Document management systems (DMS) are designed to assist organisations to manage the creation and flow of documents through the provision of a centralised repository, and workflow that encapsulates business rules and metadata. The focus of a DMS is primarily on the storage and retrieval of self-contained electronic resources, in their native (original) format.

Note that while the definition of a document management system is very similar to that of a Content Management System, they serve different (and complementary) roles within an organisation.

More resources:

• Is it DM or CM? - This briefing helps to dispell the widespread confusion in the marketplace between document management systems (DMS) and content management systems (CMS).