Document Management System Software | Alfresco

Document Management Software FAQ

What is document management software?

Document management software helps to store, access, manage, control, and track digital documents and electronic images of paper-based information that has been captured through document scanning technology, or ingested as a digital document. Document management systems can be very simple solutions to help share, manage, and organize digital files, or they can be a part of a sophisticated enterprise content management system with enhanced capabilities to support information governance, records management and more.

Why use document management software? What are the benefits?

A document management solution creates a central location to capture and store your organization’s document-centric information. This makes finding current versions of documents and information much easier, and allows workers to focus on their roles rather than hunting down pieces of paper or digital assets across repositories and silos. Some document management systems offer additional features to enhance security, document tracking and sharing.

What should I look for in document management system software?

When choosing document management software, it’s important to consider its ability to integrate and extend other line-of-business systems, so that content can be available across a range of business applications (such as Salesforce and SAP).
 
Consideration also needs to be given to how users will interact with the system. Different people want to work in different ways — on mobile devices, via web browsers or directly from the desktop.

What are the advantages of an open-source-based document management system?

Open document management system software lets you enrich content information via systems that can extend core functions — for example, off-the-shelf AI and machine learning technologies.

What is a document management system (DMS) vs. enterprise content management (ECM)?

While a document management system allows you to manage and control documents across your organization, an enterprise content management (ECM) system offers much broader capabilities for managing and controlling access to a variety of file types — not just documents — and may include additional capabilities including workflows, business process management, and information governance. Today, ECM is being replaced by content services platforms.

What are the benefits of cloud-based document management system?

The advantages of a cloud-based document management system include reducing the burden on IT for system infrastructure, maintenance, scalability, redundancy and security. Updates are automatic. Some cloud-based document management systems offer the benefit of very low-cost, long-term archival storage like that available through Amazon AWS Glacier. A Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) content services solution provides end-to-end, fully managed content services.