Domino.Doc 2.0 to enter beta
The next version of Lotus Development's document management package goes into broad beta next week.
Due to ship in the second quarter, Domino.Doc 2.0, code-named Rainier, features improved built-in workflow and archiving along with support for third-party applications and a new imaging client, code-named Skylight.
Built atop the company's Domino Server, the Domino.Doc application works with documents created using popular personal productivity suites such as Lotus SmartSuite, Microsoft Office, and Corel Wordperfect. The documents stored on the Document.Doc Web server can be accessed through a personal productivity application, a Web browser, or Lotus Notes client.
"What this release does is give us functional parity with the established vendors in this market," said Scott Cooper, general manager of imaging and document management division at Lotus. Combine it with the Domino-Notes platform, and he believes Lotus can compete strongly with longtime document management vendors, like PC Doc and FileNet.
Version 2.0 has a new "life cycle" feature that follows a document from its authoring stage through an interactive process involving peer and supervisor reviews, approval, publishing, and archiving stages. The new feature allows users to manage this process, according to the IBM subsidiary.
Domino.Doc 2.0 also builds on the replication capabilities of the Domino server and the Notes client. With the new version of Domino.Doc, users can select collections of file cabinets or whole libraries to be replicated between servers in a domain. These file cabinet replicas will support many document management chores including creating new documents and files. However, Domino.Doc also includes distributed locks to prevent replication conflicts.
It also has an open interface, or API (application programming interface), which allows developers to customize the document management features to users' needs.
Domino.Doc 2.0 also includes a Life Cycle Management Archive, or Colden, stage which lets content be moved offline to less costly media. Colden takes content from Domino.Doc, moves it to a file system, then transfers it to an optical disk.
Pricing is not yet available, although Domino.Doc 1.0 currently sells for about $4,700 per server.