Power ECM And ERP Integration

With expertise in content management, bar code scanning systems, RFID (radio frequency identification), computer networking, disaster recovery, and Microsoft Great Plains accounting software, Computer Support Services, Inc. (CSSI) is a VAR structured to handle almost any IT challenge. The breadth of its solution offerings not only opens CSSI to more customers, it also provides the VAR with excellent insight on the impact one technology can have on another.

For example, in the mid-1990s CSSI began to recognize that many businesses, particularly its Microsoft Great Plains clients, were becoming more interested in document imaging. The VAR became a certified reseller of EMC/Documentum's ApplicationXtender document management platform to immediately address this need. However, the VAR saw an inherent flaw in the way document imaging systems were being evaluated and deployed by its clients and prospects.

"Typically, businesses evaluated document management systems as stand-alone technologies where document images would need to be re-associated with the transactions entered in the ERP system or other line-of-business application," says Tom Erickson, VP of CSSI. "For instance, accessing images of invoices related to an accounting transaction would require an operator to exit the ERP system, log into the document management system, and rekey the account information [e.g. a customer number]."