Electronic Document Management (EDM) - Steps Towards Better Workflow

Electronic mail has revolutionised business communication, while computerisation in general has defined a new era in the management of information.

With the electronic mail revolution and with computerisation in general, business communications have undergone massive changes in recent years. Traditional corporate communication methods such as mail, couriers, faxes, and even telephones have been downgraded in terms of importance for day-to-day business communications.

But with the changes have come some fresh challenges. Two in particular are at the top of the list of headaches for most organisations. Firstly, the problem of email overload, and how to file and allocate all the attached documentation which accrues. And secondly, the continuing need to manage electronic documents thus generated, and the more tradition paper-based documents which are still part of the business workflow.

Workflow problems: an example

To solve the first problem, many software systems have been developed for email management. However, these do not necessarily solve the second problem, and at the same time, they miss the opportunity to attack both issues with one overall software solution. Consider this example situation. An invoice arrives in the regular mail and is filed by the bought ledger department. At the same time, a confirmation email arrives to the purchase initiator stating that the invoice has been sent. This gets copied to the accounts department via internal network. The accounts department can respond to this to acknowledge receipt, but crucially this is not electronically linked to the details of the invoice. Thus later, if a query arises, an email management system will be able to retrieve the email, but the invoice will take more hunting through other files. Thus time and money is unnecessarily wasted on searching for related information stored in different ways and formats.

Electronic Document Management solutions

For many businesses the solution is to be found in using electronic document management (EDM). EDM is a high-level storage system which collects, indexes and stores information in all forms - including email of course - and which consequently can be easily searched and audited by every staff member to whom it is relevant. An integrated, organised electronic document management system ensures a business is storing and protecting the important information and knowledge that make up the intellectual and intangible assets of the company. Additionally and crucially, it ensures a company meets its legal requirements for the storing and retrieving information which in some cases is a need that goes on for many years.

Things to look for in an EDM system

The best advice to begin with, is to ensure the EDM system can manage all types of document, not only email. This would include paper documents and well as electronic formats, for example faxes diary records and written reports. Also, of course, video and audio formats are often part of a company's knowledge base, and should be included.

The system should also be able to allow editing and modification (password protected) of documents from within the system. Originators of documents might be using their own particular front-end application, but where the document produced is shared, it should be editable via the EDM.

The system should allow access to records according to a managed set of rules and guidelines to be set up in the EDM system, with a corresponding audit trail to ensure security and accountability at all times.

How does EDM work?

They work by scanning documents into a system where they are automatically indexed and filed electronically, so documents can then be instantly recalled by searching on key words. The systems can work in tandem existing software such as accountancy packages and contact databases, so that output from several different systems may be electronically filed within the one overall meta-system.

How to choose an electronic document management system

One of the first things to look for is an electronic document management system that is very easy to use. It should be easy to install across a network, and be up and running within days. Pay attention to the user interface - the best systems have invested hugely in these, to ensure that staff will require minimal training to use the system. Remote access to documents should also be explored - finding documents while on the move should be straightforward.

Finally - the benefits

The man benefits to an EDM installation is improved productivity, better teamwork and work relations. Staff will become used to sharing knowledge and documents to the benefit of all. Less paper in the office makes environmental sense, with no space-consuming hard copies to find room for. In short, all data becomes instantly available at the touch of a button, offering peace of mind that company procedures can be followed in detail, and response to regulatory checks can be actioned the moment they are required.

Jimi St. Pierre writes for several office systems suppliers in the UK, including Principal Corporation. You can find out more about document management software on Principal's comprehensive office systems website at: => http://www.principalcorp.co.uk/

Document Management: Security Concerns

What Is A Security Threat?
A security threat is the possibility that unauthorized persons could access your documents. Such

unauthorized access could be by:
• Business competitors who want to get competitive information about your business
• Disgruntled employees who want to cause some kind of damage to you or your business
• Credit card and bank account thieves who want to steal money from you
• Hackers proud of their ability to crack passwords and other security measures and enter any

website they want to
• Different kinds of viruses that are proliferating on the net

Some of these unauthorized intruders want to steal sensitive details such as your planned business

tactics or your credit card/bank account numbers. Others seek to destroy the high-value data you

have assembled over the years at considerable cost. Either way, you stand to lose a lot of money

and/or be burdened with a lot of unproductive work such as recreating lost data.

Naturally, you would want to guard against the different kinds of security threats.
How Data Security Breaches Can Land You in Trouble
Security concerns are important not only for safeguarding your business but also for complying with

the law. Privacy regulations make it obligatory that you keep many kinds of information private. For

example, you have to make sure that financial and health information about your employees that

come into your possession is kept confidential. Any failure could invite legal action.
How Do Unauthorized Persons Access Your Data?
You implement document security management systems to prevent unauthorized access to your

data. However, you should first have a general idea of how unauthorized persons manage to access

your records. We can provide only a general idea, as newer ways are constantly being developed to

gain unauthorized data access.

• Spyware: Spyware is software that resides on your computer and gathers such sensitive data as

your web surfing habits, passwords, and credit card and bank account numbers. The spyware then

transmits this data to the originators. You protect yourself against these by installing spyware

detection and removal programs.
• Hacking: Experts who know how computers and security systems work can access data that

resides on remote systems. Once they gain entry, they could steal or damage the data. Hacking is

possible even during the transmission of data. You install firewalls and other protective defenses

against this kind of unauthorized access.
• Virus Attacks: Viruses are software programs that spread themselves across computers and

networks (including the Internet). They gain entry into your system in various ways and then damage

your data. Often, the damage involves complete destruction of the data. You are likely to already be

aware of virus attacks and anti virus software.

Thus both humans and software programs could access your data in an unauthorized manner.
How Do You Protect the Security of Your Data?
Data security is a complex field that is constantly evolving to meet new kinds of threats. We can only

look at this issue in a general way in a small article.

• Organizational Security: You develop organizational policies that clearly lay down who can access

what kind of data. Policies must also specify what each person can do with the data. You then

implement procedures that require proper authentication before each kind of data is accessed. For

example, sensitive data is stored in protected locations to which access is highly restricted. In a

computerized system, passwords and firewalls protect access to such data. Tracking procedures

keep an account of what each person does with the data.
• Protective Software: Anti virus, anti spyware and firewall programs could make it extremely difficult

for the different kinds of intruders to access your data.
• Data Encryption: Where digital data is transmitted over the net, it would be encrypted before

sending and decrypted at the receiving end. Only authorized persons possessing encryption keys

could then read the transmitted documents.
• Data Backup: Automated or manual procedures for backing up your data must be in place. This

would help you rebuild your records if your original data is destroyed.
• Security Reviews: Periodically, you review the results of your security procedures and incidents of

security breaches. Based on the findings, you update your safeguards.
• Expert Assistance: In the complex and evolving field of security, your best bet is to acquire the

expertise of those who specialize in this field.

Good document management systems incorporate many of these security procedures.

Authentication before access, making only essential data available to personnel and other measures

minimize the risks of typical security threats.

Document management systems typically allow scanning of paper documents and converting them

into an editable format. This in turn, would minimize the need to carry paper documents around, again

minimizing risks of loss and unauthorized access.
Conclusion
There are many kinds of data security threats that could cause serious financial loss and other kinds

of trouble to you. It is an unavoidable necessity to be aware of this aspect of document management

and take preventive measures.

We have looked at security concerns in a general way. The field of data security is a complex field and

it is better to attain the expert assistance of specialists for fool proofing your security.

Document management systems address several security concerns. For example, automatic backup,

password-protected access, different levels of read/write permissions and tracking of employee

actions are standard features of good document management systems.

By: Dustin Baker

Finding A Document Management Solution - In-House vs. Hosted Solutions

Before we get started, some of you may be asking what is document management?

Document Management is the ability to manage all of your paper documents in an electronic format.

Let's define "paper documents in electronic format".

Basically, there are two types of document management systems, either an in-house solution, or an

outsourced hosted solution.

So,which one will best suit your needs? Good question. Most companies base their decision on

available staff to maintain these systems, and the technical abilities of those staff members. Cost of a

solution is also a deciding factor. While the cost of an in-house solution is higher up front, having the

technical staff to support it, it typically pays off in the long run due to the calculated Return On

Investment (ROI). The lower cost of a hosted solution is appealing to many companies because this

solution puts the technical responsibilities on the solution provider. It's also beneficial in that most of

these solutions are web-based. While some companies can truly benefit from the hosted solution,

many can't due to confidentiality of the information contained within their organization.

Finding a solution to fit your company's needs can be a time consuming venture. We recommend you

first determine what solution fits your organization best, then shop for a solution with the features

best suited to your business needs.

How much office space can I save? Good question. It depends on the amount of paper files you

have taking up your valuable office space.

In most offices, there are filing cabinets everywhere. We've become attached and dependant on our

paper files. Since most companies are mandated to hold their records from 3 to 7 years, that adds up

to an exhaustive amount of paper needed to be maintained and stored. Where do you store it? In

your office? A records storage company? What are those costs? All these questions lead this topic in

a new direction. Why are you keeping these records in paper format? Why not an electronic format?

OK, let's look at some statistics. But before we do that, let's set the standard office environment so

we have a reference point to start from. Now for the breakdown:

A typical filing cabinet drawer holds about 3000 pages when full.
So a full 4 drawer cabinet holds about 12000 pages.

A lateral file drawer holds about twice or 50% more files.
So a full 2 drawer lateral cabinet holds about 12000 pages.

The Simple Math

Ok, now that we know what we have in the space of our filing cabinets, let's look at space on storage

media.

A standard 8 1/2 x 11 page scanned at 200x200 DPI (dots per inch) is about 50k in size (average)
There is 1024k in 1 megabyte of space.
There are 700 megabytes of space on a CD.
There are 4,700 megabytes of space on a DVD.

Ok, here's the simple math.

1,024k (1 megabyte) divided by 50k (standard scanned document) = 20.48 documents per megabyte
700 megabytes (1 CD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 14,000 documents per CD
4,700 megabytes (1 DVD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 94,000 documents per DVD

So here are the facts.

1 CD = 1 filing cabinet full of paper documents (12,000 documents)
1 DVD = 7 filing cabinets full of paper documents (84,000 documents)

Once these documents are scanned and placed on a CD or DVD (write once only media) they

become legal documents that can be archived and retrieved later in the event you would like to print,

fax, or email them.

By: Aridine

Business Document Management: Paperless or Paper mess?

Not so long time ago, when a letter needed to be sent, you would have your secretary typing it with one of these noisy typing machines. What I remember very well was 'the register book' used to list the document destination, purpose, and reference. So, every business document was clearly referenced and properly classified.

Today, as emails and computers are available at everyone desk, it is not a common practice to have your letters typed by a secretary, neither to use a 'register book' nor document referencing. With the new era of working (almost) paperless, did we really improved efficiency and data protection? How often you were looking for an important business document without being able to find it on your computer? How many time you experienced misunderstanding because lack of document traceability?

How to efficiently manage your business documents?
There are numerous business document management software packages that provide powerful paperless office solutions. If you have the possibility, you should definitely go for it.

The technique described here does not require any application or software, and provides a quite good solution for your business document management.

How to create your business document reference?
The document reference needs to be of course unique but also be readable. Your reference will be even more beneficial if it provides you with information about the content of the document. When defining your reference convention, you should not only have an incremental counter, but additional information that will help you to remember the purpose of your documents.

I am using a referencing system mainly for my business quotations that I send to my customers. I use a format like [my 2 initials][counter for unique number][date of document][3 first letter of my customer name].

I use my initials as my team mates also use this same reference convention. It enables to easily understand which one of us issued a particular quotation.

Using your document reference as you file naming convention.
Your will place your reference within the content of a business document. But I recommend that you use the reference as your file name. You may add a few words (up to 4 words) in addition to reference in order to increase readability. For example, c:JD483-30.11.07-TUS LCD Samsung 42 inch.doc'. JD are my initials, 483 is the document counter, 30.11.07 is the document date of issue, TUS are the 3 first letters of TUSHINGHAM, my customer name, and Samsung 42 inch is the subject of my quotation.

What are the benefits of using references for your business documents? Referenced document will avoid many errors and ease traceability. If your customers are referring your document reference in their correspondence, the chances for errors or misunderstanding are lower.

Having a standard file naming convention will help you also to find information quickly, using any search tool such as Google Desktop or the search feature in Windows. Referring to our example above, if you want to find all documents send to your customer TUSHINGHAM, just type -TUS in your search application. Want to list all documents sent on 30.11.07? Just type -30.11.07- in your search application and you get the whole list.

How to generate automatic references for your business documents.
In order to be quicker with you references, you may want to use one of the many free applications for business document management . You will get the electronic web-based version of the good old 'register book'.

by Joel Delmar

Document Management Software and Cost Control

Can document management software help control costs? Before we answer that question, let us try to get an insight into the real significance of cost control.

After sales volumes, costs are significant in generating profits. In a competitive market selling prices tend to be inflexible; you have to sell at the market prices.

That means you have to control costs to achieve profitability. By controlling direct costs of sales you increase the margins on each unit sold. By controlling fixed establishment costs, you make it possible to recover these with the margins on a lower volume of sales.

Now let us see whether document management software can help control these costs.

Ready Access to Information Helps Cost Control

Good document management software contains components to capture all kinds of documents and retrieve these in little time. You would thus be able to store, say, spreadsheets for different cost categories and examine the details.

You can review cost trends: compare them with relevant volumes and against budget estimates. Such reviews would focus your attention on problem areas like a sharp increase in costs per unit produced or per time period.

Investigating further, you can identify the factors that contribute to the deviations from standard. In most cases, you can also take remedial action that would bring costs back to desired, or at least more-acceptable levels.

It's systematic use of information like the above that helps achieve control over costs (and other business result areas).

Let us now take a broad look at some major categories of costs and the factors that influence their levels.

Material Cost Is Likely to be the Major Constituent of Merchandise Costs

If you're a retailer, the costs you incur for buying merchandise and getting it to display racks is your major direct cost. If you are a manufacturer making some product, the costs of materials that go into the product are likely to be the major element of the production cost.

Even a small percentage reduction in these costs is likely to have a significant impact on your profitability. A good document management system helps you retrieve and review the performance of different suppliers.

Some suppliers have consistently-supplied goods of dependable quality while others might be responsible for frequent rejections on quality grounds leading to cost increases.

You will also find that certain suppliers are able to supply reliable quality materials at lower costs. By cultivating your relationship with these suppliers, you can procure all or most of your supplies from these suppliers, leading to a reduction in costs.

Without document management software that lets you select what you want when you want, you have to depend on scheduled reports that pile up on your table (and probably remain ignored).

Fixed Establishment Costs Might Not Be All That's Fixed

We tend to view establishment costs like rent, depreciation, etc. as permanently fixed. However, a close review might reveal possibilities for reducing these costs to some extent.

There might be idle facilities like plants for which no profitable use is foreseen. By disposing of these, depreciation costs can be reduced. Other idle facilities like floor space can be rented out or utilized for some profitable activities.

A close review, facilitated by good document management software, can reveal such possibilities to management.

By reducing fixed costs in this manner, it becomes possible to lower the "breakeven point" - the point at which fixed costs are fully recovered through gross margins.

Other Cost Categories Can Also Benefit From Serious Reviews

Marketing costs, payroll costs, costs of power & fuel, etc. might also prove capable of reduction. While scheduled management reports give an overview of trends and deviations, it's the details available on the documents that provide specific guidance for actions.

And it's the document management software that really makes reviews of document details a practicable proposition. If you have to visit filing cabinets and search through folders every time, this kind of review is quite likely to be neglected.

Conclusion

Good document management software makes it practical to go into details when management reports reveal adverse trends and deviations. If you use the components provided by the software to focus on major cost elements like materials and marketing costs, it's quite likely that you'll find possibilities to reduce costs and improve sales margins to a significant extent.

Any improvement in sales margins leads to earlier and greater profitability.

By: Dustin Baker

How Does Document Management Software Help Business Results?

Does document management software generate any business benefits? If they do, what are these benefits?

We look at this issue in the following sections, starting first with a look at exactly what document management software does.

What Does Document Management Software Do?

A good document management system captures all kinds of documents with little difficulty. Thus paper documents can be scanned and OCRed and electronic documents can be captured by browsing to its location on the local computer. The documents captured are stored in a central computer so that all the workstation computers connected to it can access them.

The documents can be indexed by different criteria such as document name or date of creation and they can also be indexed by their contents. It's then possible to retrieve documents by specifying the document name, date, words included in the content, etc. The retrieval takes no more than a few seconds at most.

Security is maintained by restricting document access. Granting different kinds of permissions to authorized persons restricts access. Some might have the 'read' permission; others might also have the 'write' permission.

After retrieval, documents can be modified, appended with new pages, replaced, or even deleted, provided necessary permissions are granted.

What Business Benefits Can Be Expected?

The ease of access to relevant documents makes it more likely that decision makers would indeed access them and make informed decisions.

For example, before passing a supplier invoice, concerned persons will retrieve the relevant order and verify the price, delivery date and other terms with little delay. In a non-computer system, this involves locating the order stored in an inconveniently-located filing cabinet. It might even happen that a copy of the order has not yet been received by the invoice-passing department. The verification could get unduly delayed (leading to supplier displeasure) or even omitted (probably leading to excess payment) in such cases.

Another immediate benefit is the speed of actions. When needed information can be obtained in minutes, actions also tend to be quicker. Instead of verifying 20 or so invoices a day, it might be possible to verify 200 or more invoices a day.

Better business results follow when quick and correct decisions are taken on a regular basis. In the above case, a supplier who is accustomed to prompt and correct payments from your company is quite likely to oblige you with increased and higher-quality service if necessary.

The above illustration of invoice passing is only a simple example. All key business-result areas can benefit from speedy and convenient access to reliable information. Good document management software makes it easy to capture, review and edit documents, leading to more reliable documentation.

Document Management Software Leads to Better Document Security
It is easy to implement a system of read/write permissions and password-protected access in a computerized document management environment. By making printing possible only on a closely-monitored network printer, even printouts (that can be removed) can be checked.

Paper documents can be stored in more inaccessible places, with greater security. Because copies are available in the computer, these would not be needed as frequently.

Considering that business secrets constitute a competitive advantage, the above kind of increased security could also lead to better business results.

Conclusion

With good document management software, you can make information easily accessible to all persons who need that information for their work. Easy access means that the information will be used to make business decisions. Informed business decisions, when they accumulate, lead to significantly improved business results.

Document security is also easier to implement with good document management software. It's then possible to minimize the harmful damage from unauthorized access to business secrets and competitive advantage.

By: Dustin Baker

Top Ten Questions You Must Ask a Document Management Supplier

Organizations are under mounting pressure to streamline their business processes, increase their bottom lines and reduce their carbon footprints. In order to meet these demands, many are turning to electronic document management (EDM) systems to gain a competitive advantage. Document management enables organizations to electronically store, retrieve, manage, deliver and authorize business documents. It also enables the automated capture and verification of purchase invoice data, reducing manual data entry.

The falling costs of disk storage, hardware used to scan documents and high speed internet connections has led to document management becoming more widely used. These systems are easy to use and as well as reducing operating costs and improving efficiency, they also support organizations' green agendas and business continuity plans. However, with so many document management providers in the marketplace, choosing the right supplier can be an overwhelming task.

You must ask a your supplier the following key questions when selecting an EDM system.

Do you author the document management products you supply? A supplier who is also the author of the software is more able to tailor modifications to fulfill your particular needs. The supplier can also ensure that the solutions are tightly integrated into your core business systems. You will also be better positioned to benefit from regular advances in technology to ensure your organization doesn't get left behind the competition.

Do you provide an end-to-end document management solution? Lots of companies claim to provide a full end-to-end portfolio of electronic document management products but many employ third party organizations to enable them to provide a complete solution. EDM solutions that combine software from different providers can be difficult to install, integrate and support.

Do your document management products tightly integrate with all major accounting and ERP systems? Does your supplier integrate its solutions with all major accounting and ERP systems? Check your purchase can tightly integrate into your current system. This will enable you to view and process documents by quickly and easily drilling down from your ERP system, saving time whilst providing a comprehensive audit trail of financial transactions.

If we move accounting system can we take our document management with us? Make sure your investment is a sound one by checking that your software is portable. This will give you flexibility and confidence that should you change your accounting system, you can take your document management with you.

Are you UK-based? Many suppliers are based abroad and have a limited understanding of UK business needs. It is important your supplier is UK-based so that they have the necessary understanding of the needs of UK businesses and can provide you with local resources for training, implementation and support. This will ensure any difficulties can quickly be overcome.

Do you have a well-established customer base? Your document management supplier needs to be able to demonstrate a long track record in delivering successful solutions to different industry sectors.

Do you have any customer reference sites we can visit? Does your supplier have a proven track record of providing solutions to leading companies across a wide range of industries? If so, its satisfied customers should only be too happy to act as reference sites and share their success stories so you can purchase in confidence.

Can we buy your document management through our existing software provider as well as direct? Check whether your supplier has a close partnership with your existing software provider. You may feel more confident about buying document management through your established provider.

What's your after-sales support like? Your supplier should possess a dedicated support team that can quickly respond to your needs. It should also carry out customer care campaigns to make sure you are happy with your software. Check that the supplier also provides end-user training courses so you can acquire the skills and proficiencies needed to maximize the capabilities of your EDM solutions.

What return on investment (ROI) can I expect? Document Imaging software has one of the fastest ROI's. Your supplier should be able to demonstrate an ROI of six months or less.

The advantages of electronic storage and processing cannot be ignored and make a compelling case for implementing document management solutions. However, organizations shouldn't expect to reap benefits from just any EDM software solution. A lot of thought and research needs to go into selecting the right document management supplier for your company's needs and also for those of your customer base. Not all suppliers have the breadth of applications, the development capability in-house or the track record to successfully deliver. By choosing carefully the benefits are substantial - an increased competitive edge, significantly streamlined business efficiencies and a much improved bottom line.

By Catherine Murphy

Document Management Solutions

Gone are the days of dusty filing cabinets bursting with coffee stained papers, these days most documents are stored on hard drives, backed up on hard drives and distributed online.

Although storing your documents on a computer takes less space than physical document storage, it is very important to keep your documents well organised, preferably making use of a document management system. One of the best document management solutions comes by way of an online document management system (DMS), which is a computer system programmed for tracking and storing of electronic documents. This can include images of paper documents scanned into a computer and submitted into the system. A document management system can be put to good use by corporations, government institutions, medium or small businesses and many other organisations.

By utilising a document management system you will be improving the flexibility of your organisation, with users being able to access documents from the internet, with Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft office. This means that you are able to share and collaborate on documents from around the globe, while reducing the cost and hassle of sending documents by courier or sending multiple large files by e-mail.

Revolutionising Team Projects with Online DMS

Your documents are protected by the document management system, with access being completely under your control, yet you are able to have multiple users from various locations working on a document at any given time, with the changes made by each user being tracked for team members to see. This means that your document need only be seen by those working on it until such a time as you choose to make it public. Collaborating in this way has various benefits. Sophisticated workflows can be established easily, with notifications issued to alert specific team members when they are required to contribute. This is achieved by making use of work flow triggers which can be assigned to documents or folders, allowing you to manage your team efficiently. Furthermore, built in discussion forums allow your team members to communicate directly with each other while keeping an eye on the work at hand.

The flexibility of online document management systems means that only your imagination can limit the possibilities, for instance, useful document search phrases or terms can be saved, allowing for quick access to specific information, and the DMS can even be set up to automatically notify selected users of changes to the document via RSS feeds. Once documents are ready for wider distribution they can easily be converted to PDF format for ease of distribution and storage.

By utilising online document management systems your business or organisation can increase its efficiency when it comes to the distribution of documents. Whether for internal or external use, an online document management solution will provide many benefits to your business.

Look for flexibility in your DMS

With open source type DMS programs you will be able to adjust and customise your working system, integrating various priority functions as you deem them necessary or useful. PHP and MySQL based architecture is useful to this end, since it provides plenty of room for a developer to customise and extend the application to suit your organisation's needs.

Your document management system should include portlet and dashlet concepts, allowing for the addition of enhanced features to the interface, thereby keeping the application up to date with the latest DMS developments. With customisable interface templates, making for ease of use, you will ultimately have an application which will suit your needs that much better. Online Document Management Solutions provide the following benefits

* Knowledge is easily accessed and reusable

* The flow of information can be controlled throughout a project's duration

* More effective teamwork can be established, thereby speeding up progress

* Faster delivery rates, improving customer service by streamlining distribution of documents

* Online DMS allows for faster reaction to events with quick access to documentation

* You have access to important documents from anywhere, at any time

* Documents can be shared with several people

* Allows for documents to be moved electronically with workflow and status tracking

* Your documents can be backed up with very little storage space required

* Data and information is quickly accessible for reference when working on other tasks

Efficient organisations and profitable enterprises depend upon reliable, yet flexible communication channels. By storing your organisation's documents in a DMS for easy access and usability, you will realise a tremendous improvement in document distribution, storage and development.

By KnowledgeTree

Electronic Document Management

Introduction to Document Management

Document management can mean many things to many people, and can serve a variety of purposes. The intention of this article is to list the components involved in document management and to briefly describe each one. At the conclusion, there are also some important factors to help in selecting a document management system.

If you've never used a document management system, then it is entirely possible that you aren't aware of how valuable these products can be. Companies and individuals who manage a diverse array of documents have found that document management systems serve to simplify their lives and make both storing documents and later obtaining those documents much easier. n cause a document to disappear into a virtual black hole, never to be seen again.

The entire process of document management can be broken down into four categories: file capture, file processing, file management and file storage. A company may require one, two or all four of these processes.

File Capture

File capture may consist of scanning paper documents, capturing existing electronic files (ex: .doc, .pdf, .tif and scanned documents), and capturing documents from applications with print drivers.

Scanning – if you have a large quantity of paper documents that need to be scanned and introduced to a DMS (Document Management System), then you must consider:

1. How you want the information to be retrieved and stored; and

2. How you want indexed information to be introduced to the DMS.

The manner with which you plan to access the documents later will determine which file format type the files will be saved under. The most common types for scanning output are .tif and .pdf.

The advantage of .tif file types is that they are the smallest file types and therefore take up the least amount of storage space. The advantage to .pdf file types is that they provide better options for content text searching (searching every word of a document), are easier to edit, and are overall more flexible.

The method of introducing indexed information (any field used to search and categorize documents) can range from fully automated to fully manual to somewhere in between. The more automated the process, the more file processing will be required. Extensive automation will make your project more complex and costly, but if you handle a large volume of documents, the automation will quickly pay off in the form of reduced manpower.

The actual physical scanning of the documents can also be fairly automated with batch scanning, bar codes, and database validation. Batch scanning reduces the labor in introducing the documents to the scanner. Instead of the scanner operator separating every document, scanning it separately, and then saving the file into a directory, the operator simply places all of the documents into a feeder by the bulk. The scanner then detects a document change by a blank sheet, bar code, or some other indicator.

Bar codes can also be used to represent a group of information or a client or project to populate multiple indexed fields. If you have an existing client database in your current ERP system or even QuickBooks, this data can also be used to populate or validate indexed fields.

Capturing electronic files – Existing electronic files - such as .doc, .xls, .dwg, and .dgn, - are easier to capture into a DMS. These files contain hidden properties called metadata, which can be mapped to a field in the DMS. This information might include created date, author, title, title block, and other useful information.

Once this data is mapped, these fields will be automatically populated when the electronic files are introduced. These files may be saved to a directory into which the DMS imports them, files may be dragged into the system, or a mass import may be used to bring in legacy documents.

Electronic files may also be captured through print drivers. If you commonly print reports from an application or save them to a directory, you may use a print driver to introduce them to the DMS, which will ultimately save time. Faxes may also be saved to a directory from which the DMS can pick them up for distribution before they ever go to paper.

File capture is relatively easy, but a simple digital file without any additional processing isn't much use. You may take the file and name it and file it in Windows Explorer, but when you are cataloging hundreds or thousands of files, this is not a feasible system. Human error, if nothing else, will prevent every single file from being named correctly and stored in the proper location. Even one misplaced file can wreak havoc for a business.

Introduction to Document Management

If you've never used a document management system, then it is entirely possible that you aren't aware of how valuable these products can be. Companies and individuals who manage a diverse array of documents have found that document management systems serve to simplify their lives and make both storing documents and later obtaining those documents much easier.

Many companies are forced to go the way of electronic documents because of The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, industry compliance (HIPPA), or because it is required by their customers or vendors. The simplest form of electronic document management is storing files in an organized directory and categorizing files by the folder in which they are located. If your company manages more than a few documents, this method can quickly become very inflexible. Incorrect filing can cause a document to disappear into a virtual black hole, never to be seen again.

The entire process of document management can be broken down into four categories: file capture, file processing, file management and file storage. A company may require one, two or all four of these processes. File capture was covered in part one of this article.

File Processing

File processing can help make files more manageable. Examples of processing tasks include: separating and merging, OCR; zonal OCR; forms recognition; conversion; routing; and database (DMS) population. Some of the processing tasks can be completed with scanning software and/or your DMS. Files can be processed years after they are scanned or during the scanning process.

OCR (optical character recognition) allows scanned documents to undergo content text searching once the document is added into your system. Word, Excel, and other digital files do not have to undergo the OCR process to be content-searchable. Indexing the documents makes the content search very fast, even if you are searching through thousands of files.

Recent improvements in OCR make the process very accurate (up to 99%), however the accuracy of the OCR is dependant on the quality of the document and to some extent the hardware used to scan the documents. Most companies are happy to enjoy the benefits of OCR and content text search even with its imperfections.

Zonal OCR (OCR of a specific zone on a page) Scanned documents can also be processed to find certain information on the document and input it into fields in your document management system. For example, an invoice number may be required to organize and store the document so that the invoice number location is predetermined in a template and then that number is read and input into the document management system. This process is called "forms recognition," and may include many fields of information from a single document. Depending on the type of documents and the quantity of fields to be populated, this process and be both complex and expensive, so it is important to weigh the cost with the benefits.

File Management

There are many different types of applications available on the market with which to manage files. Choosing the one that is right for you can be complicated, and sometimes requires a consultant. Companies that choose to create their own systems are recreating the wheel and will be forced to replace that system at some point in the future. Some critical issues to consider when choosing the system that is right for you are:

1. Types of documents you are managing (working vs. final)
2. Internal and External Requirements
3. Browser or Desktop Interface
4. Cost of Ownership

Final vs. Working Documents

A final document, such as a contract or an invoice, may not need to be edited at a later date. It is saved for reference and/or retrieval purposes, and will not necessarily be needed again. These are called "final documents". Managing final documents is much cheaper and easier than storing documents that require editing capabilities. If you simply want to scan final documents and store them for later retrieval, you may only require a simple and inexpensive DMS.

A working document, on the other hand, will need to be revised on one or more occasions. These types of files might include manuals, sales literature, or CAD files. The author or other colleagues may need to edit them, or they may need distribution for specific purposes. A more advanced and versatile document management system will be needed so that the user can track changes, implement markups and revise text.

File Storage

File storage is covered in a proceeding article titled: EDMS – File Storage Options

By: Bret Lawson