Document Management vs. Content Management: How They Differ – TechTarget
Document management system and content management system sound like interchangeable terms, but they are not.
A document management system (DMS) and content management system (CMS) can certainly perform similar functions, and there is overlap. It is important, however, to understand the differences between the two technologies.
A document management system stores, manages and tracks electronic documents, including emails, images and voice files. It can also track scanned images of paper documents.
Document management systems typically have the following capabilities:
Another related term is enterprise document management (EDM), which refers to the strategy of overseeing paper and electronic documents within an organization for easy retrieval in the event of a compliance audit or other legal incident. This strategy focuses on regulatory compliance from a document perspective. It should answer questions such as, “How long should a business keep documents for?” and, “How will the business recover documents in the event of a disaster?”
Document management systems are sometimes sold as standalone systems, but, today, they have been largely incorporated into the broader category of enterprise content management (ECM). Most ECM vendors, such as Alfresco, M-Files and Microsoft SharePoint, offer a DMS component.
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A CMS is an application that enables users to create, manage and publish digital content on a website. CMSes feature a graphical user interface (GUI) so that nontechnical users can edit, publish and manage content without knowing how to code.
A CMS has two key components:
A related term is web content management system (WCMS). WCMS and CMS are nearly interchangeable terms; the only difference is that a WCMS is a type of CMS that is specifically dedicated to website content.
A CMS is used within the larger scope of ECM. Therefore, CMS can be considered a subcategory of ECM software.
Popular CMS vendors include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.
DMSes and CMSes overlap in the sense that they are both components of an overall ECM strategy. They both perform the following functions:
Additionally, both DMSes and CMSes are available as cloud-based SaaS subscriptions.
While there is overlap between the functions of a CMS and a DMS, they are not interchangeable. Here are the key differences:
Leadership teams may wonder how to sort through the alphabet soup of DMS, ECM, EDM and CMS, and how to choose the right technology for their organization.
EDM or DMS is a component of ECM. ECM is the convergence of a variety of technologies, including:
Therefore, large enterprises that need all of the above components should purchase an ECM platform. Companies that focus less on external publication and content marketing may want a standalone DMS to track their records and documents.
There are also content services. In 2016, Gartner declared that ECM was being replaced by content services. A content services platform (CSP) is an emerging technology that refers to the capabilities of ECM combined with RESTful APIs. It’s a set of microservices and applications that can come in the form of a single product suite or a collection of applications that share common APIs. CSPs can include both document management and ECM.
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