A Document management system (DMS) optimises the use of documents within an organization independent of any publishing medium. It provides an organization with the tools to create, manage, control, and distribute electronic documents. In the context of an Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS), a document is essentially a file, 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. A DMS tracks the editorial history of each document and its relationships with other documents. A variety of search and navigation methods are available to make document retrieval easy. Highly structured and regulated content, such as pharmaceutical documentation, is often managed in a DMS.

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 institutionalised 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.

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
• Access control (Check-in/Check-out)

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

ITSthe1 has the know-how to evaluate your business requirements and provide the right Document Management System to suit your needs.