In the 1950's computers were huge and took up whole rooms.  In the 1960's, computers took men to the moon.  Also in the 1960's and 1970's, people "rented" time on computers rather than own one.  In the 1980's, the introduction of the personal computer revolutionized how business was accomplished.  The 1990's introduced email - another revolution.  And then, nothing happened during the millennium except a lot of really good parties!

Through all this observers of technology track key landmarks.  In the document management industry, I have watched many of these indicators through the various new technology advances of scanning, on-line hosted applications and now, the prevalence of electronic records and the subsequent issues which have arisen surrounding them.  In our industry, as in other technology driven industries, development follows certain cycles that can be anticipated.  With careful management, the growth of business critical technologies can be managed and smart users can take advantage of these cycles to enhance their business decisions.

At the beginning of each new technological improvement, people who use the new systems are known as "Early Adopters."  These organizations and individuals are faced with few options and choices.  Prices may be high because the technology is brand new and economies of scale are not yet reached.  Some of the recent technological advances for our industry include more powerful search engines to organize electronic files without human intervention; near duplicate identification to reduce collections of files appropriately; electronic classification software that performs complex classification tasks; automatic indexing performed by software rather than human beings and translation and contextual organization of files across multiple languages.  Each of these innovations are being developed by organizations at various stages of advancement.  These stages are both technical and sociological - and may sometimes also be financial.

 

According to Geoffrey A. Moore, who wrote Crossing the Chasm, the typical stages of progress for any new technology are:

· Introduction Phase ("Innovator"):  Few providers and resources available accompanied by high prices; the technology requires sophisticated users for utilization; customer service is usually high as developers are working closely with new clients. 

· Early Phase ("Early Adopter"):  People who adopt in this phase do so for strategic reasons.  They may be looking for a solution to a long-term problem and it has suddenly appeared.  They may also deliberately choose to adopt something almost-new in order to get more customized service from a smaller organization - the "big fish in a small pond" syndrome. 

· Growth phase ("Early Majority"):  As a technology develops, there will be more providers (software and hardware).  The support departments for training and documentation may still be rough, but they are beginning to be in place.  The one-of-a-kind customer service experienced earlier may lessen as the organization grows, due to expanding support staff and expanding sales. 

· Familiarization Phase ("Late Majority"):  As the technology matures, there are more choices in the providers who support the technology.  Trainers are available both from the providers and external consulting groups.  Pricing becomes standardized; customer service improves.  For those customers not completely comfortable with a new technology, waiting for this phase of development is comforting. 

· Good Ol' Standard Phase ("Laggards"):   There are some people who don't want anything to change at all.  They refuse to update or investigate new and better methods for accomplishing something.  When absolutely forced upon them, they will make a change, but will probably be upset about it for a number of years. 

 

Some of the PDA technologies that have developed thus far are:

 

 

About AmDoc

 

American Document Management (AmDoc) specializes in the electronic management, discovery and retrieval of business documents.  Our mission is to provide clients with the highest quality, most effective methods that enable them to access, share and manage their documents, whether they are in paper or electronic format.