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<!doctype html public "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Document Management and Electronic Commerce</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Document Management and Electronic Commerce</H1>
<P>
October 31, 1995
<P>
<B>Larry Masinter <[email protected]></B><HR>
<H2>Abstract</H2>
<P>
<STRONG>The global network is changing the way every business
works. In particular, new networked applications will affect the
way in which organizations work with documents.
Currently, electronic document management systems are
used to facilitate document-centered work on networks inside
single organizations. These kinds of applications will expand to
include groups outside the enterprise. </STRONG>
<HR>
<H2>Introduction</H2>
<P>
The global network is changing the way every business works. In
particular, new networked applications will affect the way in
which organizations work with documents.
Currently, electronic document management systems are used to
facilitate document-centered work on networks inside single organizations.
These kinds of applications will expand to include groups outside
the enterprise.
<P>
This paper is in three parts:
<UL>
<LI>A brief overview of electronic document management.
<LI>A review of the assumptions for future networking capabilities
and electronic commerce.
<LI>An overview of four kinds of document management applications,
and an exploration of the ways in which the network will change
the nature of document management for each of those applications.
</UL>
<H2>1. Document Management: Overview</H2>
<P>
Document management systems are designed to help individuals,
workgroups and large enterprises manage their documents stored
in electronic form. Document management systems provide a means
to store, easily locate and retrieve, and exercise control over
document-based information through the document's life cycle within
the context of a group or large organization.
<P>
The field of electronic document management can be confusing because
different terms are used, referring to either specialized
applications, technical components, or particular types of media the
systems are used to manage. For example, some systems are described as
<i>publication management</i> systems, because they are geared toward
aiding in the publication process. Some systems are marketed as
<i>information retrieval</i> products, as information retrieval is an
important component of document management. Systems that are oriented
primarily toward the management of scanned images are described as
<i>image management</i>. However, all of these can be considered kinds
of <strong>document management</strong> systems, and all will change
because of the changes in networking technology sweeping the world.
<H3>Document Management Components</H3>
<P>
Document management systems combine a number of functional components.
<STRONG>Authoring</STRONG> components integrate the user's desktop
creation tools with the document management system, to simplify the
entry of the user's work into the management system.
<STRONG>Acquisition</STRONG> components aid in the bulk import of
documents that originate outside the system, e.g., by allowing entry
of paper documents using scanners, fax, or conversion from externally
acquired electronic media.
<P>
A variety of <STRONG>information retrieval</STRONG> methods are
employed to find relevant or correct documents within large
repositories, either by full-text retrieval, semantic analysis, or
probabilistic methods. Document management systems usually feature
searching in repositories of documents both by context and by content.
Contextual information for a document is derived from outside the
document itself: for example, who wrote it, when was it written, the
workgroup that produced it. Content search uses the words in the
document itself, or the document's structure, for retrieval.
<P>
<STRONG>User interface</STRONG> components interact with the
information retrieval facilities in the server to support
<STRONG>search</STRONG>. <STRONG>Information visualization</STRONG>
is a method of using advanced graphic capabilities to help users
visualize larger information spaces and structures. <STRONG>Workspace
management</STRONG> is a method of using two or three dimensional
images to help users organize the state of their work. These
components interact with the document management components through a
network interface.
<P>
Document <STRONG>library services</STRONG> keep track of the attributes
of documents as they are being worked on in various parts of the
organization. For example, a user can <i>check out</i> a document,
reserving it so that no one else can edit it at the same time. When
the revision is complete, the user <i>checks in</i> the document,
letting others access and revise the new version. These kind of
control mechanisms are important for keeping consistency in the
creation/review cycle when many people are engaged in working on a
common corpus.
<p>
Document management systems are <strong>distributed</strong>. Users at
PCs on a network access a common repository of documents on one or
several servers. For large networks, or for users with laptop
computers that may operate without being connected to the network,
distributed system transaction technology is used to keep updates and
additions consistent.
<P>
While document libraries and repositories keep track of documents
and their attributes, <STRONG>workflow</STRONG> components keep
track of users, tasks, work queues, audit trails and the like.
That is, it models the work of the organization in which the
documents participate.
<H2>2. Global Networking Trends: Overview</H2>
<P>
This section lays out some of the assumptions about the future
direction of the global information infrastructure that will support
new document management applications.
<P> The Internet is growing at an enormous rate, and on-line services
and corporate networks are interconnecting. The conclusion of this
evolution will be a system where there is <STRONG>one network</STRONG>
for connecting computers, services, and people. As with the Internet
today, the future network will be a federation of independently
operated networks; some components of those networks will have special
services, but interactive services will be available across the entire
network.
<P> Two fundamental capabilities are being developed that allow for
secure communication across the global network. First is the ability
to <STRONG>authenticate</STRONG> the source of a message or network
connection, so that the identity of a (potential) user can be assured.
Second is the ability to have <STRONG>secure communication</STRONG>
with that user, without anyone else being able to eavesdrop or modify
the conversation. These capabilities require not only the deployment
of cryptographic software but also the development of a world-wide
infrastructure for determining identity and associating network
presence with individuals.
<P>
Several developments in technology and infrastructure for managing
<STRONG>copyright</STRONG> and intellectual property are also
important for some sectors. This includes both systems and institutions,
and a legal framework for describing, tracking, and credibly accounting
for use of intellectual property. These developments are accompanied
by changes in the legal and regulatory environment.
<P>
Finally, <STRONG>distributed payment</STRONG> methods are being
promulgated by consortia of banks and credit agencies, network
providers, and others offering accounting and billing services.
These services allow for secure transactions and reliable settlement
of accounts between buyers and sellers.
<P>
These elements of electronic infrastructure are enabling a very
large variety of new systems for electronic commerce: the ability
to trade in services and goods across the world. The word <I>trade</I>
is perhaps too narrow, as the commerce that it engenders is not
only commercial, but also intellectual and social.
<P>
One particular kind of trade that is more affected than any others
is trade in documents. That is because, of all the goods and services
that might be traded, documents can be transmitted across a network,
and document services can reasonably be performed by others remotely,
while most other goods and services require additional transportation
of physical material in order to complete.
<H2>3. Document Management and Electronic Commerce</H2>
<P>
The combination of electronic commerce and document management
technologies will give rise to new market segments and opportunities.
The opportunities will differ according to the kind of use they
are intended to support. Four broad categories of document management
are described, along with the opportunities for applying electronic
commerce in those domains.
<H3>3.1. Document as Memory: Knowledge workers</H3>
<P>
For knowledge workers, document management systems are used to
organize and keep track of the state of the organization and the
communication between individuals.
<P>
Office automation systems are used for creating create memos,
letters and status reports. However, repositories of these documents
contain the state and interconnection of an organization. Workgroups
and enterprises invest in document management systems as a way
to help them keep track of the work that they have done and are
in the process of doing, in order to avoid redundancy and duplication
of effort.
<P>
In addition, workgroup document management systems offer library
services for preserving update consistency, similar to check-out
and check-in capabilities of software source code control systems.
When a user checks out a document, the system locks the document
from other users' changes. When the document is checked back in,
the document management system makes it available for others to
revise. Along with maintaining update consistency, the document
management application tracks revisions in a multi-author/editor
setting.
<P>
Some current applications of document management in this context
include:
<UL>
<LI>Product organizations keep track of customer complaints and
suggestions received by phone, mail, or fax, and maintain it in
a common database for review by developers.
<LI>Law firms keep copies of contracts, depositions, and previous
correspondence with clients. For example, a large multinational
firm believes it has an obligation to offer similar legal advice
to all clients in similar situations; the company wants the system
to keep track of all material as it is produced in each of its
offices.
<LI>A marketing department might manage competitive profiles,
references to magazine and newspaper articles and product information
on-line for quick reference.
</UL>
<H4>Opportunities</H4>
<P>
The trend to re-engineer organizational practices using document
management is spreading. Meanwhile, the boundaries of organizations
are blurring, to the point where traditional document management
systems are inadequate. Although currently most work-groups are
connected on a LAN or enterprise network, there are many situations
where the need to share state crosses those boundaries.
<P>
It is for this reason that many groupware products are adding
Internet capabilities, so that ordinary users with a forms-capable
web browser might participate.
<P>
Some current examples of network-based distributed document systems
include:
<UL>
<LI><STRONG>Company and consumer feedback</STRONG> More and more
organizations are receiving customer correspondence from the network,
containing feedback from their customers. These electronic support
forums are an important technical base of descriptions of problems
and solutions for the company and its customers. While product
support groups for computer products have long been found on on-line
services such as CompuServe and Prodigy, the trend is spreading
to other industries and to the Internet.
<LI><STRONG>Distributed workgroups.</STRONG> Increasingly, conferencing
systems are being used for managing the distributed job of cross-organizational
document-intensive collaboration.<BR>
For example, the <A href="http://ednet.gsfc.nasa.gov/www95/review/reviewers/processes.html ">program committee of the Fourth World Wide Web conference</A>
used the Internet to manage the entire process of paper submission,
review, reviewer comments, updates, and responses to authors.
<BR>
Similarly, the <A href="http://www.gii-awards.com/">National Information Infrastructure Awards</A>
committee program used a "virtual judging environment"
suite of software for allowing reviewers to rate, evaluate, and
publish their ratings of sites.
</UL>
<P>
The mechanisms of electronic commerce will allow the creation
of impromptu organizations geographically distributed who form
organizations for a common purpose. Thus, trade associations,
consortia, professional organizations might employ workgroup document
management technology and groupware to coordinate their efforts.
<H3>3.2 Document as Process: Insurance, Financial Service, Government
</H3>
<P>
Some organizations have well-defined work processes that deal
with a flow of paperwork. Workflow software is used to manage
the organizational process, route documents along the steps of
the process.
<P>
The workflow software tracks the progress of documents as they
are routed through an organization and processed by individuals
fulfilling process roles. While document repositories are often
organized around the documents, their attributes, and repositories
of them, workflow systems are centrally focused on users, roles,
tasks, work queues, and processes.
<UL>
<LI>Insurance companies use workflow to handle claims adjustment.
<LI>Financial services companies use workflow in order to regularize
the handling of loan approvals.
<LI>Government offices use workflow to handle the routing of filing,
approvals, and other processes that involve large number of applications,
clerical staff, and a need for fair and equitable handling of
all involved.
<LI>Commercial organizations might use workflow to handle order
entry, delivery, and collection.
</UL>
<P>
In general, organizations use workflow to minimize the delays
in their work processes. The primary opportunity for electronic
commerce in workflow systems is the ability to include those outside
the organization in the work itself. Some current examples include:
<UL>
<LI><STRONG>Order entry.</STRONG> Many manufacturing and sales
organizations are integrating their workflow systems for processing
orders and delivery with network interfaces. Whether ordering
pizza, a hotel room, or computer parts, the process automation
becomes much more valuable when there is not a company employee
in the way between the customer and the product.
<LI><STRONG>Fulfillment tracking.</STRONG> The next step beyond
order entry is to allow the customer to track their order directly
on the network. FedEx has both custom software and an <A href="http://www.fedex.com/cgi-bin/track_it">interface using the world-wide Web</A>
to allow customers to find out the status of their package delivery.
</UL>
<P>
In each of these cases, the challenge is to merge the external
user interface over the public Internet with the internal workflow
processing steps of the organization.
<P>
As companies outsource work to independent contractors, the workflow
might extend to include tasks performed by those contractors.
The boundaries of enterprises are blurring, and this will require
the transition of enterprise workflow to be able to deal with
participants beyond the enterprise.
<H3>3.3 Document for Product: Manufacturing and Service</H3>
<P>
Organizations that produce products also produce documents that
accompany those products. While many of the steps of document
production are the same, there is an essential difference: for
these organizations, the documents are critical auxiliaries to
the actual product that customers purchase from them. In these
situations, the documents are still part of a production scenario,
but the organization and management of the document construction
are subsidiary to some other work process.
<P>
Electronic commerce will enhance the manufacturing and service
segment in a large number of ways. However, in particular, it
will have a profound impact on the way in which documents are
managed within them.
<UL>
<LI>CALS is Computer-aided Acquisition Logistics Support and
now Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support. It is a Department
of Defense (DoD) strategy for achieving effective creation, exchange,
and use of digital data for weapon systems and equipment.<BR>
Originally, it was intended that industry selling equipment to
the government, whether missiles or tents, would provide all of
the specifications, repair manuals and so on in electronic form.
<BR>
As a part of this effort, a large number of specification standards
were created. Document management systems and databases were deployed
to help vendors keep track of their documentation as it was being
produced. This initiative was originally conceived as delivering
its documentation in physical media (tape, disk). CALS created
standard descriptions for CAD drawings, images of text, SGML-marked
up text, reports.
<LI>In a large aerospace company, almost every plane off its assembly
line is different in configuration. The documentation for the
repair and maintenance of the plane needs to match the configuration
shipped. The document management system allows the configuration
of the shipped documentation to match the product. As more and
more manufacturers move into custom product delivery and just-in-time
manufacturing, it has become increasingly important to have a
system that can allow documentation to track the changes in the
products. The documents produced are field service procedures
and parts diagrams.
<LI>Pharmaceutical companies are required to submit documentation
about proposed new drugs, including data on clinical trials, and
other evidence. The New Drug Application process is time consuming,
and shortening the time for submission is critically important
in shortening the approval process. The creation of application
itself is linked to the process of testing.
<LI>Financial services firms produce data about their products,
fact sheets about investments, reports on mutual funds, etc. This
information is a critical part of their service.
</UL>
<H4>Opportunities for Electronic Commerce in Product Documentation
</H4>
<P>
Direct electronic communication with consumers will greatly improve
the quality and responsiveness of the organizations to support
their customers, especially with highly technical products. It
improves customer satisfaction by making sure the right information
gets to customers when and where they need it.
<UL>
<LI>In addition, manufacturers can obtain and reuse documentation
components from their suppliers, and feed back requests for changes,
greatly enhancing the communication path. In today's business
climate, more and more companies are outsourcing critical components
of their organizations' design or manufacturing work, and the
ability to interact at will with suppliers is a critical capability.
For example, chip companies can make their <A href= "http://www.dalsemi.com/DocControl/Overviews.web/PnP_RTC/overview.html">data sheets</A>
on the web. This trend is not restricted to the electronics or
computer industry. For example, <A href="http://www.ge.com/gep/datasheets/LEXANFL2003.html">GE Plastics</A>
makes their data sheets available on the net.
<LI>In the building industry, a large number of vendors are making
3-dimensional renderings of their products available as AutoCad
plug-ins, enabling contractors, architects and planners to understand
how their products will fit in the projects they are building.
These `documents' are candidates for electronic document management
in the future.
</UL>
<P>
These efforts are critical to fulfilling the promise of electronic
commerce. Companies with a wide range of products need to integrate
the document management of on-line product information with the
external network availability of that information to fulfill the
promise. Electronic commerce mechanisms of digital signatures,
time-stamping services, and the like are necessary to make this
information secure and useful.
<P>
While document management systems have been used for the assembly,
production, printing of catalogs, now those catalogs can be delivered
on-line. The ability to deliver catalogs over the network means
that it is possible to give consumers far more information than
was previously available, in more detail, and in a more timely
fashion. This is a positive move, but it will also require more
diligence, as it is not acceptable to deliver out-of-date prices
or specifications of discontinued items.
<H3>3.4 Document as Product: Publishers and Education</H3>
<P>
For publishers, documents are their product. Whether newspapers,
magazines, book publishers, academic press, or entertainment organizations
distributing film, video, records, CDs or tapes, publishers produce
and distribute documents in the same way that manufacturers produce
and distribute physical goods.
<P>
Of all the industries empowered by electronic commerce, publishers
are privileged, in that it is possible to deliver samples and
actual product completely over the network without transmission
of physical objects.
<P>
Publishers currently use document management system for document
assembly, reuse, and quality control. However, the opportunities
to extend their document management system to include authors
and creators (as the source of their material) and consumers (using
the network for distribution) is enormous.
<P>
Many publishers use document management today to aid in the production
of their material. For example, textbook manufacturers produce
varying versions of their material based on the market requirements
in different regions. However, they reuse the same text. Document
Management systems help in keeping track of all of the components.
<H4>Opportunities for Electronic Commerce in Publishing</H4>
<P>
Publishers are extending their business to use the global network
in a variety of ways:
<UL>
<LI>Ready availability of promotional material. It is possible
over the network to deliver samples, excerpts, offer search, storage,
backlist material in a way that is unprecedented. Bookstores,
publishers, academic press all are promoting their products over
the network.
<LI><B>Order entry.</B> The next step beyond cataloging the products
is to actually take orders over the network. Thus, many bookstores
on the net allow ordering of documents.
<LI><B>Distribution of product.</B> For those materials that are
delivered to the ultimate consumer in physical form, it is still
possible to use the world-wide network to deliver the product
information to the point of manufacturing at time of need.
<LI><B>Product delivery.</B> A number of trials for actual delivery
of content are being undertaken. More progress in the areas of
copyright management, usage monitoring, and copy protection will
be necessary before publishers will be willing to move more aggressively
in this way.<BR>
Either access is restricted to subscribers (clients), usage is
controlled and restricted by copyright, or the reproduction of
the material is directed toward insuring that the integrity of
the message is preserved, as in advertising.
</UL>
<P>
Insofar as the document management systems used to aid in production
can be extended to interconnect directly with end users and recipients,
the reach of publishers will be enhanced.
<P>
However, publishers are limited in their ability to market final
product on the network because of limitations in the technology,
infrastructure, and legal protection afforded to intellectual
property owners. A number of technology trends may help, though:
<UL>
<LI>Copy detection. The ability to either mark individual network
copies of documents to detect an illicit copy or the source of
an infringing one may help with auditing and copy management.
<LI>Copyright management. The development of an infrastructure
to allow payment of copyright fees to rights owners will help
satisfy many of the worries of publishers.
<LI>Mechanisms for recording, paying, and limiting the recipient's
access to copyrighted material are being deployed
</UL>
<H2>Conclusions</H2>
<P>
In each of the areas, there are two ways to look at the growth
opportunity. From the point of view of Internet development and
electronic commerce, document management facilities add a source
of 'back-end' technologies. From the point of view of document
management providers, the Internet and electronic commerce provide
new ways to extend their products to reach beyond the workgroup
and enterprise to the collaborator, customer or supplier. In each
of these cases, the emerging network infrastructure will change
the way in which organizations interact with others in ways that
are both a challenge and an opportunity.
<H2>References</H2>
<DL>
<DT>[1]
<DD><I>The Document Management Guide</I>, Interleaf, c.1994. <<A href="http://www.ileaf.com/docman.html">http://www.ileaf.com/docman.html</A>>
<DT>[2]
<DD>Paula Rooney, "PC document management catches eye of
big business", <I>PC Week</I>, May 18, 1992, v9 p45.
<DT><A NAME="ref3">[3]</A>
<DD>Lisa Nadile, "Document-management standards pave `open'
path", <I>PC Week</I>, v11, n28, p8(1), July 18, 1994.
<DT>[4]
<DD>Carl Frappaolo, "The CW guide to document management",
<I>ComputerWorld</I>, April 10, 1995, p 92.
<DT>[5]
<DD>"Workflow and Information management Streamline Document
Control and Meet FDA Regulations" http://www.xsoft.com/XSoft/DataSheets/fdaapp.html.
<DT>[6]
<DD>Novell Publications Server. (http://www.novell.com).
<DT>[7]
<DD>"Lotus Notes and Business Process Improvement",
Lotus Development Corporation, October, 1995. <<A href="http://www.lotus.com/corpcomm/31e2.htm">http://www.lotus.com/corpcomm/31e2.htm</A>>
<DT>[8]
<DD>J. Garris, "Digging through your data", <I>PC Magazine</I>,
v13, n19, pNE1(4), Nov 8, 1994.
<DT>[9]
<DD><I>Open Document Management API (ODMA) 1.0 specification</I>,
WordPerfect Corporation. <<A href="ftp://ftp.wordperfect.com/pub/wpapps/windows/odma/">ftp://ftp.wordperfect.com/pub/wpapps/windows/odma/</A>>
<DT>[10]
<DD><I>CALS standard repository.</I> <http://navysgml.dt.navy.mil/cals.html>
</DL>
<H2>Acknowledgements</H2>
<P>
Many thanks to Janel Hopper, Beau Vrolyk, and Alan Brown for help
with this paper.
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