As the name implies, a document management system is basically a software package that helps to increase the productivity and efficiency of your company by organizing your documents into an easily accessible system of searchable archives. Which document management system is right for you for you will depend greatly on what kind of work your company does and what kind of information you need to store.
Document Organization and Security
Regardless of the specific demands of your business, most good document management systems have a number of things in common. A good system will be able to keep your documents organized and safe while integrating smoothly with any other software you may use. It will present a clear solution for inserting your information into the workflow that you define and will be easily searchable. Most businesses need their document management systems to provide a permissions scheme that will allow company managers to give access to certain documents to certain people and deny access to others.
Disaster Recovery
There should be a good disaster recovery system in place in any document management system. Multiple backup copies of your information should be securely stored in multiple locations to ensure that your information is not lost regardless of any catastrophes that may take place.
Document Capture
It’s important that the document system you choose offers document capture solutions that are compatible with your business. The user interface should be easy to learn and use, and printing documents from the repository should be easy. The best document management systems also include character recognition systems, text indexing, and bar code reading. A solid document control system is also important to make sure that only authorized people have access to your information.
Document Control
Document control is an essential part of a document management system. There should be an approval process that is secure yet not cumbersome. The approval process should be highly visible and easily completed. There should be a custom naming scheme to allow users to set document and version control numbers to help differentiate between documents and track their life cycle. Document ownership should be cleared defined and changes should only be allowed by those with the correct privileges to private piracy or even theft.
Three popular document management systems on the market today are SharePoint, Documentum, and Alfresco.
SharePoint is available as either a free or premium Microsoft application and comes with all the user-friendliness and Windows integration expected from any Microsoft software. It has a wide variety of customization methods and allows for easy permission and version control. SharePoint has a limited, text search function that is complemented by separate application provided by Microsoft, the Microsoft Search Server Express, to provide comprehensive document searching features. The resource for the above information on SharePoint can be found at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SharePoint.
Documentum is one of the most secure document management systems available, providing a strict set of compliance rules under which documents are stored. Documentum also offers excellent search and content classification features as well as easy management of input, business processes, customer communications, web content, and digital assets. A comprehensive resource on Documentum can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentum.
Alfresco is an open source document management and is provided free of charge by its distributors. Alfresco is designed for consumers who need a very scalable performance and offers multi-platform and multi-language support as well as a high degree of integration and flexibility. More information can be found at the following resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfresco_(software).
Choosing a document management system takes time and effort to validate the current systems available. It is important to remember above all things that user adoption also plays an important role. Without proper training, end users can be intimidate, even resentful of the new system.
If you need documentation management or SharePoint end user training contact me to discuss your company training needs.
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