Originally, a Document management system (DMS) was a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store images of paper documents. More recently, the term has been used to distinguish between imaging and records management systems that specialize in paper capture and records respectively.

Document management systems commonly provide check-in, check-out, storage and retrieval of electronic documents often in the form of word processor files and the like.

For businesses, document management poses a number of challenges, including distraction from core business functions, high cost of document handling and storage, high expense per image for conversion of paper to digital data, data-entry errors, and inconsistencies in quality of scanned images.