Enterprise Content Management System is a digitized content/information and document management process to support a company to fulfill and reach its goal of a business process. A company needs to manage its information/content effectively to increase its working productivity. Enterprise Content Management System capable of providing that process for a company. ECM, generally, strongly integrated with Document Management System (DMS).
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Below are several examples of content/information and document related challenge in business :
The non-structured information or content related to the business process causes confusion. It also needs to be redone, wasting more time and effort.
Difficulty to find content/information based on date, the user, or content type.
It takes too much time to spread the information. In the worst case, the information even isn’t spread.
The storage at the office is incapable to contain the amount of content/information in a physical form.
To solve these problems, a company needs an integrated system that provides functionality.
Enterprise Content Management System has these features/functionalities :
Document Management System (DMS): For handling a company’s or organization’s document,
Collaboration: Collaboration in the ECM can be facilitated through an online portal/website.
Workflow: Delegating a task to a certain user that is wanted and improving job efficiency.
Web Content Management: To manage, create, and deliver the content easily.
Record Management: Simplify the storing and searching for the content/information, which is considered important for a company or organization.
Enterprise Content Management System increases the information flow within the company that will improve productivity. ECM helps an organization to manage information and content into a more structured form.
The benefits of using Enterprise Content Management System:
A structured content knowledge storing system,
Increase the speed and accuracy of the information distribution,
Improving productivity in office activities,
Minimizing the information/content lost,
Suitable for collaboration purpose,
Accessible from anywhere and anytime you need it,
Providing better control over the certain information/content access for a specific user, so the risk of information/content leak will be decreased,
Easy to trace the audit result of an information/content,
Simplify and speed up specific information/content searching processes.
One of the tools/systems of Enterprise Content Management System is Alfresco. Alfresco is the open-source licensed Enterprise Content Management System.
Alfresco as a Challenger in Magic Gartner Quadrant
In 2019, in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, Alfresco is in the same quadrant as challenger from other solutions like Laserfiche, SER, NewServer, etc.
Alfresco is equipped with a complete set of features that give solutions for the company’s information/content-related problems.
The Implementation of ECM System Features within Alfresco:
Advanced Search Functionality. Enterprise Content Management System can search based on the keyword or the essence of the information/content.
Easy to Use. Users won’t have problems using Alfresco, because it has a similar design to explorer (File Explorer on Windows and Finder on Mac), which they are using every day. Moreover, users can easily upload a document by using the drag and drop method.
Workflow Engine. Creating a task for a specific user for revision, review, approval, and disapproval purpose on information/content or document effectively.
Google Docs, MS Office, LDAP, and Active Directory Integrated.
Versioning. Adding the information/content or document version automatically and save the history log of that document version.
Role, Permission & Security Settings. We can add a specific permission setting on the information/content for specific users, using Enterprise Content Management System.
Collaboration Site. You can share documents, calendars, discussion, blogs, links, and datalist. With the Collaboration Site feature, you can easily spread the information faster and with better accuracy.
Expired Document Reminder. A notification will appear if it detects an expired information/content. Notification will be displayed through the main page dashboard of Alfresco or via email.
Integrate with other applications using CMIS Web Services.
Comment/Discussion Feature. Users can participate to develop an information or business process by using the comment/discussion feature.
Softbless has helped many company to manage their content to well organized, efficient by using Alfresco as ECM
Softbless is ECM implementation expert in Indonesia. Feel free to ask us and get the best deal about ECM Solution.
Document Management System (DMS) is a system that used to manage the life cycle of documents in each phase. DMS handles documents electronically, from the document is still in draft form, reviewed, published, stored, and eventually deleted/destroyed.
Document Management System is a component of Enterprise Content Management System (ECM).
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Some concepts/functionalities of Document Management System :
Metadata. Metadata is information/propety owned by each document. For example, if we have a document type "Receipt", then the metadata of the receipts are: amount, payment date, receiver
Workflow: Collaboration in DMS facilitated through the workflow. Collaboration can be a form of assignment or approval. Assignment workflow : an employer requires his/her to revise the report. Approval example : staff requests leave to be approved by superiors
Versioning: every update of a document can be tracked. DMS save the history of each version of the document
Security: security feature is a mandatory feature of a DMS. Users need to be able to restrict other users' access rights to documents
Searching: If company already has thousands of documents, then this feature will greatly facilitate user searching to obtain the necessary documents.
Some problems :
The difficulty of searching for a document, especially searching based on some parameters. For example: looking for documents created within a certain period and by users, with certain descriptions, document numbers and specific projects
Difficulty determining documents with the latest version because every employee has a different document naming format, and we often do not know who holds the latest version.
To get a physical document, requires considerable effort, starting from finding out the position of the physical document, retrieve it, and deliver it to people who need it.
The amount of office space and file cabinets, is not proportional to the high growth of documents. It would be better if the office space is used for something else, rather than just being a document storage.
High risk of losing documents. Physical documents are vulnerable to damage, especially if a natural disaster results in companies losing documents as an important asset
Security, permissions for each document are very specific. We need system to handle the security.
Above problems can be handled if the company has a Document Management System (DMS). Huge number of documents owned by company/organization needs to be handled by an integrated system.
The advantages of Document Management System :
Increased productivity - increased productivity can occur in searching for documents and document broadcast
Cost efficiency - using the Document Management System, companies can reduce the paper purchase
Robust Security - electronic documents can be stored in a centralized
Accelerate access to the required documents, each user can directly open the DMS application and access the required documents according to the permissions they have
Speed up document distribution and sharing
Access the required documents from anywhere, as long as there is an intranet or internet connection connected to the DMS server
Set permissions and security. We can specify which group or user who has access to view, read, update/edit, and delete a folder/document.
Tracing Audit Trail history of document changes
Make searching to be easier. If we forget where the document storage folder is, we can rely on the search engine owned by DMS.
Manage working document easily
Increase collaboration speed in company
Alfresco is Document Management System application that could fulfill our company requirements.
Alfresco is robust DMS
In 2017, in Gartner MQ, Alfresco is in same quadrant with solutions from IBM,
Oracle dan Laserfiche
Centralized Document Storage: store company documents centrally.
User friendly. Alfresco's user experience is made to resemble File Explorer (Finder on Mac, Windows Explorer in Windows) that is used daily, so users will be familiar with the Alfresco interface.
Online Preview for documents and media files.
Audit Trail Log. Track user activity from login, logout, view, add, edit and delete documents
Versioning: each version of the document can be tracked automatically by Alfresco. There is no need to manually name a new version of a document.
Link (relation) between documents. With this feature, users can trace the relationship between documents.
Multiple file uploads. Upload multiple documents at one time into Alfresco.
Role, Permission & Security Settings
The Comment feature allows users to discuss the document
Workflow feature for document revision, review and approval, we can also create custom workflows for specific business processes in our company
Check in & Check Out to lock documents while editing.
Search features. With Alfesco we can do searches based on certain parameters (metadata), or full text searching (searching the contents of documents)
Download with watermark stamp.
Integration with LDAP, Active Directory, Ms Office and Google Docs
Native Mobile Application, available for iOS and Android platforms for default fatures.
Custom Metadata or Document properties. Metadata. Metadata is information / information held by each document. For example if we have a document of type Receipt, then the metadata of the receipt is: the amount of payment, date of payment, statement, recipient
Integration with other applications through the CMIS web service.
Taxonomy : Category & tagging
Expired Document reminder for documents that have a validity period.
Reminder will be sent as an e-mail or can be viewed as a dashlet.
Automation (Rules) for triggering certain actions based on several selected criteria.
Alfresco is a Document Management System application. Alfresco is open source licensed, and has become the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management category, and has been implemented in more than 5000 organizations.
Softbless has experience and competence in business processes, change management, implementation and development of document management systems in Indonesia, using Alfresco.
Softbless, Indonesia, provide the service implementation, installation, customization, support and training for Alfresco Document Management System.
Alfresco Indonesia Expert provide system that has a lot of features and functionality, such as the Simple Workflow functionality and Advanced Workflow, Simple workflow action will bring Approve / Reject on the content, as well as move the content to a specific space in accordance with the option Approve / Reject the selected user. Advance workflow while allowing you to attach the workflow directly to the content item and then set the content for other users to be reviewed. With advanced workflow workflow, the tasks according to the workflow is managed in-dashboard.
Enterprise Content Management System (ECM) is an application to manage and facilitate collaborative content creation owned by a company. Content here could be content (*. doc, *. xls, *. ppt), image, HTML, XML files, and other content types. In past, to take advantage of ECM requires large costs, a result that only large companies could take advantage of ECM. Alfresco is a new approach in usingECM. Alfresco offers an ECM system that has a cost that is not too large to be utilized by companies with different scales.
Alfresco Indonesia implementation includes two preconfigured workflows, namely: Adhoc Task (to assign tasks to a co-worker) and Review & Approve (to make the review and approval of content).
Alfresco Features :
Document Repository: manages documents currently active by the user.
Online Preview
Versioning: each version of the document can be tracked automatically by Alfresco. There is no need to manually rename a new version of a document.
Expired Document reminder for documents that have a validity period
Watermark
Multiple File Upload
Drag and Drop Upload
Integration with Scanner
Search Engines: for searches by certain categories and other parameters, and searches into the contents of the document
Discussion / Commentary: Certain documents can be a forum for discussion among users.
Security & Permission: Can manage anyone who can access documents and space in Alfresco. Space is an Alfresco term for Folders. Access rights can be: read, edit, view, create, etc.
Mobile apps support for iOS and Android
Audit Log: Track all user activities in Alfresco
Web Service: Integration with other applications via CMIS web service
Record management: managing archived documents.
Document categorization: Any existing document can be categorized into a document type, which will facilitate document management. For example a document can be categorized as: contract agreement, invoice, Curriculum Vitae, Minutes of Meeting (MOM), etc.
Custom Metadata: has multiple metadata depending on the type of document you have. Custom metadata example: document number, document date, document status, etc.
Collaboration Site: Sharing documents, Calendar, Discussion, blogs, links, Datalist
Workflow / Collaboration: Alfresco provides document approval / review facilities by multiple users, from simple workflows to complex workflows.
Check in & Check Out Document: Checking is the term in ECM when an Alfresco user wants to edit a document, so he / she is called checking in, storing the document in a local computer / laptop user. When a document is checked in by a user, another user can only view the document, can not edit. This is to maintain the consistency of a document. And if a user is already editing the document, then he will check out the document. Once checked out, a document can be freely edited by anyone who needs it.
Rules: A variety of rules can be applied to documents, for example if there is a new document in this space, then send an e-mail to a specific email address.
Ms Office / Open Office & Google Docs Integration
Integration with LDAP, Active Directory Integration
Why Alfresco Indonesia?
Robust, web based document management system. Because it's web-based, no installation required when users want to access Alfresco.
Easy to Use. Alfresco is very user friendly which encourages users to more quickly adapt to our system.
Built by the people who invented the concept of document management. One of the founders of Alfresco is John Newton, senior of Dokumentum, the first content management applications on the market. John Newton has a lot of experience in dealing with content management projects for large-scale companies.
Open source, open standards. Alfresco open licensed, which means no need to buy to try it, and a company can not be bound by any single vendor, and unlimited users.
a lower deployment cost. Open source licenses owned by Alfresco does not require Licensee fee.
Adaptable to the needs that are often changed. Over time, the requirements of an enterprise content management systems, frequently changing. With open source licenses, allows Alfresco to anyone in the company's customized to meet current needs.
Alfresco's quality could be seen from several awards earned:
Gartner Magic Quadrant 2009 for Enterprise Content Management, positioned in Visionaries Quadrant
EContent 100 Awards
Audemars Piguet and the European Tech Tour Association: Alfresco the "Next Gem Award", award for best new company
Linux Magazine (2008), one of Top 20 Companies to Watch
Business Computing Magazine: Editor's Choice Award
InfoWorld Bossie Award: Best of Open Source in Enterprise Applications
Softbless is an implementation service provider for Alfresco in Indonesia, covers : installation, configuration, customization, training and support, make us your partner in implementing Alfresco. Please contact us here to get more information about Alfresco.