Electronic Document Management Software - How to Choose One?   by Ren Wang, Chief Technology Officer

In a large enterprise, electronic document management software is not regarded as an optional expense because it is essential to workflow, legal compliance, and the control of documents.

Most likely you already have an electronic document management software, and now it's time to start looking at a new solution to this growing document management problem: a web based document management software.

But with150 to 200 document management software vendors, what is the criteria for choosing the best web based document management software possible?

The following checklist will enable you to make a well-informed decision in choosing the right web based document management software to help achieve your legal compliances, increased productivity and control.

1. Absolutely Must Be Web Based

In this globalized economy satellite offices, contract employees, constant expansion/mergers are just three good reasons for making your next electronic document management software web based. It simple, go web based now or in two to three years, it's up to you.

2. Easily Integrates with Current Software Infrastructure

The key to easy installation of your new electronic document management software is how easily it migrates your archived documents formatted in HTML, PDF, or Word/RTF. First-class web based document management softwares will migrate your documents within an hour (depending on the volume).

3. Easy to Use

If your average end-user can use the electronic document management software within one hour of training, then the software implementation and adoption will mostly succeed. To help in this one hour of training, the ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE vendor should educate with online video tutorials and 24 hour support. Both of which you'll rarely find with open source softwares (not required).

4. True Productivity Enhancement and Workflow

Second to fulfilling your legal compliances, your electronic document management software should greatly improve your business processes, managing projects, and overall productivity. Good quality web based document management software will use a highly intuitive, visually pleasing, and customizable user interface to help automate workflow.

5. Scalability

To ensure a solid return on your software investment, knowing how well your electronic document management software can scale in number of users and documents is key. Superior web based document management softwares will scale from 10 users to 10,000 users, and 1,000 documents to 10,000,000 documents with ease.

I did not mention "price" in this checklist because a first-rate web based document management software may cost more upfront, however, it will save you money with increased adoption, productivity, and longevity.

"Try Before You Buy"

In conclusion, in looking for a top quality and user-friendly web based document management software, find a vendor that will offer a free 30-day evaluation of the software (with all the features enabled). Sometimes using the software is the only true way to see if it scores a five out five.

About the Author

Sign-up for a free trial of our OpenEDMS "web based document management solution" at http://www.altimate.ca

Ren Wang is Chief Technology Officer at Altimate Systems home of OpenEDMS the next generation of document management system, their top clients are Reuters, IBM, and SWIFT financial.