Which Organizations can choose a DMS over an ECM?

Document Management Systems (DMS) are software applications that organize several organizational activities. Activities like storing, accessing digital documents, and arranging other organizational tasks are made possible by the DMS. It also increases the safety and security of storing the documents. To define DMS more precisely, it is an enterprise document management software that allows enterprises to keep a record and manage scanned paper documents and multi-format digital documents. It best uses Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and other structured data formats. This software helps the workers efficiently use documents across the organization and thus increases the organization’s productivity. 

ECM, or Enterprise Content Management, is a term that includes several strategies, technologies, and processes which are significant for the company’s growth throughout the organization’s lifetime. It manages a company’s content right from its creation to its execution of it. It includes the management of documents and aspects such as collaboration, workflow, record management, and management of digital assets and storing them safely. Document governance is one such feature of the ECM, which makes it suitable for large firms. Document governance helps monitor the policies and standards of the documents from their creation, storage, and access to their disposal. In addition, ECM ensures that the documents are stored safely and accurately with a structured policy. 

Both DMS and ECM are the software that has reduced the typical paper-based working in organizations and have reduced it to a more time-effective procedure. It has even led to a safer means of storing documents and quickly accessing these digital assets. ECM offers the same features as DMS, but the DMS only provides a few additional features. 

Let us compare the advantages of both these software to determine which type of organization they are best suited to.

Using DMS can be beneficial in the sense that it offers the following:

• A centralized storage system: DMS offers a cloud-based centralized storage facility that lets organizations digitally store documents in structured data formats.

• Easy accessibility: DMS allows a smooth searching option, making it easy to access documents through intuitive search options. Documents can also be retrieved very quickly with the same system. 

• Easy workflows: This software enables quick routing of documents from one person to another through an inbuilt workflow capability for fast approvals and reviews. It also keeps track of the changes in the version made on the original document. 

• Security: This software is used for storing sensitive documents of the organization, which makes it essential for them to have strict security measures. The security policies of DMS are usually stringent enough to safeguard the documents from unauthorized user access. 

• Guaranteed recovery: DMS usually offers a guarantee on disaster recovery. The digitally stored documents are safeguarded from damage. It provides a structural way of storing documents, thus protecting them from being lost or misfiled.  

Enterprise Content Management, or ECM, has certain advantages; 

• Connected content storage: It enables connecting with several repositories through the organization, thus accessing content from wherever vital. 

• Supporting unstructured file formats: ECM offers assistance in supporting both structured and unstructured data formats like audio files, video files, and many more. 

• Capture: ECM enables capturing and extracting content from both digital and paper-based documents and also manages to work further with the content.

Which organizations will benefit from using DMS over ECM?

Both DMS and ECM are efficient for enterprise document management. It not only reduces the time for processing but also minimizes the operational costs. 

Document Management Systems (DMS) are relatively simple systems and do not require refined expertise and maintenance like Enterprise Content Management (ECM). It is thus best suited for small-sized organizations for which using DMS will be economical. ECM offers all such features as provided by DMS. Additionally, it offers multiple other features which are advantageous for a long-term profit of an organization. But operating requires skilled expertise and a relatively high one-time investment which large organizations can only undertake. Even large organizations can utilize the best DMS in different departments. DMS is thus best suited for relatively small organizations for storing and retrieving documents.