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Document Management, Records Management, Image Management Workflow
Management,.....What?
It's no wonder that the end users are
confused when the vendors' definitions for the above software applications are often
confusing, overlapping and sometimes downright misleading. It is patently obvious that
some software vendors write their documentation long before they actually produce the
product. Comparing the functionality of the "glossy" to the actual product can
sometimes be more than disheartening.
What is true is that the application areas
of document management, records management, image management and workflow management do
overlap. It is however, also true that they are essentially different applications. The
fact that all of these applications may share the same database engine, end-user
environment (e.g., Windows), and network is irrelevant. These are technical
details.
Generally speaking, Records Management
Systems (RMS) manage information about file covers and paper documents. Document
Management Systems (DMS) manage electronic documents produced by word-processing packages,
e-mail packages, spreadsheet packages, etc. Image Management Systems, (IMS) manage
electronic images of documents, drawings, pictures etc. Workflow Management Systems
(WMS)
know about standard procedures and control the work associated with projects. Note that a
project can be virtually anything from a single complaint letter received to a proposal to
build an oil refinery.
Any of these applications can be run on its
own.
Any two or more of these applications can
be run on the same network, "exchanging" or "sharing" information.
Any one of these applications may also be
"extended" by the addition of functionality from one or more of the other
applications. Thus, we may have a records management package with some elements of a
workflow management package or we may have a document management package that also
captures, stores, indexes, displays and prints images.
The common link in all of these
applications is the term "document". In its broadest and most correct meaning, a
document is any single logical item of information being managed, a unique named or
numbered entity. Thus a 5-page letter is a document. A 10,000-page environmental impact
study is a document. An image produced by scanning a color picture of a football team is
a document. An Excel spreadsheet is a document. A 3 line E-mail message inviting you to
lunch is a document. A cancelled cheque is a document.
Each of our above four applications, (RMS, DMS, IMS and WMS), is concerned with documents as carriers of information. A database of
documents is normally at the heart of all these applications. Obviously, in any
organization, the same document may well be referenced, stored and indexed by two or more
of these applications. For example, a written request for the supply of product would be
registered by our records management system when first received and then
"captured" and processed by our workflow management system until such time
as the request has been validated and the product supplied.
In most organizations, a single document is
logged, indexed, copied, processed and generally handled many times by several different
applications. Key information from this single document is more often than not captured
and stored by several different applications. In the days before computers, this same
duplication process occurred with each document being copied multiple times and filed in
multiple cabinets. As well as being a significant waste of time and resources, this
duplication process is also extremely dangerous and may well lead to poor or wrong
business decisions and confusion within the organization.
It therefore makes excellent sense to aim
for a situation where we retain only a single electronic copy of any document. We then
have the choice of controlling the "sharing" of this document with all of the
applications that need to refer to it or, of using a single, integrated application that
performs all or most of the functions we require, (RMS, DMS, IMS and WMS). In reality,
most organizations will employ a solution that is a compromise or some combination of
these two ends of the spectrum.
Most of the involved software vendors, to
their credit, are attempting to extend their offerings such that they offer a complete
"front-end" product. That is, a single system that either interfaces to or
includes all of the document management functionality we require. Thus producers of RMS
are adding workflow, document and image management functionality to their packages.
Producers of DMS are adding records, image and workflow management functionality to their
packages and so on.
Standard interface, seamlessly integrated,
enterprise-wide document management systems are on the horizon. These "It Does
Everything Applications" (IDEA) will feature in the IT plans of most medium to large
organizations and government departments within six to twelve months.
The whole idea being that the end-user has
a single interface or application, (the IDEA), to learn and work with. This IDEA
"knows about" paper and electronic documents, images and workflow processes. A
search on any topic will identify all of the documents plus all of the people and work
processes involved. It will also tell us the location of the electronic and physical
documents and will report on the degree of completion or otherwise of any due work
processes. It will also tell us who is late or overdue and allow us to "prod"
them into action.
This IDEA also has dynamic links to the
other application processing systems such as WinWord, WordPerfect, Lotus, Excel,
etc. Let's say that the initial result of our search was a statement that there were 5
documents that met our search criteria, 3 were in Excel format and 2 were in WinWord
format. Our IDEA would have a summary of each, keywords, author details, a précis etc. If
we needed more information than was in the précis, we could ask our IDEA to
"start" or "launch" the relevant package, such as Excel,
and display the complete document in its native format. This is an important point. These
new developments are not trying to duplicate the functionality of the accepted application
systems such as WinWord, Mail and WordPerfect, rather they attempt to have a seamless
(i.e., without effort or work on your part) dynamic interface such that the user can move
back and forth between the IDEA and the chosen application, (e.g., WinWord), with a single
keystroke or mouse click.
Like all modem software developments there
will be varying levels of difficulty in installing an IDEA. Running an IDEA on a single PC
will be relatively straightforward. A 64 PC network will be more complex and an enterprise
wide installation, involving multiple networks and server operating systems, (e.g., NTAS,
Novell and Unix), will be the most complex and costly implementation.
Many years ago, the mainframe EDP managers
of the day lamented and resisted the spread of PCs throughout the organization
because they weren't under their control. In reality, the spread of PCs was inevitable
because the end-users had suffered at the bottom of the EDP backlog for far too long. PCs
gave the long-suffering end-user a chance to do his own thing, to produce something he
needed, when he needed it - anathema to the traditional EDP manager. The advent of
networks brought the PCs back under the control of the IT department, albeit with an
additional management workload and a new-age responsibility to ensure that it provided the
services the users wanted rather than what the IT department thought they wanted.
The advent of a standard interface,
seamlessly integrated, enterprise-wide document management systems mandates that all PCs
must be under the control of the IT department but also imposes a significantly higher
requirement for effective management and technical proficiency. The cost of preparing
for and then installing this type of software will always exceed the actual cost
of the software. To underestimate the installation cost is to court disaster.
It is imperative that the business and operational needs of the users be studied and
documented prior to any attempted installation. This is not a task that can be conceived
and managed from within the IT bunker. The end-users absolutely have to be involved
in each and every process.
However, given the apparent inability of IT
management to learn from past mistakes and given their unfettered infatuation with new
technology, it is inevitable that the advantages of a IDEA will be oversold, the necessary
planning ignored and the impact underestimated as the technical gurus steamroll
"Make-My-Reputation" (MMR) projects through naive organizations. It appears that
we in the IT industry simply have to make a few monumental mistakes before we can benefit
from new technology. Try to make sure that it is not your organization that pays the
price.
1995 - Frank McKenna
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