This Spring's AIIM show in New York showed us at DMAC subtle shifting of alliances, products and vendor goals. While the show continues to attract a large audience, this audience is growing in maturity.

No longer do potential users come to us bragging about what they learned at a competitor's booth. Now they come with questions as to whether something really works -- or is just hype. The number of people who stopped by our booth who had been "burned" by an imaging project increased ten fold from 1996.

Hype Or Fact - Users Want To Know

One potential user came back to us on the last day to tell us that he has described Unibase by DMAC to others as "our competitor's product -- without the baggage." We were not offended.

Vendors Wonder About Open Systems

Three other vendors came to me to talk about using our interim flat file interface which we developed while waiting on the flat ASCII Forms Interchange Standard (FIS). These vendors questioned whether FIS had fizzled. In talking with some people from Cornerstone about FIS only vague answers were given.

Cornerstone May Go To API From FIS

One Cornerstone technical person declared that a flat ASCII file interface was too open. He was in favor of developing another Application Program Interface (API) instead. I asked him if he had read about Corba or Active X. No, he had not.

Integrators Know What Is Needed

Many bright spots were there. For example, Gerald Perez, of Automated Business Solutions, an excellent systems integrator, came to me to talk about how everyone should be talking Corba and Active X products -- and yet no one was.

Rigid BNF Specification Is Needed

To support an open Corba compliant and Active X compliant forms interchange standard, a Bacus Nour Form defined interface is a must as a beginning step. Our technical people want to push a refinement for the flat ASCII file interface, FIS, since it has been over a year and no definitive specifications for it have arrived. We have approached one vendor of Bacus Nour Form products to write a definitive spec for FIS. He was overwhelmed at the magnitude of the project and backed away from providing a quote. He said Dr. Johannes Schmidt of Cornerstone was the logical person to create the specification. Dr. Schmidt at the AIIM show said that the project has been delegated at Cornerstone.

We ask users and other vendors to let Cornerstone know how they feel. We need the BNF standard so that all vendors feel there is a level playing field. If one does not come from Cornerstone this summer, then we at DMAC, along with other vendors will create a BNF standard for FIS. With this defined, our data capture industry can proceed into the world of Corba, Active X, world recognized standards, active agents, etc. ( and not fall behind like we did in the mid 1970's.)

Getting Open Standard Is Tough

As a result of our learning experience above, we at DMAC have signed up for our own booth at the 1998 AIIM show. We will have, one way or another, a BNF specification for the FIS. We hope we will have our first applets for FIS to show. When working with other vendors a spirit of cooperation controls progress -- and this spirit waxes and wanes.