Information Overview:
Document Management System

Definition
From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
A document management system (DMS) is a computer system (or set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. The term has some overlap with the concepts of Content Management Systems and is often viewed as a component of Enterprise Content Management Systems and related to Digital Asset Management.

History
Beginning in the 1980s, a number of vendors began developing systems to manage paper-based documents. Initially designed to offer mainly document imaging-level capture, storage, indexing and retrieval capabilities, the applications grew to encompass electronic documents, collaboration tools, security, and auditing capabilities.

Function
A document management system will typically address some or all of the following areas:

STORAGE - Where will we keep our documents? How much can we spend to store them?

RETRIEVAL - How can people find needed documents? How much time can be spent looking for them?

FILING - How do we organize our documents? How do we ensure documents are filed appropriately?

SECURITY - How do we protect against the loss, tampering or destruction of documents? How do we keep sensitive information hidden?

ARCHIVAL - How do we ensure the readability of documents in the future? How can we protect our documents against fires, floods or natural disasters?

RETENTION - How do we decide what documents to retain? How long should they be kept? How do we remove them afterwards?

DISTRIBUTION - How do we get documents into the hands of people who need them? How much can we spend to distribute the documents?

WORKFLOW - If documents need to pass from one person to another, what are the rules for how their work should flow?

CREATION - If more than one person is involved in creating a document, how will the people collaborate?