Today, every shared drive at Dataforth is open to every employee. Anyone who logs in can open, change, or delete anything, including Payroll, OSHA records, Purchase Orders, and the accounting files.

This plan reorganizes those drives so each department sees only what it needs, the sensitive areas are locked down, and access stays simple to manage. The encouraging part: your drives are already arranged by department. We are largely tidying that structure and adding the access controls that should have been there all along.

How to read this

Section 1 is the proposed folder layout. Section 2 is who would get access. Section 3 is the short list of things we need from you to finalize it. Nothing on your systems changes until you approve the plan.

1

## Proposed folder layout

Everything would sit under one clear, consistent structure. You still reach your files the same way (your familiar mapped drives can stay). This is about how folders are grouped, and who can open them.

Departments
Team access

Each team's working files. People see their own department; another department is added only when there is a reason to.

Engineering & Test Engineering Manufacturing / Production Quality / Calibration Sales & Marketing Shipping / Receiving Purchasing IT
Restricted
Named people only

Sensitive data, walled off from general staff. Only specific people (HR, Finance, management) are granted access.

Accounting & Finance (Sage, QuickBooks, invoices) Payroll HR OSHA / Safety records Purchase Orders
Company-Wide
Everyone: view

Shared resources everyone can read, with editing limited to the owners so nothing gets changed by accident.

Forms Policies Templates Scanned Documents General Documents
User Folders
Private

A private home folder per employee. Only that person and IT can see inside. This replaces the loose person-named folders scattered across the drives today.

Archive
Read-only history

Old engineering archives and material from former staff, kept for reference, read-only, out of everyone's daily view.

Behind-the-scenes systems stay exactly where they are so nothing breaks: the DOS test stations, the website datasheet system, the IT software library, and the live Sage accounting database. We handle those separately.

2

## Who would get access

Access is granted by department group, not person by person. We add an employee to their department group and they immediately get the right folders; if they change teams, we move the membership. There are two simple levels:

### RW Read / Write

Open, edit, and save files in their department's folders.

### RO Read-Only

View files another department owns, without changing them.

Our starting assumption: each department owns its own area, and the sensitive folders are restricted. This is the grid we would like you to confirm or correct in Section 3.
Department | Engr | Mfg | Quality | Sales | Shipping | Purch | Company-Wide | Restricted
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Engineering | RW | RO | RO | · | · | · | RO | ·
Manufacturing / Prod. | RO | RW | RO | · | RO | · | RO | ·
Quality / Calibration | RO | RO | RW | · | · | · | RO | ·
Sales & Marketing | · | · | · | RW | RO | · | RO | ·
Shipping / Receiving | · | RO | · | RO | RW | · | RO | ·
Purchasing | · | · | · | · | · | RW | RO | PO only
Accounting / Finance | · | · | · | · | · | RO | RO | RW
HR / Payroll | · | · | · | · | · | · | RO | RW
IT | RO | RO | RO | RO | RO | RO | RW | by request
Management / Exec | RO | RO | RO | RO | RO | RO | RO | as needed

RW read & write · RO read-only · · no access. Restricted covers Payroll, OSHA, Accounting, and Purchase Orders.

3

## What we need from you

A few answers let us finalize the plan and build it. A short call works too if that is easier.

Confirm the departments in Section 1. Add, remove, or rename any that are off.

Confirm or correct the access grid in Section 2 (who gets Read/Write, Read-Only, or no access for each area).

Name the people for the sensitive areas. Exactly who should see Payroll, OSHA records, Purchase Orders, and Accounting? This usually needs HR and Finance sign-off.

Department rosters. Which employees are in which department. An existing org chart or staff list is perfect.

Cleanup. Are there folders (the "do not use" ones, old per-person folders) you already know are safe to archive or remove?

Exceptions. Anyone who needs cross-department access, plus any contractors or outside parties.

Once we have this, we send back a final "who sees what" map for your sign-off, then implement it in stages so nobody loses access unexpectedly. Nothing changes until you approve the plan.