Document Management Systems

Mahesh N H
PDM


Introduction
Eras of Systems:
1960s and 1970s: Computational Systems (CS)
1980s and 1990s: Database Management Systems (DBMS)
Image Management Systems (IMS)
Late 1990s: Document Management Systems (DMS)
Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)
First Decade of 21st Century: Multimedia Management Systems
(MMS)

Estimated that 90% of an organizations information is in
documents rather than structured databases (Sprague, 1995).
True today more than ever.
Introduction
Hypertext Workflow
Document
Management
Information
Retrieval
Multimedia
Convergence of enabling technologies
Documents are results of most business processes. They can be made of multiple
media.
Once you have them, you need to manage them.
Only if you have documents, you can have relationships (hypertext).
If you have a process for creating, reviewing, approving documents, you need
workflow.
When youve documents you need ways to retrieve them.
Definitions
Document Management (DM) (Sprague, 1995): creation, storage,
organization, transmission, retrieval, manipulation, update,
archival and retirement of documents based on organizational
needs.
A document is an artifact resulting from the transformation of a
set of ideas by people following a set of processes.
An electronic document has the following characteristics
(Sprague, 1995):
holds information of multiple media: text, graphics, audio, video
contains multiple structures: headers, footers, TOC, sections,
paragraphs, tables
is dynamic: can be updated on the fly
may depend on other documents
Definitions







Process: Decision making process, design process, etc.
Input: Thoughts, ideas, issues, concerns
Output: Documents (memos, news, design documents, white
papers, marketing literature, contracts, manuals)
People: Executives, Designers, Lawyers, Scientists
Process Input Output
People
Change
Technology
enables change
in process
Benefits
Sprague (1995) states that document management systems
(DMS) enable:
Generation of revenue producing products
For publishing industry, documents are a direct source of revenue
Organizational Communication
Concepts, ideas, decisions are shared in the form of electronic
documents to increase efficiency and effectiveness
Business Process Re-engineering
Current business processes designed around paper documents;
electronic documents help to reduce cycle time
Organizational Memory
Both hard data and soft/tacit knowledge stored as documents
providing access to history, design/decision rationale, expertise, best
practices, etc.
Benefits
Reduce time to create, review, approve and publish mission
critical documents
Increase accessibility to information; retrieval using business
characteristics and full-text searches
Ensure currency
Provide access and version control
Enable enterprise-wide collaboration; reduce email
Facilitate workflows (sequential and parallel)
Maintain audit trail
Increase re-use of components (produce multiple documents
from same components)
Publish electronic & paper documents simultaneously
Types of Industries & Documents
Industry Segment Document Type
Automobile,
Construction
Engineering drawings
Pharmaceutical New drug applications to FDA
Insurance Claims
Financial Product brochures, swaps and
derivatives
Consulting Contracts and agreements
Architecture,
Engineering
Blueprints and photographs
Consumer Products,
Financial
Marketing literature
Lawyers Legal briefs
Airlines* Manuals and handbooks
All Memos/White Papers
* It is said that Boeing ships three plane loads full of manuals for every plane
Applications
Financial
Product catalogs (marketing information): Org Comm
Back-office: confirmation of trades, customized letters and
promotions: Revenue Generation
Policies: Org Comm
Pharmaceutical
New drug applications submitted to FDA (approximately 600
volumes of 200 pages each): Business Process Re-engineering
Product labeling information:
Standard operating procedures, laboratory manuals: Org Comm
Organizational knowledge on drug development: Org Memory
Regulatory guidelines: Org Memory
Competitive intelligence
Conclusions
DMS will:
become the primary living repositories for organizational
information/intellectual assets
enable linking of related information (hypertext)
provide workflow facilities for various stakeholders
increase accessibility to information through meta-data and full-
text retrieval and agents
enable handling of multimedia
Conclusions
Evolution of information management systems


Filesystems DBMS
Hierarchical/
Networked
Relational
Object-Oriented
DMS
Knowledge
Management
Systems
Org Memory
Systems
Org Learning
Systems
References
Balasubramanian, V., and Bashian, A. (1998). Document Management and Web
Technologies: Alice Marries the Mad Hatter, Communications of the ACM, July
1998.
Balasubramanian, V., Bashian, A., and Porcher, D. (1997). A Large-Scale
Hypermedia Application using Document Management and Web Technologies,
Proceedings of Hypertext 97, ACM Press.
Rein, G. L., McCue, D. L., and Slein, J. A. (1997). A Case for Document
Management Functions on the Web, Communications of the ACM, September
1997.
Documentum: http://www.documentum.com
Opentext/Livelink: http://www.opentext.com
Saros/Mezzanine: http://www.saros.com
PC DOCS: http://www.pcdocs.com
THANK YOU