What is an Electronic Document Management System?
An Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) utilizes a database to store a scanned copy of a document, enabling a search or index method to quickly retrieve data.

What is document scanning?
Document scanning is the process of using document scanning software and high-speed document scanners to convert an image of the paper to a digital picture. These electronic images can then be indexed and stored in a document storage system which gives your users the ability to search through millions of scanned documents in a matter of moments.

Isn't Document Management the same as imaging?
No. Although clearly related, Imaging is only one of the techniques used to introduce document into a Document Management environment. Today, most documents start life in electronic format and, wherever possible, you should try to use the original source of the document rather then a scanned image.

What benefits can I expect from document archiving and storing my documents in digital form?
• Increased productivity
• Fast and easy access to important information
• Increased savings in various operational costs
• Smaller physical storage spaces
• Workflow management Efficiency
• Information management Efficiency
• Ease to comply with government regulations for records keeping
• Archive purchase orders, invoices, delivery notes, agreements and customer correspondence in one central database
• Secure archive and access which reduces risk of loss
• Reduction of administration times i.e. customer queries
• Link data easily with most CRM solutions, accounts systems, SAP, ERP, etc

Wouldn’t I be best doing my own document scanning rather than outsourcing it?
Possibly!
If you have small daily volumes of documents which need a quick turnaround time then it is generally best to do it yourself on a small desktop scanner. We can advise on which scanner would best suit your requirements.
Larger volumes of documents (i.e. many thousands) are generally best outsourced to a professional scanning company. Verve uses very high quality and high-speed scanners, which generate excellent image quality and keep costs down due to their high speed. You also benefit from our pre-existing procedures, which would take time and training to implement in house

How many document pages can I scan onto a CD?
This will vary to a large extent according to the information on each page but typically 20-30 archive boxes of A4 documents can fit on one CD-ROM. You can see now the potential for cutting back those office floor space costs!

How can I estimate how many document pages I have?
Typically a full lever arch file will contain 250-300 pages and an archive box approx 3,000 pages.

What types of information can you scan and store in digital form?
Verve can scan anything from microfilms through to large format full colour drawings of any length.

I don’t want my documents to leave site but we don’t have the capability to scan them ourselves. What do I do?
Verve offers an on-site document scanning service where we scan in documents using our own staff and equipment at your offices.

I now have all my paper documents scanned in and I also have thousands of MS Office word documents, emails and other files. How do I manage and access them?
You need a document management solution that will install on your network and allow each document to be referenced by its specific details. For example, an invoice may be referenced on Inv no, company, value and date. You can then search upon any of these reference fields to find the specific document.

In a document management system, which types of documents are we talking about?
An electronic document management system can integrate virtually any kind of document – from scanned paper documents to microfilm, to electronically produced documents.

The new technology associated with Document management confuses me. How do I decide which is best?
With so many technological terms associated with DM such as imaging, knowledge management, Intranet and Internet etc, it’s enough to send anybody’s head spinning. The best way to start to choose what is best for your company or group would be to identify:
• The object population involved in the system you need.
• The factors and needs involved in the input and output of the data/ information.
• The process needed from conception to destruction of your document management system.

How do I introduce Document Management in my Organisation?
Document Management is a core business activity and can therefore impact large parts of an organisation. In order to minimize the disruption, Document Management should be introduced in phases and with careful change management procedures

Introducing Document management to my company sounds like a big upheaval. Is there a way I can make the transition smooth?
Document Management is really at the center of your organization, and no doubt impacts key areas of the business/ group. We suggest introducing a new DM system gradually, in phases, allowing time and familiarization, through a series of thought-out procedures to ease in its management and avoid any trouble.

Which Document Management product is the best?
This is a bit like trying to answer which car is "the best". You can evaluate different Document Management products based on their functionality, market penetration, user interface, cost (initial and long-term), vendor stability and finally personal preference. When considering Document Management products, the most prominent names at the market today are (in no particular order...) Fortis, Documentum, FileNet, Lotus, OpenText, MS-SharePoint, Tower, etc. BUT, there may well be other products out there which are better suited to your particular requirements, so please consider all of them.

How many licenses do I need? Does everyone at my company need to have a Fortis license?
FORTIS is licensed using a concurrent licensing model, which means that you must purchase only the licenses that you need. You may install FORTIS on as many machines as you like. The number of licenses that you need to purchase depends upon the total number of people that will use the product at the same time. For example, if you have 20 employees, and your employees work in two shifts of 10, then you only need 10 licenses.

What about security, does Fortis DMS Service have security checks in place?
Absolutely! Fortis DMS software service has a permissions-based security system, as well as a role-based hierarchical security system, so you can control who sees what in your DMS.
Administrators or users with administrative rights can easily manage document and folder security through various security tools built into Fortis.
Security of documents can be managed at both the document and the folder level. Permissions can be assigned to individual users and user groups. Isolated domains (work areas) can also be created and maintained.

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