So what is a DMS?
A DMS is a managed environment where the organization can store documents and materials of value to the business for the benefit of the business as a whole. The environment should safeguard the integrity of its contents and as a minimum should offer:

• Life cycle management
• Version control
• Change management (check-out and check-in)
• Audit trail
• Document security
• Document profiling
• Search and retrieval

Reasons for implementing a DMS
There are many reasons why an organization may embark on a DMS implementation including internal and external pressures, which can be both business related and legislative. Often these days, one company will not do business with another unless the other party can demonstrate a certain level of control over the documents they create.

The most important reason for having a DMS, in my opinion, is that an organization needs to ensure that people can trust the information they are looking at and know that it is the latest and truest version. The features of the DMS listed above come together to facilitate this "trust" factor.

Where information is not current, disastrous consequences can occur. For example, imagine sending the wrong contract to a company for signature, or an outdated engineering drawing to your manufacturing plant. You can work the rest out for yourselves!

The customer's perception
It's a popular misconception that a DMS is going to solve all of our information management issues.

Typically, someone in the organization (with the very best of intentions) decides that the company should implement a DMS. To sell the idea internally, it is pitched that all of the organization's documents will be stored in this "holy grail" of repositories from where people can get instant access to the most up to date information.

This system will be an aid to the elusive knowledge sharing goals of the organization, thus reducing the time taken to complete common tasks, improving productivity and cutting costs to make our ever happy shareholders even happier.