A brief history of electronic document and records management systems and related standards

[NOTE – This post may be updated with additional content – last updated 2 March 2021 with information about DMS systems available in the UK in 1996]

This post provides a brief history of electronic document and records management systems, and standards that had an impact on the latter.

It notes the following:

• Early electronic records management systems (ERMS) were mostly mainframe-based databases.
• Electronic document management systems (EDMS) were developed from the 1980s to manage unstructured electronic information.
• ERM systems began to include unstructured information from the 1990s, especially with the introduction of DOD 5015.2 and MoReq.
• The rise of XML from the late 1990s had an impact on methods to preserve electronic information.
• Content management (CM) and knowledge management (KM) systems appeared in the 1990s.
• Cloud-based EDM systems, and enterprise content management (ECM) appeared from the early 2000s.
• Cloud based systems challenged installed on-premise EDRM systems.
• There is a history of acquisitions. (See Mergers & Acquisitions – This Week – MandAsoft to find more details of any acquisitions).

Sources for this information are listed where this is known.

1973 – Plato Notes

A history of ERM and EDM systems must include reference to Lotus Notes.

Lotus Notes began its life in 1973 as Plato Notes, developed by the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois in 1973. Elements of the Plato Notes system would be developed for PC by Ray Ozzie during the late 1970s. This was picked up by Lotus Development Corporation and in 1984 became Lotus Notes.

An early version of Lotus Notes was released (under contract to Lotus) in 1984. The original vision included on-line discussion, email, phone books and document databases. Eventually the product fell into the ‘groupware’ category. The capability of the product continued to grow and some organisations only used Notes.

Lotus acquired all the rights to Lotus Notes in 1987 and version 1.0 was released on 7 December 1989.

1974 – Compulink Management Center/Laserfiche founded

Compulink Management Center was founded in the US in 1974. It created Laserfiche, the first DOS-based document imaging system, in 1987.

1976 – Micro Focus founded

Micro Focus was founded in the UK in 1976. Its first software product was CIS COBOL, a solution for micro computers. It entered the EDRM market in 2017, see below.

1981 – Enterprise Informatics founded

Enterprise Informatics, a privately-held software company, was founded in 1981 by early pioneers of the document management industry. (Source: LinkedIn company profile) It would later be acquired by Spescom, a South African company.

1982 – FileNet founded

FileNet was founded in 1982 by Ted Smith, formerly of Basic 4. FileNet’s original focus of attention was the storage and management of scanned images but it also developed a workflow software. (Source: Wikipedia article on FileNet)

1983 – GMB/DocFind founded

GMB (named after the original founders, Gillett, Frank McKenna, and Bachmann) was formed in Australia in 1983. In 1984, GMB released DocFind 1.0. DocFind was renamed RecFind in 1986.

For a very detailed history of this company, see The History of GMB/KnowledgeOne.

1984 – The first EDRMS standards – Noark (Norway)

The Norwegian government developed model requirements for EDRM systems in 1984, the first organisation globally to do so. Noark

(Source: ‘The Norwegian Noark Model requirements for EDRMS in the context of open government and access to governmental information‘, by Olav Hagen Sataslaaten, National Archives of Norway, published in the Records Management Journal 11 November 2014.)

Noark has remained active to the present day. (National Archives of Norway – E-Ark Project (eark-project.com)

1985 – Tower Software founded (Australia)

Tower Software was founded by Brand Hoff in Canberra in 1985 as a software development company. The company provided and supported enterprise content management software, notably its TRIM (Tower Records and Information Management) product line for electronic records management.

The ‘Tower’ in the company name derives from the telecommunications tower on top of Black Mountain (technically a hill, 812 m high) overlooking Canberra. A graphic of the tower was used in the TRIM logo until the company was acquired by HP’s Software Division in 2008 (see also below).

1986 – Autonomy founded (UK)

Autonomy was founded by Michael Lynch, David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt in Cambridge, UK in 1986 ‘as a spin-off from Cambridge Neurodynamics, a firm specializing in computer-based finger print recognition’.

Before 1987 – Saros Corp

Saros Corp was established in Washington by Mike Kennewick (a former Microsoft employee) before 1987. Saros Corp produced Saros Mezzanine, a client-server document management engine. In 1993, released Saros Document Manager.

1989 – Ymijs (later Valid Information Systems) founded – R/KYV (UK)

Ymijs was founded in the UK in 1989. It sold the R/KYV software initially as a basic document imaging processing system. The company name was changed to Valid Information Systems and R/KYV was further developed as a compliance and records management system ‘… that is widely used by major corporations as well as central and local government authorities and related governmental agencies’ (in the UK).

Valid Information Systems was acquired by Hummingbird in 2003. (Source: ‘Legal Technology Insider‘, 23 July 2003.

1989 – Provenance Systems (later TrueArc) founded (Canada)

Bruce Miller, sometimes noted as ‘the inventor of modern electronic recordkeeping software’, founded Provenance Systems in 1989 where he created ForeMost. The company name was changed to TrueArc. Bruce would go on to found Tarian Software as well in 1999.

TrueArc ForeMost RM would be acquired in 2002 by Documentum (which which it had a long-standing technology partnership).

1990 – Documentum founded (US)

According to this Wikipedia article, Documentum was founded in June 1990 by Howard Shao and John Newton who had previously worked at Ingres (a relational database vendor). They sought to solve the problem of unstructured information.

The first Documentum EDMS was released in 1993. According to the Wikipedia article, ‘This product managed access to unstructured information stored within a shared repository, running on a central server. End users connected to the repository through PC, Macintosh, and Unix Motif desktop client applications.’

1992 – Altris Software (UK)

Altris, established in 1992 (Source: Rob Liddell\’s LinkedIn profile. Rob was one of the co-founders of Altris), developed document management systems, including (according to this South African ITWeb post of 26 October 2001), eB, a ‘configuration management’ application. 

Altris would be acquired by the South African Spescom in 2000.

1992 – Optika ImageFiler / FilePower

Optika Imaging Systems (Colorado, US) sought a trademark for a product called ImageFiler in September 1992. The request was abandoned according to information on the Bizapedia site.

This article titled ‘The Case for 11g‘ (referring to Oracle’s product, see below) noted that Optika’s original software development focus was Image and Process Management (IPM).

An undated (but likely mid to late 1990s) webpage on the Property and Casuality website titled ‘Optika and Xerox Package FilePower with Document Centre‘ noted that ‘Optika Imaging Systems, Inc. and Xerox announced that the two companies will jointly work to integrate Optika’s FilePower with Document Centre digital systems products from Xerox. The combination of the Document Centre and FilePower will provide a complete solution for capturing, managing and distributing large volumes of documents, increasing users’ productivity and significantly reducing labor and capital costs. Optika’s integrated product suite — FilePower — combines imaging, workflow and COLD technology into a unified software package. The Xerox Document Centre 220ST and 230ST combine network scanning, printing, faxing and copying into one hardware device.’

1993 – Workflow Management Coalition formed

The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), ‘a consortium formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems’, was founded in May 1993. Original members included IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, ICL, Staffware and approximately 300 software and services firms in the business software sector.

The WfMC’s Workflow Reference Model was published first in 1995 and still forms the basis of most BPM and workflow software systems in use today. (Source: Undated Gutenberg article)

1993 – Kainos Meridio (UK)

Meridio was developed in 1993 by Kainos (a Northern Ireland company and joint venture between Fujitsu and The Queens University in Belfast) as an electronic document and records management (EDRM) system based on Microsoft products. It would be acquired by HP Autonomy in 2007.

1993 – Saros (US) Document Manager

Saros Corp released Saros Document Manager in mid 1993. The product was said ‘to act as a front-end to the Bellevue, Washington-based firm’s client-server document management engine, Saros Mezzanine’. (Source: Computer Business Review article ‘Saros Sets Document Manager‘ )

ERM before the mid 1990s

Before the arrival of personal computers in offices in the early 1990s, computer mainframes and databases were the regarded by some observers as the only places where electronic ‘records’ (in the form of data in tables) were stored and managed.

A report by the United States General Account Office in July 1999 (GAO/GGD-99-94) titled ‘Preserving Electronic Records in an Era of Rapidly Changing Technology’) stated that, historically (as far back as 1972), NARA’s Electronic Records Management (ERM) guidance (GRS 20) was geared towards mainframes and databases, not personal computers.

The GAO report noted that until at least the late 1990s, there was a general expectation that all other electronic records not created or captured in ERM systems would be printed and placed on a paper file or another system. The original (electronic) records could then be destroyed.

Some early ERM (database) systems, such as TRIM from Tower Software in Australia, were originally developed in the mid 1980s to manage paper files and boxes. Similar systems were developed to manage library catalogues and the old card catalogues started to disappear.

But, although some of it was printed and filed, the volume of electronic records in email systems and stored across network file shares continued to grow. Several vendors released systems that could be used to manage electronic documents (EDM) more effectively than network drives but there was no agreed standard for managing that content as records.

1994 – The DLM Forum and MoReq

From the early 1990s, the European Council sought to promote greater cooperation between European governments on the management of archives. One of the outcomes of a meeting in 1996 was the creation of the DLM Forum. DLM is the acronym of the French term ‘Données Lisibles par Machine’, or ‘machine-readable data’.

One of the ten action points arising from the June 1994 DLM meeting was the creation of ‘Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records’, or MoReq, first published in 2001 (see below).

Mid 1990s – Two rival records management models

According to James Lappin, in his paper ‘Rival records management models in an era of partial automation‘ published on 22 January 2021, two rival records management models appeared in the mid 1990s.

North America – separate records repository model 

According to its website, ‘the InterPARES Project was borne out of previous research carried out at the University of British Columbia’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. “The Preservation of the Integrity of Electronic Records” (a.k.a. “The UBC Project”) defined the requirements for creating, handling and preserving reliable and authentic electronic records in active recordkeeping systems.’

‘The UBC Project researchers, Dr. Luciana Duranti and Professor Terry Eastwood, worked in close collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense Records Management Task Force to identify requirements for Records Management Applications (RMA).

The work of the UBC team influenced the development of DOD 5015.2 published in 1997 (see below) and the subsequent development of a range of electronic document and records management (EDRM) systems.

Australia – intervention in business applications model

In 1996, the University of Pittsburgh published the ‘Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping Project’, led by David Bearman. This work would influence the development of both MoReq2010 and the ICA standards that became ISO 16175-2010, both of which attempted to define a minimum set of functional requirements for a business application to be able to manage its own records. (Lappin)

1995 – IBM Acquires Notes

Lotus Notes was acquired by IBM in July 1995. By December 1996 it had 20 million users. By the end of 1999, Lotus Notes had extensive capability including ERM and EDM.

Lotus Notes continued to retain a strong presence in the market but its dominance began to be reduced by the arrival of Microsoft’s broader capabilities and other EDM solutions.

1995 – Alpharel (US) acquires Trimco (UK)

According to this Computer Business Review article of 23 November 1995, Alpharel Inc, San Diego was expected to acquire Trimco Group Plc of Ealing, London, a supplier of enterprise-wide document management systems.

1995 – FileNet acquires Saros

FileNet acquired Saros Corporation in 1995 to acquire its electronic document management capability. It was said to have pioneered ‘integrated document management’ (IDM), through a suite that offered document imaging, electronic document management, COLD and workflow. (Source: Wikipedia article on FileNet)

1996 – Australian Standard AS 4390

In February 1996 Australia issued the world’s first national records management standard, AS4390 ‘Records Management – General‘. The standard provided guidance for the implementation of records management strategies, procedures and practices.

Tower Software, the Canberra-based developers of TRIM, contributed to the development of the standard (according to its Wikipedia entry) although the standard did not prescribe requirements for the management of electronic records.

AS 4390 would become internationalised through ISO 15489 in 2002.

1996 – OpenText Corporation (US) – Livelink

OpenText Corporation was founded in 1991 from OpenText Systems. It released Livelink in 1996.

1996 – EDM solutions (UK listing)

The following is a list of EDM systems taken from the Document Management Resource Guide, 1995/96 Edition, kindly provided by Reynold Lemming in 2021. (^ = Original software author entry, all others are system resellers)

ADOS Archive	DocStore ^	Legato Networker, Arcada, DocuBase	RecFind
Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Capture ^	Docarus.DMS ^	Lotus Notes	Resmanager ^
Alpharel Image Enabler, Toolkits, API, Turnkey	DocsOpen	M-Image ^	Retriever
AutoFORM ^	Documation ^	MacroFiche	RoleModel ^
Autodesk WorkCenter	E-DOC	MacroImage	SAROS Mezzanine ^
B-Scan	EcoStore ^	Matrix	STOR/QM *
CADEXnet ^	Epson ImageWise ^	MaxDoc Manager	Saros Document Management ^
CAIRS-TMS ^	FileMagic	MaxDoc and Target	Simplifier
COLDbase ^	FilePlus	MicroStation TeamMate ^	Soft Solutions
Canofile	FlowMan ^	Myriad ^	Software Integration ^
CaptureBase, CaptureFlow, CapturePrint ^	FORMTEK. TDM ^	Novell	Sound Practice ^
Cimage: Document Manager, Image Master workflow	Frame Technology Document Management ^	Oasis RSD, COLD v.2.1 ^	Staffware ^
ColdStore ^	HDK2	Odesta Livelink ^	Status/IQ, inSign ^
Complete PME	Hyperdrive ^	Optech	Storofile 650 ^
Concept Suite: Inquisitor, Interrogator, Detective ^	ImageTek	OptiFiche	SydneyPLUS ^
Cyco Automanager workflow	Imagetree	OptiIMAGE	TRIP
D.A.R.T.S. ^	Imagewise ^	Optigraphics LDS	TRIPscan
DB/TextWorks ^	Imview	Optika FilePower, FileMagic, ImageSoft	TeleForm OCR/ICR *
DCS PowerNET ^	InConcert ^	Optika File Power FP Multi	Trimco
DM2 ^	Intelligent Information Capture (IIC)	PAFEC EDM ^	Ultra
DOCS Open ^	Interleaf: 6, RDM, World View, Cyberleaf ^	PC DOCS Open	ViewStar System Release 4 ^
Datascan ^	Isys	PageNet ^	Visual Recall ^
DataWise ^	Keyfile	PaperClip	Visual Workflow
Deimos Document Management System ^	Kodak Imagery	Paperoute ^	WinWork ^
Displaywise ^	LaserImage, LaserArc	Paperwise	WorkCenter Issue Control, Revision Control ^
DocFind ^	Lasercom ^	PowerVision ^
DocPRO ^	Lasertrack Imaging System ^	QStar: Axxess / Server / Worksgroup / Enterprise ^

1996 – Various EDM solutions

The March 1996 edition of Engineering Data Management included a number of updates on electronic document management solutions in the market at that time. Note that Trimco and Alpharel are listed separately; this may because Alpharel’s acquisition of Trimco had not been completed by that time.

• Alpharel (San Diego, CA): Document Management solutions – Enabler, FlexFolder, RIPS, Toolkit API. Wisdom, a product that facilitated internet access to participating electronic document vaults.
• Auto-trol Technology (Denver, CO): CENTRA 2000, document management, workflow, PDM, change management and messaging.
• Cimage Enterprise Systems (Bracknell, UK): Document Manager for Windows.
• Documentum, Inc. (Pleasanton, CA): Documentum Accelera for the World Wide Web and Documentum UnaLink for Lotus Notes.
• Interleaf (Waltham, MA): Interleaft 6 SGML, a solution for publishing SGML doocuments. Intellecte/BusinessWeb, a document management solution that allowed organisations to access enterprise document repositories from the internet.
• Trimco (Ealing, UK): Document management systems.

Alpharel changed its name to Altris Software (US) in October 1996, according to this Telecompaper article published the same month.

From 1996 – Germany’s DOMEA project

In 1996, the Coordinating and Advising Agency of the Federal Government for Information Technology in the Federal Administration (KBSt) introduced a pilot project named Document Management and Electronic Archiving in computer-assisted business processes (DOMEA).

Under the framework of DOMEA, a project group was set up in 1998 to find solutions for the disposition and archiving of electronic records. The goal was to find a suitable and efficient way for the disposition of electronic records created and maintained in office systems. Its “Concept for the Disposition and Archiving of Electronic Records in Federal Agencies,” containing recommendations for managing electronic records was published in September 1998. (Source: The Free Library article)

Late 1990s – EDMS vs ERMS

Electronic document management systems (EDMS) and electronic records management systems (ERMS) were regarded as separate types of system from the late 1990s until at least 2008.

According to Philip Bantin in August 2002:

• An EDMS was said to support day-to-day use of documents for ongoing business. Among other things, this meant that the records stored in the system could continue to be modified and exist in several versions. Records could also be deleted.
• An ERMS was designed to provide a secure repository for authentic and reliable business records. Although it contained the same or similar document management functionality as an EDMS, a key difference was that records stored in an ERMS could not be modified or deleted. (The concept of ‘declaring a record’ may be related to this point).

(Source: Presentation by Philip Bantin, University Archivist at the University of Indiana, dated 18 April 2001)

The difference between the two types of system endured for at least a decade. By the end of the 1990s, four main EDRMS options had emerged:

• Extending an existing EDM product capability to include ERM.
• Extending an existing ERM capability to include EDM.
• Creating new ERM products (technically also with some EDM capability).
• Integrating separate EDM and ERM products.

1997 – DOD 5015.2

According to the 1999 GAO report quoted above, for several years prior to 1997, NARA worked with the US Department of Defense, considered ‘one of the agencies that is most advanced in its ERM efforts’.

The outcome of this work was the release in November 1997 of the DOD standard titled ‘Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications’ usually known by its authority number – DOD Directive 5015.2, Department of Defense Records Management Program, 11 April 1997.

The GAO report stated that ‘ERM information systems that were in place before the approval of this standard must comply with the standard by November 1999’.

It added that US agencies ‘were confronted with many ERM challenges’ from the ever-increasing volume of digital records, including the ability to preserve and access those records over time. The ‘Year 2000 problem’ was drawing attention away from the issue.

Nevertheless, by 2 June 1999, nine companies were certified as compliant with the DOD standard. Some, it noted, were standalone ERM software, while others were an integrated solution.

An interesting small note on page 11 of the GAO report noted that ‘it is important that ERMS software requires users to make no more than two or three extra keystrokes, and that users realize there is a benefit to this additional ‘burden’.

From 1997 – SER eGovernment (Germany)

SER eGovernment was developed for the German/Austrian market following the release of the German eGovernment standard, DOMEA in 1997.

1998 – Documentum goes online

In 1998, Documentum released its Web Application Environment, a set of internet extensions for EDMS, offering web access to documents stored within an EDMS repository. Various additional products were acquired and their functionality added to the Documentum system.

1998 – Optika eMedia released

Optika released eMedia, ‘a software and methodology product designed to manage business transactions within an organization, across extranets, and throughout the supply chain’, in late 1998. (Source ‘Optika Delivers App to Manage Business Transactions‘) Optika eMedia was said to be ‘a workflow enabled replacement for an imaging solution named FilePower’.

1998 – FileNet Panagon suite released

In 1998, FileNet released its Panagon suite of products. This included Panagon Content Services that was previous Saros Mezzanine. (Source: Wikipedia article on FileNet)

1999 – International differences

The 1999 GAO report noted differences between the US, UK, Australia and Canada on their approach to ‘common ERM challenges’.

• Australia was said to have ‘strong central authority (including for compliance audits) and decentralised custody’ (except when the records are transferred to permanent retention).
• Canada had ‘vision statements rather than specific policies’ and also had decentralised custody, but agencies could transfer records at any time to the archives.
• The UK had broad guidelines put into practice by individual agencies.

1999 – the UK PRO standard released

The UK Public Records Office (PRO, later The National Archives, TNA) released a standard in 1999 designed ‘to provide a tool for benchmarking the ability of government departments to support electronic records management’. This standard would be replaced by TNA 2003. (Source: ‘ERM System Requirements’, published in INFuture, 4-6 November 2009, by, Marko Lukicic, Ericsson)

End of the 1900s – XML

By the end of the 20th century it was becoming clear (to some) that XML would likely play a strong role in the standardisation of electronic record formats and their management over time.

XML-based record structures meant that electronic records could contain their own ‘metadata payloads’ rather than being independent objects defined in a separate system (like a library catalogue describes books on shelves).

The establishment of XML-based formats would (after about 20 years) begin to change the way in which records would be managed, although paper records and the paradigm of managing records in pre-defined containers would continue to persist, largely because of the standards developed to manage electronic records – in particular DOD 5015.2.

1999 – EDM/early ERM products

The following is a collated list of EDM (and related) products collated in November 1999:

• Autonomy Portal in a Box
• CompuTechnics (1990 to 1999)/Objective (from 1999)
• DOCS
• Eastman Software (Imaging, OCR)
• EDM Software (UK) and SER (Germany)
• Excalibur RetrievalWare
• FileNet, incorporating Panagon Integrated Document Management
• Fulcrum (acquired by PC DOCS in 1997)
• GMB (later KnowledgeOne) RecFind/RecQuery
• Hummingbird (from 1999 with acquisition of PC DOCS)
• Insight Technologies Knowledge Server (IKS) / Document Management System (DMS)
• Intraspect Knowledge Server (IKS) (KM)
• Lotus Notes
• Onyx Enterprise Portal, with integration to various EDM applications
• Open Text Livelink
• Pitney Bowes Digital Document Delivery (D3)
• Oracle
• Osyssey (ISYS)
• PC DOCS (acquired by Hummingbird in early 1999)
• ReadSoft (OCR processing)
• RecordManager
• Tower Software / TRIM Captura
• Tower Technology
• Verity (KM)

1999 – Tarian Software founded

Tarian Software was founded in Canada in 1999 by Bruce Miller, the founder of Provenance Systems (later TrueArc) and creator of ForeMost. Tarian developed the Tarian eRecordsEngine, an embedded electronic recordkeeping technology for business application software. Tarian was the first e-Records technology in the world to be certified against the revised 5015.2 June 2002 standard. Tarian was acquired by IBM in 2002.

1999 – The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS)

The (Australian) Victorian government’s Public Records Office (PROV) published a standard for the management of electronic records in 1999, Standard 99/007 ‘Standard for the Management of Electronic Records’. The standard, usually known as VERS, defined the (XML-based) format required for the transfer of permanent records to the PROV.

The Standard noted that:

• Records must be self-documenting. It is possible to interpret and understand the
  content of the record without needing to refer to documentation about the system in
  which it was produced
• Records must be self-contained. All the information about the record is contained
  within the record itself
• The record structure must be extensible. It must be possible to extend the structure of
  the record to add new metadata or new record types without affecting the
  interoperability of the basic structure.

Several EDRMS vendors developed the capability to create VERS encapsulated objects (VEOs) as required by the standard.

2000 – Spescom (South Africa) acquires Altris (UK)

The South African company Spescom acquired the UK firm Altris Software in 2000, as noted in this (South Africa) ITWeb article of 3 May 2000. Altris was described in the article as ‘a global leader in integrated electronic document management software, with well established channels to international markets’. As a result of this acquisition, Altris UK was renamed Spescom Ltd (UK).

The same journal announced in 2001 that Spescom KMS was ‘the UK operation of Spescom Limited’s US based subsidiary, Altris Software Inc, which specialises in the provision of asset information management software to markets including transportation, utilities and telcos’.

From 2000 – Microsoft adopts XML for Office documents

In 2000, Microsoft released an initial version of an XML-based format for Microsoft Excel, which was incorporated in Office XP.

In 2002, a new file format for Microsoft Word followed. The Excel and Word formats, known as the Microsoft Office XML formats (with an ‘x’ on the end of the document extension), were later incorporated into the 2003 release of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft’s XML formats, known as Open Office XML, later became ECMA 376 in 2006 and later ISO 29500 in 2008 ‘amid some controversy’ over the need for another XML format (see below).

Before 2001 – Intranet Solutions (later Stellent)

Intranet Solutions had developed software called’IntraDoc!’. The product was briefly renamed Xpedio! before the company and product were renamed Stellent in 2001. (Source: ‘Wikipedia article on Oracle Acquisitions‘)

2001 – EDM systems with RM functionality

The following is a list of ‘EDM systems with records management’ functionality available by early 2001:

• TRIM (Tower Software, Australia) – integrated ERM and EDM.
• ForeMost Enterprise v2 (TrueArc Inc) – ERMS
• Tarian eRecords Engine v1.0 (formerly e-Records v1.0)(Tarian) – ERMS
• iRIMS 2001 (Open Text Corp) – ERMS
• Objective 2000 (Objective Corp, Australia) – ERMS
• Hummingbird RM Family 4.0 (Hummingbird, Canada) – ERMS (later acquired by Open Text)
• FileSurf 7.0 (MDY Advanced Technologies) – ERMS
• R2M (Relativity Records Manager v2 (Relativity Inc) – EDMS with added records management functionality.
• eManage 2000 (ByteQuest Technologies) – knowledge management (KM) integrated with records management.
• FileNET IDM Content Services 5.1.1/ForeMost Enterprise 2.0 – EDMS with integrated records management.
• IBM e-Records Solution (IeRS) v1.0 – IBM’s content management (CM) solution integrated with Tarian eRecords v1.0.
• Work Manager/ForeMost (Eastman Software) – combined the DM, imaging and workflow of Work manager with the RM capabilities of ForeMost.
• (Source: Presentation by Philip Bantin, University Archivist at the University of Indiana, dated 18 April 2001).

Many of the products above were sold internationally on the basis of their compliance with DOD 5015.2 even though that was a US-specific standard.

2001 – Birth of SharePoint

Microsoft released SharePoint in 2001. It was born out of a combination of Office Server and Tahoe.

• Office Server provided the simplest of network administration actions
• Tahoe expanded on the email, calendaring, contacts, and to-do list technology contained within Exchange.

However, it was not until the release of Office 2003 that SharePoint (rebranded as Windows SharePoint Services) provided collaboration and other functionality.

(Source: History of SharePoint from PortalFront hosting)

Early 2000s – The DM, KM and CM mix

In addition to the EDMS/ERMS differences, organisations were also seeking solutions for knowledge management (KM) and content management (CM).

CM solutions were usually portal-based options that mostly became some form of intranet.

Some of the options in the early 2000s included:

• Hummingbird’s PowerDOCS for DM and CyberDOCS as the web client for the DM solution, along with Hummingbird’s (formerly Fulcrum) Knowledge Server for KM and PD Accord for web-based collaboration, with the Hummingbird Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) as the portal solution. Plumtree Corporate Portal could also be used as an Enterprise Portal.
• iManage’s DeskSite for DM and WorkTeam for collaboration. For KM, WorkKnowledge Server and Concept Search (based on the Autonomy Server). The portal to link all of these was called WorkPortal.
• Open Text’s Livelink for DM, KM and collaboration.
• Elite’s Encompass, built on Microsoft’s new SharePoint Portal Server (SPS).
• Autonomy Server for KM, with Plumtree Corporate Portal as the portal.
• Documentum’s DM and CM product coupled with Plumtree Corporate Portal.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems, used to manage other types of digital content such as photographs, also appeared around this time.

Early 2000s – RM meets AI

Don Lueders noted in his post An Industry Pioneer on Records Management and Artificial Intelligence (nextgenrm.com) that ‘in the early 2000’s TruArc released a product called AutoRecords. AutoRecords was the very first records management solution brought to market that leveraged artificial intelligence to automatically classify electronic records.’

2001 – EDMS Vendors

Information Technology Decisions published a paper on DOD 5015.2 certified products in November 2001 (original source/location has been lost). It noted that there were two types of products:

• Products that started life as electronic document management (EDM) systems. Examples included Documentum, Livelink, and DOCS Open.
• Products that started life as electronic recordkeeping (ERK/ERM) systems. Examples given included Tower Software’s TRIM, Foremost, iRIMS, Cuadra Star.

The presentation noted that DOD 5015.2 certification was based on alternative options:

• Standalone. For example, True Arc Foremost, TRIM, iRIMS, Cuadra Associates Star, Relativity Records Manager, Hummingbird RM 4.0, Tarian eRecords, MDY/FileSurf, Cimage and Access Systems, Highland Technologies Highview-RM, Open Text, Livelink
• Partnership. For example, Saperion with e-Manage 2000, Impact Systems eRecords Manager, FileNet with Foremost.

The report included three interesting points:

• Both EDMS and ERKS required an enterprise view of information.
• An EDMS is driven by business process requirements.
• An ERKS (ERMS) is driven by enterprise requirements for the long-term preservation of information.

2001 – The first MoReq

The first version of MoReq was published in 2001. Volume 1 was 500 pages long.

MoReq emphasised the central importance of an electronic records management system, or ERMS. Its stated purpose was:

• To provide guidance to organisations wishing to acquire ERMS.
• As a tool to audit or check an existing ERMS.
• As a reference document for use in training or teaching.
• To guide product development by ERMS suppliers and developers.
• To help define the nature of outsourced records management solutions.

Few, if any, products were certified against this version of MoReq.

2002 – Optika Acorde

Optika eMedia was rebranded to Optika Acorde in 2002, according to this website ‘The Case for 11g‘.

A June 2002 Gartner report titled ‘Optika Acorde Document Imaging, Workflow and Collaboration Suite‘ noted that Optika Acorde was an ‘integrated software family for managing the content associated with business transactions’ leveraging ‘Optika’s core strengths in document imaging, workflow and enterprise report management.’

2002 – FileNet BrightSpire, later P8 ECM

FileNet released BrightSpire in 2002. This product ‘leveraged the experience gained from integrated document management, web content management and workflow into what became ECM. (Source: Wikipedia article on FileNet)

By 2002 – Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

The term ‘Enterprise Content Management’ (ECM) began to appear more frequently by 2002. The Wikipedia post on ECM noted that ECM technologies descended from ‘electronic Document Management Systems (DMS) of the late 1980s and early 1990s’.

ECM promised:

• The integration of records management (RM) with business practices.
• The capability for integration between RM products, EDM, various other digital products (such as OCR/character recognition technologies), and web publishing products.
• Incorporation of Knowledge Management (KM) concepts.

The key word here was ‘integration’ with EDM and other systems, rather than standalone systems. Web-based access became increasingly essential. IBM’s acquisition of Tarian, Documentum’s acquisition of TrueArc’s Foremost were examples of these integrations. (see below)

According to the Wikipedia article on ECM: ‘Before 2003, the ECM market was dominated by medium-sized independent vendors which fell into two categories: those who originated as document management companies (Laserfiche, Saros, Documentum, docStar, and OpenText) and began adding the management of other business content, and those who started as web content management providers (Interwoven, Vignette, and Stellent) tried to branch out into managing business documents and rich media’.

The emergence of ECM quite possibly created the first challenge to centralised ERM through the integration of multiple elements, some of which created, captured or stored records in ever increasing formats.

2002 – OpenDocument XML format

According to the Wikipedia article on the OpenDocument standard, the OpenDocument standard was developed by a Technical Committee (TC) under the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) industry consortium. Sun and IBM apparently had a large voting influence but the standardization process involved the developers of many office suites or related document systems. The first ODF-TC meeting was held in December 2002.

2002 – An updated GAO report into electronic records

The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a new report in June 2002 titled ‘Information Management: Challenges in Managing and Preserving Electronic Records’ (GAO-02-586). This report, which was more detailed than the earlier 1999 one, noted among other things that:

• The DOD had by March 2002 certified 31 applications against standard 5015.2.
• Progress had been made on the development of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model which, while initially developed by NASA for archiving the large volume of data produced by space missions, could be applied to ‘any archive, digital library or repository’. XML-based solutions were considered the most likely to be accepted.

2002 – IBM acquires Tarian Software

IBM acquired Tarian Software in late 2002, ‘bolstering its leadership in ECM’.

From that date, IBM released the IBM Records Manager Version 2.0 (IRM), previously known as the Tarian eRecords Engine (TeRe). Tarian’s e-Records management technology was integrated into IBM’s software offerings, including IBM Content Manager, DB2 database and Lotus software. (Source: IBM press release)

2002 – Documentum 5 and TrueArc Foremost acquisition

Documentum released Documentum 4i, its first Web-native platform, in 2000. In 2002, it launched Documentum 5 as ‘a unified enterprise content management (ECM) platform for storing a virtually unlimited range of content types within a shared repository’.

Documentum acquired TruArc’s Foremost product in October 2002. The Documentum Wikipage above noted that this acquisition ‘added records management capabilities and augmented Documentum’s offerings for compliance solutions.’ The press release cited in this paragraph noted that ‘Documentum and TrueArc are existing technology partners and have worked together to provide an integration for TrueArc’s enterprise-scalable records management solution with the Documentum ECM platform.’

2003 – TNA 2003

The National Archives (TNA) released an updated version of its PRO standard in 2003, known as TNA 2003. This standard would be superseded by MoReq2. (Source: @ZenInformation on Twitter, 12 February 2021).

2003 – EMC acquires Documentum

EMC acquired Documentum in 2003. (Source: EMC offers $1.7 billion in stock for Documentum, October 2003))

2003 – FileNet P8 Records Manager

FileNet released P8 Records Manager in 2003. (Source: Wikipedia article on FileNet)

2003 – Hummingbird acquires Valid Information Systems R/KYV

Hummingbird acquired Valid Information Systems R/KYV product in 2003.

(Source: ‘Legal Technology Insider‘, 23 July 2003)

2003 – Open Text acquires SER eGovernment

In October 2003, Open Text acquired the (German) DOMEA-certified SER eGovernment Deutschland GmbH, based in Berlin, Germany as well as SER Solutions Software GmbH, based in Salzburg, Austria. (Source: Open Text Acquires SER eGovernment)

From 2003 – CNIPA (Italy)

The Italian Centro Nazionale per l’Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione (CNIPA) published a protocol for the management of electronic records, Protocollo Informatico in 2003.

CNIPA was renamed DigitPA in 2009 and Agenzia per I’Italia digitale (AGID) in 2012. AGID is responsible for defining standards for the management of electronic records in Italian government agencies. (Source: Protocollo Informatico)

Mid 2003 – The challenges of Enterprise Records Management

In Industry Trend Reports of May 2003, Bruce Silver (of Bruce Silver Associates) made the case for Enterprise Records Management in the wake of various ‘scandals’ involving the management of records at the time, including Enron/Anderson.

Silver argued that EDM, email archive, and back-up solutions did not meet the ‘new statutory and regulatory records management requirements’ – DOD 5015.2, SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, NASD Rules 2210, 3010, and 3110, NYSE Rules 342 and 440, ISO 15489 and MoReq.

Silver also noted that an effective (‘total’) ERM solution would ‘be implemented as an extension of the company’s ECM infrastructure’, providing for a single interface for all records stored in multiple locations ‘including third-party document management repositories in addition to the email system and network file system’.

2003 – Key integrated EDM/RM vendors

The following is a list of ‘key vendors in the (Integrated Document Management) IDM Market Space’ in October 2003. The list is believed to have come from a Butler Group report:

• Documentum 5. EDMS, web content, ERM, RM (through acquisition), collaboration, DAM.
• FileNet P8 Image Services. Content management, web content, image management, RM.
• Gauss VIP Enterprise 8. Web content, DM, Imaging, ERM. (Acquired by Open Text)
• Hummingbird Enterprise 5. Full IDM suite (DM, KM, portal, collaboration, workflow, imaging, RM)
• Hyland Software OnBase. Integrated IDM but lacked strong web content, RM and collaboration.
• IBM Content Manager. ERM and worfklow.
• Identitech FYI. Integrated IDM.
• Information Management Research (IMR) Alchemy. IDM.
• Laserfiche Document Imaging. Integrated IDM including EDM, ERM.
• Legato ApplicationXtender, EmailXtender, DiskXtender. Integrated IDM.
• Open Text Livelink.
• Optical Image Technology (OIT) DocFinity. Integrated IDM.
• Optika Acorde. Primarily for images and ERM. Not strong CM, RM or collaboration. Acquired Select Technologies for RM.
• Tower Technology IDM, Seraph. Integrated IDM.
• Westbrook Fortis Suite, File Magic. Integrated IDM.

2004 – Stellent acquires Optika

Stellent acquired Optika in early 2004. At this stage, Stellent’s primary product was Universal Content Management (UCM). (Source: Wikipedia article on Oracle Acquisitions)

The report of the sale in The Register stated that Stellent’s CEO said that ‘customers are looking to consolidate their content management needs, including imaging, business process management, web content management and record management with one vendor.’ The new product line was named Stellent Imaging and Business Procss Management (IBPM). The article also noted that Oracle would probably acquire Stellent following this acquisition (see 2006, below).

2004 – ReMANO (Netherlands)

In 2004, the Netherlands government established a catalogue of software specifications for ERM systems (ReMANO) used by Dutch government bodies. (Source: ‘ERM System Requirements’, published in INFuture, 4-6 November 2009, by, Marko Lukicic, Ericsson)

ReMANO was replaced by NEN2082 – Eisen voor Functionaliteit van Informatie- en Archiefmanagement in programmatuur” in 2008. (NEN 2082:2008 nl)

2005 – C6 (France) builds D2 on top of EMC Documentum

The French ECM company C6 built a solution named D2, ‘a fully configurable web application for creating, managing, storing and delivering any type of information’, on top of EMC’s Documentum. (Source: C6 website ‘Company’ tab).

2005 – ELAK (Austria)

A project to introduce electronic filing (ELAK) commenced in Austria late 2001 and was completed in 2005. The solution was based on standard software products (e.g. Fabasoft e-Gov-Suite, MS-Office). (Source (ELAK – The e-filing system of the Austrian Federal Ministries)

2006 – The National Archives of Australia ERMS standard

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) released its ‘Functional Specifications for Electronic Records Management Systems Software in February 2006. (ISBN 1 920807 34 9). The introduction noted that:

• (The document) provided Australian Government agencies with a set of generic requirements for ensuring adequate recordkeeping functionality within electronic records management systems (ERMS) software.
• Agencies were encouraged to make use of the ERMS specifications when designing or
  purchasing new, or upgrading existing, ERMS software. They could also
  be used when auditing, assessing or reviewing an agency’s existing ERMS software.
• The requirements were not intended to be a complete specification, but
  rather provide a template of key functional requirements that agencies may
  incorporate into their tender documentation when preparing to select and purchase
  new ERMS software. Agencies were expected to assess and amend the
  functional requirements, and select requirements that best suit their own business
  and technical requirements and constraints.

Very few products met the specific requirements of the ERMS specifications which led to some suggestion at the time that it limited choice.

2006 – Rival XML Office document standards

The OpenDocument (ODF) standard was published as ISO/IEC 26300 in 2006.

Microsoft submitted initial material to the Ecma International Technical Committee TC45, where it was standardized to become ECMA-376, approved in December 2006. It was released as ISO 29500 in 2008.

According to the Wikipedia article on Open Office XML (OOXML), ‘The ISO standardization of Office Open XML was controversial and embittered’, as it seemed unnecessary to have two rival XML standards.

2006 – The world of collaboration

The Butler Group published a paper titled ‘Document Collaboration – Linking People, Process and Content’ in December 2006. The report noted that EDM systems had helped improve internal efficiency but there was now a need to ‘extend these systems to partners and stakeholders’ and deliver ‘sophisticated collaborative experiences’.

The paper listed the following EDM products:

• Adobe Acrobat family
• EMC eRoom
• IBM Notes/Domino, Workplace collaboration services, QuickPlace
• Microsoft Office 2007
• Open Text Livelink ECM – eDOCS (incorporating the former Hummingbird product suite acquired by Open Text in 2006)
• Oracle Collaboration Suite, Content DB and Records DB
• Stellent Collaboration Management
• Vignette

2006 – Spescom Software Inc

A US SEC submission in January 2006 noted that Spescom Software Inc, a San Diego-based provider of computer integrated systems was the successor to Alpharel Inc and Altris Software Inc.

2006 – Oracle acquires Stellent

A 2006 Oracle press release titled ‘Oracle Buys Stellent‘ stated that Stellent was a global provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions that included Document and Records Management, Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Imaging and Business Process Management, and Risk and Compliance. It also noted that the acquisition would ‘complement and extend Oracle’s existing content management solution portfolio’. Despite the acquisition, the ‘Stellent’ name persisted.

2006 – IBM acquires FileNet

IBM acquired FileNet in 2006. (Source: Wikipedia article on FileNet)

2006 – Google enters the online EDM productivity and collaboration market

In 2006, Google launched Google Apps for Your Domain, a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products. Various apps and elements were acquired and/or added over the years but a key one from an EDM point of view was Google Docs (Wikipedia article). However, Google Docs had no RM capability.

A ZDNet article in June 2007 noted that Google Apps offered a tool for switching from Exchange Server and Lotus Notes, making Google a real alternative to Microsoft and IBM. Google Apps would later be rebranded G-Suite in 2016.

2007 – Spescom exits the EDM market / Enterprise Informatics

In 2007, Spescom exiting the enterprise software sector with the sale of its US operation Enterprise Informatics. (Source – Wikipedia article on Spescom, original reference no longer accessible).

Enterprise Informatics, originally founded in 1981, continued in existence as a subsidiary of Bentley Systems, Incorporated. It continued to market a suite of integrated document, configuration, and records management software products, mostly under the name eB.

2007 – Zoho enters the online EDM collaboration market

The India-based Zoho Corporation, known as AdventNet Inc from 1996 to 2009, released Zoho Docs in 2007.

2007 – HP Autonomy acquires Meridio

Meridio was acquired by HP Autonomy (a company that had had a long business partnership with Kainos) in 2007. The parent company Kainos continued to work with SharePoint-based solutions.

2007 – EDRMS vendors

Forrester released a report into electronic records management vendors in early 2007. The products that it evaluated were as follows:

• CA MDY FileSurf v7.5 ^
• EMC Records Manager 5.3
• IBM FileNet P8 Records Manager v3.7 ^
• IBM Records Manager v4.1.3 #
• Interwoven Records Manager v 5.1 *
• Meridio Document and Records Manager v4.4 *
• Open Text Livelink ECM – Records Management v3.8 ^
• Open Text Livelink – eDOCS RM (formerly Hummingbird) v6.0.1
• Oracle (formerly Stellent) Universal Records Management v7.1 #
• Oracle Records DB v1.0 ~
• Tower Software TRIM Context v6.0 *
• Vignette Records & Documents v 7.0.5
• (Forrester assessment: ^ = leaders, # = close behind leaders, * = have hurdles to remain competitive’, ~ = basic functionality only)

2008 – NEN 2082

The Dutch government replaced ReMANO with NEN 2082 ‘Eisen voor functionaliteit van informatie- en archiefmanagement in programmatuur’ (‘Requirements for functionality of information and archive management in software’) in 2008 (NEN 2082:2008 nl). NEN 2082 was derived from MoReq, DOD 5015.2 and Australian standards. (See Eric Burger’s blog post ‘Nee, NEN 2082 is geen wettelijke verplichting‘ about its legal standing)

2008 – MoReq2

MoReq2 was published in 2008. It included new sections to support the testing of ERMS software for compliance with the standard. MoReq2 included the following vendors on its panel (Acknowledgements section):

• Docuware, Germany
• EDRM Solutions, USA
• EMC, Canada
• ErgoGroup AS, Norway
• Fabasoft, UK
• FileNet, UK
• Fujitsu, UK
• Getronics, UK
• Haessler Information, Germany
• IBM, UK
• ICZ, Czech Republic
• Lockheed Martin, USA
• Meridio, UK
• Objective Corporation, UK
• Open Text Corporation, UK
• SAPERION, Germany
• SER Solutions Deutschland, Germany
• Tower Software, UK

Both MoReq and MoReq2 were based on the premise of a central ERMS being acquired and implemented by organisations to manage unstructured records, the types of records that are stored across network drives and in email systems. MoReq2 specifically clearly excluded the management of ‘structured data … stored under the management of a data processing application’. (Source: MoReq2, section 1.2 ‘Emphasis and Limitations of this Specification’, page 12.)

The first software product certified against MoReq2 was Fabasoft Folio. It was the only certified product until June 2014.

2008 – EDMS and ERMS

In 2008, the International Standards Organisation, under ISO/TC171/SC2 ‘Document management applications’ proposed a framework for the integration of EDM and ERM systems. The definitions contained in that framework document noted that:

• An EDMS was used to manage, control, locate and retrieve information in an electronic system.
• An ERMS was used to manage electronic and non-electronic records according to accepted principles and practices of records management.
• An integrated EDRMS would combine both capabilities.

Section 6 of the report described general (but fairly detailed) functional requirements for an integrated EDMS/ERMS, outlined in the following diagram:

2009 – Autonomy acquires Interwoven

In 2009, HP Autonomy acquired Interwoven, a niche provider of enterprise content management software mostly to the legal industry. It primarily competed with Documentum in this space. Interwoven became Autonomy Interwoven and Autonomy iManage.

2010 – MoReq2010

MoReq was completely revised and published as MoReq2010 in 2010. There were key differences with its predecessor versions.

• It de-emphasised, but did not remove, the idea of an ERMS being the central or sole recordkeeping system or repository for organisations.
• It emphasised the need for line of business systems to incorporate a minimum, defined level of recordkeeping functionality.
• It brought a degree of practicality about the management of records in other systems.
• It provided for interoperability between all MoReq compliant systems, based on a common XML language.

MoReq2010 established ‘… a definition of a common set of core services that are shared by many different types of records systems’. It provided a set of modules that could be incorporated into any software solution, including line of business applications, so they can be ‘MoReq compliant records systems’ (MCRS).

2010 – Google’s DM capability enhanced

In March 2010, Google acquired DocVerse, an online document collaboration company. DocVerse allowed multiple user online collaboration on Microsoft Word documents, as well as other Microsoft Office formats, such as Excel and PowerPoint. (Source – Wikipedia article on Google Docs)

2010 – SharePoint gains (some) RM wings

SharePoint 2010 included a range of recordkeeping functionality. According to a web page titled ‘SharePoint 2010: Recordkeeping Considerations‘ by State Records NSW:

‘Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is a software product with a range of uses, including website development, content management and collaboration. SharePoint allows users to collaborate on the creation, review and approval of various types of content, including documents, lists, discussions, wiki pages, web pages and blog posts. SharePoint is not a recordkeeping system (i.e. a system purposely designed to capture, maintain and provide access to records over time). When implemented ‘out of the box’, SharePoint has limited capacities for capturing and keeping records in a way that supports their ability to function as authentic evidence of business.’

In the article ‘Is SharePoint 2010 a compliant records solution‘ in the 30 June 2010 edition of IDM Magazine, the author states the following (emphasis added):

Adam Harmetz, the Lead Program Manager for the SharePoint Document and Records Management engineering team at Microsoft said in a recent online interview about Records in SharePoint 2010, “We constantly get questions from around the world about how to deal with local government and industry standards for information management. Let me throw just a few at you… MOREQ2, VERS, ISO 15489, DOMEA, TNA, ERKS, the list goes on. Some of these standards are loosely based on one another and some have contradictory elements. Rather than focus our engineering efforts on addressing each of these standards in turn, we made the choice to deliver the usability and innovation required to make records management deployments successful and allow our partner ecosystem to build out the SharePoint platform to deal with specific requirements for those customers that are mandated to adhere to a specific standard.”

Despite these comments, SharePoint 2010 was assessed by at least one consultant (Wise Technology Solutions) to meet 88% of the requirements of the then ICA Standard that became ISO 16175 Part 2.

On 16 December 2011, State Records NSW published a blog post titled ‘Initial advice on implementing recordkeeping in SharePoint 2010‘. The post noted that the Wise report had concluded that ‘SharePoint is 88% compliant with the ICA requirements’. It added that the areas where full compliance could not be achieved relate to:

• ease of email capture
• native security classification and access control
• physical and hybrid records management

The report states that third party providers are able to offer products that plug SharePoint’s gaps in these areas.

The blog posted also stated that ‘… the report very clearly makes the point that ‘we note that the achievement of these results is reliant on appropriate design and governance of implementation, configuration and set up to ensure consistency with desired records management outcomes’.’

Early 2010 – Microsoft launches Office 365

Microsoft launched Office 365 on 28 June 2011. Office 365 was designed to be a successor to Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). (Source: Wikipedia article on Office 365). It would not be until the mid 2010s that Office 365 would become an effective counter-solution to the G Suite.

2011 – HP acquires Autonomy

In 2011, Hewlett-Packard acquired Autonomy, a deal that resulted in some interesting subsequent legal issues reading the value of the company.

2011 – OMG Records Management Services standard

The Object Management Group (OMG) released its Records Management Standard (RMS) in September 2011.

As noted in the scope section of the standard, ‘(The) specification provides models for software services to support management activities for electronic records’. Further, ‘… models are provided that describe the platform independent model (PIM) that defines the business domain of Records Management and the RM services to be provided’. Three technology-specific implementations are specified:

• PSM-1 – Web Services definition for Records Management Services in Web Service Description Language (WSDL). This is actually supplied as ten WSDL files; one for each Records Management Service.
• PSM-2 – A Records Management Service XSD. The XSD is for use in creating XML files for import/export of Managed Records from compliant environments and to use as a basis for forming XQuery/XPath statements for the query service.
• PSM-3 – An Attribute Profile XSD. The XSD is for capturing and communicating attribute profiles to permit flexible attribution of certain types of Records Management Objects.

2011 – The death of ERM systems?

In a May 2011 blog post on MoReq2010, James Lappin suggested that traditional systems used to manage electronic documents and records, while not being entirely dead in the water, had ‘lost momentum’.

James proposed two specific reasons for this situation:

• The global financial crisis (GFC) from 2008 that limited the ability of organisations to acquire and implement hugely expensive ERMS solutions.
• The rise of Microsoft SharePoint and particularly SharePoint 2010. In some ways, Sharepoint 2010 had the potential to take – and may have already taken – the ERMS wind from the records managers sails.

He also noted that a series of interrelated user-environment issues may have also played a part in the loss of momentum.

• Usability and take up rates of the ERMS. These solutions are sometimes seen as ‘yet another system’ to manage the same records, using a classification structure that doesn’t make sense to most end users and is different from the way end users see and categorise their world.
• The ongoing availability of and access to alternative places to store information, including network drives and email folders, and cloud-based storage and email solutions.
• The rise and general availability of social networking tools and mobile applications used to create and share new forms of information content, and collaborate and communicate, including wikis, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and similar solutions, often in an almost parallel ‘personal’ world to the official record.
• The inability of ERMS solutions to manage structured data or to maintain and reproduce easily the diverse range of content created and stored in products like SharePoint. Indeed, one reasonably well known product has been described as an archive for SharePoint, even though the latter can quite easily manage its own archives.
• The rise of search as a tool to find relevant information in context, and the related change from unstructured to structured in XML-based documents generated by products such as Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010.

From 2013 – GEVER (Switzerland)

From 2013, the Swiss Federal Chancellery was responsible for managing all activities relating to electronic records and process management (Elektronische Geschäftsverwaltung), or GEVER. GEVER consisted of a collection of five standards for the management of electronic records. (Source with current update: Gever Bund)

2015 – Hewlett Packard separates

In October 2015, the software products previously under the Autonomy banner were divided between HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). HP Inc was assigned Autonomy’s content management software components including TeamSite, Qfiniti, Qfiniti Managed Services, MediaBin, Optimost, and Explore.

2015 – EDRMS vendors

Despite the alleged death of ERMS products in around 2010, many continued to thrive and grow. Some were acquired by others.

The following is a list of EDRMS vendors in December 2015 taken from a Gartner report diagram titled ‘Product or Service Scores for Trusted System of Record’ (with the scores included). Many of these products also appeared in the October 2016 ‘Magic Quadrant’ for Enterprise Content Management Systems as indicated)

• Alfresco (2.47) (also ECM)
• Open Text (4.07) (also ECM)
• EMC Documentum (3.94) (as Dell EMC)(Acquired by Open Text)
• IBM (3.91) (also ECM)
• HPE (3.85)
• Oracle (3.45) (also ECM)
• Laserfiche (2.45) (also ECM)
• Microsoft (SharePoint) (2.38) (also ECM)
• Hyland OnBase (2.37) (also ECM)
• Lexmark (2.32) (also ECM)
• Newgen (2.18) (also ECM)
• Objective (2/10) (also ECM)

By 2015 – Oracle departing the scene?

In a July 2015 article titled ‘Looking for an Oracle IPM replacement‘ in the blog softwaredevelopmentforECM, it was noted that Oracle was ‘clearly, and publically, going in a different direction and moving away from traditional enterprise imaging and transactional content management’.

2016 – OpenText, Micro Focus

In May 2016, OpenText acquired HP TeamSite, HP MediaBin, HP Qfiniti, HP Explore, HP Aurasma, and HP Optimost from HP Inc.

2017 – Micro Focus merges with HPE

Micro Focus merged with HPE in September 2017 and in doing so acquired the Content Manager EDRMS (formerly TRIM).

Pre 2021 – EDRM vendors (Australia)

The following is a list of products identified by the Victorian Public Records Office (PROV) in 2020. These products were all certified against the VERS standard, that required organisations to be able to create XML-based VERS Encapsulated Objects (VEOs) for long-term preservation.

• Alfresco
• Altus ECM
• AvePoint RevIM, Records, Cloud Records
• Bluepoint Content Manager
• Canon Therefore 2012
• Docbureau
• ELOprofessional / ELOenterprise
• HP Records Manager
• HP TRIM
• IBM Enterprise Records
• IBM FileNet P8 Records Manager
• Info-Organiser
• Laserfiche
• MAGIQ Documents
• MicroFocus Content Manager
• Objective
• Objective ECM
• OpenText eDOCS RM
• OpenText Records Management
• Oracle WebCentre Content
• RecFind 6
• RecordPoint
• Technology One ECM
• Technosoft OfficeTech

2021 – EDRMS vendors

The following is a list of dedicated vendors that offered EDRMS solutions (and more in most cases) by early 2021. Many of these vendors have a long history not necessarily reflected in the above text. Most of these vendors provide Enterprise Content Management (ECM) services, including EDM and ERM capabilities.

• Alfresco ECM (alfresco.com)
• Hyland OnBase (hyland.com)
• IBM ECM (ibm.com)
• Knowledgeone RecFind EDRM (knowledgeonecorp.com)
• Laserfiche RME (laserfiche.com)
• Lexmark RIM (lexmark.com)
• Micro Focus Content Manager (microfocus.com)
• Microsoft 365 (microsoft.com)
• Newgen RMS (newgensoft.com)
• Objective ECM (objective.com)
• Open Text ECM (opentext.com)
• Oracle ECM (docs.oracle.com)
• TechnologyOne ECM (technologyonecorp.com)

2021 – Dedicated EDMS vendors

EDM vendors never went away, but many – like Google Drive, DropBox and Box – were built in and for the cloud. This Capterra website has a fairly detailed listing of current EDMS vendors.

2021 – NEN 2082 withdrawn

In January 2021, the Dutch government withdraw NEN 2082. (NEN 2082:2008 nl)

The future of standards-based ERM/EDRM/ECM systems

Although the definition of a record has remained largely intact for the past two decades – ‘evidence of business activity’ (ISO 15489) – the form of records has evolved and continues to do so.

The ever-expanded world of digital content has made it increasingly difficult to accurately and consistently identify, capture and manage records in all forms, a challenge to the notion that all records can be stored in a single system.

The ‘in place’ approach to managing electronic records – wherever they are stored – has strong appeal. But where will we be in another 20 years? Some thoughts:

• Electronic databases, whether on-premise or cloud-based (including subscription based), will be the primary method of capturing and storing a wide range of digital content rather than network file shares.
• Metadata will be automatically captured or auto-generated for all digital content based on the content itself.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continue to grow in maturity, allowing records to be identified from all other digital content, classified, aggregated, and managed through to disposal/disposition or transfer to archives.
• Email will, slowly, disappear as the current workforce transitions to chat- and video-based communication methods.

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