New document management software from Workshare Inc., Information Management Research Inc. and Astoria Software Inc. seek to give users better control over e-mail and other records needed for regulatory compliance as well as support new vertical applications.
Workshare this week plans to unveil Workshare 3, which offers usability, collaboration and e-mail management enhancements. The upgrade gives users of Microsoft Corp.s Word the ability to collaborate on document content, review and incorporate changes, and prevent version proliferation and document corruption, said company officials, in San Francisco. This version of the software is designed to increase productivity by simplifying e-mail collaboration so that users can manage multiple inbound document e-mail attachments and revisions. Its also designed to prevent the inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information, officials said.
Workshare 3 comes on the heels of last weeks announcement by IMR, of Englewood, Colo., of Version 7.4 of its flagship Alchemy document management platform. IMR also rolled out two applications built on Alchemy: RecordCare, for health care records management, and MailStore for Exchange, for e-mail management.
Records management is a big feature of Alchemy 7.4, as IMR seeks to help customers comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements. A key records management feature is document routing, which enables companies to manage document-centric processes for teams and departments by gathering, organizing and sharing documents and managing the tasks required to complete projects, officials said.
“The problem with HIPAA is, its kind of vague,” said Robert Summers, systems analyst at the University of Louisville Hospital, which is using Alchemy 7.4. “We figure the more feelers we have watching what sensitive information is being looked at … we can pinpoint any discrepancies.”
Earlier this month, Astoria, also of San Francisco, in addition to changing its name from LightSpeed Software Inc., released new document management applications that support business processes for the aerospace, defense and manufacturing industries. Astoria also announced a new management team, including Tom Steding, former CEO of Metacode Technologies Inc., as new CEO.