Document Management system

Introduction

Most of the business organization often overlooks the biggest opportunities for cost savings which are right under their nose. It is amazing to know that recent research from IDC concluded that Fortune 500 companies as a whole lose an average of $12 Billion per year to inefficiencies caused by the lack of a structure for managing their documents and digital assets. Did you know that according to Gartner Research, the average employee spends $4,800 worth of their time annually just searching for documents?
Document Management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of paper-based, or electronic (i.e. Word, Excel, email) documents. Document Management provides a simple and efficient way to input, retrieve, manage revisions (managing multiple versions of a document), collaborate, track and retain all of the unstructured data that doesn’t already exist in your organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management(SCM), and other computer systems.

DMS & BPM
When we talk about Document Management we are talking about a complete business process. The process starts with the creation of document (electronic or paper based) ,storing the document ,indexing the document ,versioning the document ,tracking the status of approval of document ,monitoring the reports based on document etc. Now we are talking about the business process management (BPM) of documentation process.
Components of DMS
The components of DMS can be broadly divided in three parts
1. Document Capture and Storage
2. Document Work Flow
3. Business Rules for work flow
4. Analysis and Reporting on DMS

Document Capture and Storage

Batch Scanning

The format of incoming documents in an organization is difficult to control ; So it is important that document imaging systems are able to scan a mix of these documents in bulk
Permanent and Accurate Storage
Permanent and accurate storage deals with the conversion of hard-copy business documents such as invoices, statements and remittances into unalterable digital images. It is important that the images of accounting documents captured by the system are unalterable since they form a key part of the accounting records retained by the business. This means, for example, that even where document styles and layout change over the year that the original is a faithful copy. In addition, where matching with an accounting system identifies relationships between documents, for example a Purchase Order, a GRN (Goods Received Note) and Purchase Invoice it is important that the document management system retains this relationship when storing away the image so that the information is preserved and available if the accounting system is subsequently replaced. Using these relationships, a modern document imaging system should also present automatically related documents, such as an invoice and its associated purchase order and proof-of-delivery.

Intelligent Data Capture

Intelligent data capture is the cornerstone of a document management system and an area that has benefited from rapid advances in technology. This technology enables the automated capture of data from whole batches of incoming documents, such as supplier invoices, using OCR (Optical Character Recognition). It is vital that data capture technology can handle mixed batches of document types and sizes and recognises different fonts, layout and colours whilst intelligently interpreting the contents with a high degree of success by matching against valid data held within an integrated accounting system or other database. For example, using this technique, a supplier name or VAT registration number on a scanned purchase invoice could be matched with the supplier's account number held in the accounts payable module. Unmatched data should be clearly highlighted on screen so that operators can view the scanned image and correct the interpreted data where necessary so that future instances of the same document type can be scanned without delay.
Secure methods of data storage Storing digital images within a document management system provides unique advantages over manual storage of paper documents, for example, space savings, fast document retrieval and ease of backup. But data storage has to be secure from unauthorised access, inadvertent or malicious changes, i.e. apply a similar level of user permissions to the original records as the accounting system itself. In addition, the system should avoid proprietary technology so that images can be transferred to alternative hardware configurations as the organisation grows.

Document Work Flow

The documents in an organisation have workflows attached to them for example if we consider an invoice it is generated ,checked for essential information ,goes for approval ,approved ,email /sms notification send to concerned department for payment ,the approved invoice is archived. The ability for approvers to append ‘sticky notes' on the electronic document, without affecting the original image whilst enabling the accounts administrator to track the whereabouts of individual documents should be available.

Business Rules for work flow
The flow of a document in an organisation is governed by simple rules for example there may be rules for approval of invoice based on financial power of designation like up to Rs 100 approval can be done by clerk ,from 100-5000 by section officer ,from 5000 -50000 by accountant and so on. These rules if nested in the work flow are very useful in automation of whole process
Analysis and Reporting on DMSThe audit trail and reports on the documents helps to monitor the cost involved ,speed and accuracy of work. Any DMS should be able to generate the reports regarding the documentation carried out for example for invoices a report should be available giving details of number of incoming invoices ,withheld for approval ,approved ,rejected .The other important thing is that at any particular instance the end user should be able to know the status of particular document .This also helps in resource optimization as well as removing bottlenecks from system making it more efficient