Today, 100% of documents in the office are created in in electronic format, but still more than 80% of them are printed out (for approval, familiarization, start-up). Can such an approach be effective?
It seems that the introduction of electronic document management is the most reasonable action on the part of decision makers. But the business need for automation is far from instantaneous. And only after receiving a number of signals, the management comes to the conclusion that the enterprise needs a special information system for content management (ECM-system). It is then that there is a need to manage information at all stages of its existence, until it becomes obsolete.
What is an electronic document, EDMS, ECM
There are many definitions. We will try to give you the most understandable and capacious.
Electronic document- a set of information (text, image, sound recording) stored on a computer (Word, Excel files, etc.). It is accompanied by a card with attributes, just as books in a library are accompanied by a file cabinet. By attributes (title, author, date of creation, etc.), a document can be quickly found.
Workflow(workflow) - a sequence of actions of employees within a specific business process. An example of such a sequence is the receipt of a document, its registration, consideration and execution of the document, and a business process is work with citizens' appeals.
Electronic document management(EDI) is a way of organizing work with documents, in which the bulk of documents are used in electronic form and stored centrally.
Do you need an ECM system
To assess whether an EDMS or an ECM system is needed, answer the following questions for yourself:
- can you quickly find the right document while talking on the phone with an important partner?
- will it be possible to say exactly which of the instructions you have issued have not been completed and are overdue at the moment?
- Are you sure that the existing speed of document approval creates a positive image of your organization?
- Are you satisfied with the volume of papers that are on your desk?
- Can you confidently say where the document that was sent for approval is currently located?
Advantages of electronic document management
Transparency of business processes. Thanks to the system, you can track all stages in the activities of the organization. Business processes become absolutely transparent for management, they are easier to control.
Higher performance discipline. According to statistics, 20% of the tasks received are not carried out by the employees responsible for them. With full control of all stages of work, the ECM system directly affects the performance discipline of employees.
Lower labor costs for managers and employees. The system reduces the time employees spend on almost all routine operations with documents: creation, search, approval, etc. Accelerates document flow. And as a result, all processes in the organization go faster.
Information confidentiality is ensured. A data breach can cost an organization millions of dollars. Unlike the traditional "paper" workflow, the ECM system provides access to documents strictly in accordance with the assigned user rights. All actions on the document (reading, modifying, signing) are logged.
Requirements are met ISO standards 9000 . The formulation of quality management has now become one of the priority tasks in Russian companies. Among the requirements for the quality management system (QMS) is a transparent document flow, as well as information exchange between employees.
Easily innovate and train newbies. Thanks to the notification system built on the basis of the ECM system, you can quickly bring new work rules to all employees. The training time for new employees is reduced due to the quick search for the necessary information (regulations, instructions, etc.). It is easy to change routes and document templates, after which employees automatically start working in a new way.
Development of corporate culture. The introduction of an ECM system establishes and maintains the internal policy of the company, leads to team building. At the same time, the responsibility of each employee for the qualitative performance of the task given to him is increasing.
More competitive advantages. The ECM system directly affects the company's competitive advantages over other market players. The speed and quality of customer service are increased due to the rapid movement of information flows and precise control of all processes. The work of even the largest enterprise is becoming more mobile and less dependent on some "irreplaceable" employees.
ECM technologies
Enterprise content management can be approached both from the side of practice and theory.
Let's start with the last one. Pay attention to the components of the life cycle, indicated in the canonical definition from the AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) glossary:
- capture (Capture),
- management (Manage),
- storage (Store),
- protection (Preserve),
- delivery of information (Deliver).
It is necessary to manage information throughout its entire life cycle: from creation or receipt by the organization, to delivery to the end user or destruction after the expiration of the storage period.
Information permeates all the processes of the organization, it is created and processed in different software and with the help of various applications. But only an ECM system focuses on a unified approach to data management throughout their life.
From a business point of view, the stages in the life cycle of a document are important, which have a direct impact on business processes when it participates in workflows (workflow). But from a technical point of view, they do not carry a pronounced semantic load and are designated by the general term "document management".
Functionality and classification of EDMS and ECM systems
According to the research company Gartner, systems that support at least 3 of 6 functions can be classified as ECM:
- document management: check-out/check-in, version control, security, document grouping, etc.;
- collaborative work on common documents and support of project teams;
- document scanning and paper document image management;
- records management for long-term archiving, automating retention rules and regulations, ensuring that records comply with laws and regulations;
- workflow for business process support, content routing, assignment of work tasks and states, route tracing and execution control;
- web content management for publishing automation, dynamic content management and user interaction management for these tasks.
You can learn more about this topic in the headings of the "EDMS and ECM functionality" section:
An example of a business process in an ECM system
What not to expect from an ECM system
Currently, complex automation of enterprises is built by integrating several systems, each of which solves a certain range of tasks. Therefore, it is very important to understand what exactly to implement within each system.
Consider the most common business requirements, the implementation of which in the EDMS and ECM system should be reasonable.
HR records management. Despite the fact that it is directly related to documents, the task of this area is not the document flow itself, but accounting and personnel management.
An employee needs various selections by personnel - by education, gender, specialties, date of admission / dismissal, etc., for this information should be stored in a structured form in a database, and not in the form of separate unstructured documents.
The creation of each document should be reflected in a change in the state of personnel, therefore, to automate personnel records management, it is better to use specialized personnel management systems that can be integrated with an ECM system for storing unstructured information (CVs, photographs, personnel orders, etc.). In addition, it is useful to automate the processes of approval of these documents in the ECM system.
Accounting for financial documents.The situation is similar with structured financial documents: invoices, waybills, acts of work performed, etc.
For tax administration and accounting, which are based on primary documents, are specialized accounting systems, as well as specialized modules of the ERP system. The ECM system cannot replace them, although scanning and organizing an electronic archive of scanned images of financial documents are the tasks of the EDMS. The need to implement such solutions usually arises when there are a large number of documents and business process participants who will work with financial documents as with EDMS documents, taking into account access rights, electronic signature, etc.
In addition, it is now possible to exchange financial documents (invoices, contracts, waybills and acts) with counterparties in electronic form. And the storage of such documents in the EDMS will give an additional advantage. .
Analysis and modeling of business processes.
As a rule, systems of the BPM class () are used for the analysis and modeling of processes. These are specialized business analyst tools for an enterprise or external consulting firm. The simulated business processes may contain actions that are not related to documents, performed manually (for example, delivery of documents by courier), external entities (for example, suppliers) or with the support of other classes of systems (ERP, CRM).
Classical EDMS can provide information for the analysis of business processes (for example, in the form of reports on delays in the execution of certain types of tasks). But this is only a small part of the data needed for a full analysis.
It makes sense to integrate EDMS with modeling systems for reference data, for example, types of documents or organizational structure.
Implementation of an ECM system
Implementation effect
Evaluation of the results of an ECM project is no different from an analysis of the effectiveness of an IT project, and the latter - from the evaluation of any company project.
Here, the motive is the maturity of the company's technologies, without which the enterprise simply cannot be considered effective. In other cases, the benefits are almost impossible to calculate, although the need for implementation is beyond doubt. And sometimes the calculation of the effect is more expensive than the technology itself (for example, providing employees with limited access to the internet). In all of these cases, the focus is rather on the cost of the project and the potential of the solution, including how easily the implemented system will solve other company problems.
EDMS and solutions based on it can not always be attributed to systems, regarding the effect of which everything is clear. Traditional methods of analyzing the effectiveness of the use of assets are not applicable to information, as well as the formula "the ratio of profit to total costs is efficiency." This is due to the fact that information is an intangible asset involved in production together with material and labor resources. The introduction of an ECM system is accompanied by a change in business processes and labor costs. The costs of information systems, including ECM, are in most cases indirect, which can be calculated per unit of output only with the help of some economic planning model. And formalization is often quite difficult.
Stages of implementing an ECM system
The choice and purchase of an ECM system is only the first step towards building an electronic document management system in an organization. Before it starts to work and really starts to bring an effect, there will be an implementation process.
The implementation of an ECM system usually consists of the following steps:
- organization of the project, allocation of personnel (project manager and working group);
- research of the enterprise and design of solutions for the use of the ECM system;
- setting up and adapting the ECM system;
- training;
- trial operation.
In any case, the following rules are mandatory for successful implementation:
- active participation of management in the process of implementation and use of the ECM system;
- allocation and in-depth training of key employees for the implementation and support of software;
- organizing training for all users and providing instructions on how to work with the system.
Problems and risks of implementing an ECM system
In many ways, they coincide with the implementation projects of other information systems and lead to the following negative consequences:
- the deadlines and budget of the project are violated;
- not all goals are achieved (the system works, but not in full: less/worse than planned);
- implementation is completely disrupted (the system does not really work).
Risk specifics due to the fact that most of the employees of the enterprise must be transferred in a short time to completely new methods of work for them (reading documents in electronic form, receiving resolutions and signatures of management in electronic form, etc.). The most characteristic risks of implementing an ECM system include:
- conservatism of users, rejection of new methods of work;
- low computer literacy of ordinary users and senior management;
- unstructured processes (lack of regulations);
- insufficient/inadequate technical equipment;
- fuzzy project management.
Ways to prevent risks standard:
- detailed and preliminary design of the operation of the ECM system at a given enterprise;
- clear directives and personal example of leadership;
- staff training and operational support in solving problems;
- phased implementation.
Reliability and legality of the electronic document
The field of electronic content management and paperless interaction in companies is now actively developing. Legislation is also changing, some rules are fixed in it after they have become established in life, and some, on the contrary, are introduced after the adoption of new norms at the state level.
Determining the authenticity and legal significance of a paper document is a clear procedure for everyone: the document must have the necessary signatures and seals. But how to determine the authenticity of an electronic document?
Created for this electronic signature (ES)- details of an electronic document designed to protect it from forgery. You can identify the owner of the signature, as well as establish the absence of changes in the electronic document after its signing.
In its simplest form, the EP mechanism works as follows:
- a certification authority is allocated (subdivision or external organization), which, using specialized software, generates so-called "key certificates" for each user;
- an ES key is created - this is a unique sequence of characters. It consists of a private key, which is available only to its owner and they can sign the ES document, and a public key - available to everyone, with its help you can determine who and when signed the electronic document.
When using an ECM system, all the "difficulties" that the user may encounter are hidden. The user, as a rule, should simply select the desired function: “Sign the document” (the document signed by the ES will be closed for changes at the same time) or “Get information about signatures”. legitimacy electronic documents is recognized.
parting word
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We study the basics of building an optimal workflow system, give examples and a step-by-step algorithm for constructing a document turnover schedule.
From the article you will learn:
Workflow scheme at the enterprise
Centralized
This form is suitable for organizations with a strict hierarchical management structure that adheres to the principle of linear distribution of functions (one-man management). The centralized form of paper circulation assumes the presence in organizational structure firms of the specialized division responsible for work with all documentation.
decentralized
This form is suitable for organizations in which the powers of departments are clearly divided according to the principle of operational autonomy.
The decentralized form of document circulation assumes that each structural unit has its own department responsible for working with documentation.
mixed
With this form of turnover, the leading role in working with documentation is assigned to the central service of the DOE, but some of the procedures are delegated special services created within each structural unit of the company.
An example of a workflow scheme
The route scheme for the movement of documents is the main principle of the business papers circulation system. In this scheme, each document stream is assigned common features Instances are prescribed and mandatory procedures are determined.
This diagram indicates:
- executors (i.e. departments involved in the processing of this stream);
- route (i.e. the order of the performers);
- the presence of reverse movements (does the document get several times to one performer);
- the nature of the operations carried out by each particular contractor).
An example of an organization's workflow scheme is shown in Fig. one:
Figure 1. Scheme of the enterprise document flow
Read also:
Types of document flows
The movement of data in a certain direction, organized within a closed system of circulation of documentation, is called a document flow. The source and destination of the data remain the same.
The classification of document flows is carried out on the basis of their relationship to the control object and in the direction of movement.
First classification
- horizontal flows (occur between departments of the same level);
- vertical flows (occur between departments of different levels);
- ascending (papers from subordinate structures move to leading ones);
- descending (documents from governing structures moving towards subordinates).
Second classification
- the incoming flow is formed by papers coming from external sources;
- the outgoing flow is formed by documents sent from the organization;
- the internal flow is formed by papers circulating within the organization.
Stages of workflow in the organization
Development and implementation of the scheme document flow of the organization involves combining the whole variety of procedures into a number of basic steps:
forwarding processing. At this stage, incoming correspondence is received, checked, distributed to addresses and submitted to the manager for consideration.
Preliminary consideration. At this stage, the DOW service reviews and classifies papers by type, importance, complexity, author status, etc.
Direction to management. At this stage, resolutions are passed and administrative decisions are made.
Treatment. At this stage, the execution and sending of papers for storage takes place.
The main principle of all stages is rational movement, i.e. optimization of streams, their consolidation and reduction. For this purpose, special technological instructions are created, the main purpose of which is to determine the most effective order following procedures and developing optimal route schemes.
How to draw up a document flow chart
The best option for graphical display of all stages of the passage of documents is a diagram. Each type of work is carefully analyzed, and the result of this analysis is the development of a flowchart that visualizes the entire process.
The sequence of actions necessary to solve the problem receives a graphic design.
There is no unified schedule scheme. Each enterprise needs to develop it independently. The larger the enterprise, the more activities it has, the more detailed the schedule should be.
Stage two.
We appoint responsible for paperwork
With primary documentation, this is quite simple to do - the one who draws up is responsible for the design. For other papers, such a responsible person will have to be appointed. If this is not done, then in case of loss of the document or violation of the deadline for its submission, there will be no one to ask.
Stage three.
We set deadlines.
The period in which the responsible employee must provide the document is the most main part the entire chart. The term can be set in months or days that have passed from the date of execution of the paper.
Stage four.
Choosing a design
As mentioned above, convenient way graphics design - flowchart. But it can be formatted both in the form of text and in the form of a table. The text form is suitable for small organization, for a larger one, a table will be more convenient. The main principle is that your scheme should be easy to read for employees responsible for the circulation of documents.
The constant increase in the volume of documents accumulated in the organization (orders, letters, contracts, memos, instructions, etc.) leads to an increase in the volume of difficult tasks: searching for documents, keeping them up to date, ensuring confidentiality and safety of documents, etc. d. As a result, a situation of information insufficiency arises, management decisions are made inefficiently, and management costs for document circulation increase. All this negatively affects the efficiency of management and functioning of the enterprise as a whole.
The introduction of information technologies in enterprises makes it possible to move from the traditional form of a document on paper to an electronic document (ED), which in this case becomes one of the elements of the enterprise's internal information support.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to completely eliminate paper documents and switch to electronic documentation, since legal norms still require paper originals, and a significant part of the information does not enter the enterprise in electronic form.
Electronic document (ED)- a set of information presented in electronic digital form and certified by an electronic digital signature.
An electronic document has certain features, which primarily include the fact that it is separable from the carrier and exists in two forms: passive - storage and active - transmission and processing, including visualization, if necessary, human perception. It is impossible to talk about mandatory fixation or about the state of ED if the active form of its existence is considered, i.e. the period of time during which it is perceived, processed or transmitted.
Despite the duality of the presentation form, an electronic document must meet the following requirements:
Created, transmitted and stored using software and hardware;
Have a certain structure;
To be able to be presented in a form understandable to human perception;
The use of electronic documents in management activities has a large number of advantages over traditional paper documents.
These benefits include:
The ability to search for ED without direct access to material documentary objects;
Transfer of electronic documents without moving material objects in space and the possibility of remote access to ED in the presence of communication resources;
Possibility of storage in computer facilities of almost unlimited number of ED;
Ability to quickly check the integrity of stored information and create backup copies of ED in automatic mode;
Electronic protection against copying, counterfeiting, unauthorized access, modification, etc.;
Restoring an electronic document from a backup copy in a short period of time with minimal financial costs, etc.
Foreign consulting companies give the following estimates of losses when working with paper documents and the effectiveness of the transition to working with electronic documents. According to the company DELPHI, about 15% of all paper documents are lost forever, and employees spend up to 30% of their working time trying to find them. Company Coopers&Lybrand indicates that organizations make an average of 19 copies of each document and that almost 7.5% of all documents are lost forever. These impressive figures, and the data only show that for any enterprise or organization, the issues of document flow optimization and control over information processing are of key importance.
This statement can also be confirmed by the following data. At the rate Siemens Business Services, up to 80% of their working time the manager spends on working with information, up to 30% of employees' working time is spent on creating, searching, coordinating and sending documents. There are also estimates that it is necessary to spend up to 40% of labor resources and up to 15% of corporate income on working with documents. And when switching to working with electronic documents, according to Nortan Nolan Institute, the increase in employee productivity is 25-50%, the processing time of one document is reduced by more than 75%, and the cost of paying for space for storing documents is reduced by up to 80%.
There are two main types of electronic documents - electronic analogue of a printed document, performed using the program text editor, as well as independent electronic document, developed in specialized software products based on the organization of databases, and formed by filling out an electronic form of a document.
Electronic forms of documents do not mean an image of a paper document, but an initially electronic (paperless) technology of work, which involves the appearance of a paper form only as a hard copy of a document. Processing technology electronic forms documents allows you to get away from typewritten forms and deal only with their electronic representation.
Electronic Document Form (EDF)is a page with empty fields left to be filled in by the user.
Forms can allow various types of input information and contain various typical elements, the use of which is provided for in most ED design automation programs - input fields, buttons, switches, drop-down menus, etc. (Fig. 6.14).
Rice. 6.14. Typical elements of the electronic form of the document: a) single-line input field; 6) multiline input field; c) types of buttons; d) horizontal scrolling; e) counter; f) tab/tab; g) switch; h) checkbox; and) combobox; To) listbox; k) submenu
To the main typical elements of the EPD, presented in fig. 6.14 include:
- input field (editbox, edit field) is a text box that is used to enter and edit user text. There are single and multi-line editors, as well as a combo element that combines an input field with a drop-down list (combobox, combination box). The current value is displayed in the field, and the list of possible values is expanded when the arrow button is pressed;
- button designed to execute commands by clicking on it with the mouse cursor. The shape of the button can be a rectangle with a label or an icon with a picture;
- scrollbar is designed to scroll the contents of some window to the left and right (horizontal scrolling) or up and down (vertical scrolling). The buttons at the ends of the ruler indicate the direction of scrolling. The rectangle that moves between the buttons indicates the position of the part visible in the window in relation to the overall content. The length of this rectangle may indicate the ratio of the volume of the visible part to the entire contents of the window;
- counter is used to change the numeric value displayed in the field. The counter consists of an edit line (for typing the required value on the keyboard) and two buttons for increasing or decreasing values;
- tab/bookmark (tab) used for logical grouping within one window of several windows subordinate to it;
- radio button is used to specify factors, one of which will be present one way or another. The filled circle before the name of the factor indicates its preference over the others;
- check box allows you to enable or disable the influence of one or more functions provided in the program The presence of a mark next to the name of the function indicates the permission of its influence on the program;
- list box is designed to present the same type of information, listing options. From the list, the user can select a record (line) that is highlighted with a bright highlight (cursor). Scrolling vertically to the right indicates that not all entries in the list are visible. If there is no scrolling in the list, then all the elements are displayed in the list frame. Element list box very similar to combobox, but differs from it primarily in that list box displays the values and allows you to choose from them, a combobox also allows editing data (the input field becomes active);
- pop-up (drop-down) menu (menu popup) or submenu- a list of links that appears on the screen when one of the menu items is activated (this concept also includes the context menu called by pressing the right mouse button). A pop-up (drop-down) menu differs from lists primarily in that the functions here are presented on a panel, which is displayed both in expanded form and in the form of a drop-down list, which is usually more convenient, as it saves the area of the application window. In addition, many submenus have a cascading feature that allows them to expand to multiple levels.
The advantages of electronic forms of documents include the ease of their modification (for example, using graphical form design tools), as well as the presence of special intelligent elements for automation certain functions(for example, for automatic data entry from directories, checking the correctness and integrity of filling, etc.).
Currently, there are several ways to generate electronic documents, which include:
Layout of the document using a specialized editor, then saving the document as a file;
Scanning paper, facsimile and other documents that have material basis, subsequent recognition of images in a specialized computer program and their saving as a file;
Photographing and subsequent saving of a bitmap image as a file;
Capturing a video and then saving the video image as a file.
The most widespread methods of layout and scanning of documents, i.e. converting paper documents into electronic form.
There are two classes of such technologies:
1. Personal input of paper documents, which is carried out using flatbed scanners. After the scanning operation, the document is manually indexed by filling in the fields of the document card with certain values. Document attributes include the document name, creation time, author, office work specialist, department name, document type (fax, letter, contract, specification). The list of such attributes, as a rule, is expandable. Fields can be filled in arbitrarily or from certain directories.
Personal input of paper documents is not productive enough and is not used in large enterprises in corporate computer networks.
2. Mass (flow) input of paper documents. In this case, a large number of documents of the same type are processed. Such technologies are supported by specialized software systems in conjunction with high-performance office equipment and allow you to quickly distribute throughout the organization electronic versions documents received by paper form.
When implementing the technology of mass input of documents (stream scan) two main types of problems are solved:
1. The task of extracting structured data from paper documents. For example, when conducting questionnaire surveys of a large number of the population to perform marketing research. Questionnaires are scanned, data is extracted from them and placed in a specific database.
2. The task of extracting data from paper documents while saving the image of the document. For example, saving an image of a text document, or a customer's signature on a check, or payment order etc.
Information recognition, document content analysis and data extraction are currently carried out using the following text recognition systems:
- optical character recognition OCR (Optical Char-acter Recognition), those. converting the scanned image of printed characters into their textual representation;
- recognition of separate printed characters written by hand, ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition);
- mark recognition(usually criss-crossed or ticked squares or circles) OMR (Optical Mark Recognition);
- recognition of stylized numbers- recognition of handwritten numbers written by hand according to a template (for example, an index on mail).
Work with electronic documents is organized and supported by specialized software products called "Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS)". As a rule, such systems are used in enterprises with a large volume of document circulation, cover all corporate links of the enterprise and implement various combinations of technologies for collecting, indexing (assigning pointers to search for specified elements), storing, searching and viewing electronic documents in corporate databases.
Electronic document management system (EDMS)- an organizational and technical system that provides the process of creating, managing access and distributing electronic documents in computer networks, as well as providing control over the flow of documents in enterprises.
The electronic document management systems being developed in our country are focused primarily on the national features of record keeping, since in Russia for centuries (on a national scale) a single technology for working with management documents has developed. Russian office work has no analogues in other countries. Today in the West, the development of office automation stimulates the development of document management technologies through the introduction of so-called EDMS (Electronic Document Management Systems)— electronic document management systems. And in Russia, as a rule, we are talking about the automation of the traditionally established technology of office workflow.
The main features of the "Russian model" of workflow are:
Maximum centralization of control over document flow: the document is first brought to the attention of the management, and then, in accordance with the resolutions, it is transferred to the direct executors;
Centralization and regulation of the activities of the main business services: acceptance and distribution of documents, registration and control of the passage of documents, control of execution, etc.;
Uniform and detailed rules for working with management documents in organizations, regardless of their field of activity - strict rules for filling out registration journals and file cabinets, reporting forms, etc.
In the context of regulated document management technology, as a rule, electronic document management systems (EDMS) implemented at domestic enterprises are mainly focused on automating traditional office work using IT capabilities. For example, traditional office work involves the maintenance of many journals or file cabinets that serve paper documents. And it is the maintenance of these file cabinets that is the primary object of office automation.
At the same time, the links of the card with the electronic image of the document (text, image, sound, etc.) are organized, electronic archives are formed with effective mechanisms for reference and analytical work with a large number of documents in various forms of presentation, decentralization of the performance of various office functions is organized on the basis of the LAN, while maintaining centralized document control. For example, it becomes possible to carry out independent automated registration of documents in departments while maintaining centralized control over their passage, etc. In addition, the presence of a corporate computer network linking geographically remote subdivisions makes it possible to provide centralized control over their document flow, which cannot be done within the framework of traditional technology.
Thus, electronic document management systems support the complete continuity of traditional office work, while ensuring its evolutionary transformation into a more efficient form, by automating document processing functions that do not directly depend on the nature of the documents themselves and related applications. For example, functions such as registering documents or moving them around an organization can be implemented regardless of whether the documents themselves are memos, contracts, or payment documents.
In the 1970s The concept of "paperless technologies" has become widespread. The mass introduction of the PC, it seemed then, would lead to a sharp reduction in paper documents. However, a number of legal and technological issues were not resolved, which did not allow the abolition of paper media. And the rapid growth in the quality and performance of PCs as printing devices generally played a cruel joke on paperless technologies: the number of paper documents has increased several times. Computers and telecommunications have turned from a means of replacing paper workflow into a means of supporting it.
Currently, serious discussions are underway around the transition to electronic documents. “Electronic documents cannot be a complete replacement for traditional printed sources,” Harris Interactive researchers concluded in a study with Earthtone of 2,265 US users aged 18 and older working in various industries economy. According to the results, more than half of the respondents believe that "paperless workflow" will not become a real process in the near future.
On average, 64% of respondents noted that it is easier for them to read printed documents than text on a PC screen, and 68% are much more comfortable if they see something on paper rather than in electronic form. Researchers also note the fact that only 42% of respondents believe that "paperless workflow" will become a reality in the companies where they work in the next 5 years. However, many experts tend to take a different position, comparing the introduction of EDMS with the spread of mobile communications, which only 20 years ago, few people considered an indispensable attribute of the business activity of specialists.
Modern electronic document management systems allow:
Reduce the cost of storing information by reducing the space occupied by information archives;
Increase search and access speed necessary documents, especially in conditions of collective use of documentation, when documents created by other employees are required;
Increase the efficiency of transferring documents between performers;
Reduce the cost of copying, office supplies, etc.
A single electronic document physically consists of one or more files. In the course of its existence in electronic document management systems, it goes through several stages that form its life cycle, starting from birth and ending with archiving - storing documents (Fig. 6.15).
Rice. B.15. Life cycle of an electronic document
1. Birth. When creating or entering a document in the EDMS, first of all, it is indexed, which is similar to registering documents in a paper office system.
The main purpose of indexing electronic documents is to obtain the maximum amount of reliable information about the generated document and create its registration card. In the future, the EDMS deals with this particular card, without affecting the real objects of the file system.
There are three main methods of indexing electronic documents presented in Table. 6.5.
The birth of ED, in addition to indexing, is also accompanied by the issuance of an accounting card, which can be different for different types of documents, while all actions on the document (deletion, renaming, etc.) are recorded. If necessary, the EDMS saves all previous versions and even deleted documents. The actions that can be performed on documents are determined by the rights given to users, which allows you to set a strategy for working with documents.
Table 6.5 Basic methods of indexing electronic documents
| Indexing Method | Method characteristic | Disadvantages of the method |
| 1. By keywords (currently not used independently) | Sets of keywords typical for working with this document are selected and entered into an index file | 1. The indexing process requires the participation of experts 2. The result of indexing is subjective and does not guarantee reliable document management (when searching by keywords, you may not get the desired result) |
| 2. Full-text indexing (meets most user requirements) | It is organized through the automatic transformation of a document into a set of words with the preservation of their positions in the document (for the possibility of searching by phrases). The processed text is entered into an index file and used when searching for documents | Large index base (about 70-80% of the total size of indexed files) |
| 3. By details | The requisite markup of the document is set (the fields for entering data that define the properties of the document are defined in the card). The default set of system rec-visits should include positions defined by the current office work regulations. The user has the ability to modify the set and properties of attributes | The search does not return results if any fields have not been filled in (usually an abstract and keywords) |
2. Becoming— the stage at which the document is edited. In EDMS, to organize collective work on a document, the technique of blocking processed documents is used, i.e. Only one person can edit a document at a time. In this case, the edited document is automatically assigned new number subversions. The previous subversion of the document is saved, you can open it and, if necessary, make changes. All operations performed are logged.
3. Publication- the moment of signing the document. One of the main purposes of a document is its ability to certify certain facts. Until recently, a paper document with necessary details and degrees of protection was the main way of proving a particular fact, i.e. had legal effect. The adopted Federal Law "On Electronic Digital Signature" allowed organizations to create systems for exchanging exclusively electronic documents, in which an electronic document can be an original that does not need to be duplicated by a paper copy.
Electronic digital signature (EDS)- an analogue of a handwritten signature, which is an information security tool that provides the ability to control the integrity and authenticate electronic documents.
EDS technology allows for the identification and authentication of a document, and is currently used, for example, in corporate electronic document management systems organized in the internal circuit of an enterprise, for transmitting reports in electronic form to government agencies, etc.
To use the digital signature, you must have two keys (ciphers): private and public. Keys are unique sequences of characters interconnected with each other used for encryption, decryption, provision of a document with an electronic digital signature and its verification. The only owner of the private key for K is the owner of the EDS. The public key may be known to any recipient or potential sender of the electronic document.
The EDS owner must first sign the document using his private key, then encrypt it with the recipient's public key and send it. To be read, the recipient first decrypts the document with his private key, then verifies the authorship and integrity of the text using the sender's public key.
Obtain a private key (for encryption) or a public key signing certificate (for decryption) any individual, representing an enterprise, for example, for reporting to government agencies, can at the Certification Center (CA), which is a certified communications operator (organization) that has the appropriate license.
At the same time, the public and private keys received for filing reports in electronic form will be valid for the exchange of information with state bodies through the Registration Centers (RC), with which contractual relations have been established. The registration center will ensure the confidentiality of correspondence, the unambiguous identification of the legal entity that sent the reporting files, the protection of reporting files from unauthorized modification, etc. (Fig. 6.16).
Rice. 6.16. Organization of the process of submitting reports in electronic form using EDS
When a document is changed after it has been certified with an EDS, a new version of the document is created on the basis of the existing version and a new life cycle begins. In different systems, this function is implemented in different ways: either a completely new document or just a new version can be created.
4. Archiving (storage) of documents. At enterprises, archives are organized for storing electronic documents, which are a set of software and hardware designed to solve the problems of storing and searching for documents.
There are two forms of organizing archives: static and dynamic.
Static archives allow you to organize the storage of an arbitrary number of electronic documents on various media. They also provide for the organization of accounting for paper documents, i.e. the systems store electronic cards for a paper-type document and support the control of standard archival operations: issuing a document, returning it, etc.
Static archives support searching for documents − attributive and full text.
- attribute search is performed by the attributes of the document card. During the search, the matching of the request with the values of the card fields is checked;
- full text search provides for automatic processing of the entire content of the document to find it by any word in its text. For full-text search, such parameters are defined as search completeness - the correspondence between the documents found for a given request and the actual list of documents; search noise, i.e. the ratio of relevant and non-compliant documents to the request.
Static archives protect documents from unauthorized access and audit work. Protection is carried out at the document level, i.e. each document must have an associated list of users who have the right to perform certain operations with it. For static archives, this list of operations can represent the following set: viewing and printing a document, the right to change its card, etc.
The most important function of static archives is to support the viewing of documents without downloading the applications in which these documents were developed. This feature is provided by special viewers that allow you to access documents in a variety of formats without downloading resource-intensive applications.
In the process of working with documents, specialists often need to comment on certain issues reflected in the documents. To implement this function, some archives support document annotation, which consists in the ability to add comments to the document without changing its main content (this is the difference from editing the document itself). Comments (arrows, signs, text, highlights) are stored in layers that can be linked to their author.
Dynamic archives, in addition to implementing functions specific to static archives, have additional features, which include:
- support of collective work with the document, which is expressed in ensuring the integrity of documents, for this the library functions of checking out and returning documents for editing should be implemented, which prevents simultaneous editing of the same document by several users and thereby possible conflicts; in providing the opportunity within the framework of one document to work simultaneously with several users;
- organizing and working with compound documents. Each document can be a collection of others. In this case, it is called a composite, or container (and in office work - “cases”). Documents are combined into a compound document using several types of links that determine which versions are placed in the container (for example, latest by date, last edited, major version, etc.). The given relationships determine how the document will be assembled into a container. For compound documents, there must be an application that will perform its final assembly;
- dissemination of published documents. Sometimes, after a document is published, it needs to be distributed. Basically, this happens in two ways: either through the e-mail system, by mailing, or through internet, publishing on a web server;
- providing an extended range of access rights to the document, namely: to edit, to publish, to unpublish and to create a new version;
- solution of border problems, associated with the transition of different documents (electronic, paper, micrographic) from one type to another.
When creating an archive, the period of storage of the document and the frequency of access to it are taken into account. Documents that are frequently accessed are stored on high-performance storage devices, while outdated documents that are infrequently accessed are stored on simpler, higher-capacity, and less expensive media. To solve this problem, hierarchical data storage systems are used. (Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) - management of hierarchical storage), which create a “virtual file system” from all kinds of heterogeneous storage media, while managing the transfer of information from one medium to another.
Hierarchical storage system— a set of software and hardware tools aimed at achieving the minimum cost of storing information and optimizing access to it.
For example, for online access, high-speed hard disk drives are used, and for archival storage, it is enough robotic optical disc libraries, which are software and hardware systems for storing and providing online access to a large amount of data recorded on optical media. For such storage systems, it is necessary to solve the problems of not only the joint work of information carriers, but also to ensure the migration of documents between them.
Migration can be carried out either by setting up the system by the administrator (for example, after 100 days have passed from the date of creation, the document should automatically move to a less productive and cheaper medium), or automatically, depending on the frequency of users contacting someone or another document. This use of a hierarchical data storage system allows not only to reduce the cost of storing information, but also to effectively manage the information resources of an enterprise.
In general, the electronic document management system of an enterprise must meet the following requirements − scalability, distribution, modularity and openness.
1. Scalability is the ability to support the work of a different number of users, from a few to several thousand, and the ability to increase capacity. This requirement is met through the support of industrial database servers.
2. Distribution. The architecture of the electronic document management system should support the interaction of geographically distributed divisions of the enterprise, united by the most diverse communication channels in terms of speed and quality. Also, the EDMS architecture must provide interaction with remote users.
3. Modularity. The EDMS should consist of separate modules integrated with each other, which allows enterprises to consistently implement individual software modules, depending on the need for them.
4. Openness. EDMS should not exist in isolation from other applications, for example, accounting software, financial management, etc. available for the enterprise. Therefore, the electronic document management system should have open interfaces for possible refinement and integration.
The organization of the electronic document management system at enterprises is based on the following principles:
Single registration of a document, which makes it possible to uniquely identify a document in any version used by the EDMS;
The possibility of parallel execution of operations, which allows to reduce the time of movement of documents and increase the efficiency of their execution;
Continuity of document movement, which makes it possible to identify the person responsible for the execution of the document (task) at each moment in the life of the document (process);
A unified (or coordinated distributed) base of documentary information, which makes it possible to exclude the possibility of duplicating documents;
Efficiently organized document search system that allows you to find a document with minimal information about it;
An advanced reporting system for various statuses and attributes (features) of documents, which allows you to control the movement of documents through document management processes and make management decisions based on data from reports, etc.
All software products of the electronic document management system, which include Documentum firms EMC, LanDocs LANIT company, Optima Workflow holding optima,"Euphrates" firms Cognitive Technologies,"Case" of the EOS company, "BOSS-Referent" of the IT Group of companies, etc., contain mandatory standard components: 1) storage of cards (attributes) of documents; 2) document storage; 3) components that implement the business logic of the system.
1. Storage of document attributes is intended for storing a card, which is a collection of fields that characterize the document. Usually in the EDMS there is a concept of the type of documents (for example, a contract, specification, letter, etc.) and each type has its own card. Cards of different types have mandatory fields that are common to all documents, and special fields related to documents of this type. The common fields are the unique number of the document, its title, author, date of creation. Special - the date of signing, the validity period, the amount of the contract (for documents of the "contract" type), etc. Document types, in turn, can have subtypes containing a common set of fields that they inherit from the main type, and additional fields that are unique to the subtype. The most advanced document management system can support more nesting of such subtypes. Typification of documents, building their hierarchy, and designing cards for them is one of the most important stages in the process of implementing an EDMS.
In addition to the concept of a document type, there is the concept of a document category, and one document can belong to several categories at the same time. Categories can be arranged into a category tree. For example, you can have the category "Administrative and economic activity" with subcategories "Laws", "Orders", "Contracts", etc. At the same time, it is possible to have a parallel structure by departments, for example, the category “Documents of the marketing service”, and in it the subcategories “Contracts for the sale of products”, “Accounts”, etc. A contract with a consumer can be simultaneously assigned to the subcategories “Contracts” and “Contracts for the sale of products”, which belong to different branches in the hierarchy of categories. Thus, it becomes possible to search for a document in such a tree based on its classification, and the same document can occur any number of times in different nodes of this hierarchy.
There are three possible solutions for organizing the storage of cards − using your own storage, using a standard DBMS, and using the tools of the environment on which the DBMS is built.
own attribute store documents allows you to optimize it for the task of storing cards, to flexibly implement the functions of creating complex cards (having, for example, a large nesting of types), as well as to use efficient algorithms for finding information in cards. The disadvantages of this approach are the inability to use the standard resources of the existing information environment, as well as the dependence of important information on the supplier of the EDMS. For example, when using a standard DBMS, it is always possible to migrate data from another EDMS manufacturer into it, which facilitates the transition from one software product of an electronic document management system to another.
Using standard DBMS for storing documents solves the problem of exporting data from one system to another. However, the relational model implemented in most DBMS is not convenient for the data model used in the EDMS, since it is quite difficult to provide the necessary flexibility when creating document cards, especially if a complex structure is needed.
Using the tools of the environment on which the DBMS is built, allows you to use all the mechanisms inherent in this environment, including backup, replication, search, etc. The problems of this approach lie in the very need for a certain environment for the operation of a document management system, as well as in the restrictions that a particular environment imposes on the structure of its databases.
2. Storage of documents. There are two approaches to implement it − storage in the file system and the organization of a specialized storage of the EDMS.
Storagev file system lowers the degree of security in access control, since the file system may not support the security model that is implemented in the EDMS itself. In this case, the EDMS is endowed with its own access rights, which means that the files saved by it will not be directly available to any of the users. The EDMS maintains its system of listing users with access rights by organizing access to files through these rights. At the same time, the access system becomes difficult to maintain and not quite reliable in terms of information security. To provide additional data protection, file encryption at rest is often used. In addition, almost all EDMS use random file naming, which greatly complicates the search for the desired file when trying to access bypassing the system. When working with the file system, most EDMS require files to be moved to specially organized directories.
Systems with their own file storage or using the storage of the environment they are built on, provide more effective management access to documents and a more reliable solution to the problem of access control. But at the same time, questions arise related to data integrity, the availability of effective backup tools, and integration with a hierarchical data storage system based on robotic libraries. In most EDMS, they have certain solutions, but here it should be borne in mind that in this case you can only use the tools available in the system itself, while in the case of file storage, the specialist has a choice.
3. Components that support the business logic of the system.
These include:
1) managing documents in the repository;
2) search for documents;
3) routing and execution control;
4) generating reports;
5) administration.
1) Managing documents in the repository. Includes procedures for adding and removing documents, saving versions, transferring to an archive for storage, maintaining an archive, etc.
2) Document Search It is carried out both in attributive and in full-text forms. Some EDMS support the search for a document by word forms, which is carried out using normalization technology. The effectiveness of the method depends on the applied algorithm. For the Russian language, the dictionary method is most effective when the word is normalized on the basis of dictionaries that contain word forms. In addition to the dictionary method, a heuristic normalization method can be used, when a word can be brought to a normal form by following certain rules that describe the normalization algorithm. It can be noted that if for the English language the set of normalization rules is 300 pages of typewritten text, then for Russian it is several orders of magnitude larger.
3) Routing and execution control ensures the delivery of documents as part of business procedures in the organization. Routing operates on documents stored in the archive system. When organizing routing systems, there are two main approaches - document-oriented and work-oriented.
Document-oriented. With this approach, the document is the main object of the system, and it is it that is routed, and all other routing parameters are associated exclusively with the document.
Work oriented. The main object of this approach is the work, to which a different list of objects, including documents, can be attached. However, work can exist without them. The second approach is more general.
The following types of routing systems are distinguished − flexible and tough. In the case of flexible routing, the next recipient of the document is determined by the employee in charge of the document at the moment. In the case of hard routing, the path of the documents is determined in advance based on the business logic of the enterprise. A mixed approach is usually used - for some documents and enterprise structures, rigid routing is more appropriate, and for others, flexible routing.
Flexible routing systems include free routing without control and with performance control.
Free routing without execution control supports two types of operations:
- serial routing, when a document passes one artist after another. The transfer of a document from one user to another can occur after the control time has expired or after one of the users has completed work.
- . parallel routing, when the document is simultaneously received by all performers. The route ends when one or all of the users have finished working with the document.
Routes can be more complex than just serial or parallel routes. There are also combined routes consisting of serial and parallel elements, as well as conditional ones, with transitions depending on the state of certain route variables.
To develop such routes, a specialized workplace, where you can describe and create a route. The initiator calls the developed and named route, attaches documents to it, and initiates operations.
The minimum sufficient system that provides document routing is an e-mail system that supports parallel distribution of documents (routing differs from distribution or distribution in that the routed document returns to the beginning of the route, for example, to the initiator, and the document sent goes to the executor without return control) . With the help of additional applications, e-mail systems guarantee consistent routing of documents.
Free document routing with execution control.
Execution control refers to the following operations:
Task delivery control - the initiator is given information that his task has reached its destination (performer);
Task reading control - the initiator is informed that the employees for whom it was intended have familiarized themselves with the task;
Completion control - the initiator is notified that the task has been completed;
Task monitoring means that the initiator can always see who is doing what with his task;
Notification of violation of deadlines - the initiator is notified that the task sent by him is overdue by a specific employee;
History of tasks execution;
Quality control of performance - the initiator has the opportunity to check the quality of performance and confirm it.
Rigid routing systems include routing of documents along predetermined routes with execution control.
The routing feature is not present in all ERMS. Systems without routing facilities are electronic archives.
An integral part of routing is document execution control. The execution of a document means the performance of an action related to the document by each of the participants within the framework of his official powers.
4) Report generation is performed automatically, similar to the formation of clerical journals of accounting documents. Using various reports, you can see, for example, the total time spent by employees working on a specific document, the speed of passing documents by department, etc.
5) Administration- support for the operation of the system itself, setting its parameters, etc.
Functionally, modern electronic document management systems can be divided into five main types.
Systems with advanced means of information storage and retrieval(electronic archives). Electronic archive- This is a special case of an electronic document management system, focused on the efficient storage and retrieval of information. These systems have advanced full-text search tools: fuzzy search, semantic search, etc., and efficient storage organization. For example, support for a wide range of storage equipment, etc.
Systems with advanced facilities workflow(WF)- "workflow"(there is no exact equivalent in Russian for this term). These systems are mainly designed to ensure the movement of certain objects along predetermined routes (the so-called "hard routing"). At each stage, the object can change, so it is called the general word "work" (work).
In general, the functioning Workflow systems is based on the fact that most of the business processes are a periodically repeated, regulated sequence of actions (task execution), which can be easily formalized. For this purpose, with the help of special tools, business process models are created in them that describe who, when, at what workplace (possibly in a remote branch), with the help of what programs and how this or that data should be processed. The description of the business process embedded in the model allows you to automate the formation, activation, execution and control of various tasks.
The business process model can be easily modified. Thus, without any programming, you can quickly get a really working Workflow-Appendix. In some Workflow systems the creation of information models of business processes is possible only with the help of programming, which is a rather painstaking process that also requires special knowledge.
Systems focused on supporting the management of the organization and the accumulation of knowledge. These are "hybrid" systems, which usually combine elements of the previous two. The basic concept in the system can be both the electronic document itself and the task to be performed. In such systems, there are technologies of "hard" and "free" routing, when the route of the document is assigned by the head ("paints" the incoming document). These systems are usually used in state management structures, in the offices of large companies, which are distinguished by a developed hierarchy, have certain rules and procedures for the movement of documents. At the same time, employees collectively create documents, prepare and make decisions, execute or control their execution.
Collaboration oriented systems (collaboration). The main task of such systems is to ensure that people in the organization work together, even if they are geographically separated, and to preserve the results of this work. Usually implemented in the concept of "portals". They provide services for storing and publishing documents, information retrieval, discussion, meeting appointments (both real and virtual).
Systems with advanced additional services, e.g. customer relationship management service (CRM - Customer Relationship Management), project management, email, etc.
Further development of electronic document management systems in large enterprises is their integration with common corporate applications ( ERP-systems), which will allow organizing access to all corporate knowledge and data and managing corporate information, since large enterprises require close interaction of all their corporate applications that involve information exchange.
In a modern organization, electronic document management systems (EDMS) are becoming an indispensable element of the IT infrastructure. With their help, increase the efficiency of commercial companies and industrial enterprises, and in public institutions, on the basis of electronic document management technologies, the tasks of internal management, interdepartmental interaction and interaction with the population are solved. The generally accepted abbreviation is EDMS, although CAD (Office Automation System), EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) and SADO (Document Management System) are also used along with it.
Electronic document management system (EDMS) - an organizational and technical system that provides the process of creating, managing access and distributing electronic documents in computer networks, as well as providing control over the flow of documents in the organization.
Initially, systems of this class were considered only as a tool for automating the tasks of classical office work, but over time they began to cover an ever wider range of tasks. Today, EDMS developers orient their products to work not only with correspondence and ORD (organizational and administrative documents), but also with various internal documents (contracts, regulatory, reference and project documentation, documents on personnel activities, etc.). EDMS are also used to solve applied problems in which work with electronic documents is an important component: customer interaction management, processing of citizens' appeals, work automation service department, organization of project workflow, etc. In fact, an electronic document management system is any information system that provides work with electronic documents.
The EDMS market in recent years has been one of the most dynamically developing segments of the domestic IT industry. In 2009, according to IDC, against the backdrop of a nearly 50% decline in the total software market in Russia, this segment showed high stability. According to the data for 2009, its decline was no more than 20-25%. In numerical terms, the volume of the EDMS market today, according to CNews Analytics, is about 220-250 million dollars.
Consumers of electronic document management technologies are organizations of various sizes and specifics. Traditionally, the public sector remains the key consumer of EDMS. According to experts, about 30% of projects for the introduction of electronic document management technologies are accounted for by government agencies. At the same time, it is important that it was the interest on the part of the state that became the basis for the stability of the EDMS market, which even in times of crisis received a significant development impetus. Electronic document management was called a key element of the concept of "electronic government", the implementation of which should help eliminate bureaucratic obstacles in the interaction between the state, the population and business, as well as reduce corruption. As a feature of the implementation of projects in the bodies state power and large state institutions, it is worth noting the increased requirements for information security. It's about on the construction (development) on the basis of replicated software products of secure electronic document management systems.
Basic concepts and principles
Document flow - the movement of documents in an organization from the moment they are created or received until the completion of execution or dispatch; complex of works with documents: acceptance, registration, mailing, control of execution, formation of cases, storage and reuse of documentation, reference work.
Electronic document management (EDM) is a single mechanism for working with documents submitted in electronic form, with the implementation of the concept of "paperless office work".
A machine-readable document is a document suitable for automatic reading of the information contained in it, recorded on magnetic, optical and other information carriers.
An electronic document (ED) is a document created using computer information processing tools that can be signed electronic signature(EP) and saved on a machine medium in the form of a file of the appropriate format.
An electronic signature (ES) is an analogue of a handwritten signature, which is an information security tool that provides the ability to control the integrity and authenticate electronic documents.
Basic principles of electronic document management:
· Single registration of a document, which allows uniquely identifying the document.
· The possibility of parallel execution of operations, which allows to reduce the time of movement of documents and increase the efficiency of their execution
· The continuity of the movement of the document, which allows to identify the person responsible for the execution of the document (task) at each moment of the life of the document (process).
· A single (or coordinated distributed) database of documentary information, which makes it possible to exclude the possibility of duplicating documents.
· Efficiently organized document search system that allows you to find a document with minimal information about it.
· An advanced reporting system for various statuses and attributes of documents, which allows you to control the movement of documents through document management processes and make management decisions based on data from reports.
The history of the development of electronic document management systems
Electronic document management systems, having appeared relatively recently, have now firmly taken their place in the information structure of the enterprise. Initially, their task included an extremely simple workflow automation, that is, assistance to clerks, but in no way replacing the document flows circulating in the enterprise.
Much has changed when EDMS manufacturers began not only to copy the processes of enterprises that ensure the movement of paper documents, but to take into account the tasks facing both these processes in particular and the entire workflow in general.
The understanding that the document flow of an enterprise is intended to support its management system did not come to the EDMS immediately. Moreover, many modern federal and municipal authorities still use the simplest EDMS, whose tasks are only to duplicate paper workflow, but not to replace it and not to optimize and support the management structure.
Chronologically dividing the stages of evolution of electronic document management systems, it is necessary to single out the first of them, which began in the 80s of the XX century and actually continued until its end. This period is characterized by fragmentation of solutions, which appeared due to the fact that enterprises whose management already understood the need to automate workflow did not yet have a unified toolkit necessary for solving problems of this kind.
Consider the reasons that initially led to the need to automate workflows. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the volume of management documentation of enterprises has not yet reached critical levels, however, the existing territorial fragmentation of structural divisions led to the fact that the coordination procedures by managers of various levels could take weeks and in some cases even months. The introduction of ring mail services at such enterprises made it possible to optimize only the mechanisms of sequential coordination, while the fan-shaped, or as it is now called, parallel coordination, required very large time costs, as a result of which its use was minimized and applied, if possible, exclusively within the same building.
When, in many large industrial enterprises and authorities, the volume of workflow began to approach critical values, it became clear that workflow processes needed to be subjected to cardinal reengineering, that is, restructuring, as a result of which, while maintaining general requirements to the results of the processes, the processes themselves had to be optimized and, as a result, their passage should have taken much less time.
Thus, the first EDMS were completely individualized, developed directly at the enterprises for which they were created by internal resources. The obvious advantages of this approach (clear compliance of the built EDMS with the actual regulated workflow processes, general integration into the information infrastructure of the organization) were more than offset by one fundamental drawback: such a system developed in the organization itself was usually not scalable, and it was almost impossible to change the structure of automated processes, which led to the impossibility of developing such a system. And since the EDMS obtained in this way was inextricably linked with the organization’s management model, there came a moment when the development of the company completely stopped due to the fact that the electronic document management system used itself slowed down what it was supposed to improve: the effectiveness of the management system adopted in the organization began to fall rapidly and the company was forced to make efforts in order to create an adequate EDMS that could support management and make the development of the company more efficient.
Several companies established in the mid-1990s took upon themselves the solution of these tasks simultaneously: they began to create universal EDMS that could be easily scaled to the needs of almost any customers, and the technology for creating the final EDMS solution became a two-stage one: at the first stage, the company created a unified core EDMS, at the second stage there was an implementation - the adjustment of processes to the needs of a particular customer. This approach made it possible to reduce the cost of final solutions, and being at the same time much more functional, provided the possibility of organizational and functional scaling of the system.
Since the end of the 20th century, the approach to workflow automation began to change qualitatively: new approaches to management came to Russia, which made it possible to increase its efficiency methodologically. This is how the concept of quality management came to us, and with it the process approach to management. Information systems almost immediately responded to these trends, as a result, the concept
Workflow - workflows, which were single instances of business document-oriented processes. Modern EDMS responded to their emergence with the implementation of process-oriented engines (WorkFlow-engines), which at the same time became a new methodological step that allows modern EDMS to adapt even faster and more efficiently to the needs of fast-growing companies. The arrival on the Russian market of Western developers (IBM Lotus, Documentum), who produced platforms for these systems, introduced the concept of ECM - enterprise content management (enterprise information management). Methodically, the EDMS belonging to the ECM category differed from the others in that a clear division appeared in them: the document itself, its information component (content). The ECM system worked with the content of documents through its metadata - selected information that has a certain importance for the organization. So, for an outgoing letter, the metadata could be the addressee, the date of signing and the official signer, the registration number and information about the departure and delivery.The use of workflow has already allowed the specialists of companies operating electronic document management systems to ensure a continuous change in the automated process in order to maximize its compliance with the processes of the enterprise. It certainly was a huge leap forward.
The architecture of solutions has also changed: if initially the EDMS was an example of a two-tier architecture (DBMS - application), then by 2005 the requirement for a three-tier architecture of the DBMS - application server - user interface became the de facto industry standard, and organizations conducting tenders for the supply of EDMS became indicate exactly such a requirement for the system architecture as preferred or mandatory.
The favorable economic situation of that time contributed to the rapid growth of enterprises in all industries, while creating favorable conditions for the introduction of new EDMS product solutions to the market. At this time, the circle of EDMS manufacturers operating in the Russian market and the markets of neighboring countries was finally formed.
Modern EDMS functionality
Corporate information systems and electronic document management systems in particular are solutions primarily designed to manage information resources of medium and large enterprises. The main reasons for this stratification is, first of all, the rather high price of an “entry ticket” to this market. The acquisition of a full-fledged, high-quality and secure database management system (DBMS), providing it with modern means of cryptographic information protection, as well as the need to involve highly qualified analysts, consultants and implementers in implementation projects led to the fact that a company that came to the need to obtain such a powerful tool management of corporate content, as an EDMS, was forced to incur fairly large financial costs at a time, which they could not afford individual entrepreneurs and small businesses. Thus, EDMS became tools for improving management in large companies, and territorially distributed holding-type commercial structures could provide the maximum return on implementation.
The development of the EDMS functionality has led to the fact that more and more document-oriented management procedures have been automated and more and more areas of the daily activities of companies have been covered by their functionality.
To date, the following areas of activity are the actual standard of modern EDMS:
· general office work - processing of incoming correspondence and citizens' appeals, preparation of outgoing letters and documents, internal and organizational and administrative documentation, control over the execution of instructions;
· personnel records management is a strictly regulated area of private document management, which allows supporting the procedures for hiring and dismissing employees, sending employees on a business trip, providing planned leave and other types of vacations. Such systems ensure the maintenance of all approved forms of personnel records management: an order to hire an employee (f. T-1), an order to terminate employment contract(f. T-8, T-8a), an order to transfer an employee to another job (f. T-5), an employee’s personal card (f. T-2, T-2GS, T-2MS), staffing (f. . T-3), vacation schedule (f. T-7);
· archival office work - an area of private office work that completes the life cycle of documents of an organization and supports the following procedures: the formation of inventories according to approved forms, the transfer of files for archival storage, examination of the value of documents and files in general, the destruction of documents and files that are no longer of value to the organization, its employees, the state and society, the delivery of individual files for storage to the structures of the federal archival agency (Rosarchiv);
· collegial work - allows you to automate the documentary support of the activities of collegial management bodies - meetings, meetings, boards of directors, meetings of shareholders. It also allows for the preparation, coordination and approval of agendas (planning documentation) and protocols (resulting documentation);
· customer relationship management - the functionality of CRM (cunsumer relationship management) is now implemented to one degree or another in all EDMS, excluding the oldest ones, for whose users, however, such functionality is not particularly in demand.
Characteristics of the Russian EDMS market
The Russian market of electronic document management systems in monetary terms is currently estimated by experts at 170 million dollars and is characterized by high growth rates - from 25 to 40 percent per year, according to various estimates. This makes it very attractive, including for powerful foreign companies, so the situation in the industry can easily change. Of course, on the one hand, in an unsaturated market, all suppliers, having shown sufficient activity, in principle have great opportunities for development. But, on the other hand, now we can already say that the pool of major players has practically formed.
Foreign and Russian developers have so far divided the market approximately equally in terms of money, however, in terms of the number of implementations, the ratio is clearly not in favor of foreign developments. Due to the high cost of licenses for foreign programs, as well as expensive and time-consuming adaptation to the requirements of Russian standards, they are used mainly in large companies and government agencies, for which the issue of price was not so acute. Small and medium enterprises are more inclined to use domestic developments because of their flexibility and low cost, and the situation here is unlikely to change. However, large companies are increasingly turning to Russian EDMS. The further, the greater part of the market, probably, will be conquered by domestic systems: every year they become more functional, significantly less costly to implement and, which is very important, they are developed specifically for Russian realities.
The share of foreign developers of platforms and solutions accounts for more than 50% of the EDMS market. A large share of the EDMS market (about a third) is occupied by solutions based on the Documentum platform. The companies participating in the study, developing their systems based on the IBM Lotus Domino / Notes platform (BOSS-Referent, STC IRM, Interprokom Lan, InterTrust Company, ComputerAge), own 12–15% of the market. Among Russian companies, a significant position in the market is occupied by: EOS, Lanit, Directum and Cognitive Technologies. The share of the system developed by each of these companies accounts for more than 5% of the EDMS market. Upscale Soft, Docsvision and Naumen also have fairly strong positions. The EDMS does not take into account other solutions created on the basis of IBM platforms used to develop ECM solutions (Lotus Notes, Content Manager, etc.), as well as solutions based on platforms for developing ECM applications from Microsoft and Oracle companies and solutions from Russian developers that are not who took part in the CNA study. The specified segment of the Russian EDMS market is estimated by experts at $45-55 million. However, given that the IBM platforms used to create electronic document management systems are widely represented in Russia, the share of solutions based on IBM technologies may be significantly higher than the total share of CNAs surveyed companies, including through their own developments. In general, there are three main areas of market growth, for which new and existing players can compete. First, one can expect an increase in demand from public institutions after the development of an appropriate regulatory framework. Since the public sector is the defining consumer of EDMS in Russia, which accounts for about 40% of the market, much depends on which path the state chooses when creating a developed interdepartmental information exchange structure. Secondly, large commercial structures that have been actively using EDMS for quite a long time, but only in some divisions, are striving to combine distributed branches into a single information space and extend successful practice to the enterprise as a whole. And, thirdly, in the last two or three years, medium and small businesses have been introducing more and more systems to improve the efficiency of organizing the workflow and have already realized what benefits this provides.
The volume of the electronic document management systems (EDMS) market in Russia in 2008 amounted, according to preliminary estimates by CNews Analytics, to about $210 million. The public sector remains the largest customer of the EDMS in Russia, and hopes for further growth are also associated with government initiatives. Hopes for further development are still associated with the public sector, banks, telecoms and oil and gas, which initially "raised" this market in Russia. When assessing the volume of the EDMS market in Russia, CNews Analytics experts, as well as respondents - development companies and integrators - take into account the cost of system components, consulting services, system implementation and updating, as well as training and technical support. If, according to the survey in 2007, the share of implementation services was approximately equal to the cost of the system (about 36%), then in 2008, respondents indicated that the share of implementation increased slightly - 40% versus 35% (system cost). In part, this change was due to the rapid growth of the domestic IT services sector as a whole, against which the cost of consultants' work increased noticeably and rapidly. With the onset of crisis changes in the country, customers were eagerly anticipating that the prices for these services would soon fall. However, in fact, a sharp reduction in the cost of professional IT services has not yet occurred, despite the fact that this market is the first to fall into the risk zone.
Rice. 1. The cost structure for the implementation of the EDMS.
Overview of modern electronic document management systems
Consider the eight most common EDMS in Russia: Directum (Directum), DocsVision (DocsVision), Globus Professional (Prominfosystems), PayDox (Paybot), 1C: Document Management (1C), Boss Referent (BOSS - Referent, IT Group), DELO ( EOS), EUFRATS (Cognitive Technologies). The presented view of the EDMS is an attempt to assess the capabilities and readiness of software products to solve the actual tasks of organizing electronic document management in an enterprise.
The criteria highlighted in the review will help analyze the possibilities of the considered solutions from the point of view of the technical implementation of certain EDMS tasks. All possibilities are divided into seven areas of automation:
office work;
General document flow;
Contract management;
Electronic archive;
Work with citizens' appeals;
Project management;
Working with QMS documentation.
Table 1 lists a number of obvious criteria that are inherent in all systems under consideration (and all systems of the EDMS class, in principle), and criteria that make it possible to distinguish solutions from each other. In general, the functionality of the systems is the same, and only a detailed specification of some of the principal tasks of the workflow and the features of their implementation allow us to compare different solutions. It should be noted that for all the systems presented in the review, there is a fairly large implementation practice. These systems are used by hundreds of organizations to automate workflow. In addition to these solutions, there are more than 50 software products on the market that are not widely used.
If we analyze new versions of systems that occupy leading positions in the market, it is worth noting that over the past three years their development has been mainly aimed at improving service capabilities, since the basic capabilities in one form or another have already been implemented earlier. If we talk about new technical capabilities, we can note the potential for the development of EDMS in the direction of managing various types of content (multimedia), the use of auto-processing technologies and parsing the content of the document. But so far, such functionality for the EDMS is not mandatory, and most importantly, the demand for it in Russia has not been fully formed.
Table 1. General characteristics the most popular EDMS
Consider the presented EDMS according to the relation understandable to all
« price / functionality" [ 12]:
Rice. 2. "Optimal price / functionality" EDMS (diagram Gartner)
This chart is built on the principle of the "magic quadrant Gartner ”, in which the systems located in I quadrant. In II and IV the quadrants of the diagram are systems that do not have balanced scorecard price and functionality.
The criterion chosen for the study makes it possible to evaluate various EDMS from the point of view of their readiness to solve the real problems of electronic document management in a modern enterprise. The group of leaders included systems Directum, DocsVision and Euphrates. The rest of the systems are located in II and IV quadrants.
Legal regulation and standards in the field of EDMS
Today, the activities of EDMS developers are practically not regulated. Developing software products and implementing implementation projects, developers and vendors, to one degree or another, are guided by the following regulatory and legal documents:
GOST R 51141-98. Office work and archiving. Terms and definitions (approved by the Decree of the State Standard of the Russian Federation of February 27, 1998 No. 28);
Federal Law of January 10, 2002 No. 1-FZ "On Electronic Digital Signature" (as amended on November 8, 2007);
GOST R 6.30-2003. Unified system of organizational and administrative documentation. Requirements for paperwork (approved by the Decree of the State Standard of the Russian Federation of March 3, 2003 N 65-st);
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 22, 2009 No. 754 "On approval of the Regulations on the system of interdepartmental electronic document management";
Federal Law of July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”.
When implementing projects for the implementation of EDMS, in the case of working with personal data, it is necessary to be guided by the requirements of the Federal Laws of July 27, 2006 N 152-FZ "On Personal Data" and of December 27, 2009 N 363-FZ "On Amendments to Articles 19 and 25 of the Federal Law "On Personal Data".
Since GOSTs are advisory in nature, the developers include maximum flexibility in their solutions so that, depending on the customer, various schemes for working with documents can be implemented on the basis of the system. Often, the architecture and logic of the system must provide different and sometimes opposite approaches to document flow automation. The lack of generally accepted standards is a problem not only for developers, but also for customers, since the choice of requirements for an EDMS becomes too subjective. The rules and regulations for working with documents may differ from enterprise to enterprise, not only within the same industry, but even within the same group of companies. And although in general the complex of tasks of electronic document management is quite clear, the methods of their implementation vary greatly. It turns out that one of the main requirements for the developers of a modern EDMS is to offer an adequate solution in terms of price, quality and implementation time, regardless of the specifics of the customer's work (in other words, satisfying any specifics).
Bibliography
1. Michael J. D. Sutton. «Corporate document flow. Principles, technologies, implementation methodology”. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2002
The book contains theoretical concepts and numerous practical recommendations for optimizing the architecture of a document management system, the distribution of responsibilities between managers and technical staff both at the stage of creation and operation of the system, organizing economical storage and highly efficient document retrieval, and much more. All these tips are based on rich practical experience The author is a leading Canadian specialist in the field of workflow optimization, who worked on orders from government agencies of his country and leading global corporations.The key idea is that a well-built document management system does not take up many resources, but helps to make effective decisions, increase the competitiveness of the enterprise due to the fact that the necessary information becomes easily accessible and always "at hand". The technology for building an effective enterprise workflow system is described in this book.
2. Methods and means of working with documents. Anthology. -Editorial URSS, 2000
The collection presents works on theoretical and applied aspects of workflow and related tasks of text recognition, interaction with databases, user interface.The collection is addressed to researchers and developers of document management systems.
3. Klimenko S.V., Krokhin I.V., Kushch V.M., Lagutin Yu.L. Electronic documents in corporate networks. – M.: Ankey-Ecotrends, 1999
The monograph outlines the basics and issues of improving the efficiency of office automation in an institution, including specific problems associated with the transition to paperless technology. The principles of building modern electronic document management systems (EDMS) and trends in their development are considered. Descriptions of the most advanced foreign products in the field of SUD are given. Standards in the field of coding, compression, exchange, integration are given various kinds information.
4. V. Zherebenkova. Documentation in the enterprise. - Top, 2005
The book considers the workflow from the position of accounting and tax accounting. The procedure for compiling organizational and administrative documents is described. Samples of unified forms used in settlements with accountable persons, performing cash transactions, current account operations, accounting for tangible and intangible assets, fixed assets, labor and wages are given. The tax accounting registers developed by the author are presented.
5. Chernov V.N. Electronic document management systems. - M: RAGS, 2009. - 84p.
The principles and features of the creation automated systems documentation management support. The selection of criteria and comparison of the characteristics of automated systems for documentation support of management of development firms, which have been operating in the Russian market for a long time and have a large number of successful practical implementations, have been carried out. The issues of regulatory and legal support of electronic document management systems are considered.
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Characteristics of the Russian market of electronic document management systems
7 Layna Fischer Innovation and Excellence in Workflow Process and Knowledge Management. – Future Strategies Inc., 2000
The description of the most outstanding projects in the field of reorganization and management of business processes and the implementation of workflow systems is given.Simplify business processes with workflow technology and extranet solutions. Technologies for the virtual enterprise. Workflow and groupware strategies. Modern business strategies and process support. workflow market. Integration of workflow systems for processing invoices for payment and graphic images of documents.
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http://www.jetinfo.ru/2002
Basic concepts of electronic document management systems. Analysis of the current state of the world EDMS market. Russian EDMS market. Examples of the use of EDMS in the world. Integration of EDMS with other applications: ERP systems and CRM systems. Features of the choice and implementation of EDMS. The main participants in the global EDMS market and the Russian EDMS market. Of key importance for the enterprise are the issues of optimization and control of workflow and control over the processing of information.
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The essence and features of confidential office work are revealed. The issues of documenting confidential information, registration of confidential documents, their accounting, organization of confidential document flow, classification and systematization of confidential documents, provision of a permit system of access and regime of confidential information, preparation of confidential documents for transfer to the archive and destruction are covered. The analysis of modern normative legal acts in the field of information of limited access and confidential documented information is given: personal data; official, professional, commercial secrets; production secrets, etc.
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Workflow automation is a measure that almost all modern enterprises resort to. Even small companies work with a ton of different documents, including letters, budgets, invoices, contracts, and all sorts of requirements. It is for this reason that almost every modern organization tries to use such a measure as workflow automation, which ensures the completeness and safety of data, the convenience of searching and storing various information, as well as the maximum optimization of the time required for its coordination.
Why is this needed?
In almost any company, employees spend a lot of time trying to find the information they need, and statistics speak volumes about the fact that this takes about half of their working time. It also happens that you have to recreate anew instead of re-applying some documents that exist "somewhere". It is quite standard that the source text of a contract is kept by a lawyer on a computer, and the accounting entries for the papers accompanying the execution of contracts are carried out in the accounting system, invoices and acts are kept in the financial department in paper form, and correspondence regarding the conduct of contractual works is in the mailboxes of employees. Such “scattering” of information is extremely harmful to security, integrity and consistency, it is in such situations that workflow automation becomes relevant.
Due to the introduction of specialized information systems, the predominant majority of problems are solved. For example, some budgeting systems provide the ability to create a system of interrelated budgets with the subsequent formation and storage of different versions of such documents, as well as indicating their statuses. Thus, the problem of budget document circulation is partially solved through the use of such systems.
However, one should not forget that modern budget bases, as well as accounting and ERP systems, in the vast majority of cases work with structured information, that is, data that can be created and stored in the form of a table. According to most experts, in the total amount of data of any modern business only 20% is given, while the rest includes electronic correspondence, texts of documents, all kinds of minutes of negotiations and meetings, images, etc. Quite often, without studying unstructured information, it is simply not possible to make a normal assessment of the context in which structured information is already present. The storage, collection and subsequent processing of such data is ensured precisely by the use of such measures as workflow automation, or by the company's information content management systems.
What it is?
Documents from all systems logically related to this information are commonly called context. It may include the contents of paper or electronic correspondence, faxes, payment documents, minutes of events, video or audio recordings, and a lot of other information. Context can be added to the document manually or the process can be fully automated, depending on the preferences and needs of management.
For example, modern system automation of workflow in the process of formation and subsequent changes in budgets allows you to use a number of other contextual information:
- all kinds of market research, including not only our own, but also those that were obtained from external sources;
- various contracts with contractors (buyers or suppliers);
- special regulatory and reference documentation;
- additional documentation that reflects any restrictions or assumptions (for example, inflation rate, exchange rates and other data);
- held to discuss any version of the budget being compiled, as well as including all kinds of working comments and comments from the participants in the process (often such documentation is sent between all employees using e-mail and is stored separately from files with budget information).
The user who works with the budget, at any time, if necessary, can view any of the above documents, since modern technologies workflow automation allows him to do this without any lengthy searches.
What systems do we use?
One of the most common software solutions that can be found in Russian companies is the combination of Microsoft Outlook utilities along with Microsoft Exchange Server. The first application, in principle, is installed on almost every computer, while Exchange Server is quite often used as a full-fledged e-mail server. Despite the fact that in companies where the introduction of electronic document management has been carried out relatively long ago, such programs are used only as a platform for working with e-mail, after some centralized settings, even this software can be used as a fairly functional workflow automation tool for almost any organization.
At the moment, the Russian market is filled with dozens of different systems that provide automation of document management, and such software is offered not only by Western, but also by domestic developers. Even Microsoft, in addition to the above programs, also offers utilities such as Content Management Server or SharePoint Portal Server.
Documentum is considered to be the most powerful among all existing systems, but basically only large companies use such an automation process. The workflow of some companies is automated due to the Lotus Notes software package, but many call it a kind of “designer for programmers”, since it is quite difficult to create a full-fledged system on its basis.
What are the differences between Russian and Western systems?
If we talk about the main differences between domestic and foreign utilities, then they lie in the available scaling options. For example, if systems from Western developers can function in almost any operating system, then domestic ones are mainly developed for only one of them, and naturally, this is often Windows. Western systems are configured to use any DBMS. Such restrictions Russian systems can greatly hinder the ability to build cross-platform integrated solutions.
Regarding functionality, the main difference is that in the West, automation of document management and workflow is carried out by several programs that can be produced under a single brand, but at the same time intended for different purposes. For example, Documentum offers several separate products that are used for full automation, as well as integration with ERP systems, support for design workflow, and so on. The predominant majority of software developed in Russia is aimed at solving a specific problem.
It is also worth noting that the fundamental difference lies in the approach of both parties to what constitutes a workflow automation system. Western systems are aimed at providing full automation and subsequent support for various end-to-end business processes occurring within the organization, while the vast majority of domestic programs automate only certain functions.
The cost of Western systems approximately ranges from $400 to $1000 per workstation, not taking into account the costs of implementation, programs and equipment that are required in order to provide a normal electronic document flow. The implementation itself often costs about half the usual cost of licenses, since most often workflow automation programs are sold with various promotions, but in some situations the price is an order of magnitude higher. One of the most difficult projects is always the automation of financial documentation, since for such projects the cost of implementation is approximately 2-3 times higher compared to the cost of licenses.
Domestic programs are sold at a price of $200-600 for each workplace, and in addition to this, the cost of additional programs and various equipment is taken into account. Ultimately, the calculation of comparative cost is carried out in much the same way as in Western systems.
Peculiarities
In the overwhelming majority of cases, the processes related to the coordination of documents, for example, the process of initial preparation and further implementation of budgets, are the priority direction of automation. However, many teams now use automation of office work and workflow, that is, from the procedures for registering outgoing and incoming documentation.
The introduction of an electronic system into operation has no fundamental differences from the introduction of any other automated systems, so it is worth dwelling only on the distinctive features of this project.
Creation of corporate vaults
The introduction of a workflow automation system in any case provides for the creation of some kind of corporate repository in which all documentation will be stored. The logical structure of such a repository, the development and further implementation of a security policy, as well as the hierarchy of document storage require maximum care and must be carried out already at an early stage of the project.
At the same time, it should be taken into account that the storage function can be deployed at the beginning of the design, so already at the initial stage it is possible to move all documents from the current storage locations to a single corporate storage. Due to this, users can familiarize themselves with some of the main functions of the system, and at the same time get comfortable with its use. It is possible to speed up the adaptation of employees to the systems being implemented by using service functions such as notification of changes in documentation, the appearance of new documents, etc.
Thus, workflow automation is required for any modern enterprise that seeks to develop and improve its work.
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