Document management, used in the context of "document management systems" - is the automated process of capturing, indexing, organizing, storing and retrieving records in digital format.
Documents are captured either directly from another digital format, such as an e-mail attachment, EDI transmission (Electronic Data Interchange) or application output… or they are captured manually by being scanned from a paper record into an electronic digital format.
Document management systems are software applications, such as Microsoft's Word or Excel. Each of these applications creates an electronic document or page and stores it somewhere on your computer or network. Word and Excel, however, are applications whose primary purpose is to create or compute the document. A true Document Management System takes the output from Word, Excel, a scanning or imaging application - or any of a number of other points of electronic document origination - and processes them through a series of steps that indexes, organizes and stores the digital paper. The Document Management System then makes these business records available through a User Interface (UI or GUI) that is, hopefully, simple and intuitive to use.
Document Management Systems hold the key to making your business more competitive. With a well-implemented document management system, your business should experience much lower administrative overhead, a more responsive sales and marketing function, improved customer service and low cost compliancy with new and historical Federal regulations.
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