Document management and electronic commerce

The global network is changing the way every business works. In particular, new networked applications will affect the way in which organizations work with documents. Currently, electronic document management systems are used to facilitate document-centered work on networks inside single organizations. These kinds of applications will expand to include groups outside the enterprise. This chapter contains three parts: (1) a brief overview of electronic document management; (2) a review of the assumptions for future networking capabilities and electronic commerce; and (3) an overview of four kinds of document management applications and an exploration of the ways in which the network will change the nature of document management for each of those applications.