Document management software captures, stores, manages, and securely shares company documents. These solutions store electronic documents, such as Word documents, PDFs, presentations, invoices, and scanned images of paper documents, in a centralized location. Document management software is designed to control the entire lifecycle of documents, including document retention, creation, and accessibility. They also manage audit trails, indexing, versioning, and workflows. Typically, organizations will have one central document management system that stores company-wide documents, but it is also common for different teams to have their own storage systems. This software helps organizations reduce the time it takes to search for and access documents, minimize the need for physical document storage, reduce the risk of non-compliance and security breaches, and improve collaboration and workflows.
While document management can exist as a standalone solution, it is often a module included in enterprise software applications, such as enterprise content management systems and cloud content collaboration software.
To qualify for inclusion in the Document Management category, a product must:
- Store structured content across various file types in a centralized repository
- Enable users to find and manage documents through search and advanced filtering and tagging capabilities
- Offer version control to keep a record of various versions of documents
- Set access rights for individuals or departments using permissions structures
