Electronic document and records management system
Electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) is a type of content management system and refers to the combined technologies of document management and records management systems as an integrated system.
The aim of electronic document and records management
Typically, systems consider a document a work in progress until it has undergone review, approval, lock-down and (potentially) publication, at which point it becomes a formal record within the organization.
Once a document achieves the status of a record, the organization may apply best-practice or legally enforced retention policies which state how the second half of the record life-cycle will progress. This typically involves retention (and protection from change), until some events occur which relate to the record and which trigger the final disposition schedule to apply to the record. Eventually, typically at a set time after these events, the record undergoes destruction.
A range of software vendors offer these systems at an enterprise level (i.e. targeted at managing all documents and records within an enterprise).
These vendors have historically provided electronic document management systems and have acquired smaller records management system companies. The seamlessness of the integration and the original intention of the records-management component to manage electronic records typically sets the complexity of deploying and potentially of using the final system.
- Business process management (BPM)
- Enterprise content management (ECM)
- Web content management (WCM)
- Case management and matter management
Professional organizations for documents and records include:
- Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
- Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA International)
- Records Management Society (RMS)
- Records Management Association of Australasia (RMAA)
- Nuclear Information & Records Management Association (NIRMA)