Open Source Document Managment and Fujitsu scanners with different platforms

Document management with modern scanning systems makes the work of transferring high volume paper work into digital copies easy.  Software products available for Mac OS and Windows allow for direct scans to PDF with high accuracy OCR (Optical Character Recognition).  OCR allows you to scan documents, and very quickly have them presented in a format that you can edit with Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, Open office, or other editing software.  Scanner manufacturer Fujitsu creates high speed office document scanners, and supports having the open source community create drivers for their systems.  The universal TWAIN interface (http://www.twain.org) supported by Fujitsu allows you to utilize any document management system (or plug-in to other software products) and store items by dates, names, keywords, content, etc.  This allows quick retrieval of documents out of the document database with a simple search for the document's name, the classification of the document, or even the contents of the document itself.

Open sourced document management systems are readily available and are community supported.  Some of these include Knowledge Tree, OpenKM, and Epiware. 

Knowledge Tree supports many file types, and has the capability to search inside many files - allowing you to quickly locate a file just by knowing a few words inside the document.  Revision control (e.g. version control) and project groups are also supported, allowing for edit tracking and collaboration between people on documents.  Knowledge Tree will run on a Linux web server, and being open source itself, this reduces the cost of implementing a document management system greatly.  Using technologies like apache, mysql, php, and Openoffice, this creates a secure stable platform to store, organize, and backup your company's collection of paperwork.

OpenKM is a java web based solution for document management with a commercial and an open source side to it.  The free version contains most of the features that Knowledge Tree has, but is missing a feature called Webdav.  Webdav allows for the document manager to interface with many operating systems as a direct folder. Example: one can edit and save a document from Microsoft word right into the document manager database.  OpenKM focuses more on the individual user's collection of information.  Missing a work flow editor in the free edition, it's primary use would be for a search-able index of your personal document collection.

Epiware is a newer system that has recently been released as an open source product. It caters more to an all around solution for a company intranet, including information management, document storage, work flow and revision checking on documents, company news and RSS feeds, company wiki, and a support ticket system.  One of the good things about this system is that if it covers everything you need for an intranet and document management, it will do the job.  Expanding to other products would prove useful but difficult to implement with so many options provided by Epiware's internal system.  Epiware focus's on it's increased feature set outside of information management, and because of that, would not be useful if very specific customizations are needed for an individual company.

Knowledge Tree is one of the best examples of a successful document management systems in our opinion. For example, it is in use by companies such as: Mazda Motor Europe, Fujifilm Graphic Systems, Sony Computer Entertainment, Habitat for Humanity of Lafayette, Cox Communications Inc, Georgia Department of Audits USA, Goodrich Corporation, and many many others.  With the multi level user permissions, work flow editor, revision check in/ check out, WEBDAV direct support, and a custom Microsoft office plug-in, Knowledge Tree would be the best choice to move your entire office to a paperless system.  The reduced costs in storing digital copies of everything pays off quickly with savings in employee time, printer maintenance and supplies, physical storage room, and etc.  With digital signature pads easily integrated with most software, you could convert the work flow of the office into one without physical paper.

Feature Breakdown

http://www.knowledgetree.com/ 

http://www.openkm.com/ 

http://www.epiware.com/ 

Fujitsu Document Scanners