ColumbiaSoft

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ColumbiaSoft
Type	Private
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Portland, Oregon
Key people	Richard Day, Founder and CEO David Pogue, VP of Worldwide Sales Carl Azar, VP of Marketing and Product Development Scott Zieg, Director of Engineering
Industry	Software, Document Management, Scanning, Paperless Office
Products	Document Management Records Management Document Scanning Email Management Workflow Management
Website	www.documentlocator.com

ColumbiaSoft is a manufacturer of software for document management, scanning, and paperless office solutions. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the firm makes document management systems for small and medium enterprises.^[1]^[2]

[edit] History

ColumbiaSoft was founded in 1998 by Richard Day in order to serve the document management needs of small to medium-size businesses. At the time, most document management systems were too expensive and too complex for companies of that size.^[2] Day began at PED Manufacturing Ltd. which he co-founded with his brother and father and eventually sold to a British conglomerate in 1997.^[3]

ColumbiaSoft's first product was named Document Locator. It allowed users to perform keyword searches on documents, such as those produced by the Microsoft Office suite of applications (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and other application documents). The goal was to help businesses of any size keep documents better organized, improve document quality, speed document searches and support tighter collaboration among project teams and divisions.^[3] Document Locator has since developed to integrate with Prolog and Brava. It replaces legacy FTP systems and shared-file servers and creates a structured, non-hosted platform for off-network collaboration.^[4]

The rise in compliance laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the USA PATRIOT Act has made access to enterprise content management (ECM) systems important to small businesses. The Government Paperwork Elimination Act allows electronic information to be a substitute for paper.^[5] The company developed its document management software to support ECM capabilities needed for the electronic information management of heterogeneous content types (electronic documents, scans, email, Web content, and rich media) within mid-size organizations.^[1]^[5]^[6] The software can be used by practically any business in any industry that needs to track documents.^[2]

In 2001, Document Locator became the first document management product ever to emulate a Windows file system. It integrated databases into Windows user interface shells. ColumbiaSoft has been a Microsoft partner since 2002.^[7] In 2007, ColumbiaSoft released the latest version of Document Locator (version 5.0) which addresses schedule pressures, legal risks and document configuration specific to the architecture, engineering, and construction industry in addition to integrated document imaging, electronic versioning, e-mail capture and archiving, records management, and automated workflow.^[8] ^[9] Document Locator was recognized as a “Top 100 Collection Technology Product” in 2007. The award was presented by Collection Advisor magazine and announced during a Reader’s Choice Award Reception at the TECH’07 trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[10]

In 2005, ColumbiaSoft received its largest-ever order, more than $550,000, from the building and design firm Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. of Kansas City, Missouri.^[2] A majority of ColumbiaSoft orders are between $15,000 and $30,000.^[2] In 2007, ColumbiaSoft's customer base increased 33% as reported by the company. More than 600 companies are active users of ColumbiaSoft products.^[11] For 2005, the company reached $3 million in revenue and employed 20 people.^[2]