Document Management is a technology that manages the life cycle of documents with strong integrity, security and access control. Documents are referenced using attributes and business rules. Routing and workflow capability are provided separately. Document management provides security for a company's intellectual property, ensuring that only authorized users are provided access and revision capability to appropriate documents.
Management authorizes such access and can determine who has utilized approved access-and when.
Document management permits the electronic storage of paper documents for faster retrieval, and lower storage cost. A non-obvious benefit is the ease of purging obsolete information. Well designed document management software streamlines information operations and the satisfaction of users throughout the system. It systematizes the operations of local and remote sites while providing a cost effective central repository. The use of shared appliances become possible with network access to printers, scanners and data storage devices.