Collaborative Document Creation
A Good DMS Would Facilitate Collaborative Working
Many business documents require collaborative working. Consider the example of a Supplier Bill for supplies made. Before it can be paid, Materials or Warehouse Department must check the bill against relevant Goods Received Note. Do the quantities in the G R Note and Bill match? Have the supplies been inspected and accepted? Once this check is complete, the Purchasing Department must verify the bill against the prices and any other terms agreed upon. Only now would the bill be ready for payment, which might be the responsibility of Accounting Department.
In the absence of a good Document Management System, it is quite possible that the bill could be paid even when the relevant supplies have not been received, or received but rejected on quality considerations. On the other hand, a good DMS streamlines the entire process, say, by automating all required verifications using a computer. Purchase Order, G R Note and Inspection details would be entered into the computer as the transactions occur. The system could then check the details of the Supplier Bill against these, and flag the bill's acceptability or otherwise.
Facilitating Collaborative Working
In traditional systems, collaborative working is carried out by passing documents from workstation to workstation. Where the volume of documents is large, it is quite likely that some documents could be misplaced or lost during the hurried transmittals. Even otherwise, continuous movement and handling could damage the documents.
The modern solution to this issue is to capture relevant details from documents in a digital format in a networked system. The details would then be available from anywhere in the system. Thus Accounting department would have instant access to the G R Note details entered by Materials Department.
Using a secure Web environment, even geographically distant departments and offices could be integrated to facilitate collaborative working.
Collaborative working is even more important in such activities as software development and complex design development. Many specialists would be contributing to such efforts and they must have access to the latest work-in-progress.
Some Problems & Their Solutions
Several persons could access centralized documents at the same time. If more than one person makes changes, around the same time, some problems could arise. For example, A might access a certain record for making some changes. Before A has competed his edit, B might access the same record for making some other change. Now if A puts back the edited record before B, the latest changes made by A could be lost when B puts back original record after his own edits. This happens because the latest version of a record overwrites the existing version.
To prevent such eventualities, a record is typically "locked" when it is retrieved for editing. Until the current edit session is completed, the locked record would not be available to another person for making changes.
For complex works like software and design development, "version control" would typically be in use. After each change, or series of changes, a new version number is allotted to the product. The earlier versions might still be in use along with the latest version. People could then access the specific version they want. This might become necessary where a customer using an older version requires support with his particular version.
It could also happen that unexpected bugs in the latest version of a complex product make it necessary to discard it and go back to the earlier version.
A good DMS would have provision to attend to these kinds of issues, and would actively facilitate safe practices.
Conclusion
In a business of any size, collaborative working would be the rule, particularly for complex projects like software or design development. Collaborative working throws up several problems. A good document management system would not only facilitate collaborative working but also anticipate these problems and incorporate adequate solutions.