Skip to main content
Organized document grid representing taxonomy-driven file management
All Solutions
Enterprise DMS

Enterprise Document Management System, Built on SharePoint & Microsoft 365

Turn chaotic file shares into a governed, intelligent document management system. We design DMS on the Microsoft stack you already own, taxonomy-driven navigation, automated approval workflows, OCR-powered search, and enterprise-grade compliance, proven across 700,000+ documents.

700K+Documents Managed
$6MSaved for a REIT
< 2sSecond Search
99.9%Uptime SLA
13+Years Delivering
Schedule DemoExplore Features
Document Navigator700K+ docs
−North America24 Markets
−San Francisco Bay18 Properties
−Metro Tower12 Tenants
+Acme Corp47 docs
+Sterling Industries32 docs
+Boston Metro14 Properties
+Europe8 Markets
Auto-Tagged
OCR Search
Secured
Inc. 5000 #749Inc. Regionals #573x Microsoft Partner557% Growth100% Client Retention

The Basics

What Is a Document Management System?

A document management system (DMS) is software and governance for capturing, organizing, securing, and retrieving an organization's documents across their lifecycle. A modern DMS replaces scattered file shares and folder sprawl with metadata-driven structure, controlled access, automated workflows, and fast, accurate search, so the right people find the right document in seconds, and only the right people can.

Al Rafay Consulting builds enterprise document management on SharePoint and Microsoft 365, extending the tools you already license into a governed, AI-ready content platform.

Who It Is For

Built for Document-Heavy, Compliance-Sensitive Organizations

  • Commercial real estate: leases, amendments, COIs, and tenant records organized by property and entity (our flagship deployment).
  • Legal and professional services: matter files, contracts, and version-controlled deliverables with retention and audit trails.
  • Financial services: policies, statements, and KYC/compliance documents with sensitivity labeling and DLP.
  • Healthcare and life sciences: controlled documents and records management with strict access and retention.
  • Nonprofit and public sector: grants, board materials, and program records in one governed home.

Information Architecture

Term Store Taxonomy

Documents are classified using SharePoint Term Store, a managed metadata hierarchy that enables consistent tagging, intelligent navigation, and enterprise-wide search across all document libraries.

Region

North AmericaEuropeAsia Pacific

Market

San FranciscoBostonSeattle

Property

Metro TowerCentral Plaza

Tenant

Acme CorpSterling Industries

Document Type

LeaseAmendmentCOI

Managed Metadata Service

Taxonomy terms are centrally managed in SharePoint Term Store. When a market expands or property is acquired, administrators add new terms, instantly available across all document libraries without migration or reclassification.

Digital workflow automation
Portal UploadAuto-TaggingAdmin Approval< 24h Turnaround
Metadata Tagging
Review & Approve
Published
1

Select Portal

Choose document upload portal

2

Tag Metadata

Apply taxonomy classifications

3

Upload Files

Drag & drop or browse files

4

Submit Review

Route to approval workflow

5

Admin Approval

Review and approve content

6

Published

Document visible to users

Pending Approvals5 items
Lease_Amendment_AcmeCorp_2024.pdfMetro Tower → Acme Corp → Amendment

Intelligent Discovery

Multi-Modal Search

Find any document in seconds, search by title, scan content with OCR, filter by taxonomy, or combine queries for precise results across 700K+ documents.

Title Search

Find documents by name, title, or filename

OCR Search

Search scanned document content via optical character recognition

Metadata Search

Filter by Region, Market, Property, Tenant, Document Type

Date Range

Find documents by creation, modification, or expiration date

lease amendment 2024
Region: North AmericaType: Amendment+ Add Filter
Lease_Amendment_AcmeCorp_2024.pdfNorth America > San Francisco > Metro Tower > Acme Corp
Apr 15, 2024
Lease_Amendment_Sterling_2024.pdfNorth America > Boston > Central Plaza > Sterling Industries
Mar 22, 2024
Scanned_Amendment_Archive.pdfOCR Match: "...pursuant to this lease amendment dated..."
OCR
Found 127 results in 1.2sView All Results →
Data center technology
Auto-Generated LettersContract TemplatesLease AbstractsExpiration Reports

Lease Letters

Auto-generate tenant correspondence with merged property data

Contract Templates

Create contracts from approved templates with auto-fill

Lease Abstracts

Extract and summarize key lease terms into standardized format

Expiration Reports

Automated tenant expiration tracking and notification

700K+Global Document InventoryTotal documents managed
2,400Monthly UploadsNew documents processed
< 24hApproval TurnaroundAverage review time
< 2sSearch ResponseAverage query time
Document Alerts12 Active
New Document AddedLease_AcmeCorp_2024.pdf uploaded to Metro Tower
2m ago
Document ModifiedCOI_TechServ_2024.pdf version 3 created
15m ago
Expiration WarningSterling Industries lease expires in 30 days
1h ago

Stay Informed

Configurable Alerts & Notifications

Subscribe to document changes at any taxonomy level, Region, Market, Property, or Tenant. Receive instant notifications when documents are added, modified, or approaching expiration.

  • New document upload alerts by property or tenant
  • Document modification and version change notifications
  • Lease and COI expiration warnings (30/60/90 day)
  • Approval workflow status updates
Modern commercial buildings

Portfolio Administration

Property & Entity Management

Manage the complete property lifecycle, from acquisition through operation to disposition. Handle entity ownership changes, property transfers, and archive formerly owned assets without data loss.

Active

Metro Tower

San Francisco Bay•12 Tenants
847Documents
98%Occupancy
Active

Central Plaza

Boston Metro•8 Tenants
523Documents
94%Occupancy
Formerly Owned

Heritage Center

Seattle•Sold 2023
412Archived Docs
7yrRetention

Formerly Owned Properties

When properties are sold or disposed, documents are preserved in archived status with full metadata and audit history. Legal and compliance teams can search and access historical documents without impacting active property views.

Platform

Built on SharePoint Online

Leverage your existing Microsoft 365 investment with enterprise-grade document governance, managed metadata services, and seamless cloud integration. Available on both SharePoint Online and SharePoint On-Premises.

SharePoint OnlineSharePoint On-Premises
SharePointDocument Platform
Term StoreManaged Metadata
Power AutomateWorkflow Engine
Search ServiceFull-Text + OCR
Azure ADAuthentication
Power BIAnalytics

Security & Compliance

Security, Compliance, and Governance

Enterprise document management is a governance discipline, not just storage. We configure protection that travels with every file:

  • Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels and DLP: classify and protect confidential documents automatically.
  • Retention and records management: policy-based retention and defensible disposition, so no document expires by accident.
  • Least-privilege access and audit trails: need-to-know permissions with full version and access history.
  • Compliance-ready: supports GDPR, SOC 2, and industry record-keeping requirements.

Explore our data security and governance services.

Migration & Cleanup

Migration and Cleanup, Done Right

Most DMS projects start with a mess. We consolidate file shares, OneDrive sprawl, and legacy document systems into a single governed estate, and clean it first: removing duplicates, empty folders, and stale content, and securing anything exposed. The result is a migration that improves your information architecture instead of porting the chaos.

AI & Copilot Ready

An AI and Copilot-Ready Foundation

Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI search are only as good as the content beneath them. A well-structured, labeled, permissioned DMS becomes a true intelligent document processing layer when paired with Azure AI Document Intelligence and SharePoint Syntex. Our OCR-powered, metadata-rich libraries are built to turn documents into usable, trusted answers.

See our SharePoint Syntex service and AI-Powered Search solution.

Proven Results

$6M Saved. 700,000+ Documents. 20+ Properties.

For a publicly-traded REIT, we built DocuArc, an enterprise document management solution that centralized 700K+ documents across 20+ properties with taxonomy-driven governance and automated workflows, cutting $6M in operational costs. The same IDP foundations power CAMP contract automation and Abstria lease abstraction.

We have now grown our work with SharePoint into a full-blown Business Intelligence platform that has created tremendous efficiency and value.
David Hsiao, SVP & CIO, BioMed Realty
Read the DocuArc case studyCAMP Contract AutomationAbstria AI SolutionEnterprise Content ManagementContract Management System
Client Stories

What Our Clients Say

100% Client Retention
“Al Rafay Consulting was an outstanding partner in developing our internal pipeline tracker. They took a detailed upfront inventory of the team's existing tools and processes, as well as areas our overall system could improve. ARC was extremely communicative throughout the development process and instrumental in the successful launch.”
Adam Goldblatt

Adam Goldblatt

Director, Investments

BioMed Realty

“BioMed Realty engaged ARC 7 years ago originally to kick start an internal SharePoint campaign with the goal of increasing productivity through workflow automation. We've now grown our work with SharePoint into a full blown Business Intelligence platform that has created tremendous efficiency and value for our organization.”
David Hsiao

David Hsiao

Senior Vice President, CIO

BioMed Realty

“When we were looking to design and implement our new website, ARC was an invaluable partner. ARC assisted us in selecting a flexible platform and implementing our design ideas into a website that we can easily manage and update as we grow our business.”
Catherine Hastings

Catherine Hastings

Chief Financial Officer

Innovative Industrial Properties

“Al Rafay Consulting went above and beyond to give us the Event Management tool that we needed to take our organization to the next level. Ali and his team developed an events management platform for San Diego Theatres, sat side by side with us while learning our industry and business model, and through it all exhibited patience, collaboration, and resolve to get it done.”
Kelly Bargabos

Kelly Bargabos

CFO/COO

San Diego Theatres

“Working with ARC over the past 3 years has been nothing short of exceptional. The team has everything that you would look for in a consultant and then some. A vast knowledge of their core business as well as a hunger to learn new industries and skills has proven to be a critical aspect of our partnership.”
Mark Zikra

Mark Zikra

Director of Technology

CA Ventures

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a document management system?
A document management system (DMS) is software and governance for capturing, organizing, securing, and retrieving documents across their lifecycle, replacing scattered file shares with metadata, access control, workflows, and fast search.
What is the best document management system for Microsoft 365?
For organizations already on Microsoft 365, the most cost-effective DMS is built on SharePoint Online with Term Store metadata, Power Automate workflows, and Purview governance, with no separate platform or per-user DMS license required. That is what we design and configure.
Document management system vs document management software, what is the difference?
They are often used interchangeably. Software usually refers to the tool that stores and versions files; a system adds the architecture, taxonomy, workflows, security, and governance that make it work at enterprise scale.
How much does a document management system cost?
If you are on Microsoft 365 you already own the platform; the investment is in design, configuration, and migration rather than new per-seat DMS licensing. We scope this in a free assessment.
Can you migrate our existing file shares and legacy DMS?
Yes. We consolidate file shares, OneDrive, and legacy systems into a single governed estate, cleaning duplicates and stale content first so you migrate structure, not chaos.
How is this different from using SharePoint out of the box?
Out-of-the-box SharePoint provides document storage, but a true DMS requires information architecture design, metadata taxonomies powered by Term Store, automated classification, approval workflows, retention policies, and governance, all of which we configure and customize for your specific document types and compliance needs.
How does the taxonomy-driven navigation work?
Documents are tagged using SharePoint Term Store taxonomy, Region → Market → Property → Tenant → Document Type. Users navigate through taxonomy-based panels, drilling down from Region to specific document with full filtering at each level. This eliminates folder sprawl and enables consistent classification across the enterprise.
Can you handle documents for properties we no longer own?
Yes. Our system includes "Formerly Owned Properties" management. Documents are preserved with full metadata and audit history but moved to archive status. Users can still search and access historical documents for compliance, legal, or reference purposes without cluttering active property views.
How does the approval workflow handle sensitive documents?
Documents uploaded through the portal are tagged with metadata and submitted to an approval queue. Authorized administrators review document classification, metadata accuracy, and content appropriateness before approval. Only approved documents become visible to end users, ensuring quality control and compliance.
What search capabilities does the system provide?
Our DMS offers multi-modal search: title/filename search, full-text OCR search for scanned documents, metadata filtering by any taxonomy level, date range queries, and advanced boolean search. Results return in under 2 seconds even across 700K+ documents.
Can the system generate documents automatically?
Yes. Built-in document generators create lease letters, contracts, and correspondence by merging metadata from property and tenant records. Lease abstract management extracts key terms into standardized formats, and automated expiration reports track upcoming tenant renewals.
Let's Build Something Great

Ready to Launch Intelligent Document Processing?

Book a document-automation assessment to design an IDP-ready document management system with SharePoint Syntex, Azure AI, and enterprise governance.

Book a ConsultationExplore Solutions
No obligationResponse within 24 hoursInc. 5000 #749