ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT FLOW SYSTEM: PROBLEMS OF DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

The article considers different problems of “electronic document flow” and software solution classification, which programmers hold out as electronic document managing systems. There is no legal basis for the definition of “electronic document management system” in Ukraine, where this notion is widely used both practically and in the academic literature. Nevertheless, this notion and its synonyms are found in a great number of statutory instruments that regulate some aspects of electronic document flow. This problematic issue causes some definite difficulties both in the development and arrangement of local legislation in the electronic document flow branch and some practical issues of the system choice made by the enterprises. An implementation of the following systems is an integral part of information-oriented society for its main adequate asset control - information, the extended and legally relevant form of which is a document. Absence of clear legislation of the electronic document flow definition misinforms the consumers at the market of diverse software solutions, which programmers hold out as the electronic document management systems. From our point of view, when identifying the definition of electronic document flow, attention should be paid to the tradition conflict of local records management and western  technologies of its  automation.  From the very beginning, we can see the problems of MoReq2 standard analysis, which is recommended by the Ukrainian State Special Communication Service, as a basic one in the electronic document flow branch (which isn’t translated in Ukrainian yet). If we base on Russian- language translation variant (we have similar problems of Soviet records management and an adaptation to the western technologies of electronic document flow), it is useful to take into consideration that this standard relies on such definitions as “a record” and “a document”. In this regard it’s expected that each of them can be the main automation object in the electronic document management system. Basing on these principles, the standard enforces to distinguish the management systems of in-house documents, that is the electronic document management systems (EDMS) and the electronic resources management systems (ERMS). As for the practical implementation of the technologies that embody the electronic document flow, we have some IT market leader systems that are realized on the ECM platform (Enterprise content management). ECN is a system of applications for the enterprise content management and a creation of organization common information space. In this context, the records management is realized with the help of single software module designed on the basis of ECM platform. However, practically, all huge ECM developers (e.g. DIRECTUM) use the notion of “electronic document management system” for their products, most likely targeting to the intuitively understandable definition for the majority of their clients. In summary, it should be said that an absence of clear legislation of the electronic document management definition causes some problems both in the branch of electronic legislation development and, on the practical level, of the system choice by the enterprise which is able to increase the records effectiveness and to provide the legislative document flow together with the expenses minimum. Thus, in order to tackle the problem for the terminology actualization of the local records management and for the choice of international standards for the further nationalization, the experts have to pay their attention to the local records management traditions that are bound by legal value of a record, malversation (corruption) resistance, confirmation of the activity legitimacy, civil rights etc.