Gourt Home::Gourt :: Document management system
A document management system (DMS) is a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. Document management systems commonly provide storage, versioning, metadata and security. The term has some overlap with enterprise content management.
Document management systems are becoming an essential part of the modern company's disaster plan. Many companies employ advanced techniques to ensure their electronic data is properly backed up, but few ensure paper documentation is held securely. Something in the region of 76% of business that have a disaster affecting paper storage will go out of business. Document management systems can help retain the vast amounts of information currently held within paper documents and protect it from future disaster.
Document management systems can save a tremendous amount of time, even in cases with small numbers of documents, like home bill payment or personal tax preparation. It is somewhat odd that they aren't more widely used, but some of this is likely the fault of the scanning step. Many systems include their own high-speed black and white scanner to make this step as easy as possible, or can incorporate existing office multifunction printers.
History
Beginning in the 1980s, a number of vendors began developing systems to manage paper-based documents. Initially designed to primarily offer document imaging-level capture, storage, indexing and retrieval capabilities, over time, the applications grew to encompass electronic documents, collaboration tools, security and auditing capabilities.
FileNet was the first company in the early 80's to create a commercially successful document imaging solution for businesses. This required FileNet not only to produce software but also provide the necessary hardware for its software to run on. This included customized workstations running FDOS (FileNet DOS) with special graphic cards for the then uncommon hi-resolution 19+ monitors.
In 1987, Laserfiche developed the first commercially successful DOS-based document imaging system.. The system used commercial off the shelf components such as OCR boards from Kurzweil, graphics monitors from Cornerstone, scanner interface boards by Kofax.
PC DOCS innovated deep integration with the wordprocessing and spreadsheet authoring applications, and led the charge into the law firm market, which adopted IDM in great numbers during the 1990s. In addition to integrating with the front-office authoring applications, PC DOCS also integrated deeply with the underlying LAN-operating system, tying the system into NetWare directory services and LAN security.
In 1993 Laserfiche released the first PC-based client-server document imaging system, based on the Netware Loadable Modules platform.
Current leaders in the market include Laserfiche, Interwoven (formerly iManage), Documentum, Open Text, Hummingbird, Microsoft (with SharePoint), FileNet and Saperion.
Features
Metadata
Metadata is typically stored with each document. This includes the date the document was stored, and the identity of the user storing it. It may also extract metadata from the document or prompt the user to add metadata. Some systems also perform an OCR on scanned images, or text extraction for electronic documents. The text is stored with the image. This metadata is useful to assist users in locating documents.Integration
Many document management systems attempt to intregrate document management directly into other applications, so that users may retrieve existing documents directly from the document management system repository, make changes, and save the changed document back to the repository as a new version, all without leaving the application. Such integration is commonly available for office suites and e-mail software. Integration often uses open standards such as ODMA, LDAP, WebDAV and SOAP to allow integration with other software and compliance with internal controls.See also
External links
- Simple diagram to illustrate Document Management
- Document Management definitions
- Document Management Glossary of Terms
- Glossary of Document Management Definitions
References
"Document management system"