1 - similarity of basic imaging and document management capabilities, indicating the industry is reaching a level of maturity

2 - focus on 32 bit software, requiring Windows 95 and/or Windows/NT to take advantage of sophisticated work flow and mail (e.g. Exchage) features

3 - interfaces with the Internet/World Wide Web - to tie document management databases to thin (WWW browser) clients

There has been a lot of talk recently about how a company could possibly put up a web server, at a much lower cost, to provide document distribution. However, this approach does not deal with the issues of managing thousands of documents, providing security, managing the updating of those documents (revision control), and the issues of controlling the use of the document library.

A mature document management package interfacing with a web server, providing on-the-fly conversion of documents seems to provide the ideal solution: easy and cost effective access with full control, security, and updating mechanisms in place.