Paper to electronic partnership formed
Easily linking network scanning capabilities with enterprise document management is the premise behind a just announced initiative between Xerox and Documentum. The companies will support Documentum Signature Partners in developing and delivering products that use Xerox Document Centre digital office systems to move paper-based information into Documentum EDMS 98. Xerox will provide a software developers toolkit for these development partners.
One early adapter of the SDK is Customers and Technologies (CTI, Santa Clara, CA). Their solution will automate moving documents placed in monitored directories and upload them to document repositories in a one-step process.
Xerox is promoting the agreement as a continuation of its knowledge sharing strategy. "By bridging the digital and paper worlds, our Document Centre offerings will enable streamlined work processes that accelerate organizational sharing and productivity," said Mark Hill, VP and general manager of the Office Business Unit at Xerox.
IT research firm DocuTrends (Saratoga, CA), sees the merger as a good move for both companies. "Scanning is critical to market acceptance of both digital systems such as Document Centre and electronic document management solutions such as EDMS 98," said DocuTrends president Richard C. Norton. "The Xerox and Documentum alliance, and other initiatives like it, will promote awareness of, and demand for, scanning and make these capabilities easier and more accessible to larger populations of users. These efforts will add significant value to the Document Centre family and Documentum's offerings."
KM thought leaders at Delphi Group point out the partnership's strategic importance for Xerox, long the ruler of the paper-based office world. "In frankly facing up to the importance of integrating with the document software world, Xerox has a competitive opportunity to leverage the knowledge it has been developing since the mid-'70's," says Delphi. "If the document center product concept becomes as central to office work routines as the copier became in the '70's, Xerox can regain a position of relevance in the conversation to define the working points of that postmodern office."