Ensuring the Future of your Documents

Concerns about future readability make many organizations hesitant to implement a document management system. To address these concerns, document management systems should use non-proprietary image and text formats. To ensure the future readability of documents, a document management system should store files in a non-proprietary format, such as TIFF or ASCII. ASCII has been a standard for text information since 1963 and is a basic building block for almost every text-based program. Given the prevalence of ASCII and TIFF, it is reasonable to assume that no matter what format is developed in the future, the developers of the new format will have a vested interest in providing a conversion for these standards. For records managers concerned with archival storage, it is crucial to determine if you are considering a digital document management solution or a records management application. Records management is a specialized branch of document management that deals with information serving as evidence of an organization’s business activities. Records management includes a set of practices related to the life cycle of that information, such as identifying, classifying, archiving, and destroying records.