Autor: rgoodson40
In today’s business world, electronic document management is a must. It is imperative to be able access all of your business information quickly through your computer. The days of large, growing businesses having rooms and rooms of paper files is over. To be competitive, a business cannot waste time or money, storing and retrieving their paper files.
The benefits of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) are countless, but it depends on the system that you purchase. If you purchase the wrong system, your employees will not use it as they should and it will not reach its full potential, and an EDMS that is not being used by everyone is a waste of money. Here is what you should look for when you are deciding which EDMS to purchase:
1) Ease of use: The biggest complaint with most of EDMS’s is that they are confusing. This is usually directly related with features. Some systems have attempted to cram so much stuff into their system that it is almost impossible to learn how to use it. Make sure that the system you purchase is capable of being learned by anyone in your office within just a few minutes, especially the most important function of finding the particular document that they are looking for.
2) Batch Scanning Capabilities: If you are planning to scan your current paper files into the system, you don’t want to have to scan 1 document at a time. If you have a scanner capable of scanning 50 pages per minute and can hold 100 pages at a time, you want to take advantage of these features, as it can save you a lot of time and money by the time the project is complete. Make sure the EDMS can scan an entire scanner full of pages at a time, and can automatically split up documents based on bar-coded document separator sheets.
3) Audit Trail: If there is ever some kind of leak of business information, you will want to be able to track where it came from. An audit trail will log every move a user makes within the system, a must have in a business that is interested in security and controls.
Other important functions of an EDMS:
· Data Backup and Recovery Utilities
· Permission-based Document Security
· Ability to create annotations on electronic images
· Ability to store and export both PDF and TIFF images
· Ability to store Microsoft Office files, and utilize version control if these documents are editable
· Index-based and Full-text search capabilities
· Enterprise-level database such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle.
And most important of all, don’t get ripped off. Most of the EDMS’s on the market are priced very high ($20,000 - $30,000 starting). A lot of times, this doesn’t mean that the product is better; it is just a strategically set price to instill a feeling of quality with the buyer. And most of the time, these are the products that are so crammed full of features that the user has a hard time telling what’s what. It is very possible to get an EDMS for under $6,000 that has all the features as the more expensive products.
The benefits of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) are countless, but it depends on the system that you purchase. If you purchase the wrong system, your employees will not use it as they should and it will not reach its full potential, and an EDMS that is not being used by everyone is a waste of money. Here is what you should look for when you are deciding which EDMS to purchase:
1) Ease of use: The biggest complaint with most of EDMS’s is that they are confusing. This is usually directly related with features. Some systems have attempted to cram so much stuff into their system that it is almost impossible to learn how to use it. Make sure that the system you purchase is capable of being learned by anyone in your office within just a few minutes, especially the most important function of finding the particular document that they are looking for.
2) Batch Scanning Capabilities: If you are planning to scan your current paper files into the system, you don’t want to have to scan 1 document at a time. If you have a scanner capable of scanning 50 pages per minute and can hold 100 pages at a time, you want to take advantage of these features, as it can save you a lot of time and money by the time the project is complete. Make sure the EDMS can scan an entire scanner full of pages at a time, and can automatically split up documents based on bar-coded document separator sheets.
3) Audit Trail: If there is ever some kind of leak of business information, you will want to be able to track where it came from. An audit trail will log every move a user makes within the system, a must have in a business that is interested in security and controls.
Other important functions of an EDMS:
· Data Backup and Recovery Utilities
· Permission-based Document Security
· Ability to create annotations on electronic images
· Ability to store and export both PDF and TIFF images
· Ability to store Microsoft Office files, and utilize version control if these documents are editable
· Index-based and Full-text search capabilities
· Enterprise-level database such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle.
And most important of all, don’t get ripped off. Most of the EDMS’s on the market are priced very high ($20,000 - $30,000 starting). A lot of times, this doesn’t mean that the product is better; it is just a strategically set price to instill a feeling of quality with the buyer. And most of the time, these are the products that are so crammed full of features that the user has a hard time telling what’s what. It is very possible to get an EDMS for under $6,000 that has all the features as the more expensive products.
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