Abstract :
Now that `knowledge management´ has become recognised as a powerful asset, document management (DM) has begun to attract attention in manufacturing industries. The author gives some pointers to picking and working with a DM system supplier. His advice is to start at a high level. Get the support of the management and make them the team to drive the change. State your requirements, listing the valid as well as the ridiculous and sublime. In all cases the overriding goal must be to know what your business needs. Knowing this allows you to filter out the dross that would require you to change your business processes for no good reason. In the days of virtual vaults, metadata and full text indexing, the system you choose should adapt to suit your current business strategy as well as being flexible to meet your future changes
