What is Document Management System?

DMS (document management system) – a system or software whose main functions are receiving, tracking, management, storing and reducing of the documents. DMS is considered as the part of enterprise content management systems. It also has similar features with digital asset management, document imaging and systems of records management.

Main components of DMS:

Metadata– aspect which helps to create an extracted text that can be used as an assistant in locating documents; it gives the name of the author, length of the document, etc.
Storage – the main function is storing of electronic documents; also helps to manage place, time of storage, migration of the documents and their final destruction;
Versioning – process of checking in and out of the document management system, that allows to find previous versions of the document and to continue working from the last checkpoint;
Security – one of the most important components as it is responsible for the safety of the data in the document. Sometimes DMS may give the right to work with the document only to a certain people;
Indexing – component which is responsible for tracking electronic documents.
Retrieval capabilities – retrieve the electronic documents from the storage by using a searching system on the terms filled by a user.

There are also some additional components that expand the work of document management systems, for example, data validation (checks failures, missing signatures, etc.), searching, distribution.

Document management systems obey the document control standards which may vary according to the industry and particular field of work. These standards, at the same time, are regulated by the government through legislation.

The most popular DMS software:

PandaDoc (allows to integrate different kinds of documents into a single workflow);
Nintex Process Platform (automatically captures and routes data to a centralized repository);
OpenKM (provide tools to define the roles of users, document security, etc.)