Goodbye to paper - with powerful DMS functions and PACK & GO for use on the move
Saying goodbye to paper is the key to better responsiveness and more productive administration throughout an organisation. Electronic records provide complete information at a glance by grouping together a wide range of data sources. These include documents like maintenance contracts, letters, order confirmations, delivery notes and invoices, but also data from email systems and multimedia objects, internet links, drawings, commercial data from the ERP system and customer information from the CRM system. This means that the electronic customer record serves as a central point of entry for searches across the whole system. Thanks to mature DMS functions, working with electronic records shares several of the concepts familiar from paper-based records – including a record cover sheet containing the most important meta information. It is even possible to take a record with you as a PDF export (PACK & GO).
Analogy between electronic records and paper records – explanation of terms
To enable a paper file to be found again quickly, it is put in a particular place on a shelving system. A paper folder is filed in a filing cabinet with a label on the outside, all of which constitutes a filing plan. In other words: How do you file the whole record in such a way that it can be found again easily? The possibilities for filing electronic records are of course much more flexible, since you can use any number of index criteria and you are not limited to a hierarchical filing plan. Multiple classifications are also possible, whereas the physical record stands in only one place.
If you open a typical file or folder you come to the record contents, which usually consist of lots of documents separated by dividers. This subdivision can be freely defined and can, for instance, be based on different workflows or different document types. We call this inner structure of a record the record structure. It is the hierarchical organisation produced by different electronic folders. Unlike the dividers of the paper world, in electronic records these folders can be nested within one another to any number of levels.
The electronic record as a central information cockpit
What information does an electronic record contain?
In addition, the content of an electronic record is not restricted to documents – an electronic record can also contain links to workflows in workflow systems, links to objects in third-party systems, pure datasets, URLs, etc. Moreover, electronic records also contain the equivalent of a cover sheet. This makes electronic records the central point of entry for all information, enabling users to carry out searches of the entire system.
The right electronic record for every task
This brings us to the next important term – the record type, i.e. the different kinds of record, such as customer records, supplier records, HR records, etc. Put simply, the record type describes both the external view of a record’s filing plan (what are the index criteria, how is it filed) and the inner record structure. Then comes the design of the cover sheet screen and other aspects, such as authorisations and assignment to a repository (concepts familiar from document types).
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