Tech Primer

Electronic Document Management System

What is an EDMS?

An Electronic Document Management System is also known as a Document Management System. It is a computer based electronic method of processing, storing, retrieving and managing paper documents. The technology permits you to check and search documents in systems, providing work flow and collaboration capabilities. An electronic document management system is different from RS ie. Records Management. Records management is used for long-term management of records. EDMS does use the rules of RS with the difference being that the work is done electronically. An EDMS comes with powerful system administration and security controls that allow the establishment of multiple divisions, departments or applications. The security control secures documents, images and other system functions. These systems are hardware independent.

Some of the basic functions of an electronic document management system are to create new files, save them, modify, retrieve, delete, and change the format of the original copy and then saving the file.

What’s the technology that powers an EDMS?

An electronic document management system creates electronic documents. The documents are scanned and the information can be stored in Word, Excel and other popular formats. Users can store information directly, manage them according to their convenience, index them and so on. If the data is lost or gets corrupted, an EDMS provides the option to recover the data.

How does an EDMS let users search and find information?

There are three vital activities of EDMS. They are repository, work-flow engine and searching and indexing technology. The searching facility in electronic document management system provides users a well-refined limited search results. EDMS vendors are developing powerful search with Web interface i.e. a two-in-one facility—EDMS and Web site. Common search engines are Fulcrum and verity.

Is there a downside to this technology?

By and large, no. These systems are simple to use, flexible and have standardised document formats, records management facilities, security, inalterability, accessibility and auditability. EDMS reduces an organisation’s dependence on paper and toner.

Who’s selling these systems?

Some of the vendors of EDMS are Newgen Software, Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, Brother, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Epson.

For more information visit
www.ceoimage.com/edms.htm

—Garima Grover