Many failed OA projects fail on acceptance: leadership treats “we can upload Word and find last year’s contract” as done. That is a filing cabinet. Work-entry acceptance is: a leave request, an expense, or a seal request does not count unless it went through the system.
The group approves first; someone later drops a scan into a folder. Contracts archive by year; nobody is nudged at renewal. To-dos stay empty because the work already happened outside. Audit can find a file, not the rule or approver at the time.
Open a ticket before the work starts. Routing, chase, and handoff happen on the ticket. Contract versions and seals bind to a ticket number. People can check status themselves. WeChat only pushes to-dos; it does not take formal approvals.
A filing cabinet looks like “we have a system” while work still lives in the group. For the trail comparison, see WeChat group management vs. a system: which one leaves a trail. A back office nobody opens is usually treated as a cabinet; see If nobody opens the system after launch, was it worth building?. If contracts are only a pile of PDFs, renewals and seals still live in someone’s head; see Once contracts live in one ledger, renewals and seals are not tribal knowledge.
A cabinet list is usually capacity, folders, and download. A work-entry list is behavior: can payroll close if leave never entered the system; can a seal go out without a ticket number; will finance pay without a ticket. Without those lines, both sides feel finished at go-live, and admin is still collecting paper three months later. How collaboration changes once you can chase a ticket: see How work changes when approvals can be chased and tracked.
You do not have to upgrade the cabinet in one shot. Convert three to five high-frequency flows into entries first; keep historical attachments read-only. In cabinet mode, admin’s busiest job is “find last year’s scan.” In work-entry mode, lookup is by ticket number and admin works exceptions. One kind of busy can be handed over; the other leaves with the person.
When DaXi takes a brief, we ask first: which step should people finish in the back office? If the answer is “just store it,” we flag the cabinet ceiling. If it is “it does not count unless it went through the system,” the design is an entry. Go to the Management systems service page and describe how work happens today. Why packaged OA often stalls as a cabinet: see A packaged OA nobody uses is almost as bad as having none.
Describe where approvals actually happen today, and the design will be cut as a work entry—not another folder.