Electronic Document Management systems are an indispensable feature within the offices of many of the world's most successful international businesses. They have the power to transform organisations from sluggish, confused and paper-laden box-ticking operations into efficient, dynamic power-houses, freeing up spare capacity and time. But for a technology which has so much to offer, for those outside the field, document management software can seem something of a closed world; an impenetrable maze of concepts and phrases that seem rather more intended to befuddle than to assist. To make life a little easier for the un-initiated, here we provide a brief introduction to electronic document management systems and background on some of the key related terms you're most likely to encounter with document management software.
Electronic Document Management - What is it?
Electronic Document Management is all about how we handle our paperwork. Since the advent of word processing and the computerization of the workplace, much of the day-to-day paper work that would clutter offices and filing rooms in times gone by has been eliminated. The humble email account has done away with the piles of notes and memos that would cover our desks of old. And even the most basic email account today gives users the ability to trace back through our communications, months, even years; so most office workers don't need to hang on to very much by way of paperwork at all. But certain documents you can never dispense with - just as you'll always need a passport going through customs, your workplace will always have to hang onto certain key pieces of documentation and paperwork. And statutory requirements demand that most companies retain copies of particular documents in order to comply with accounting and other legal obligations. And for organisations within certain sectors, for instance, the medical profession, these documentary burdens can be more onerous than for others.
Document management systems provide digital solutions aimed at eliminating as much of that remaining paper work as possible. Using the latest document management software and scanning technology, hard-copies of documents can be safely digitised, often in a way that allows them to remain legally compliant even in their digital form, so that important pieces of paperwork no longer need to take up valuable physical space within the workplace and can be safely and securely accessed digitally by whomsoever you wish within your organisation. In many cases, this digitisation of documents enables companies to dramatically widen the number of individuals within the organisation who will have access to certain key documents which may previously have been reserved to the necessary few. This 'universalization' of information can often have a marked impact on efficiency levels and will often lead to significant improvements to a company's in internal organisational structuring. So, in short, document management solutions enable companies to digitise as much as possible of their essential paper-work into an acceptable, workable and legally compliant format and provide a system by which these documents may be routed around an organisation, often according to an automatic 'rules-based' process; thus ensuring whichever department, whichever individual whose attention is required, will be able to receive these documents as efficiently and as speedily as possible.
Key Document Management System Terms:
Capture
This refers to the process by which images from documents are transferred digitally via a scanner or a multifunctional printer or multifunctional device to a computer system/network. One will often encounter the term Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software when discussing capture which is the process for converting images of text into a usable, editable text format.
Workflow
Workflow refers to what is often quite a complex process and a process of which there are a number of varieties. Usage will depend on the document management system in which it is applied. Manual workflow is where a user will be required to make decisions as to where a given scanned-in/digitised image will be routed. A rules-based workflow allows an administrator to create a rule or a number of rules which will determine the flow of digitised documents through an organisation. Typically, an invoice will be routed around a company during an approval process, stopping at various relevant individuals and finally ending up in the accounts payable department. Dynamic rules provide possibilities for a number of branches within the workflow for a given document type. For example, if an invoice amount falls below a certain level, the given invoice can be routed to a lower priority batch. Advanced workflow options can even provide possibilities for content manipulation or the introduction of an external process on the data in question.
Retrieval
Retrieval describes the process by which documents are taken out of storage. Simple document retrieval will usually be possible by the user entering a specific, unique document identifier, where the system will be able to retrieve the document using a basic index. But there are more flexible means of retrieval available within certain document management software packages. The user may specify partial search terms, either involving the document identifier, or information from the metadata (see later). This would typically retrieve a list of all those documents which match the user's search terms. Some systems even provide the capability of searching by a 'Boolean' expression, which may contain multiple keywords or example phrases that would be expected to found within the document's contents.
Metadata
Metadata is certain key data extracted from, based on or relating to the contents of a document. For example, metadata relating to a specific document may be the date on which it was stored within the document management system or the name of the author of that document. Document management systems will often automatically extract metadata from a document or prompt a user to enter metadata when storing a document in the document management system. Metadata can then be used in indexing documents within the system and conversely when a user is attempting to locate one.
That should provide something of an introduction to the field of electronic document management and some of the terms document management users will often come across. Falcon will no doubt be writing more about developments in Document Management in the near future, so do keep you eyes peeled.
Jeremy Samson is a leading imaging technology writing, covering all the latest developments in the document management industry.
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