Electronic Document Management Systems Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Records Managers, Information Governance Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-KRM-022

Before you join: Participants should have experience creating, receiving, filing or approving business documents and a working understanding of their organisation’s information practices.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Government case files, bank onboarding records, procurement documents and NGO programme evidence can become difficult to find, incorrectly shared or deleted without authority when capture rules, classification and retention settings are poorly designed. An EDMS is not merely a shared drive with search: it must preserve authentic records, direct users through controlled workflows and produce evidence for audits, disputes, investigations and service delivery.

This five-day course examines the controls, structures and operating decisions behind an effective Electronic Document Management System. Participants learn to define business and records requirements, build file plans and metadata models, establish document capture and workflow rules, configure access controls, apply retention schedules and manage legal holds. The course also addresses migration, vendor selection, implementation planning, adoption and control testing using ISO 15489, ISO 23081, MoReq2010 and BPMN.

Teaching combines practitioner briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, configuration simulations and application planning. Participants work with realistic examples such as contract approval records, regulated customer files, project correspondence and controlled technical documents. They leave with an EDMS control design pack containing reusable templates for requirements, metadata, access, retention, migration and assurance planning. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course is suited to records, information governance, document control, compliance and project professionals who influence how documents and records are captured, stored, retrieved, protected and disposed of. It is product-neutral and focuses on decisions that apply before, during and after an EDMS implementation.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess EDMS requirements against ISO 15489 records controls and business processes
  • Build a functional file plan and ISO 23081 metadata model
  • Specify capture, OCR, indexing and migration quality controls
  • Configure workflow, version control and approval evidence requirements
  • Design role-based access, audit trail and data protection controls
  • Create retention schedules, legal hold procedures and defensible disposition workflows
  • Evaluate EDMS options using MoSCoW priorities and vendor scorecards
  • Produce an EDMS implementation and control-testing plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Ability to write EDMS requirements and acceptance criteria
  • Practical file plan and metadata design capability
  • Confidence assessing retention, legal hold and disposal controls
  • Structured vendor evaluation and implementation planning method
  • Audit-ready understanding of access and workflow evidence

For your organisation

  • Fewer retrieval delays caused by inconsistent filing and weak metadata
  • Improved evidence for audits, investigations and regulatory requests
  • Reduced risk of unauthorised access, uncontrolled copies and premature deletion
  • Clearer requirements for EDMS procurement, configuration and migration
  • Consistent retention and disposition decisions across document repositories

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define the purpose, scope and control requirements of an EDMS.

  • EDMS architecture: repositories, indexes, rendition stores, workflow and integration points
  • Document lifecycle states from creation and capture through disposition
  • ISO 15489 records concepts, controls, accountability and evidence requirements
  • Distinguishing documents, records, copies, transitory information and controlled templates
  • Business requirements translated into EDMS functional and non-functional specifications
  • Repository models: departmental, enterprise, federated and cloud-hosted deployments

Participants can establish accountable governance arrangements for EDMS decisions and controls.

  • Records governance roles: executive sponsor, records manager, system owner and users
  • RACI matrix for classification, access approval, retention and disposal decisions
  • Policy hierarchy linking information policy, procedures, schedules and system configuration
  • Information asset register recording owners, value, sensitivity and authoritative source
  • Control objectives mapped to regulatory, contractual and operational obligations
  • Governance board terms of reference, escalation routes and decision logs

Participants can design classification and metadata structures that support reliable retrieval and control.

  • Functional classification schemes built from business functions, activities and transactions
  • File plans structured with hierarchical classes, identifiers and naming rules
  • ISO 23081 metadata elements for identity, context, provenance and management
  • Controlled vocabularies, taxonomies and thesauri supporting consistent retrieval
  • Document naming convention using date, subject, version and status fields
  • Metadata inheritance rules for folders, cases and related records
  • Quality checks for mandatory fields, duplicate values and orphaned content

Participants can specify controlled capture and migration processes for trustworthy digital records.

  • Capture channels for email, scanning, office files, mobile and line-of-business systems
  • Scanning specifications: resolution, colour depth, file format and image quality
  • OCR quality assurance using confidence thresholds, sampling and exception queues
  • Email capture rules preserving message headers, attachments and conversation context
  • Bulk migration inventory, mapping, cleansing, validation and reconciliation controls
  • Digitisation chain-of-custody records for physical source documents and exceptions

Participants can define workflow and version controls that preserve approval evidence and document integrity.

  • Workflow states, queues, service levels and escalation rules for document processing
  • Business process mapping with BPMN swimlanes, decisions, handoffs and exceptions
  • Version control rules for drafts, approvals, superseded copies and publication
  • Check-in and check-out controls preventing concurrent-editing conflicts
  • Electronic approval evidence: timestamps, identities, comments and delegated authority
  • Notification design preventing overdue tasks, duplicate work and untraceable handoffs

Participants can design retrieval methods and quality checks that make controlled records findable.

  • Search design using metadata filters, full-text indexes, facets and saved queries
  • Retrieval test scripts measuring precision, recall, response time and permissions
  • Taxonomy browsing patterns for users unfamiliar with record identifiers
  • Document relationships linking cases, contracts, correspondence and supporting evidence
  • Duplicate detection methods using hashes, similarity matching and metadata comparison
  • Search analytics identifying failed queries, zero results and vocabulary gaps

Participants can establish access, monitoring and protection controls for sensitive EDMS content.

  • Role-based access control matrices for read, edit, export and delete permissions
  • Security classifications determining handling, sharing, printing and external transmission rules
  • Least-privilege access reviews, joiner-mover-leaver controls and privileged account monitoring
  • Audit trail requirements for access, changes, downloads, approvals and disposition
  • Data protection impact assessment inputs for personal and special-category data
  • Encryption, backup, recovery and availability controls for EDMS repositories
  • Supplier access controls for support accounts, remote sessions and incident escalation

Participants can apply defensible retention and disposition controls throughout the record lifecycle.

  • Retention schedules linking record classes, triggers, periods and disposition actions
  • Event-based retention calculations for contracts, cases, employees and financial records
  • Legal hold procedures suspending deletion, documenting scope and releasing holds
  • Disposition workflows requiring review, authorization, destruction certificates and audit evidence
  • Transfer criteria for archival repositories, preservation formats and access restrictions
  • MoReq2010 retention and disposal requirements assessed against EDMS configuration
  • Defensible disposition logs supporting audit, investigation and information requests

Participants can plan an EDMS selection and implementation using defined controls and acceptance criteria.

  • Requirements workshops producing user stories, acceptance criteria and priority rankings
  • MoSCoW prioritisation separating mandatory controls from desirable usability features
  • Vendor evaluation scorecards covering functionality, security, integration, cost and support
  • Configuration versus customisation decisions using lifecycle cost and upgrade risk
  • Pilot scope, success measures, defect triage and go-live readiness criteria
  • Data migration cutover plans with rollback, reconciliation and ownership checkpoints
  • User adoption plans combining role-based training, champions and support routes

Participants can measure EDMS performance and create a focused improvement plan.

  • EDMS performance indicators for retrieval time, capture quality, adoption and compliance
  • Control testing plan covering access, metadata, retention, audit trails and recovery
  • Dashboard definitions with data sources, calculation rules, thresholds and owners
  • Root-cause analysis for misfiling, search failure, overdue disposal and access breaches
  • Continuous improvement backlog ranked by risk, user impact and implementation effort
  • 90-day application plan assigning actions, sponsors, milestones and evidence

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. EDMS requirements specification template
  2. Functional file plan and metadata model
  3. Role-based access control matrix
  4. Retention schedule and legal hold checklist
  5. EDMS vendor evaluation scorecard
  6. Implementation and control-testing plan

Who should attend

  • Records Managers — translate retention and governance requirements into EDMS controls
  • Information Governance Managers — establish policy, ownership and assurance mechanisms
  • Document Control Managers — standardise controlled documents, revisions and approvals
  • EDMS Project Managers — define requirements, migration controls and rollout decisions
  • Compliance and Risk Officers — test evidence, access and disposition controls
  • Business Process Managers — improve document routing, retrieval and accountability

Skills and tools covered

EDMS requirements analysisRecords classification designMetadata managementWorkflow control designRetention schedulingEDMS implementation planning

Tools and standards

ISO 15489, ISO 23081, MoReq2010, BPMN

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce standards, controls and design methods, followed by facilitated case work based on customer onboarding, procurement, project delivery and regulated records. Group exercises examine file plans, metadata, workflows, access matrices and retention schedules. Simulations test retrieval, approval routing, legal holds and audit trails. Participants apply each method to an EDMS scenario relevant to their role, then consolidate their decisions into an implementation and assurance plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience creating, receiving, filing or approving business documents and a working understanding of their organisation’s information practices. Familiarity with a shared drive, SharePoint, an EDMS or a records retention policy is useful. The course assumes participants can discuss a real document process and read basic policy or procedural material. It does not require system administration, database design, programming, prior ISO certification, legal qualifications or experience configuring a specific EDMS product.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand how documents are created, filed, approved or retained within a business function. Prior EDMS configuration experience, programming knowledge and formal records management certification are not required.

Bring examples of document processes, filing problems, retention concerns or implementation questions from your workplace. Do not bring confidential records; anonymised examples and process descriptions are sufficient.

It is designed for records, information governance, document control, compliance, process and project professionals. It also suits business owners who must define requirements or approve EDMS controls.

This course is product-neutral and focuses on the operating controls needed for an EDMS, rather than product administration screens or policy drafting alone. It connects records requirements with classification, metadata, workflows, security, retention and implementation decisions.

Participants can use the templates to review an existing repository, prepare an EDMS business case or define requirements for a new implementation. The methods also support audit preparation, migration planning and remediation of poorly controlled content.

The course provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day with scheduled breaks. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations and application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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