Integrated Document Management for Decision Support

Abstract

The effective management of documents is an integral requirement for operational and administrative decision support within organizations, irrespective of their size, industry sector, products, and services. Documents are a fundamental part of decision making in commercial and government enterprises as well as small to medium businesses. The document paradigm in many organizations is one of ineffective management, which may contribute to inadequate performance and quality in the decision-making process. The implementation of effective document-management solutions is typically more challenging in larger organizational structures, particularly where office and service locations are distributed, potentially across the globe. This chapter reviews the requirements for managing documents in organizations, the core capabilities of document management systems and how interfaces with other organizational systems can be applied to enhance these core capabilities. The chapter advocates an integrative approach to planning effective document management system implementations that are aligned with business planning and processimprovement endeavors. Effective document management systems facilitate decision support during strategic, tactical and operational planning activities and also provide organizations with a managed documentary foundation for exploiting organizational knowledge.