What is Electronic Document Management...

Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) provide an organisation with the tools to create, manage, control, and distribute electronic documents. Before going further, this would be a good place to define what we mean by "document." In the context of EDMS (or "the EDMS space" to use the latest buzz terminology), a document is essentially a file. A file, in this usage, is an electronic, digital container for information. A document may be a word processing file, or it may be a graphic image, or any other discrete, identifiable information unit that can exist within a computer system.

Traditionally, operating systems such as DOS and Windows have failed to offer the tools and resources necessary for managing documents. The principal case in point is the paltry 8+3 file naming constraints enforced by DOS and Windows 3.x. Not until Windows 95 did the Microsoft + Intel platform offer the possibility of long, "descriptive" file names.

Understandably, the tools used to create and distribute files—word processors, spreadsheets, graphics programs, and the like—have concentrated on their core functionality, leaving document management to the operating system. This meant, essentially, leaving it out in the cold. Firms, such as law firms, that create huge numbers of documents, and that have invested their intellectual capital in the content of these documents, have traditionally turned to document management software. As more "corporate memory" is captured in electronic documents, more firms are recognizing the need for a document management system.

Consider that most department managers have a much better idea of the contents of their supply cabinets than they do of the electronic documents generated by their group. We're talking about the critical intellectual assets upon which their business relies. Clearly, there is a problem here.

What Can Document Management Do For You...

First of all, document management is not for your documents, it's for your users and your business objectives. Document Management puts you in control of the knowledge institutionalized within your organization. Studies suggest that 80 percent of a company's "knowledge" is stored as non-structured data, such as documents. A document management system is the means to impart structure, organization, and accessibility to this knowledge store.

Technologies such as imaging and workflow which are closely related to document management are often lumped into the document management mix.

Document management is a broad discipline that offers a variety of services and features that can be addressed within the following categories:

Library Services, Network Support, Document Security, Full Text Retrieval, Document Viewers, Archiving, Version Control, Document History

How often does your company lose man hours through searching for a document that was there yesterday?

Whilst we are always sure we can remember where we saved that mission-critical document unfortunately, sometimes the reality is not the same.

At MLR Networking, we have developed a document management system for both our internal use that we feel is a better option for the small to medium enterprise than many of the more expensive solutions currently on the market. To be more exacting it was designed specifically with the small company in mind using off the shelf Microsoft product, can be modified to suit your individual circumstance and is totally scalable.

Key Features:

• Full Security - Specific User access to control file updates, viewing etc
• Version Control - all versions of a document are maintained, allowing for full life-cycle support
• Support for all document types - Our Document Management System will not limit the type of files that can be stored
• Large Files - Our Document Management System allows files up to 2Gig in size to be stored in the database

Email us at info@mlrnetworking.co.uk or call the office and request a customized quote for your installation