The term EDMS has become commonplace in engineering-related sectors these days, especially in EPC project verticals where the management of technical documentation is a key factor in successful project delivery.

It must be noted that EDMS in its present form is a recent development, following on the heels of the first big digital shift ie the adoption of computer-aided design (CAD) in the latter half of the last century and later on the adoption of computer-friendly file formats like MsWord and MsExcel which became more or less universal. Today the evolution of digital technology continues, with Artificial Intelligence being applied to transform project monitoring and delivery management. However, nowhere in the project cycle is the impact of digital technology felt more keenly than in the field of project documentation management.

To be clear, project documentation is not just technical data and drawings, although that forms the bulk of it. We also mean spreadsheets, reports, emails, memos, invoices and a range of other administrative and financial documents that are vital to the running of a project. But most of these documents have their own native applications, some of which have been in use for decades. We can think of such solutions as ‘generic’ document management systems, that happened to have been installed in EPC organisations and applied to engineering documents. What’s changed in recent years is the development of engineering-specific DMS, that is, a document management system pre-set to manage engineering data types and pre-loaded with engineering-specific workflows. Thus, the term EDMS, which used to be a broad term applicable to any kind of electronic document management system (or electronic data management system) has now become a type of DMS designed specifically for engineering data types and workflows only.

Over the years the distinction has deepened and naming conventions to distinguish the two have come to light, like using an uppercase E to represent Engineering and a lowercas ‘e’ to represent electronic, and now that project management software is a field in itself there seems to be an advantage in understanding such differences and differentiations. But is there really a difference in the applications themselves?

Yes, there is.

First, the similarities. EDMS and eDMS are both a kind of DMS, or document management system. They are also both digital, or electronic, in that the documents and data they deal with are digital computer files. Now the differences. An eDMS, lowercase e, typically refers to an application designed to manage documents – any kind of documents, not just engineering-related. By contrast, EDMS with an uppercase E is always related to engineering project documents, and that includes technical drawings like CAD files, spreadsheets, reports, and all the other project-related data files. Considering the size and complexity of projects documentation, the difference is not small by any means but more to the point, the type of data or type of document determines how it will be processed ie how the workflow that governs its lifecycle will be set up. This means engineering documents are processed according to an engineering workflow, and so the EDMS, by virtue of dealing with all the different types of workflows becomes a kind of aggregator of all the different software applications as well as their different data files. To put it another way; eDMS is generic, EDMS is specialised.

There’s also a difference in the effect the applications have on project operations.

An eDMS is naturally more efficient and cost-effective than the (most likely manual) mode of document management that preceded it and that means some benefits are inevitable, like being easier to use and less time-consuming. However, an EDMS goes far beyond that, requiring even less manual effort and apart from a one-time cost for set up and purchase and training, far cheaper to run in the long term. Additionally, EDMS can be used by anyone in the project lifecycle including designers, document controllers, various reviewers, and of course clients and consultants and other stakeholders. So the impact an EDMS has on the project team’s productivity is very much higher than an eDMS.

What about ease of use? Here again EDMS is a clear winner; since it is customized to one specific industry and is governed by that industry’s protocols and standards and regulations (unlike an eDMS which is industry-agnostic) the options for customizing it are greater and this makes it much more intuitive to use.

EDMS also affects compliance and quality; where an eDMS plays a largely passive role in compliance, an EDMS can be set up in such a way that it plays a role in assisting and guiding its human users based on the built-in engineering-related workflows and procedures – almost like a trusted guide and advisor that keeps you on track and doesn’t let you stray from the schedule or budget.

In conclusion, as technology for the EPC sector continues to progress in leaps and bounds understanding such distinctions could go a long way in easing the strain of digital transition.