Establishing an online documentation system using Intranet

The company I am working for is considering ISO certification. We have some general questions about establishing an online documentation system using Intranet.
First of all, is it easier to begin with hardcopy control and then convert to online when we get used to document control or should we go online from the beginning?
Second, how are documents controlled? Using passwords to access documents for changes? But anyone can still print the documents and they are uncontrolled right? How can we indicate this?
We have many other questions, but I guess this is a good start!

Thanks

[Roger Eastin]

In my opinion, the first step should be to define your document control system regardless of whether you're going electronic or paper. That's the hard part. The technical solutions for an electronic system can be found (for instance, if most of your documents are in Word, then you can use a combination of the "routing slip" and "cut-and-paste" as a way to do review and approval). However, defining your system up front will guide you into solutions for implementing doc control. There are many innovative ways of doing doc control, so be sure to define the system for what will work for you!

[This message has been edited by Roger Eastin.]

Personally, I'm a big proponent of online documentation. In my book, it makes it much easier. You can lock out those you don't want making changes; you can set it up for easy review and approval; you can declare that any hard copies, i.e. printed, are uncontrolled. There are myriad uses with an electronic system. But that's not the only way to go. I know of a company who has a totally manual system based on the color of the paper. One color is controlled, the others are not. So it depends on what you want to do. Like Roger said, you should define your systsem first, then decide if you want to go electronic or not. Hope this helps.

[Marc]

Also see http://Elsmar.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000093.html