Electronic Document Management systems are an indispensable feature within the offices of many of the world’s most successful international businesses. They have the power to transform organisations from sluggish, confused and paper-laden box-ticking operations into efficient, dynamic power-houses, freeing up spare capacity and time. But for a technology which has so much to offer, for those outside the field, document management software can seem something of a closed world; an impenetrable maze of concepts and phrases that seem rather more intended to befuddle than to assist. To make life a little easier for the un-initiated, here we provide a brief introduction to electronic document management systems and background on some of the key related terms you’re most likely to encounter with document management software.

Electronic Document Management – What is it?

Electronic Document Management is all about how we handle our paperwork. Since the advent of word processing and the computerization of the workplace, much of the day-to-day paper work that would clutter offices and filing rooms in times gone by has been eliminated. The humble email account has done away with the piles of notes and memos that would cover our desks of old. And even the most basic email account today gives users the ability to trace back through our communications, months, even years; so most office workers don’t need to hang on to very much by way of paperwork at all. But certain documents you can never dispense with – just as you’ll always need a passport going through customs, your workplace will always have to hang onto certain key pieces of documentation and paperwork. And statutory requirements demand that most companies retain copies of particular documents in order to comply with accounting and other legal obligations. And for organisations within certain sectors, for instance, the medical profession, these documentary burdens can be more onerous than for others.  Read more...