Articles > Document Management Software >

FileNet and Other Collaborative Solutions

This article on Document Management Software is brought to you by: Joe Miller

In the midst of the bustle and shuffle of the collaborative whirlwind of documents, drafts, e-mails, and electronic documents that is 21st century business, it is important to evaluate the best collaborative software suites available on the market today. FileNet packages have stepped up to the plate to seek to provide helpful tools for organizing the enterprise content that exists in the modern-day corporation: e-mails and drafts of presentations, reports, and budgets.

FileNet is a provider of collaborative document management. FileNet helps to organize and file electronic documents and drafts, making it easier to put together the pieces of the often complex business collaboration puzzle.

The business process may sometimes seem in serious disarray. With each project and report there could be any number of individuals forming a committee, including members of management and clients. The trick is to bring into one document the individual ideas of each group member. FileNet recognizes that this process necessitates sending e-mailed drafts back and forth, saving multiple versions of a document on multiple drives and servers, and organizing the drafts prior to merging.

FileNet provides an electronic system in which to track systematic editorial processes of businesses. FileNet is installed with the ability to integrate with most IT infrastructures. Businesses may choose other collaborative software, or groupware that covers more informal, or ad hoc, processes that FileNet cannot cover. The important thing is that businesses find collaborative software which meets its specific needs.

FileNet has opened many doors to document management, and other companies have built upon the idea of providing software to track document versions. Other collaborative software solutions provide additional technologies, such as the Digital Thread by NextPage.

Digital Thread takes the idea of document tracking even further by inserting meta tags of the most commonly used electronic business applications, such as the Microsoft Office applications and e-mail. This data allows the document to be tracked through all of its changes, regardless of where it's stored in e-mail or your hard drive, even when it is sent to a non-user. It literally threads all of the drafts together.

Other additional document management technologies by NextPage include Digital Signature and Version History. The Digital Signature shows information about the document versions along each step of the way by displaying a brief history of the document each time it is e-mailed. A little signature at the bottom of the e-mail which informs the user where the document is in the editorial process, who has the original, when it was last altered, and how is was last changed. This saves a lot of time, keeping track of the order of your document versions.

All of the puzzle pieces are placed together with Version History, displaying a virtual family tree of the document in a flowchart. Everything comes together with these new tools, saving time, energy, money, and sanity.

Luckily, the search for software to sort, track, and merge document drafts is now available. It will take some searching to sift through so many applications. Try searching some of the newer technologies mentioned above to narrow down the search.

About the Author

Joe Miller is specialist in online advertising. For more information on collaboration software, please visit NextPage.com.