IBM Corp is planning to enter the NT-based document management and workflow business by the end of the year with a suite built on top of DB2 and Lotus Domino.Doc server. IBM’s planned EDMSuite will no doubt put unwanted market pressure on FileNet Inc’s Watermark products and newer entrants into the NT document imaging market, and could lead to a face-off with Eastman Kodak Co, once Kodak completes its planned acquisition of Wang Laboratories Inc’s document imaging operations. EDMSuite will rely heavily on the IBM-Lotus Domino.Doc server, which will enable users to capture, file, retrieve and distribute documents across the Internet using any browser or IBM or Lotus Notes client. The suite will also include IBM’s current FlowMark workflow-management middleware plus a pair of new programs now in development. The first, ImagePlus VisualInfo, is a production document repository for document-intensive business processes that’s scheduled to go to beta test in April. OnDemand, a print archiving application for COLD computer output to laser disk applications, goes into beta test in the third quarter and completes the suite. All pieces of EDMSuite are being written both with ActiveX controls and JavaBeans, which IBM hopes will cover all bases on the client side. On the server side, all EDMSuite applications will be BackOffice-compliant.
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