The file share becomes a knowledge source
In most companies the document store has grown over twenty years: a network drive nine folder levels deep, the same quotation in twelve versions, permissions from a time nobody remembers. That store is the largest untapped knowledge source in the company and at the same time the reason why search and AI deliver nothing usable there.
We turn it into a governed, file-based repository, on Microsoft SharePoint, on a Swiss platform or in a classic document management system. The principle stays the same; the choice follows your landscape.
The grown network drive is not an archive
It is a warehouse. The difference: an archive knows what it contains. A warehouse only knows where something was put and only for as long as the person who put it there is still around.
Twelve versions, none valid
«Quote_final», «Quote_final_v2», «Quote_final_NEW_rev_MK». Anyone unfamiliar picks the wrong one and sends it to the customer. Without enforced version control this does not happen rarely, it happens regularly.
Folders instead of properties
A document can only sit in one folder but often belongs to several contexts: the customer, the project and the asset. So it gets copied and from then on the versions drift apart.
Permissions from the past
Rights hang off folders and were granted one by one over years. Nobody can say reliably who sees what. That very uncertainty blocks every AI initiative, rightly so.
Six decisions · nothing more is needed
A repository is not created by a migration but by a framework of order that every new document then inherits automatically. The six decisions are made in one workshop: the effect lasts decades.
Document types
Quotation, contract, drawing, minutes, test report, each type with its own mandatory fields and its own template. A contract without a counterparty cannot even be filed.
Shared vocabulary
Customers, projects, assets and sites come from a maintained list, not from free text. Otherwise «Alpsteiner Ltd», «Alpsteiner» and «Alpst. Machinery» are three different customers.
One valid version
Versioning with a clear release state: there is exactly one valid document, earlier versions remain traceable. The file name no longer carries a version number.
Retention and deletion
Rules per type: what must be kept for ten years is not deleted, what may go after three disappears automatically. Both are obligations, not optional extras.
Permissions on the content
Rights follow the document type and confidentiality level, not the folder. That is the precondition for an assistant later showing only what the person asking may see.
Search instead of navigation
Things are found through properties and full text, not by clicking through the tree. The folder path becomes a technical detail and may well stay flat.
Four routes · the same framework
We are technology-open and build where you have already invested. What matters is not the product but whether it can properly represent document types, properties, versioning, retention and permissions on content.
| Route | Typical components | Strength | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Microsoft world | SharePoint as the store with content types and managed metadata, OneDrive for personal working copies, Teams as the surface, retention rules from the compliance area, Copilot as a search surface on top | Already licensed, familiar in daily work, direct connection to search and assistance, without an additional system | Only takes effect with maintained content types; without a framework it stays a network drive in the cloud |
| Swiss platform | File services from Swiss providers with storage, sharing and versioning, data held in the country, open interfaces | Data under Swiss law, markedly lower cost per seat, little vendor lock-in | Less deep metadata capability, properties and rules have to be designed deliberately |
| Classic document management | Specialised systems with strong metadata handling, filing plans, audit-proof storage and approval workflows | Strongest order and evidential quality, designed for retention obligations and audits | An additional system with its own licence and its own interface, adoption needs support |
| Open and file-based | Open file formats with properties, storage on your own server, versioning through a management system, your own search index | No lock-in, entirely in house, very low running costs, directly connectable to your own models | Less convenient for occasional users; needs clear rules and some in-house care |
In practice the store often grows as a mix: day-to-day collaboration in the Microsoft world, retention-bound records in the specialised system, technical documentation open and file-based. That is not a break, as long as the framework of order is the same across all routes.
An assistant is only as good as the store beneath it
Most disappointing AI experiences in companies share one cause: the assistant was let loose on an ungoverned file store. It then finds twelve versions of the same quotation and picks one and nobody can say why that one.
What the store must be able to do in Switzerland
The requirements have been stable and well documented for years. They are not an obstacle. But they decide whether a platform qualifies at all.
| Requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Ten years of retention | Accounting books, vouchers, business reports and audit reports must be retained for ten years under the Swiss Code of Obligations; the period starts at the end of the financial year. |
| Electronic is permitted | Retention may be electronic, provided that correspondence with the underlying business transaction is guaranteed and the records can be made readable at any time. |
| Integrity must be assured | On modifiable media, storage is only permitted if technical and organisational procedures assure integrity, time of storage and traceability. In practice: versioning, logging and deletion protection for retention-bound types. |
| Readability across the period | Whatever must still be readable in ten years belongs in a long-lived format, an argument for open formats and against proprietary containers. |
| Data protection | Personal data in the store falls under the revised Swiss Data Protection Act: purpose limitation, a deletion concept, governed processing when operated in the cloud, documented permissions. |
What changes in daily work
| Searching instead of clicking | A document is found through its properties, including by people who do not know the folder tree. New colleagues can give answers from day one. |
| No more wrong versions | What the customer receives is the released version. The embarrassing follow-up call disappears. |
| One document, several contexts | The drawing appears under the project, the asset and the customer, without a copy and without drift. |
| Permissions become explainable | Who sees what follows from type and confidentiality instead of a historically grown rights structure. |
| Retention runs by itself | Periods are on file: what must be kept stays, what has expired disappears. That also eases data protection. |
| Storage and cost fall | Duplicates and legacy holdings become visible during the assessment. In projects of this kind the active store regularly shrinks substantially. |
| AI becomes applicable | Every search and every future agent tool draws on the same governed store, with sources and within permissions. |
In waves, not in one go
A single large migration nearly always fails, on volume, on adoption, or both. We start where it hurts most.
Assessment
What sits where, how much of it is duplicated, what has not been opened for five years? The result is a reliable figure and usually the realisation that a large part of the store does not need to come along at all.
Framework of order
Document types, properties, versioning, retention and permissions are defined and built in the chosen platform. From here on every new document inherits the order automatically.
Migration and operation
Area by area, with properties assigned automatically where possible. Legacy content moves to the archive by rule rather than travelling along unchecked. Then handover to your own people.
The third source in the knowledge base
The ERP core supplies the verified figures, meeting capture the spoken word and the repository the documents in which both are recorded. Only together do they form a body of knowledge a company-owned assistant can answer from reliably.
Solution 01, Corporate knowledge management →How many versions does your most important quotation have?
In a first conversation we look at your document store and say what a framework of order would concretely deliver for you.
Get in touch → All solutions