With more and more business going paperless, document management software (DMS) is more crucial than ever. Employees need the right access to essential information at the right time to ensure business runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. It enables easy file sharing, quicker task completion, increased accessibility and lets a company take all its organisation digital. And the best part is that some of the best document management software is both free and open source.
OpenDocMan
OpenDocMan is one of the most user-friendly software to use, with a particularly easy setup and minimalist user interface. You can add any type of file to the system, which makes it particularly accessible to individuals and small businesses. OpenDocMan is under the GPL license, allowing users to make any modifications they need.
The software allows ample freedom for businesses, including a group permissions feature where managers and IT staff can delegate document management duties and restrict or grant access where they see fit. Other features include e-mail notification options, quick search options by category, automated document reviews and powerful document management workflows.
OpenKM
Renowned for being both powerful and efficient, OpenKM offers a range of features making it easy for organisations of any size to manage their documents. OpenKM enables easy sharing of documents as well as collaboration among colleagues on documents. Some particularly helpful features include OpenKM’s advanced search function, the unique document identifier, the options for cataloguing and categorising documents as well as the nifty text to speech converter.
There are three versions of the OpenKM DMS: professional, cloud and community. The first two are commercial versions, but the community plan is entirely free. The community plan comes under the GPL 2.0, allowing users to modify and develop the software as they see fit. That said, the paid versions come with extensive user support that the free version lacks.
SeedDMS
One of the most intuitive and sophisticated open source DMS out there is SeedDMS. It supports both MySQL and sqlite3 databases and comes with document scanning software, making it useful for both storing and sharing documents. It’s accessible, adapting neatly to both desktop and smartphone use, and is also powerful: its multi-level directory allows storage of more than 32,000 documents.
