Digital Document Management
The process of storing and tracking of electronic documents of any kind, which includes even the paper documents as images with the help of computer programs or a single program is called Digital Document Management, which could be abbreviated as DMS. This term overlaps with content management systems’ concepts and is often seen as a part of Enterprise Content Management, also abbreviated as ECM systems. It can also be related with Digital Asset Management, Records Management, Document Imaging and Workflow systems.
Digital Document Management systems are commonly known to facilitate storage, metadata, versioning, security and also providing capabilities of retrieval and indexing. Read below, in brief, about these components –
Metadata – Typically, it is stored for all the documents. It may include details like the date of storing the document along with the user ID who stored it. The DMS could suggest the user to put in metadata or may also extract it automatically through the document. Some systems can also employ optical character recognition or OCR over the scanned images. In case of original electronic documents, some DMS can do text extraction on them. The text that is extracted could be used in assisting the users to locate documents with the help of keywords or facilitating searching with full text.
Integration – A lot of Digital Document Management Systems try to integrate the management of document directly with other applications which lets the users retrieve their existing documents from the DMS repository, directly, which lets them make changes on the document and save it in the repository without having to leave the application.
Capture – It is the process in which the documents in paper form are converted to digital form with the use of Multifunction printers or scanners. The digital images are converted into text form, readable by machine with the use of Optical Character Recognition system or OCR, which could either be integrated with the hardware or could be used as software, which is stand-alone. The data from bubbles or check boxes are extracted with the help of Optical Mark Recognition system or OMR. Capture usually involves the process of accepting the electronic documents as also files, which computers understand.
Indexing – In simple words, it involves tracking the electronic documents. However, it can get complex as it can provide classification from the metadata of the document, indexes of word extracted through the contents of documents. Mainly, it is there for supporting retrieval. Index topology is of critical importance in rapid retrieval of documents.
Storage – It is the process of storing electronic documents. However, within this process, even the management of documents could be included, which encompasses details like the location of their storage, duration of the storage, migration to another storage media and also the eventual destruction of a document.
Retrieval – It involve the retrieval of electronic documents, which are in the storage. Retrieval of documents seems to be a simple notion although it could get complex and also powerful when it comes to the electronic medium. The retrieval of single documents could be supported as the user can specify the document identifier, which is unique and letting the system use its basic index for retrieving the document.
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