A document management system (DMS) receives, tracks, stores and manages documents. It usually maintains multiple versions of each document, including the users who created and modified each version. A document management system has some overlap in functionality with related concepts such as a content management system (CMS) and customer communications management (CCM). Organizations often view a DMS as a component of enterprise content management (ECM), in which case DMS is also related to additional processes like digital asset management (DAM), document imaging, workflow systems and records management systems (RMSs).
Business Document Software performs document management in the case of digital documents, although physical DMSs still exist. However, modern document management generally refers to digital documents unless otherwise stated. The history of digital DMS began in the early 1980s and is still rapidly evolving today.
1980’s
Vendors began to develop business document software to manage paper documents during the early 1980s as computer technology entered mainstream commercial use. In addition to printed text, these early versions of document software also managed physical photographs and prints. The next step in the evolution of a document software solution was the ability to manage electronic documents that were typically stored on a local computer. These types of business document software were known as electronic document management (EDM) systems.
Many EDM systems later became known as document imaging systems because they stored images of physical documents. They quickly improved to the point that they were able to handle true electronic documents, along with other capabilities such as auditing, collaboration, security and workflow management. The ability of EDM systems to retrieve documents based on search terms and extract text from documents were some of their greatest advantages.
EDM systems often stored documents in proprietary formats, especially products like Microsoft Word, Excel and Adobe PDF. However, the number of standardized formats increased quickly, allowing EDM systems to import and export documents to other systems more easily. Today, web-based DMSs are starting to store content in HTML format, which is more suitable for capabilities like full-text searching and stemming.
1990’s
Apple and Macintosh both introduced operating system with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) during the early 1990s, which greatly facilitated the ability to view documents from a computer screen. Computer processing speeds also increased to the point that document software on the desktop became practical. TOWER Software introduced Captura in 1998, which many analysts regard as the first modern DMS.
2000’s
DMS vendors introduced products with more complex functions during the early 2000’s, largely as the result of the rapidly increasing availability of the internet. Users were able to store documents in digital format more easily and access them from remote locations. Basic features introduced during this period included indexing, scanning, storage and retrieval. Advanced features of business document software now included audit trails and distribution. Versioning and security features also became significantly more sophisticated by 2010.
2010’s
Cloud-based computing unit mainstream use during the 2010s, with data transfer rates of 15 Mbps being readily available at the beginning of this decade. Data warehouses with storage capacities measured in petabytes also became common during this period, allowing users to store and retrieve large documents in seconds. Virtually all organizations adopted some type of DMS to manage their physical documentation during this period.
Present Day
The volume of data that project teams are transferring to each other is one of the most obvious changes in DMS during the last decade. Most organizations are now moving towards paperless processing to the greatest extent practical, demonstrating that they appreciate the use of electronic documents as a means of providing value for their clients. In addition, users are less likely to lose electronic documentation.
Ten years ago, many businesses stored documents on shared drives in an effort to make them more accessible. However, the limitations of file systems like Explorer prevent this from being the best approach to document management. For example, Explorer has a poor search capability compared to a dedicated DMS. Furthermore, enforcing the storage of files on a shared drive or public folder is often impractical.
Organizations that implement a modern document software solution often have no need to archive documents at all. Users can query a single database to find any document, image or message associated with a particular entity such as an organization, person or project. This capability is especially useful for saving workers’ time and resolving disputes.
Another major change to DMSs during the last few years is the degree of collaboration between team members. The widespread adoption of agile practices means that organizations are increasingly likely to work from a central model for their projects. This approach means that team members must exchange more information, requiring the formal management of communication and document approval on a single platform.
Document software has also become an essential component of Customer Communications Management (CCM) solutions and platforms. Customer Communications Management is a set of practices that allows organizations to improve and manage their communications with customers using diverse channels like printed documents, email, text messages and web pages. It allows segmenting and delivering these communications according to context and customer profile.
The Future of Document Software Solutions
One of the biggest problems with many of today’s enterprise-level DMSs is the difficulty of integrating them with the organization’s work environments such as a common desktop environment (CDE) or extranet. This limitation means that team members often perform the same task twice to ensure they have reliable records, especially when that member doesn’t own the CDE or extranet. In these cases, it becomes more difficult to justify keeping both environments, even though they serve different purposes.
The latest document software solutions provide users with the ability to create a project in their preferred environment and set up a space in the cloud to enable collaboration with the entire team. The DMS can then synchronize data between that collaboration space and the internal working environment of individual team members. It can also send data from the collaboration space back to the users’ environments, ensuring they don’t have to do the same thing twice.
Summary
The evolution of document software over the last 40 years has greatly increased its capabilities beyond its beginnings as a basic file system. The rapidly increasing number of documents that organizations must track has made search capabilities particularly important to users with limited knowledge about the document they are seeking. Integration across an entire organization will become one of the most valuable features for a document software solution the near future, especially enterprises.
André Klein
Freelance Consultant for DocPath