Document Management Software

Document management software is crucial for businesses that rely on fast access to their records. A comprehensive document management solution often combines scanning, storage, management, and retrieval. Whether they're accessing service records or medical claims, those businesses that live and die upon the fast retrieval of files have found their document management systems to be absolutely essential. "Where's that file on Fred's computer? I can't find it ... I hope he gets back from lunch ..."

Serious document management systems use automatic document feeder-equipped scanners to quickly digitize stacks of records. With an automatic document feeder, a scanner can scan page after page without operator intervention--at speeds up to 100 pages per minute (depending upon the scanner). High-volume document management systems are capable of using multiple scanners simultaneously.

Once the documents are scanned, they can be stored on a variety of media. High speed hard drives and RAIDs are among the most common document management storage options. Some shops depend on CD jukeboxes, while others are moving towards DVD storage. As DVD burner and associated costs have dropped, they've become an attractive option.

Scanned documents can be stored as images or as text. Advanced document management systems use optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the images into text. Once the text is OCRed, it can be indexed based upon the all the text within a document or by keywords within the text. Standardized documents can be indexed based upon specific fields within the document.

Of course, document management increasingly encompasses more than scanned images.

In most shops, unstructured data such as Excel spreadsheets, Acrobat PDF files, Word (and other word processing) files, and PowerPoint presentations all beg to be properly stored and accurately indexed for prompt retrieval. There's nothing worse to have that killer info stored somewhere, if only you could find it.

This is an ever-expanding field with touch points from the individual desktop to the biggest corporate setup. If you're using a document management software solution, and would be interested in sharing your experiences with your fellow Gnomies, we want to hear about it!