Xerox and IBM Announce New Solution To Simplify Management Of Electronic And Paper Information
Xerox Document Centre Office Systems Linked to IBM’s Lotus Domino Document Management Software Improves Knowledge Sharing
NEW YORK (September 10, 1998) – Xerox Corporation and IBM today announced an initiative to deliver a new solution to help customers easily manage paper and electronic documents across an enterprise.
This new knowledge-sharing solution will integrate two of the industry’s flagship products — the Xerox Document Centre family of digital multifunction office systems and Lotus Domino web server software from IBM’s Lotus Development Corp. subsidiary. The result bridges the paper and digital document worlds and will give customers a unified system for scanning, electronic document management, e-mail, messaging, fax and distributed printing, enhancing workgroup collaboration.
An initial English-language version of the solution, demonstrated at a news conference here today, is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 1998. The companies intend to conduct joint marketing activities around the solution.
In addition, Xerox and IBM plan to add support for the Salutation Architecture open standard next year. The Salutation Architecture, endorsed by more than 30 global technology leaders, provides a universal means to access and manage a range of devices across a network, including scanners, printers, fax machines and multifunction devices. This is particularly valuable for mobile employees who need to access and act on information while away from their offices.
The collaboration builds on an agreement signed last year by IBM Japan and Fuji Xerox, under which IBM remarkets a similar Xerox digital multifunction system and Fuji Xerox remarkets Lotus Domino. Fuji Xerox has since become one of the larger resellers of Domino server software in the Japanese market.
“The Document Centre family, linked to IBM’s collaborative workgroup environment, creates a workflow engine with the horsepower that enables people to share their knowledge across the organization,” said Mark Hill, vice president and general manager, Xerox Office Business Unit. “We are creating a system that is as intuitive as pushing ‘the big green button’ on a copier.”
Added Mark Bregman, general manager, IBM Pervasive Computing, “This solution is clearly aimed at improving productivity in today’s fast-paced business environment. By combining the power of Lotus Domino, the Xerox Document Centre and open standards, we’re making it easier for customers to apply the benefits of e-business technology to the day-to-day task of managing and sharing information.”
For the initial implementation, Xerox, with the support of IBM, Lotus and Xerox Connect, the Xerox solutions-delivery company, will integrate the Document Centre with Lotus Domino through scanning interface integration. This capability enables users to easily scan hardcopy documents from the Document Centre into a Lotus Notes e-mail format or a Domino.doc digital repository. Those documents can be scanned as images, or hardcopy text can be automatically converted into editable electronic document files using the included Xerox TextBridge optical character recognition software.
The development of Document Centre scanning templates, using open Notes and Domino application programming interfaces, will ensure the optimal integration of these key products.
In 1999, Xerox intends to add Salutation Architecture support to the Document Centre family and IBM will supply software called NuOffice, currently available in Japan, to link the Domino environment with Salutation.
Source: IBM