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Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) is an integration of
hardware and software that allows you to scan hardcopy (conversion of
paper documents into electronic images) and upload existing electronic
files to a computer. The EDMS software will allow you to store, index,
manage, retrieve, archive and distribute virtually all file formats
quickly and easily. This also provides the peace-of-mind that in the
event of a fire or similar disaster you will be back in business quickly.
The files are stored in industry standard secure formats. Typically
organizations can leverage existing hardware investments that have been
made for digital copiers, networks, web sites, and computer servers
minimizing the implementation costs of the EDMS system.
Why do Organizations Invest in EDMS Systems?
The basic reasons for using EDMS are
• Prevents lost documents
• Provides for easy "disaster recovery"
• Reduces the cost of printing
• Increases the efficiency of office staff
• Find documents quickly and easily
• Allows for efficient centralized storing of documents
• Reduces real estate costs by cutting down on filing
cabinets
• Documents are available to authorized staff in a secure
manner 24/7
What are the Steps of an EDMS system?
Scanning:
Paper documents are scanned using appropriate scanners or digital
copiers. Scanning is the process of converting paper documents into
electronic images.
Uploading:
This is the process of uploading existing electronic files from your
computers hard drives to the EDMS application.
Indexing:
Indexing creates an organized document filing systems and makes future
retrieval simple and easy. Typically the EDMS will mimic an organizations
paper filing system thus reducing the learning curve for office staff.
Conversion:
Files are typically saved as industry standard PDF's (or for certain
applications TIFF). PDF's are popular as almost all computer users have
Acrobat Reader (the PDF viewer) installed on their computers. TIFF
viewers are much less familiar to typical users.
Retrieval:
A variety of search tools are built into the software to allow users to
search and quickly retrieve the documents they need. Typically the system
searches on index fields or uses "key word" searches to search
within the index fields, or within the documents.
Access:
Files are accessible to individuals or groups of individuals.
Administrators can determine who has access to what files, and what
rights they have. Individual rights depend on their level of security and
what they are authorized to do. Typical rights include; view,
annotations, email, append etc. Files are accessible 24/7 for authorized
staff over the intranet or Internet.
Conclusions
By leveraging current investments in networks, computers,
servers, web sites, and digital copiers an inexpensive EDMS system can be
implemented which will greatly improve office efficiencies and office
procedures saving time, money and provides a hedge against disaster.
Please click
here for more in-depth information about VanDyke, Inc’s
SentryFile
Electronic Document Management System.
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