Documents from your DMS archivethe records from your document management, with sources.

What has been archived for years in a DMS such as DocuWare, ELO or a comparable system — contracts, receipts, correspondence, minutes, file notes — is intended to become searchable in the knowledge base. Only read access is planned; nothing in the archive is changed.

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Existing DMS

after clarification · database export

Example question

“Which version of the maintenance contract with Berger is archived, and what does it say about the notice period?”

1 Answer with source

Connection

How the connection is designed

A DMS usually keeps the documents in its own archive and the index terms — client, receipt, date, file reference — in a database alongside it. One of two routes is planned: a scheduled export that outputs documents together with their index terms, or an interface provided by the vendor. Transfer is encrypted and outbound only; nothing is created, moved or changed in the archive. We check with you and your DMS support partner before we start whether a route is feasible in your installation, and which one — depending on system, version, licence and the vendor’s approvals.

Once set up, synchronisation runs automatically: new and changed documents from Existing DMS are added by themselves, without anyone having to upload anything.

Set-upFirst, we clarify with your DMS support partner which route is feasible in your installation; then we estimate the effort and discuss it with you before anything is set up. Setup and maintenance are charged by effort.

Documents

Which documents may be stored in Existing DMS

Incoming invoices and receipts with the index values assigned in the input form when they were filed — supplier, receipt number, receipt series, cost centre, year.
Contracts including amendments, often kept as versions of the same document, with term and notice period as separate index fields.
Archived correspondence with authorities, clients and tradespeople — often filed directly from the mailbox, with attachments, and the subject line as a keyword.
Minutes and file notes: meeting minutes, minutes of owners’ meetings, handover records and file memos.
Outgoing documents from upstream systems that reached the archive via the print route: statements, fee notes, official notices and completed matters.
Batch scans from the migration years: paper files that were scanned in one go, split using separator sheets and indexed as a block.

Example questions

Examples of questions to your documents

“Which version of the maintenance contract with Berger is archived, and what does it say about the notice period?”
1 Answer with source
“Where is the receipt for invoice 2021-0447, and what does it relate to?”
2 Answer with source
“What was filed on this matter between 2016 and 2019?”
3 Answer with source

Start

Before a connection is set up

A connection is set up for you, not activated in one click. Every source comes with its own logins, permissions and folder logic — whether and how it can be connected at your company, we check together beforehand. Set-up and maintenance are billed by effort; how much that is depends on the source and is discussed beforehand.

Until then, and independently of it, you can upload files, whole folders, emails, photos and voice memos. Before we start, we go through real questions with you to see how the answers look.

Preliminary check

What we check in advance

A DMS keeps part of its organisation alongside the file: stamps and annotations often sit on separate layers above the document, follow-ups, links and log entries in the database next to it. In advance, we look with your DMS support partner at whether the export route includes these layers — some systems write visible annotations into the output file, others do not. We also check whether the archive only holds references to files stored elsewhere, and where those files are. Batch scans without a text layer go through text recognition (OCR); how well this works with faint copies becomes clear from the documents themselves. Archive permissions are not carried over one to one, but set up afresh via document types and roles.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about this connection

Our archive goes back to 2008. Does all of it have to be included?

You decide. A selection is usual: current matters and the most recent years first, older ones later. Adding more later is planned as a further export run, not a rebuild — what is already in the knowledge base stays in place. The index terms are intended to come along, so that a receipt from 2011 stays assigned to 2011 and not to the day of the export. Years that remain in the archive only because of the retention obligation can be left out from the start if you wish.

Everything here runs on index fields rather than folders. How does an answer reach the right matter?

The plan is to carry over the index terms from the archive as field values: client, receipt number, date, file reference. Where a field was left empty at filing, the system reads the values from the document; if the two differ, both are named. Someone from your company confirms the document type of a document on the first run, because visibility depends on it. The answer names the source with receipt number and year, so you can check it in the archive — and if the system finds nothing, it says so.

What happens when our document management system is upgraded to a new version?

That depends on what changes with the upgrade. If the export route, access and target directory stay the same, no intervention is planned. If index fields are renamed or the export route is moved, no new documents are added until it has been updated; the content already read stays in place. We coordinate the update with your DMS support partner and charge it by effort. A short note before the switchover date helps, so we can check the export route at the same time.

Each department has its own permissions in the DMS. Will that stay as it is?

In the archive, everything stays as it is — only read access is planned, and nothing is changed in the permission profiles. In your instance, visibility is set up afresh: not document by document, but via document types and roles, optionally from a cut-off date. An archive area that concerns only one department can also be left out and added later. If someone lacks the permission, the system says so instead of showing the content.

Industries

Typical for these industries

Guides

Request a demo — and clarify how Existing DMS fits in

In thirty minutes by video we show what answers with sources look like, and clarify whether and how Existing DMS can be connected at your company.