In the engineering and construction sector, the need for document management is growing. Indeed, more and more constraints in terms of logistics weigh on companies. When a project starts, it’s a real race that begins with many players for whom collaboration is essential. In order to save time and always comply with legislation, collaborative platforms are set up so that documents can evolve in a controlled environment. Thus, the production, verification and signature of files are standardised and facilitated. Many terms and notions exist around the subject. In this article, we take stock of some of them.
What is a EDMS ?
A document management system or electronic document management system (EDMS) allows you to manage, organise, share and archive files. In technical terms, “document management” is when a server-side application is responsible for performing massive operations on documents, cataloguing them and indexing them according to certain algorithms. Typically, document systems also include the Business Process Management System (BPMS), which automates and/or manages information and document-related processes (e.g. multi-level approvals).
The benefits of IT document management
The dematerialisation of business processes enables the optimisation of communication and interaction methods and can ensure the management of the entire life cycle of documents: from their creation to their archiving, up to their conservation in compliance with standards. All of this provides the opportunity to reduce the amount of paper printed while respecting the environment. EDM also offers the opportunity to make documents unalterable (never faded, damaged or stained), confidential information (the user has the possibility to access only and exclusively certain documents linked to his profile, which can be set by the system administrator) and documents available anywhere by a simple internet connection.
The ECM
Enterprise Content Management or ECM corresponds to a multitude of tools and services with the aim of managing the documentation produced by a company, whether in paper or computer format. In Enterprise Content Management solutions, OCRs are used to recognise the characters present in a document and thus to digitise their content, but also algorithms for intelligent character recognition or ICR, barcode or fingerprint detection, etc. In this way, it is possible to identify the type of documents and to consider not storing the files, but backing up the data. These systems can therefore control, index and check the integrity of the information.
CDE and collaborative platforms
Centralizing information and making it accessible through a single tool is the objective of the CDE or Common Data Environment. The ISO standard defines it in the following way: “the CDE is the space where all project information (graphical and non-graphical) is collected, managed and distributed”. The types of documents are very varied, which is ideal in fields such as construction or engineering where mock-ups are often handled. In general, a simple browser is required to connect to this collaborative work platform. A smartphone is finally sufficient if one wishes to benefit from fast access to data. Security is therefore a key issue. What also makes the strength of the Common Data Environment is its ability to connect to other tools in the company and thus offer a transparent way of handling information. All of this contributes to simplifying the professional activity and making it easily accessible to all those involved.
To conclude, it can be seen that the solutions proposed for document management are increasingly touching on the granularity of information by tending to switch from file management to management of the data itself. New technologies and in particular those using artificial intelligence make it possible to go ever further in order to centralise information, whatever its origin, while facilitating collaboration.
