Document Management Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is document management?
2. How could my company or organization benefit from using a document management system?
3. My company wants to manage its documents more effectively and is looking into a document management system. Where do we begin and what do we look for?
4. Our engineering company needs a document management software to manage all our CAD drawings as well as limit who has rights to make revisions to the drawings. What may be a suitable document management solution for our situation?
5. How do I prepare my business in case disaster strikes?
6. How are my documents captured?
7. How can I retrieve my documents?
8. Can I share my documents after they have been captured?
9. What is OCR conversion?
10. What is backfile conversion?

1. What is document management?

Document Management (also known as Electronic Document Management - EDM) is an information technology that has evolved over the past two decades from a basic "electronic filing cabinet" which stored scanned documents and images in electronic form on a server that could capture, index, and retrieve for future use. Today, Document Management is part of Enterprise Content Management and is a subset of Knowledge or Information Management.

Document management systems have matured from a basic archival and retrieval system to a complete information management solution. With technological advances, we have available to us the tools to properly manage paper documents and electronic files. You can store and index voice recordings, faxes, videos, pictures, drawings, computer output, and many other types of paper and electronic files. Workflow is now handeled electronically rather than manually. Information can also be extracted from word processing software to poptulated fields in databases. You can store, catalog, and redistribute information via fax, email, internet or print it to paper or CD to share with one individual or the masses at a fraction of the cost.

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2. How could my company or organization benefit from using a document management system?

It can help you and your company be more efficient with your time which will save you money. Document management systems can:

• capture, index, retrieve, edit, annotate and distribute paper, electronic documents and images via a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), fax, e-mail, printer, or the internet
• link other software to your document management system for a customized solution
• and even distribute large amounts of information in a wide range of formats using CD or DVD technology..

Document management is a way to easily manage your paper files electronically and create more office space as well as saving time instead of spending precious minutes trying to find that paper document. Paper documents are scanned in and made into an image file (such as .tif) and filed electronically onto a computer storage hardware. You can easily retrieve, annotate, index and archive these files.

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3. My company wants to manage its documents more effectively and is looking into a document management system. Where do we begin and what do we look for?

1. First answer these questions:
   • Why do you think you need a document management system?
   • What will you use it for?
   • Who will be in charge of it and maintain it?
   • Where do you want it installed?
   • How many people will need to use this?
2. Now do research to find out which document management system is best for you. While choosing the product, keep in mind how many people you will want to have access to the document management system and start writing a plan to implement this system. Keep your plan simple. Save the bells and whistles until after you have the basic system implemented.
3. In the meantime, get a needs analysis done by a document management VAR such as Triangle Solutions Technology, LLC.
4. Once you know what system you will go with, refine your document management implementation plan.
5. Install the system and make sure everyone who will use the system gets the proper training. Learn the system inside and out.

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4. Our engineering company needs a document management software to manage all our CAD drawings as well as limit who has rights to make revisions to the drawings. What may be a suitable document management solution for our situation?

AutoEDMS, created by ACS Software, may be a good match for your needs. AutoEDMS is a document management and workflow software that is tailored for those in the engineering, manufacturing or utilities industries. To learn more about AutoEDMS click here.

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5. How do I prepare my business in case disaster strikes?

There are some things you can do that will help you in case disaster ever strikes your business or organization. Ask yourself these questions:

• If disaster comes our way, what information or data is necessary for us to run this organization or do our tasks?
• How important are your client and employee records, accounting and other company information?
• How can we store this critical information so that we can 'proceed as normally possible' even if disaster strikes our business?

Always back up this information onto another media source, one that may stay in the office, but also onto a server that may be offsite or onto media that can be taken and stored offsite. One thing you must plan is how often you will backup this information. Having a few different off-site locations where this information is stored or backed up will help protect your time and financial investments.

There are more items to consider as well…give us a call to help you decide how you should prepare for disaster. Also view a white paper on Disaster Recovery.

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6. How are my documents captured?

Either through scanning in paper documents using a high-speed scanner or through sending the document electronically via software application, email, or fax.

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7. How can I retrieve my documents?

By entering the index data or by doing a query based upon how you have the items indexed.

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8. Can I share my documents after they have been captured?

Yes, you can send these documents via email, fax, print them out, or even share documents via internet/intranet access.

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9. What is OCR conversion?

OCR, Optical Character Recognition, is a technology where typed or printed documents can be scanned as an electronic image. The characters can be recognized from the image and translated into a text format such as ASCII. This can be done with documents where you may only have the printed or paper copy but do not have an electronic copy. The U.S. Postal Service uses OCR technology to process a lot of its mail. It is best to scan documents at a resolution of 300 dpi for the best character recognition.

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10. What is backfile conversion?

When a document management system is initially implemented, there is usually a lot of existing documents and information. The scanning of these old documents or converting of data from one format to a format accepted by the new document management system so they can be stored and retrieved electronically is called backfile conversion.

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