THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DMS)

Document Management Systems (DMS) are a central component to all successful Enterprises. It is often the first step on the route to digital transformation for many businesses. However, for those who are further along the journey, we are increasingly witnessing the importance of access and usability being cloaked by the complexities of the larger ERP structure itself. A prime example is SAP, the company whose software runs many of the world’s largest companies. SAP solutions are powerful and flexible, processing billions of transactions every day in some of the most challenging environments.

SAP has a very good Document Management System built into the core ERP solution. It is a robust component with a comprehensive list of functionalities designed for even the most complex of businesses. The SAP DMS was developed primarily for management of technical documents (including CAD drawings) but is widely used for virtually any business process where documents need to be managed and accessed via object links.

The gap between a feature-laden SAP solution and the SAP user experience, can be seen in the SAP GUI (Graphical User Interface). With complicated document structures that manage tens of thousands of documents more emphasis had, of course, been on ensuring that the back end operated as efficiently as possible rather than the on the users’ front-end experience. But SAP addressed the need for a simplified interface with the introduction of Easy DMS, which offered clients an efficient and easy-to-use means to accessing and managing the complex back end.

As customer demands increase and improved and new solutions are required, focus simply cannot be placed on every single aspect of this intricate program and there are bound to be some elements that will suffer as a result, Easy DMS being a case in point, and the decision was made to de-list this interface a few years ago. There are other applications within SAP that offer some of the Easy DMS functionality but unfortunately nothing that gives the user all the previous features they enjoyed, and relied upon, to manage their work flow as efficiently as they had become accustomed.

The search for an alternative, feature-rich solution was one of the driving factors for advanced solutions specialist Netcare International APS to dedicate significant resources to solving what they saw as a classic “The Elephant in the Room” scenario. Having the foresight to identify the future need for an alternative interface, Netcare has embarked on a mission to create a powerful, intuitive, easy to use, flexible interface. Based on UI5 and Fiori standards, the aptly named “The Elephant” is a user friendly, comprehensive, fully integrated and infrastructure-lite solution providing a host of features and functionality not available in SAP GUI or the out-going SAP EasyDMS.

The solution includes a host of connected OData services and is supported by a team of SAP experts to enable further client customization if required. The enhanced UI features powerful advanced search and mass document creation amongst other features making the solution ideal for all sizes of business.

Over the coming weeks we will be highlighting some of the functionality that “The Elephant” can offer you to enhance the way you manage your business.

If you would like to find out more about how this solution can help you and to be taken through a demonstration then please get in touch.