Document management

Q: When is a document not a document?

A: When it's knowledge!
What does the future hold for document management? A few short years
ago, industry watchers were forecasting massive increases in the number
of document-management seats, writes John Chapman. A figure of over six
million was predicted for the end of the current year. This figure may or may
not be reached it depends on how you do the counting but after a
drastic restructuring of the marketplace, and with the millennium looming,
this years main topic of conversation is knowledge management (KM). As
for document management, its been relegated to the role of poor cousin.
Or has it? The situation isnt clear.
Taking control
What is clear, is that the number of documents stored electronically is
continually increasing, due partly to the influence of the ubiquitous Web. The Gartner Groups
infamous infoglut information overload is threatening to engulf us all. More than ever there is a
need to control this information before it controls us. Retaining and understanding our vast banks of
knowledge is important but, if we want to be practical, we should first be concentrating on our
documents. The companies likely to have a successful KM strategy will be those who have already
put their document-based processes in place like the pharmaceutical giants with their standard
operating procedures (SOPs). Traditional document management can therefore be seen as one step
towards the full implementation of a KM strategy. So its worthwhile understanding where document
management came from, and more importantly, where its going.
Document management the story so far
So what is document management? Historically, it started with the advent of products that provided
high-volume document scanning. Companies finally had a method of capturing incoming paper as
electronic images and automating some of the business processes. There were big savings to be
made by banks and insurance companies who were heavily reliant on fast and accurate document
administration. During the 1990s document management came to encompass the organisation,
tracking, control, location and distribution of documents in the workplace. If theres been one
defining aspect of such systems, its the change-control facility and the ability of users to track
different versions of a document. IT departments, of course, had been doing this among themselves
since the 1960s with programme change control, for example. But it came as a heaven-sent facility
for organisations drowning in paper. There was a dramatic interest in the pharmaceutical industry,
where companies needed to control the thousands of pages that made up FDA submissions.
Suddenly, systems didnt just allow you to view documents on a screen, they also enabled you to
track and control the process of change. Document management applications were born.
In the early 1990s, products like Documentum, for application-specific implementations, and Saros
Mezzanine, aimed at enterprise-wide document management, became market leaders by selling to
companies desperate to control their document processes. These products not only tracked who
made changes to documents, but also limited document update capability to approved users and
then only to one user at a time. The check-in/check-out facility had arrived.
Implementing enterprise-wide document management, however, was never going to be that
straightforward, especially when users were asked to file their documents using yet another
program interface. Especially when the benefit to them of doing so was unclear.
Then, just when the market looked as if it would take off, things got a whole lot worse the World
Wide Web arrived. Overnight, anyone and everyone could create a document, change it, and publish
it. Control was suddenly much more difficult. Now there were a lot more documents and hence
knowledge to be managed.

But good and bad came out of the Web

Although control became much more difficult, the Web also brought some advantages. First, many
users became comfortable with Web browsers, thereby reducing training costs for systems
employing these tools. And second, where enterprise-wide implementations were planned, support
costs could be lowered if the functionality could be delivered via a browser and the implementations
of new client software avoided. Of course, it would be incorrect to assert that today all the
functionality of all products can be delivered via the Web. The details need to be checked carefully
but all companies are moving in this direction. See Key Products and Players (page 30 below) for
confirmation of this trend.
Users, it appears, will eventually be able to enjoy the functionality of a full document management
system, and more besides, via a Web browser. Furthermore, with this rapid technological evolution,
organisations are storing their information in audio, video and animated forms. So what is to be in
the immediate future document management, KM, or both?
Document management and knowledge management a marriage made in heaven?
I said earlier that document management could be seen as a first step towards a much broader KM
strategy. Certainly, aspects such as the need for user acceptance, cultural change and senior
management support will all need to play a part in a successful KM strategy. But this has been true
for successful document management strategies since the early 1990s. In fact, document
management is not the obligatory first step on the road to KM. Some organisations prefer to start
with more collaborative ventures can we still call it groupware? or simple information retrieval,
without any attempt to control the document change process. Whatever the starting point, a full KM
strategy has many components and document management is one that cannot be overlooked.
At Anite Systems, a systems integration company based in Slough, UK, Dr John Tunnicliffe, Managing
Consultant in the Knowledge Management Group, sees document repositories as a vital component
of any KM strategy. He sees the content of the document libraries being delivered primarily across
the Web in a timely fashion, with users employing Thesaurus-based search techniques such that
access can be based on criteria, some of which might not yet be fully defined. "In brief," says Mr
Tunnicliffe, "its a neat way of providing information to meet as yet unknown requirements." Another
way of looking at knowledge management, he argues, is as "a collection of tools which can be
collaboration strategies, project libraries, document libraries and sets of knowledge. None is more
important than the other, but document libraries, and the control of them, is an important aspect of
knowledge management."
Now you see it, now you dont
One concern about document management, and for document management vendors, is that people
expect it to be part of the desktop.
Almost everyone creates documents on a daily basis; they can be spreadsheets, faxes, emails,
entries in discussion databases, charts, graphical presentations, even sometimes straight text. And
when theyve been created, people expect that to be the end of it. Thats why the document
management system of tomorrow will need to be almost invisible.
It will require, however, the full functionality of todays offerings as it is a necessity for those
strategic documents that are the life-blood of some organisations while being easy to use and
cost effective. Thats where the Web will play a leading role. When the Web-enabled document
repository is in regular use with constantly monitored updates, then the content can be analysed
and fed back into the loop to make sure everyone moves along the path to greater knowledge.
The future
So what does the future hold? Well, if you look at the key components of a document management

system, then you have to agree that while all of these aspects are essential, not all organisations
need all of them. Unless, crucially, they can be delivered to the desktop in a cost-effective and timely
manner. This is where Web-based technology can become the determining factor. Most users are
familiar with its use, and it delivers the one aspect that document management vendors avoided just
a few short years ago the possibility of genuine group collaboration.
Todays document management systems, however, offer not just control of the document processes,
but also a way of bringing users closer together so that documents, ideas, working methods and
works-in-progress can be discussed, reviewed, updated and distributed around the enterprise.
With companies like Lotus adding document management capability to Domino/Notes, and document
management vendors such as Documentum, FileNET and PC DOCS/Fulcrum expanding their horizons
towards the capture and processing of real knowledge, its an increasingly competitive market. Then
theres Web-based front-runner Open Text, arriving later on the scene and offering a range of
functionality with hardly any mention of client/server software in its portfolio. There is a place for
client/server software, but its unlikely to be a growth industry, as Fortune 1000 organisations look
for greater cost effectiveness and consistency.
To determine the long-term future of document management search through all the knowledge you
have available. The answer will become increasingly obvious.
1998 Learned Information Europe Ltd