The two terms are used interchangeably in procurement documents and they describe different disciplines. Confusing them is the most common reason an institution buys a capable system and still fails a records audit.
Document management is about working with files. Storing them centrally, versioning them, sharing them, searching them, collaborating on them. Its measure of success is productivity — can people find and work on what they need.
Records management is about evidence and obligation. Which items must be declared as records, who may see them, how long they are kept, when they must be destroyed, and how each of those decisions is proven afterwards. Its measure of success is defensibility — can you show what happened and why.
Most institutions need both, and the failure mode is predictable: a document system is deployed, adoption is good, and two years later there is no classification scheme, no retention applied, no disposition process and an audit trail that records edits but not access. The system is working exactly as designed. It was simply never asked to govern anything.
Working through this in your own institution? We can look at what you hold and come back with a structured next step.
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