What did Linda do with that contract after she edited it? I know that Joe emailed it to her, and Betsy had it before that. But what change did each person make?

Sound familiar? This is a problem that most businesses face. You start out managing your important files in an ad hoc manner: email, disks, and if you have a file server, on a certain share. You change the filename at important points, but it's never at the right frequency, you lose important versions, you never know where to find the current version.

Once you start getting more than a few computers in the office, this problem gets magnified to the point where your employees waste entire days trying to track down the right documents.

Aren't computers supposed to save time, not waste it?

Fortunately, you are not alone. All kinds of people have this exact problem. Programmers have been dealing with it since the beginning of computing. And since there are a lot of smart programmers, there are some effective solutions. 

At Freelock, LLC, we call these solutions "Content Management Systems." There are many software packages available to help you do this, with different features. We can help you determine what features you need, and install, administer, or host a Content Management System for you for a predictable set price.

Elements of the best Content Management Systems include:

• Revision Control: the ability to store multiple versions of a document, access earlier versions, and compare them to see what has changed.
• Access Control: the ability to see who is currently working on a document, and prevent or resolve conflicts.
• Logging: a complete history of who has worked on each document, when, and how.
• Tagging: the ability to mark specific versions as official, but continue to draft improvements.
• Branching: the ability to customize a document for different needs, and keep track of where the versions split.