Electronic document management at the World Bank

The Information Utility of the World Bank is embarking on a pilot program to provide electronic document management at the desktop. The participants will include individual staff and their respective business units in one of the vice presidencies responsible for lending programs, the core business of the Bank. The provision of this service is associated with the parallel introduction of an enterprise network, independent of hardware/software configuration or location. A comprehensive range of features is planned for implementation over a 10 year time frame, or as fast as the market place and user acceptance will permit. The Word Bank has defined the concept of electronic document management within the framework of an information management architecture which encompasses the full range of information that a Bank staff member may need to use in order to produce information required by a business process, including internal records as well as information retrieved from external sources. At the conference, the presentation will outline the Bank's approach to solving the problems of electronic document management, a rapidly evolving field. A progress report on the pilot project will also be given. This paper outlines the theoretical framework within which a document management system is being developed