EDRM systems and relational databases
Generally speaking we can make a distinction between relational databases which are designed to manage structured data and EDRM systems which are designed to manage semi-structured or unstructured documentary information or content. We will look at some exceptions to that rule below.
Traditionally, therefore, education organisations use business administration systems based on relational databases to manage structured financial data in finance systems and structured personnel and payroll data in human resources and payroll systems and structured student data in student administration systems.
Traditionally, alongside those databases education organisations would also hold semi structured or unstructured content in paper documents in finance folders such as supplier folders; invoice folders etc and in human resource folders and in student folders.
If an education organisation then opts to implement a corporate EDRM system then the contents of those paper folders will be replaced by electronic folders managed in the EDRM system and the EDRM system will be interfaced with the Finance and HR and student administration systems so the data is managed in the Finance and HR and student administration systems and the content in the EDRM system.
Life is not quite as simple as that as increasingly recently the suppliers of Finance and HR and student administration systems have been expanding their solutions to allow users to complete electronic forms and text documents and scan in images of students and invoices and attach them to their database. In effect such suppliers are attempting to “document-enable” such systems.
This practice looks attractive to users in finance or HR or student administration departments as the interface is seamless. However, if this practice were adopted throughout an education organisation then we would end up with islands of automation. Electronic documents would be attached to administrative systems and could only be viewed by users of those systems and when the administrative system was replaced the documents would all have to be migrated onto the new replacement system alongside the data. In addition the documents on such systems are often not fully managed and protected. The link is just a file path which can become corrupted over time.
Generally speaking, therefore, if an education organisation is looking to implement a corporate EDRM system then they should look to manage all their core documents/content on the system and create links between the EDRM system and the prime administrative systems used within the education organisation.
So in future education organisations should aim to have one EDRM system and a number of core administrative systems and other databases.
This is not to say that the EDRM system and the administrative systems have to be supplied by different suppliers. Today and traditionally the leading EDRM suppliers have been specialist suppliers. However, increasingly suppliers of administrative suites such as Oracle and SAP are also moving into the EDRM field with their own offerings or with preferred third party offerings. So if you use Oracle for finance and HR you could also use them for EDRM in future but the EDRM solution they provided would also need to integrate with other databases.
EDRM systems themselves use relational databases to manage structured metadata so where tight integration is required with a business administration system it can be provided at the database to database level.
