When did Document Management software solutions begin?
The first document management products appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These products were originally developed as stand-alone technologies in one of four areas: imaging, workflow, document management (DM), or enterprise report management (ERM), the last being formerly known as computer output to laser disk (COLD). In these early days, building different products for distinct document management functions made sense. Most organizations generally wanted a solution for one overriding business need or application, often at the departmental level such as imaging for forms processing, workflow for insurance claims processing, DM for engineering documentation or ERM for distributing and archiving monthly financial reports. If you needed imaging, DM and workflow to address your business problems, you bought solutions from each of these technology categories and were then faced with the task of integrating them within your environment. What makes one document management software di
