Integration with Your Existing Systems

The newly purchased EDMS has to integrate with your existing systems even if they are from different vendors. This will allow work to be done seamlessly. Data can flow from one system to another accurately without human intervention.

Functions & purpose they serve Is this an important feature for your use case?
Web Services and API

Does the Workflow support web services / APIs to integrate with external programs? Actions done on external programs can trigger a workflow within the EDMS system and vice versa.
Through web services and API, is the document management system able to extract and populate information onto external databases?
Will the digital forms within the workflow be able to auto-populate data fields for the convenience of users?

E.g. once a person fills in his ID if there is a record of the person in the internal or external database, the form will be able to auto-populate other details such as address and email. In the event that the data is changed, the system is able to update the database based on the new information populated by the customer in the form.
Web folders

Web Folder is a virtual drive of files and folders within the repository. This folder utilises the standard DAV Protocol commonly supported by many software clients.

This would mean that a high number of existing software in the market will be able to interface with the EDMS to make use of the data within the repository. It is also key that proper authentication methods are in place when information is accessed by third-party software. 
Built-in Integration

Is the EDMS able to work with common productivity software e.g.

  • MS Word
  • MS Excel
  • Ms Powerpoint
  • Ms Sharepoint
  • MS Outlook

The common option allows documents to be filed into the EDMS directly from the software. E.g. the option of “file to EDMS” can be found in the drop-down within MS Word when the EDMS plug-in is installed into MS Word.

Integration with MS Outlook is an important feature as it allows seamless capturing of email conversations and attachments. Email is one of the most used platforms for professional dealings today. An example of Integration will be to create a button within MS Outlook that will automatically file the entire email conversion into the EDMS together with the relevant attachments as well as contextual metadata of the email. The EDMS can also constantly monitor the email thread and file incoming or outgoing new emails arising from the same email thread.  
How easy is it to build your own integration scripts?

Is there a holistic documentation and code library? So integrations can be built by third parties instead of only relying on the producer of the EDMS to release new packages or to develop custom scripts for us (Which might come with a hefty price tag). 
What kind of support will be provided in the event you are looking to build your own extension? How much will the support cost? E.g. in the area of testing, troubleshooting and ensuring that the integrity of documents is not affected by the new integrations that can potentially change and update the files.