Information management, or highfalutin consulting:   Do you really need it?

AINTscience News, Oslo, Norway:

Small businesses can rarely afford advanced information manage­ment systems. To avoid get­ting stiffed by high priced con­sul­tants at the one end or building expensive, home-grown solutions at the other, the company Compu­ters and Learning AS has invented a simple solution. It is a "file system directory structure", and is basically what you get when you organize files into directories in a certain way.

The solution is called AINTscience, because it's quite simple, and therefore it doesn't cost much more than a book.

So how does it work? We asked the inventor, a former researcher from the University of Oslo, Kjell Øystein Arisland, a friendly-looking, grey-haired 55-year old.

"Well, you put the information files in at this end, turn the handle and collect the nicely bundled file directories that come out at the other end in a regular file server", he said.

"Then when you want to find any file in the bundled directories you just turn this switch from "place file" to "find file", stick your hand into the machine and turn the handle. After one full turn your hand is right above the file you want, and you can yank it out. Don't turn the handle around more than once, though. I tried two turns, and the darn thing dislocated my shoulder."

But seriously, folks, that's roughly how AINTscience works, only the machine is a system of rules, concepts and procedures that are applied in a set sequence, both to place files and to find files. The system is easy to learn and use, and it AINTscience, it just works.

"One nice feature is that you get more quality time with your files using AINTscience, as it teaches you to better understand their little ways and you get more in touch with your own feelings for the files. It is much better to take care of your precious information files yourself than to leave them to some stranger who will never be able to fully appreciate them. Files are family, you know." says Arisland

To try out AINTscience yourself, get the book here.

Summary: Well structured organization of business document files on a regular file server is a very inexpensive way to implement document management that works well for most small businesses, and AINTscience shows how.