Advantages & Disadvantages of Document Management System

By Stephanie D

Updated September 28, 2017

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Document management systems are electronic systems that are designed to manage, store, distribute and archive documents. These systems are common in businesses and educational systems and act as a digital filing cabinets. Document management systems are also known as "content management systems" as they can store audio, video, and other media types in addition to documents.

Physical Space

Document management systems often store information on servers or other powerful computer systems. These electronic storage spaces often take up less space than their physical counterpart.

Digital Archiving

Document management systems allow for the storage of the documents themselves and also for past versions. This can help track revisions through time and provides an extra benefit of being able to revert back to older documents. However, if this information is not organized and stored correctly, there could be too many documents and versions available, thereby causing an information overload problem to users.

Centralized Location

Document management systems are a centralized storage location where many users can access the most current and up to date document from one central location. This easy access to documents supports collaboration between many users. The centralized location of documents also promotes easy distribution of documents to users. However, electronic storage of digital documents in a single location may pose an extra security risk unless extra security is added to protect the electronic system.

Additional Utilities Tools

Electronically storing and managing documents within an electronic document management system allows for utility tools to provide additional features that were not available in their physical counterpart. Searching through electronic documents is easier than searching each document by hand. However many of these tools may be unnecessary and may have a higher cost than value for companies.

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