Meeting management
Quality management
Scanning
Classification
Photo management
The challenge : 8 different domains in
a roadmap

8. The challenge : 8 different domains in
a roadmap
8
Business value
Complexity
complex simple

9. Why was Alfresco selected as
solution?
Alfresco was already used in previous setups
Alfresco can be used as the technology foundation for all planned
applications
The Share environment is a user‐friendly front‐end user interface,
that not only focuses on folder structures
Alfresco is a mature system
Competitive in price compared to other DMS products
The use of sites and decentralized user management
9

10. Our approach

11. 11
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
PROJECT MEETING MANAGEMENT
• Sponsor:
Eric Vreye – Head of department Kennisbeheer
• Project Leader:
Eric Germonpré – Team leader Kennismanagement
• Technical contact:
David Moeyersons – Kennismanagement
Ingo Van den Broeck – Kennismanagement (back‐up)

12. 12
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
May 2015
External support recruited:
• A functional analyst:
AMPLEXOR
• Two software developers :
AMPLEXOR

13. 13
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
August to September 2015
• 5 workshops over 4 weeks, led by the functional
analyst
• A group of 4‐6 employees was selected to
participate in the workshop:
• members of the Board of Directors
• members of the workgroup Measuring Water
Strategy
• The sponsor, the project leader and technical contact
participated in the workshops

14. 14
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
August to September 2015
• Before each workshop the analyst prepared a
proposal based on:
• Own knowledge and experience
• Input from the members of the workshop
• During each workshop the proposal was presented
with a prototype and it was adjusted according to
the input of the members.
• Feedback session

15. 15
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
September to December 2015
• 4 consecutive sprints of 3 to 4 weeks each

16. 16
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
Start
development
of new sprint
Create
documentation
of previous sprint
Test previous
sprint
Commit bugsBug fixing
Close
development
of sprint
Demo of
finalized
sprint
Lifecycle of
a sprint

17. 17
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
Development
• During development of a sprint :
• new functionalities were added
• the previous sprint was documented
• the previous sprint was tested
• bugs and changes were committed
• known bugs got fixed and changes were applied
• After development a demo was presented by the
functional analyst showing the newly developed
functionality

18. 18
Recruitment Analysis
Development
and testing
Testing
• The testing was done by a group of testers:
• Members of our own team – 4 people
• The members who participated in the
workshops – 4 people
• Employees of different departments – 8 people
• The testers committed their bugs in the bug
reporting system of VMM
• The technical contact collected and reviewed the
bugs and posted them in the bug reporting system of
AMPLEXOR

19. The solution

20. Information architecture for meeting
management
20
Meeting
types (sites)
Meetings
Agenda items
Agenda‐level
documents
Meeting‐level
documents
Action points
e.g.
• Board of Directors
• Workgroup Measuring
Water Strategy
• Team
Knowledge Management
DOC :The minutes of
the meeting (verslag)
DOC :Agenda
Annexe to the minutes (bijlagen)

21. Decentralized policy
21
Meeting
types (sites)
Meetings
Agenda items
Agenda‐level
documents
Meeting‐level
documents
Action points
first time creation :
Alfresco Administrator
Chairman
Secretary
Members
Members
Members
Chairman
Secretary

22. 22
Personal dashboard 22

23. 23
Personal dashboard
My sites
23

24. 24
Personal dashboard
Collaboration site
24

25. 25
Personal dashboard
Meeting site
25

26. 26
Personal dashboard
My meeting information
26

27. 27
Personal dashboard
Meetings
27

28. Action points
Personal dashboard
28

29. Agenda items
Personal dashboard
29

30. 30
Personal dashboard
Create meeting site
30

31. 31
Creating a meeting site 31

32. Meeting site dashboard
32

33. Meeting site dashboard
My meeting information
33

34. Meeting site dashboard
Create meeting
34

35. 35
Create a meeting 35

36. Content of a meeting
36

37. Content of a meeting
37

38. Content of a meeting
Agenda items
38

39. Content of a meeting
Agenda
39

40. Content of a meeting
Minutes of the
meeting
40

41. Content of a meeting
Open agenda items
41

42. Agenda items
42

43. 43
Create agenda item
Agenda items 43

44. 44
Creating an agenda item 44

45. 45
Agenda items 45

46. 46
Agenda items
Open agenda item
46

47. Agenda item content
47

48. 48
Agenda item content
Create meeting agenda
48

49. 49
Generated meeting agenda
49

50. 50
Generated meeting agenda
50

51. 51
Generated meeting agenda
51

52. 52
Generated meeting agenda
52

53. 53
Generated meeting agenda
53

54. 54
Manage attendees
Agenda items 54

55. 55
A member can be:
• Present
• Absent
• Excused
• Replacement
Manage attendees 55

56. 56
Agenda items
Order agenda items
56

57. 57
Order agenda items
Order agenda items:
‐ Sequentially
‐ Under themes
‐ Under sub‐themes
57

58. 58
Other actions
• Manage external members
• Send notifications
• Manage agenda structure template
• Manage agenda item report template
• Make recurring agenda item
• Attach action point to agenda items
58

59. 59
Agenda items
Minutes of the meeting
59

60. 60
Generated meeting report
60

61. 61
Generated meeting report
61

62. 62
Generated meeting report 62

63. Action points
63

64. 64
Advanced search
Several search options
64

65. 65
Advanced search
Search on agenda item
65

66. 66
Advanced search 66

67. Advanced search
Search on meetings
67

68. 68
Advanced search
Search on meeting documents
68

69. The conclusion

70. Lessons learned
Difficult to find general meeting management solutions, everyone
has his own methods, there are a lot of different sorts of meetings.
FIND A BALANCE
70

71. Lessons learned
Thinking big vs keeping it simple
71
Good business
solution

72. Lessons learned
System of sprints, iterations and predefined wireframes worked very
well.
We are convinced to build our next steps of the road map in the same
way as we did.
The product is mature and flexible enough to offer a solution.
72

73. Projects of the roadmap :
Quality management (to realize in 2016)
Project management (functional analysis 2016)
Case management (functional analysis 2017)
Why Quality management first?
Rather complex  more risks (cfr road map)
Users are demanding a DMS for a few years now.
A lot of old MS Access files linked to documents
new Licence with Microsoft.
MS Access is not a good practice
73
Future plans

74. Questions?