| What is Document Management? |
Why Your Business Needs Document Management Software
Document Management Explained
Document Management is the control of an organization's documents and their lifecycle, including how
and when documents are created, reviewed, published, utilized, retained and destroyed.
Document Management Software For Smaller Businesses
In the past, document management was a challenge most likely tackled by larger organizations due to
the sheer volume of documents they were required to manage. Document Management Software was also
priced to fit larger organizations budgets.
Smaller organizations and teams are however increasingly requiring better control of their document
lifecycle. Global compliance requirements, geographically dispersed teams and a desire to more
effectively manage knowledge, are all challenges faced by large and small organizations alike.
As a result, the Document Management Software you choose to utilize needs to fit your organization's
goals, culture, technology capabilities, and budget.
Ensuring Fit With Your Document Management Needs
A well-designed document management system is flexible enough to support both rigid workflows around
document and other record creation, retention and destruction, thus ensuring that you meet your legal
obligations, as well as a more loosely structured environment that may better support collaboration.
The document management system will not only store your documents but will also importantly provide
you with easy access to your documents, whether this be via a powerful search mechanism, tagging and
tag clouds, or an easy to use document browse interface.
A modern document management software system will allow you to share documents within your repository
via email, direct web links or RSS feeds.
The software will support the easy mapping of your organization or industry's standard document types
and metadata (information about the documents) into the repository.
The system will also provide you with a powerful but easy to use mechanism to control who accesses
which documents, whether they are allowed to edit the documents and whether the documents may be
emailed out of the document repository. The system will also provide your organization with access
to your documents via familiar interfaces, be they web-based or from within common office
productivity applications.
Document Management Software Purchasing Considerations
When selecting document management software, the following may be useful to consider:
Is the software easy to use, presenting user interface and filing concepts familiar to users?
Does it allow you to meet your organization's goals and fit your culture i.e. the software's
workflow capabilities should have the flexibility to provide you tight control over your document
lifecycle or a more loosely structured system.
Is the software accessible from existing tools such as Web Browsers, Office productivity
applications and email applications (such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook), and the Windows
Explorer.
Is the software available in a form that makes best sense to your organization: whether you need the
document management software installed on your own network or would like to purchase the "Software as
a Service" and leverage the vendor's infrastructure.
Document management is a long-term commitment: ascertain whether the software you choose to utilize
will lock you in indefinitely, or whether you have access to the software's source code and the
freedom to choose how you utilize the software.
The software should have lightweight, modern web and graphical user interfaces that work well over
your Intranet, Virtual Private Network and even Internet, allowing your remote users efficient
access to the document repository.
The software should allow you to secure your documents in the repository.
The software should provide support for common tools used for the volume digitization of paper
documents and integration with other devices that generate digital documents such as fax servers.
Document Management Solution Implementation Review
PSS-Europe is a partner with SORCE providing a document management solution as part of an overall
Intranet solution. Contact PSS-Europe for a free review meeting.
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