As Microsoft Exchange is deployed and utilized as the basis of groupware and mail services, organizations are investigating ways to further leverage their Exchange investments. DIGITAL^TM Expeditor for Microsoft Exchange provides the extra software capability needed to address a specific class of business solutions. It combines document management, workflow services, data/forms management, and solutions integration capabilities into a single product.

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• Extends Outlook clients with the ability to store and handle electronic work files, and provides personalized access to the related business functions, applications, and services.
• Provides document management features designed to support the handling of mission-critical business cases. They extend the basic functions of the Electronic Work File service with options for the creation, control, management, and publication of case file components.
• Provides workflow functions that route work files depending on the actual value of their business data. The workflow process is transaction-oriented to support the secure completion of business-critical processes.
• Work files are implemented as configurable and programmable sets of business objects. After installation of Expeditor, the Outlook Form Designer offers access to the business repository on the server. A graphical workbench allows for the detailed definition of the behavior of business objects.

DIGITAL^TM Expeditor for Microsoft Exchange is a document management and control extensions application for Microsoft Exchange. Expeditor enables a workgroup to collaborate on projects and automate business processes through the use of programmable business objects. Expeditor has components for document management, document-level security, audit trails, workflow, storage of all components of a project, and dynamic creation of workgroup-authorization based on a person’s responsibilities within the scope of a particular project. The combination of DIGITAL Expeditor and Microsoft Exchange is a true collaboration solution for companies who prefer Exchange for mail, and are looking for groupware, document management, and workflow capabilities.

Solution concepts

In an enterprise, work is not performed just on an individual basis, but usually as part of a coordinated work process involving many people. Individuals have specific roles and responsibilities requiring access to documents and data to perform both predefined and ad-hoc tasks. This work needs to be tracked and controlled by those involved in the work process and by those responsible for managing the organization.

DIGITAL Expeditor for Microsoft Exchange provides the ability to leverage an organization’s Microsoft investment to implement comprehensive work-process business solutions. It is a new generation of applied automation in areas that previously could not be easily addressed.

Components and functions

DIGITAL Expeditor for Microsoft Exchange utilizes the capabilities of a variety of Microsoft products, and it focuses on leveraging Microsoft Exchange and its style of use. Exchange provides a highly flexible and easy-to-use communications structure—critical attributes of a work process application.

The Exchange server offers the basic communications delivery infrastructure. The Outlook client provides the interface, supplying the style of use for the organization.

Notification of work arrives in a user’s Outlook inbox. Incoming, as well as pending, work packets (folders) reside in work-in-progress file cabinets. As work is completed, it is forwarded to the next work-process step.

A work folder or packet contains all the information needed by the organization and the individual to complete the job. This includes all documents that have been previously created, plus their "latest versions," and all the data required for organizing and processing work. For the organization, the work folder enforces business policies such as who has access to information and what they can do. For highly structured work processes, who will get what and when, and what roles people will perform in the work process, can also be defined in the work folder. For ad-hoc work processes, users can define the work process and rules at the moment of work inception. It is even possible for work to naturally flow through an organization without any defined structure and still be tracked and controlled.

All work process information is stored in an Object Repository that stores its physical data in a Microsoft SQL Server database. The Object Repository not only holds the actual business data, it also contains logic about the work process, the roles and responsibilities people perform, as well as the access management to all related work information from external systems or resources. The Object Repository also allows for the administrator, system manager, and solution implementers to conveniently manage and make additions/changes to the specific operations of the work-process solution.

While the Object Repository is sued for specific work-process management, all system and network management issues are left to the Windows NT operating system.  With Windows NT, the Object Repository can be deployed on multiple systems in a distributed network, yet still operate as a single work process solution across a large organization.

Solution capabilities

With the product capabilities of Microsoft harnessed in a single tool focused on automating work processes, the customer-specific solution potential is almost inexhaustible. There are many unique work processes in every organization that will benefit from this solution capability. Good examples are the preparation and management of case files in the public sector, or the management of project files in an engineering organization. The secure management and control of "sensitive" files, such as medical records or employee files, are also good examples. The DIGITAL Expeditor for Microsoft Exchange reduces the time to complete work, reduces the cost of completing work, and improves the quality of work results. It has the application range to support ad-hoc (team-oriented) solutions to highly structured and predefined (work process) solutions.