A system managing whole documents as controlled objects, with versions, approvals, permissions and an audit trail of who received what. A DMS treats the document as the unit and concerns itself with control: which version is current, who approved it, who may see it, and what the record says about distribution.

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DMS

Q: What does DMS stand for?

DMS stands for Document Management System. A system managing whole documents as controlled objects, with versions, approvals, permissions and an audit trail of who received what.

A system managing whole documents as controlled objects, with versions, approvals, permissions and an audit trail of who received what.

Definition

What DMS Means

DMS stands for

Document Management System

A DMS treats the document as the unit and concerns itself with control: which version is current, who approved it, who may see it, and what the record says about distribution.

It is a different job from a CCMS, which manages the pieces content is made from. Regulated organizations frequently need both, and confusing the two produces either a library nobody can prove anything about or a component system nobody can release from.

Also written: document management system

DAM, DMS and CCMS compared

Nearby

Related Terms

CCMS

A system that manages content as components rather than documents, tracking each piece, its versions, its relationships and where it is used.

CMS

A system for managing content as pages or documents, typically for a website, rather than as reusable components.

DAM

A system for storing and finding media assets such as images and video, optimized for retrieval and rights rather than document control.

All 64 terms in the glossary

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