What is an EDMS?

What is an EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) ?

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.

Top of CIOs Mind

Here is a list of technologies which are top of the CIO’s mind:

Data security and Integrity was top of mind. Data security is a no-brainer, but integrity is a much overlooked aspect of corporate IT. Without clean data, your shiny new ERP system is so much rubbish. GIGO and all that. Business intelligence? Without data integrity, it doesn't have a leg to stand upon. That's why 56 percent of survey respondents (Infrastructure Strategies 2005) across verticals voted with their feet to make this their number one IT priority. Dig deeper and you find that BFSI is most serious about this aspect of IT. Two out of three CIOs in this vertical rate data security and integrity as their primary concern. At the other end of the spectrum, you find telecom with only 17 percent of respondents voting for it. Other verticals toe BFSI's line with roughly half the respondents rating this aspect as the biggest concern.

Not so close behind, occupying the runner-up's slot, is Redesigning or Rationalising IT Architecture. This one's all about the ongoing adoption of ERP and its derivatives by India Inc. Before deploying any EWA, a company has no choice but to rework its IT architecture. Without changing processes and cleaning up data, you're not going to gain anything from putting a shiny new application in place. The auto components and telecom folks are the ones who are most interested in redoing their IT architecture. BPO and services companies are the most satisfied with the way things are.

Managing Customer Relationships or improving customer service comes next on the agenda, which means that CRM is on the corporate radar. There aren't any surprises over here with BFSI and telecom being the sectors that are most worried about keeping customers happy. About half the respondents in these two sectors are gung-ho about managing customer relationships. Again, it's no surprise that government/PSU organisations are least bothered about customer relationships. The number of respondents from these sectors citing this as an IT priority is zero.

Network Magazine(NM) - IMRB survey