What is Document Management System (DMS) ?

Originally, a document management system was a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store images of paper documents. More recently, the term has been used to distinguish between imaging and records management systems that specialize in paper capture and records respectively. Document management systems commonly provide check-in, check-out, storage and retrieval of electronic documents often in the form of word processor files and the like. (Definition Courtesy “Wikipedia”)

A traditional DMS is a centralized solution with a single document repository held at corporate level. This kind of a solution requires actions at corporate to make changes in local documents. To add to the dilemma, internet problems or problems at corporate makes documents unavailable to those who need them. In addition, the people at the corporate level have NO incentive to maintain the document in the latest state.

Centralized DMS

What the future holds?

In a P2P solution the complete intranet acts as the repository. Files reside in local repositories or on computers of the people who maintain them. In addition Local domains control local files are used so there is no extra overhead on maintenance. This kind of a solution can use Indexes for searching documents which may exist at different levels as shown in the picture. This model is appealing because it becomes simpler to create system for large corporate intranet with a vast quantity of documents.

This solution can follow a Hierarchical structure which implies that different documents are maintained by different people and used by different areas.

Decentralized Solution

I will probably add more details on this architecture in a subsequent post as I put more thought into this.