2008 Review of Document Management Systems

From the June/July 2008 Issue

Well it’s that time of year again! Summer has arrived and is passing as swiftly as usual. Hopefully, by now you have wrapped up the loose ends of another “busy season” and are starting to focus on what you can do to improve your processes. We’re here to help! In this issue of our perennial review of document management systems (DMS), we will get you up to date on what’s new with this constantly evolving technology and highlight the features of many of the best selling solutions on the market.

Once again, we have determined that it is appropriate to separate the review into two distinct categories: document management systems (in this issue) and document storage systems (coming in the August 2008 issue). (See www.CPATechAdvisor.com/go/1627 for last year’s document storage review.) The primary difference between the two is that document management systems have a greater breadth of functionality to automate all aspects of the flow of an electronic document, whereas the document storage systems are typically more narrowly limited to document archiving and retrieval. I’ll be the first to admit that the line is often blurred. So before you start your research of alternative solutions, you should take some time to develop a list of what functionality is most important for your practice.

The following seven categories have been established for breaking down this review of the document management solutions:

Usability – refers to the ease of learning and working with the system, including the user interface, depth of functionality and intuitiveness. Additional important features that fall into this category include the document indexing methodology, ease of document retrieval, and viewing and annotation tools.

Scanning – the features and functions that facilitate the scanning of paper documents including OCR (optical character recognition), bar-coding, automatic bookmarking, document organization and data transfer.

Integration – the ability to file and retrieve documents and files from other applications including tax software, workpaper software, MS Office and Outlook. The availability of integration tools is also an important attribute in this category.

Workflow automation – the features and functions that automate routine workflow tasks such as document routing, electronic signatures, checklists, review notes, etc.

Client Portal – refers to the capability to post documents and files on a secure website for client access. Portal capabilities can be classified into three basic categories: document presentation, file transfer and real-time data posting.

Technology – identifies whether or not the DMS software serves as a front end to the Windows Explorer filing system or utilizes a dedicated SQL database for organizing, managing and securing the documents. We also evaluate whether or not the system is available as a web-hosted solution.

Pricing/Overall Value – examines the pricing model relative to the overall value of the DMS solution.

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