The world of information management is widespread, with endless acronyms and technical jargon. With terms like ECM, DMS, SaaS, BaaS, and Cloud computing – it is not tough to imagine the difficulties that consumers have a gathering and interpreting the proper facts to make a well-versed decision.
Research can be further delayed when the terms you are researching share many similarities – two of the most significant crooks being Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Document Management System (DMS).
To help clear the clutter– here is the real difference between DMS and ECM.
ECM: Enterprise Content Management or ECM is defined as a formalized means for managing and storing an organization’s process documentation and other essential databases.
DMS: Document Management System is defined as a computer system used to store and track electronic documents.
Confused yet? Let’s start by sharing some general similarities between an ECM and DMS system.
The Difference Between DMS and ECM
Enterprise Content Management is more than a means for storing and managing an organization’s documents. ECM is perceived to those looking to configure and manage vast volumes of structured and unstructured data, including:
- Images
- Video
- Electronic documents
- Web content
With its advanced security features, ECM systems tend to highlight risk-driven consumers – such as professionals, universities, healthcare lawyers, etc.
Common ECM Features:
- Digital asset management
- Workflows
- Audit trails
- Business process management
- Email management
- Imaging
- Indexing
- Document collaboration
ECM in layman term is an Office Assistant, able to on its own identify the content within a document and know- who, where, and when to send it.
DMS
Document Management Systems are intended to control the life cycle of documents. This includes document, creation, accessibility, and retention.
Whereas DMS is your digital filing cabinet, and an ECM system is your Office Assistant.
A DMS is at its peak a simplified ECM system as it spotlights on managing entities as a whole rather than the far-reaching functionality of content management.
Document management systems are precisely a sub-category of ECM – as ECM could not exist without its ability to manage documents, which is the core function of a DMS.
Common DMS Features:
- Workflows
- Audit trails
- Indexing
DMS vs. ECM- The Differences Between the two document tools
Withstanding their similarities, document management software systems, and enterprise content management platforms also have major differences.
DMS software is essentially the less advanced edition of enterprise content management. It is explicitly used to store, track, and manage electronic documents, with the primary focus being on structured documents like PowerPoint, Word, Excel, or PDF files.
Enterprises typically make use of document management software to digitize their filing systems and go paperless.
Providing an alike diagram to a filing cabinet—except in digital format and with stronger organization principles and security —DMS programs are effective to organizations because they make simple the entire process of document management or DMS.
With DMS, you have simple digital control of the whole life cycle of every possible document in your digital library rack, from the stage of creation- revisions -updates, all the way to document ongoing file accessibility and retention.
You can even automate specific business processes with document management systems, such as archiving or deletion of client documents after particular periods.
One of the vital contrasts between ECM and DMS and software is that a DMS system is used mainly to organize structured PDF or Word documents, ECM can manage, emails, graphics, images, website content, video, and audio files, rich media assets, and more.
In simple words, ECM systems are a more comprehensive means of managing all of a company’s digital assets on a multimedia level.
Applications for DMS and ECM
- The highly sophisticated nature of ECM platforms means that they are; expensive, complex to implement, and ultimately not practical for the just growing organization/firm/companies
- Other sizable clients might implement ECM programs for a range of purposes, including the processing of invoices, insurance claims, patient health charts, automation of accounts payable, and more.
- Larger companies will employ ECM technology not just because such systems are beneficial for parsing the content and using it to make substantial risky decisions, but also because they can be capable of the expense of purchasing an ECM program.
In summing up – the difference between a DMS and an ECM system is, a Document Management System is the core solution providing companies with an efficient means to organize, safeguard, and retain their documents.
On the other hand, Enterprise Content Management -ECM includes features of a capable DMS and boosts it with the potency to handle alternative media and effectively manage unstructured data.
The benefits of using either system are noticeable – the only difficulty lies in choosing the right solution for your organization.