First things first: a Document Management System (DMS) is just a glorified database that can help your office file, categorize, summarize, search for, and find the tens of thousands of computer files you’re likely to have once you really go paperless. Furthermore, because all file storage takes place on the back end, users can’t as easily move or delete entire directory folders. That’s the up side.

The downside? Well, several disadvantages come to mind.

• High Cost: DMS solutions can be very expensive.
• No Interoperability: Once you lock into a DMS solution you’re stuck with it and its updates since the database produced by one DMS can’t be imported into or read by another DMS.
• Time-Consuming: Although DMS solutions are meant to save you time in searching for documents, you and your staff need to profile each document you put in the system, and that can take more time than you think.
• High Learning Curve: Everyone will have to learn the new system in order to profile new documents and bring up existing ones.

The real advantages are in being able to protect the directory structure and in being able to search documents. For the former, adequate training and a backup protocol are required to, respectively, minimize mistakes and recover from them. As for making documents easier to find: you can actually implement this without a DMS. In fact, some DMS solutions depend on other softwares to enable indexing features.

So bottom line: no, you do not need a DMS. You may want one, regardless, for the advantages noted above, but you definitely don’t need one, especially if cost is a consideration.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Paperless Office. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.