Welcome to the IntelDocs Glossary, where you’ll find clear, concise definitions of essential terms related to document management, workflow automation, and enterprise content management (ECM). This section is designed to help you better understand the terminology and concepts that shape our solutions and the industry at large. Whether you’re new to document management or looking to deepen your knowledge, this resource is here to guide you.
Explore the glossary to familiarize yourself with the terms that matter most to your business.
Document Management System (DMS): A computerized system used to store, share, track, and manage files or documents.
Electronic Document Management System (EDMS): A system that manages documents in electronic format, providing features like version control, access rights, and search capabilities.
Content Management: The process of creating, managing, and publishing digital content.
Enterprise Content Management (ECM): A set of technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes.
Digital Asset Management (DAM): A system for organizing, storing, and retrieving rich media and managing digital rights and permissions.
Case Management: A process that involves handling cases (e.g., legal, medical) from initiation to resolution, often supported by software that manages documentation and workflow.
Cloud Services: Services provided over the internet, often used for digitizing, automating, and transforming business processes.
Archiving: The process of moving data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage device for long-term retention.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Software that manages a company's interactions with current and potential customers3.
Dematerialization: The process of converting physical documents into digital formats.
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces): Interfaces that allow different software applications to communicate with each other.
Content Services: Services that provide content management capabilities, often delivered via cloud platforms.
Intelligent Content Management: A system that uses AI and machine learning to manage and enrich content, improving decision-making and customer experience.
Data Governance: The overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise.
Process Management: The alignment of organizational processes with the organization's goals and objectives.
Automation: The use of technology to perform tasks with minimal human intervention.
Digital Transformation: The integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers.
Version Tracking: The ability to keep a record of different versions of a document as it is created and modified by different users.
Capture and Imaging: The process of converting physical documents into digital formats through scanning and imaging technologies.
Processing: The handling and manipulation of digital documents to prepare them for storage, retrieval, and use.
Scalable: A system that can handle growing amounts of work or can be enlarged to accommodate growth.
Enterprise Information: The collective data and information used within an organization to support its operations and decision-making.
Open Source: Software whose source code is publicly available and can be modified and distributed by anyone.
Open Standards: Standards that are publicly available and can be implemented by anyone, promoting interoperability.
Enterprise Scale: The ability of a system to handle the demands of a large organization, including high volumes of data and users.
Windows: An operating system developed by Microsoft, widely used in personal computers and servers.
Real-Time Editing: The ability for multiple users to edit a document simultaneously, with changes reflected instantly.
Integration: The process of combining different software applications to work together seamlessly.
Single Source of Truth: A centralized repository where all data and documents are stored, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
Records Management Policies: Guidelines and procedures for managing records, including retention, disposal, and access rights.
Onboarding Materials: Documents and resources provided to new employees to help them integrate into the organization.
Tax Forms: Documents used for reporting and filing taxes, often managed electronically in an EDMS.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): A set of national standards for the protection of certain health information, requiring strict document management practices in healthcare.
ISO 15489: An international standard for records management, providing principles and functional requirements for managing records.
ISO 27001: A specification for an information security management system, ensuring the highest levels of data security in document management.
ISO 9001: A standard for quality management systems, requiring good document management practices to meet quality standards.
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library): A set of detailed practices for IT service management that includes document management standards.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act: A U.S. law that requires public companies to maintain strict document control and management practices to ensure transparency and accountability.
EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A comprehensive data protection regulation that requires organizations to implement strict document management and data protection practices to safeguard personal data.
ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute): A European Standards Body that develops standards for information and communication technologies.
CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés): The French data protection authority, responsible for ensuring that data privacy laws are upheld, particularly in the context of electronic document management.
AFNOR Standards: Norms created by the French Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR) to standardize various products and processes, including document management.
NF Z42-013: This standard provides guidelines for the management of electronic documents and records. It covers the creation, storage, and retrieval of electronic documents to ensure their integrity, authenticity, and accessibility over time.
NF Z42-020: This standard focuses on the digitization of paper documents and the management of digital images. It includes requirements for the scanning process, image quality, and metadata to ensure the reliability and long-term preservation of digitized documents.
NF Z43-400: This standard provides guidelines for the management of digital repositories. It covers the design, implementation, and management of digital repositories to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of digital objects.
DUA (Administrative Usefulness Duration) : The DUA is the legal period during which archives can be consulted by administrative services. It ensures their accessibility for administrative activities and determines when they can potentially be disposed of.
ACL : ACL stands for Access Control List. An ACL is a set of security rules defined on a document.
Audit Trail : A record of each action taken on a content record in a Document Management System showing who took the action and when.
Active Directory (AD) : Active Directory is Microsoft's proprietary directory service which allows administrators to manage permissions and access to network resources.
Approval : A required action taken on content in its life cycle signaling acceptance of the content. This action moves it to the next stage in the workflow if all business rules have been met.
Full-Text Search : Feature that enables you to search the entire text of a document to find a word or phrase.
Metadata : Fields of information common to all content in the system; such as Creation Date, Creator, Review date etc.
On-premise software : software installed on a company’s local server.
PDF (portable document format) : A file format that provides an electronic image of text or text and graphics that looks like a printed document and can be viewed, printed, and electronically transmitted.
Revision Control (Version Control) : A system that tracks the changes made to content and ensures the availability of the most up to date, approved and current version.
Revision History : Comments entered into the audit record when a new version is created.
SSO : Single sign on authentication such as Azure or Okta.
Check-In/Check-Out : A system used to prevent multiple users from editing a document at the same time. Users “check out” a document to edit, and “check in” the updated version.
Data Encryption : A method of securing digital documents by converting them into unreadable code, accessible only with a decryption key.
Document Capture : The process of scanning and converting physical documents into digital format for storage in a Document Management System.
Document Lifecycle : The stages a document goes through from creation and use to archiving and eventual disposal.
Document Retention : Policies that define how long documents must be kept and when they can be deleted or archived.
Indexing : The process of categorising or tagging documents with keywords or metadata to facilitate easy search and retrieval.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) : A technology used to convert scanned images of text into machine-readable data, enabling the text to be searched and edited.
Records Management : A specialised area of document management that focuses on the maintenance and storage of records to meet legal, historical or operational requirements.