Adobe to unveil document services platform

Adobe Systems this week will introduce a new Java-based server platform designed to automate and accelerate the flow of information between organizations using PDF documents.

In addition, Adobe will unveil several new and updated products that take advantage of the new platform. All products are part of Adobe’s Intelligent Document Platform, a plan to make XML-enhanced PDFs the standard way to transmit data among systems.

Using Adobe products, companies will be able to automatically process data sent to them in PDF forms, eliminating the need to manually enter the data into their own systems. It also works in the reverse, allowing system data to be displayed in a PDF form. Adobe’s product rivals Microsoft’s XML plans for Office and InfoPath and competes with products from smaller vendors.

“We have a single way to connect to all the different data sources in an enterprise,” said Sydney Sloan, group product marketing manager at Adobe.

Using Java APIs and Web services protocols, Adobe’s document services products can be tied to CRM and ERP systems, for example. Adobe is tuning its software to work with products from SAP and IBM, as well.

During the past year, Adobe has seen significant growth in the burgeoning market for electronic forms, said Joshua Duhl, research director at IDC. Moving to a single, Java-based platform will help Adobe further expand its business, he said. “This is another step in Adobe’s progress toward selling more server-side enterprise software. By offering their products on a standards-based architecture, running on application servers in Java, they are making their products conform to what is now standard infrastructure for enterprise software,” Duhl said.

New or recently announced products scheduled to be available this week include Document Security Server, Barcoded Paper Forms Solution, and Designer. Adobe also plans to release updates of its Form Server, which deploys dynamic forms, and Reader Extensions Server, which unlocks hidden features in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Form Manager and Policy Server are scheduled to ship later this year.

Document Security Server and Policy Server are products that allow organizations to control access to information, create audit trails of usage records, and certify document authenticity with digital signatures. This is to help companies comply with privacy disclosure and reporting legislation, Adobe said.