An Evaluation of Electronic Document Management System Functionalities and Effectiveness in Malaysia

Overview of EDMS

ISO 9001 defines a document as information and its supporting medium, while a record is a "document showing results achieved or providing documentation of activities undertaken." In paper-based traditional document management, documents will be kept when the user has finished, but users tend to hoard information once they have gotten the documents they need. For documents in file folders that are not accessible or retrievable, request, receipt, and disposal processes add no value (Forcada et al., 2005). Organizations have implemented Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) to handle organizational documents and records efficiently and effectively. EDMS provides many benefits to organizations, such as more effective management, transparency, support the quality system, efficient storage, management, access to information and knowledge, personnel flexibility, logging of activity, optimization of business processes, and automation of implementation and monitoring mechanisms, exclusion or maximum reduction of paper documents circulation, and resource savings (Burtylev et al., 2013).

EDMS use and implementation have drawbacks, such as requiring all data to be in electronic format and interfacing with incompatible systems. Options for data storage, expanded networking capabilities, sophisticated desktop computing, software support, and implementation should be considered when evaluating, selecting, and using EDMS. Start-up costs, payback maximization and analysis, cost justification, and savings should be addressed (Forcada et al., 2005).

Development of EDMS

Electronic document management systems (EDMS) were developed in the 1980s to manage unstructured electronic information. They use technology to reduce paper consumption, improve communication, and enhance productivity. DMS is a combination of applications that allow for automated storage, organization, transmission, retrieval, manipulation, update, and eventual disposition of documents (Sprague, 1995).

In developing a system, both functional and non-functional requirements the system are essential. Functional requirements are the system's feature specifications that define a system, its component, or its fundamental behavior. Non-functional requirements are not the system's support but rather the performance attribute of a software system. The design method based on information models, standard compliance, uniform access to heterogeneous data sources, and cost-effectiveness must be internationally well-recognized to develop an EDMS. The interface of the document management system should provide users with a consistent access paradigm for searching and exploring documents stored as documents in various formats, and the EDMS should be effective in terms of storage and time for retrieval of documents (Paganelli & Pettenati, 2005)

The applications of an electronic document management system (EDMS) focus on controlling electronic documents throughout their life cycle. This includes document creation, storage and retrieval, management, version control, workflow, and multiple delivery formats. EDMS also allows the user to track changes done to a document and retrieve old versions. EDMS lets users have multiple delivery formats of document content, such as PDF, Word, and Image, to cater to the requirements of the end users.

Acceptance of EDMS

User acceptance is a user group's willingness to use information technology for the tasks it was created to support. It is determined by five characteristics: relative advantage, compatibility, compatibility, complexity, ease of use or learning, trialability, and observability. EDMS is widely used in government agencies and research has shown that it is accepted among users (Dillon, 2001).

The success of the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) implementation is determined by the user acceptance rate. Lojonon and Alfred (2021) identified organizational challenges, user resistance and support, system integration needs, accelerating change management strategies, lessons learned and understanding the past implementation of the system. Abdulkadhim et al. (2015) believed that top management support, budget/cost, strategic planning, legislation environment, collaboration, ICT infrastructure, IT implementation team, high security and authentication, and user requirement are the factors that influence the acceptance of EDMS by the users in the organization. Kaaki et al. (2013) identified personal factors such as age, recognition, and experience in EDMS usage. Most researchers agreed that the system could be a waste if no one intends to use or accept it (Sezgin et al., 2013).

Effectiveness of EDMS

Data Exchange Management System (EDMS) effectiveness measures a system's success in terms of system quality, information quality, usage, user satisfaction, and impact on individuals and the organization. EDMS can be seen in its capability to handle workflow in the organizational business process, such as activation, tracking, status monitoring, messaging, queue handling, and routing of documents (Cho, 2008). Examples of EDMS deployment in a virtual workplace demonstrate its effectiveness in transforming the capabilities of a modern organization and workforce (Alshibly et al., 2016) DeLone and McLean (2016) found that IS effectiveness is determined by six factors: system quality, information quality, consumption of output, user satisfaction, and organizational performance. Gupta et al. (2017) found that system quality can affect users' expectations for future positive outcomes.

Theoretical Framework

This section examines the theoretical framework of Electronic Document Management System functionalities and factors related to system effectiveness, such as information quality, system quality, satisfaction, and perceived usefulness.

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Information System Effectiveness

DeLone and McLean (2016) conducted a thorough analysis and organization of previous IS research. They stated that an information system's success/effectiveness is determined by its quality, information quality, perceived usefulness, and user satisfaction.

System quality refers to hardware and software reliability, responsiveness, and user-friendliness, while information quality refers to completeness, security, availability, accuracy, relevancy, timeliness, and understandability. User satisfaction is used to assess effectiveness, while perceived usefulness is an individual's perception that technology will improve performance. Electronic Document Management System functionalities include automated information capture, federated search, and retrieval, collaborative tools, hierarchical file indexing and classification, storage & archival method, automated workflow, security & audit trail. In this regard, we will study the relationship between EDMS Functionalities and Information System Effectiveness. Their corresponding relationship is shown in Figure 1. The detailed elaborations, justifications of the relationship, and hypotheses are explained in the following subsections.

Information quality is defined as desirable characteristics of system outputs, such as relevant, accurate, accurate, helpful, available on time, conciseness, completeness, currency, and usability. Positive response to EDMS will lead to increased information quality that impacts the level of openness and transparency in the government business process and contributes to users' satisfaction and perceived usefulness in government agencies (Petter et al., 2013).

Driven by these statements, we also expect that:

H1: Information quality has a significant positive relationship with satisfaction.

H2: Information quality has a significant positive relationship with perceived usefulness.

System Quality in an EDMS is the system's performance in terms of ease of use and learning integration. It includes ease of use, system flexibility, system reliability, ease of learning, and system features of intuitiveness, sophistication, flexibility, and response times (DeLone & McLean, 2016). System quality is positively associated with perceived usefulness as it is easy to use and learn, practical, requires little effort to be used, easy to retrieve information, and responds to instruction quickly. Accordingly, the hypothesis the current study hypothesis that:

H3: Systems quality has a significant positive relationship with satisfaction.

H4: Systems quality has a significant positive relationship with perceived usefulness.

Satisfaction is the pleasure or unhappiness that arises from a person's engagement with an EDMS. It is an evaluation construct and can be the only factor determining an information system's performance (Kalankesh et al., 2020).

In this study, user satisfaction is satisfaction with the EDMS, meets information processing needs, and is satisfied with the ease of use.

Perceived usefulness is the degree to which a person believes using a particular technology will enhance their job performance (Davis, 1989). This includes EDMS enabling to accomplish tasks more quickly, improving job performance, increasing productivity, making it easier to do, and being beneficial to the user's job.

Automated information capture is a service in an EDMS that converts paper documents into digital files by high-volume scanning and OCR. It can capture and store digital files from network folders and drives, Microsoft Office, mobile devices, and digital cameras. Thus, this study postulates the following hypotheses:

H5 Automated information capture has a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Federated search & retrieval Federated search & retrieval is a technique for merging multiple search engines into a single virtual search system. It searches for information about each resource's contents, a set of resources selection, and results that have been returned from selected resources (Shokouhi & Si, 2011). EDMS allows authorized users to quickly locate files from across document folders and repositories and access the full content. Thus, the hypothesis that will be tested is that:

H6: Federated search and retrieval have a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Collaboration tools in EDMS allow a team to communicate remotely and make collaborative changes to documents. Lomas et al. (2008) stated that today's collaboration tools enable persistent micro-interactions or sharing almost trivial updates between collaborators. This study used an information system to build a collaborative website with document management, task management, electronic system notification, and other functionalities. EDMS, with collaboration tools, provides the ability to work faster on document changes and makes it easy to create and edit documents directly within the system. It also allows the user to create, upload and categorize new documents without leaving a certain interface. This study suggests the following hypotheses: H7: Collaborative Tools has a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Hierarchical file indexing and classification provide an intellectual framework for organizing a business unit's records within a hierarchy. In EDMS, indexing allows the speed of information retrieval with a sorted list of keywords. Classification is a file classification scheme that classifies, titling, accessing, and retrieves records with this method. Hierarchical structures enable the use of EDMS, resulting in higher efficiency and accuracy. Therefore, this study suggests the following hypotheses:

H8: Hierarchical file indexing and classification have a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Storage and archival method functions allow the system to store documents within the EDMS or centrally manage the adjunct storage system. Archival method storage is a records management process that ensures protection, maintenance, and accessibility. This variable seeks to address the following issues: enable the user to save the document into archival, change the status from open file/document to closed file/document folder, copy the document/file to another medium, do documents/records inventories, and include the file/document into the retention schedules. Therefore, the hypothesis that will be tested is that:

H9 storage & archival method has a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Automated workflow is defined by the set of actions involved in performing a task and the logic constraints that govern how such actions may be executed concerning each other automatically. The back-end automation ranges from workflows that automatically create folders and file new documents to advanced alerts that loop in end users at essential stages of internal business processes (Bae & Kim, 2002). EDMS has multiple roles of storage, archiving, management, approbation, and flow-control documents to facilitate organizational workflows (Pho & Tambo, 2014). Therefore, this study suggests the following hypotheses:

H10: Automated workflow has a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Security and Audit Trail. According to Groenewald (2004), EDMS ensures the security of electronic documents through version control, audit trails for each document, and controlling access to documents via various security levels. Access is regulated by users' position or department, and audit trails automatically monitor how information is accessed. EDMS also ensures the organization's awareness and stores all records needed during an emergency, creating an unbreakable audit trail for accountability (Chaudhry et al., 2016). Therefore, the hypothesis that will be tested is that:

H11: Security & Audit Trail has a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Support administers compliance in EDMS is complying with all requirements from the legal and regulatory environment, business, and organization's expectations. Prior research has shown that EDMS automatically tracks modifications to documents and metadata, forming a history of documents used to maintain compliance with governance standards. EDMS can maintain ongoing compliance with regulatory bodies and requires easy-to-follow audit trails, strict document authorizations, and ISO standards that strict document version control. This variable aims to address the following questions: Does the EDMS enable researchers to identify and manage regulatory risk, design and implement controls to protect an organization from those risks, monitor, and report on the effectiveness of risk controls, resolve compliance difficulties, and impose rules and controls of risks. It can therefore be assumed that:

H12: Support Administer Compliance has a significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness.

Demographic Profiles

Table 1 presents the demographic profile of the respondents. A total of 293 respondents were involved in this study; out of this number, just over half the sample, 189 (64.5%) were female, of whom 104 or 35.5% were males. In terms of the age group, the majority belong to the age group between 26 to 33 (32.4%) while minority (4.1%) reported to be aged 18 to 25. In terms of experiences using EDMS, the majority indicated they have been using EDMS for about less than five years (34.8%). The rest have indicated to have been using EDMS for about five to ten years (33.1%), eleven to fifteen years (19.1%), sixteen to twenty years (10.9%), more than twenty-five years (1.4%), and twenty-one to twenty-five years (0.7%).

Table 2 shows that over 34.8% of the respondents had used EDMS for less than 5 years, indicating a significant proportion of new users. The percentage of individuals with 5 to 10 years of experience is 33.1%, indicating an important number with a moderate level of familiarity. The group of users aged 11 to 15 years (19.1%) and 16 to 20 years (10.9%) demonstrates a decrease in occurrence, indicating a progressive decline in the percentage of users with sustained involvement overt time. Significantly, individuals who have been using EDMS for 21 to 25 years and above 25 years represent decreased proportions, specifically 0.7% and 1.4% respectively, showing a decrease in the number of users with long EDMS experience.

Measurement Model

In this study, Compositite Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extratced (AVE) and Cronbach’s Alpha were assessed to address the convergent validity of measures. The results as shown in Table 3 indicate that all the AVE surpassed the recommended value of 0.5, while the Cronbach’s Alpha exceed the recommended value of 0.7.

As illustrated in Table 4, discriminant validity can be assumed because the square root of the AVE is greater than the correlation value among other constructs (Note: The square root of AVE is italicized).

Structural Model

Following the measurement model assessment, the structural model assessment was carried out (Figure 2). The assessment results showed that the path analysis result was substantial because the R2 of the outcome variables ranged between 0.8 and 0.974 (Table 5). Cohen (1988) suggests that R2 should be about 0.35 or greater18, while Falk and Miller (1992) recommended 0.10 or above19. The R2 for Information System Effectiveness was 0.8, while for Information Quality, Perceived Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Systems Quality were 0.859, 0.974, 0.952, and 0.898, respectively. As shown in Table 4, four hypotheses were rejected and eight were supported. The highest regression weight (β) was between Automated Workflow and Information System Effectiveness (0.466) followed by between Federated Search & Retrieval and Information System Effectiveness (0.357) and between Support & Administer Compliance and Information System Effectiveness (0.147).

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However, the findings of bootstrapping for all rejected hypotheses were supported when these unsupported hypotheses were tested individually, as shown in Table 6.