What is a document management system (DMS)? List some ways a DMS can help a business become more efficient and productive. Explain your ideas in scholarly detail
Business Operations and Continuity
The success of a business entity is dependent on multiple variables that shape the existence of the business world. Different attributes need to be sourced together to ensure that the business meets its daily operations and beneficial qualifications (Ismael, & Okumus, 2017). For instance, the management aspect, employee support, and customer relations are all elements that have to be factored in when making business decisions. A clear understanding of the different modules within the business firm can form the basis of change and transformation.
Document Management System (DMS)
Every organization has to encounter documents either paper or electronic to conduct its normal operations. Managing documents from different sources can be difficult for an organization (Ismael, & Okumus, 2017). Different organizations have different uses for their documents which makes document management unique for every organization. The nature and type of the organization create the premise on how the DMS would be used in capturing, retrieving, and storing both electronic and paper documents.
Document management systems are an essential tool that can be customized to an organization to help with the management of documents and in return offer various benefits to the organization. In accordance with the ISO 12651-2, a document includes any recorded object or information which can be considered as a single unit (Nenkov et al., 2017). A DMS is then software that can be used to organize and control these documents crosswise the entire organization.
There are various ways in which DMS can be beneficial to a business in becoming more efficient. Proper document organization enhances the security of the documents within the organization. The security of the documents is important since it is concerned with the privacy of confidential information and only allows access to the authorized individuals (Nenkov et al., 2017). DMS offers effective control towards sensitive documents and facilitates effective audit trails. Secondly, the use of DMS makes the documents easy to retrieve which is a benefit for the organization.
Through the use of standard naming conventions and sorting algorithms, an organization can easily retrieve data from different time frames and facilitate faster business operations and reduced return time. For instance, a communication company deals with millions of documents on a daily basis and they have to be stored for future use or in case of discrepancies and there is a need for audits. Documents consumer storage space and DMS can be beneficial toward the attainment of reduced storage space.
A DMS makes use of computer technology to convert paper documents into small files that can be stored in a single hard drive rather than storing millions of files within cabinet shelves and other storage bins (Nenkov et al., 2017). These measures can be beneficial in creating an effective business in terms of efficiency and productivity.
Data Marts and Enterprise Data Warehouse
An Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) is a repository within a business firm that is responsible for the storage and management of all historical business transaction records. A warehouse houses all the archived documents, different documents on operations, and other customer details that can be beneficial for the future of the company and the attainment of various outcomes.
An EDW is not specific to the type of data stored but instead houses all the records within the organization (Blažić et al., 2017). Data marts, on the other hand, are a subset of an EDW that have repositories that contain summarized data that is specific to a given unit or department within the organization. Data marts are important within the organization as it can offer information regarding compliance.
For instance, a data mart can contain information concerning the human resource department and how it operates. The data can be used to analyze the operations and transactions done by the section to ascertain whether they meet the set regulation and standards. The specificity of the data within a data mart is essential for the provision of a proper decision-making strategy towards compliance (Naamane, & Jovanovic, 2016). The data offers where a problem within a specific section is found and possible ways to solve the issues to meet the nee