What is document management system?
Document management system is a computer system ( or set of computer programs ) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management systems.
Evolution
1. Beginning in the 1980s, a number of vendors began developing software systems to
manage paper-based documents. These systems dealt with paper documents, which
included not only printed and published documents, but also photographs, prints, etc.
2. Later developers began to write a second type of system which could manage
electronic documents, i.e., all those documents, or files, created on computers, and
often stored on users' local file-systems. The earliest electronic document
management (EDM) systems managed either proprietary file types, or a limited number
of file formats. Many of these systems later became known as document imaging
systems, because they focused on the capture, storage, indexing and retrieval of
image file formats. These systems enabled an organization to capture faxes and forms,
to save copies of the documents as images, and to store the image files in the
repository for security and quick retrieval (retrieval made possible because the system
handled the extraction of the text from the document in the process of capture, and the
text-indexer function provided text-retrieval capabilities).
3. EDM systems evolved to a point where systems could manage any type of file format
that could be stored on the network. The applications grew to encompass electronic
documents, collaboration tools, security, workflow, and auditing capabilities.
Advantages
• Reduced operational costs and administration time
• Easy, instant access to information
• Increased Productivity
• Efficient workflow and distribution of information
• Minimize risk – damaged, lost, out of date documents
• Complies with governments regulation on legal admissibility
Disadvantages
1. Physical Space
Document management systems often store information on servers or other powerful
computer systems. These electronic storage spaces often take up less space than
their physical counterpart.
2. Digital Archiving
Document management systems allow for the storage of the documents themselves
and also for past versions. This can help track revisions through time and provides an
extra benefit of being able to revert back to older documents. However, if this
information is not organized and stored correctly, there could be too many documents
and versions available, thereby causing an information overload problem to users.
3. Centralized Location
Document management systems are a centralized storage location where many users
can access the most current and up to date document from one central location. This
easy access to documents supports collaboration between many users. The
centralized location of documents also promotes easy distribution of documents to
users. However, electronic storage of digital documents in a single location may pose
an extra security risk unless extra security is added to protect the electronic system.
4. Additional Utilities Tools
Electronically storing and managing documents within an electronic document
management system allows for utility tools to provide additional features that were not
available in their physical counterpart. Searching through electronic documents is
easier than searching each document by hand. However many of these tools may be
unnecessary and may have a higher cost than value for companies.
