Towards a better understanding of electronic document management

Documents are central to the functioning of an organization. Among other roles, they are critically, important as a means of communication, as organizational memory, and in business processes. In addition, office workers spend as much as 60 percent of their time handling documents. For these reasons, many organizations have tried to improve document handling and use through the application of information technology: but progress in this area has been slow. However, recent technological advances, such as new storage technologies, higher computation speeds, and system integration are lifting many of the traditional restrictions on the conversion of paper to electronic systems, and on the media richness of these electronic documents. As a result, many of the envisioned benefits of electronic document management (EDM) are within reach. Successful exploitation of these benefits requires managers to address specific issues in system design, system implementation, and organizational support