NextPage technology leverages a breakthrough architecture that overcomes the challenges of today’s centralized document management paradigms. Instead of being required to check documents in and out of a central repository, NextPage users are free to store and share documents the same way they always have, so your organization’s existing business practices and social conventions remain intact. As NextPage Control weaves its Digital Thread™ through users' files, the files can be tracked and managed through the entire document lifecycle—regardless of where they’re stored.


NextPage® Digital Thread™

The Digital Thread™ technology uses patented algorithms to allow users to track and manage documents moving through disparate systems including email, hard drives, servers, and removable media.

When a document is saved, the Digital Thread™ stores information about each version. This enables the document’s identity to survive location and filename changes as it travels through a multitude of different systems and across organizational boundaries. At any time, the Digital Thread™ tracking system stores a comprehensive view of where the document is and has been. To accomplish this, NextPage tags every file within its tracking platform. These tags act as the file’s DNA and, combined with the NextPage system's patented algorithms, allow the service to determine whether and how any two files are genetically related. Since the Digital Thread never embeds information within a file, it can track any file type.

CLIENT AGENT

The NextPage Client Agent runs on each user’s computer. It consists of a background process and four add-ons (one each for Microsoft® Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Microsoft Outlook® (or Lotus Notes)). These components perform the following functions with minimal user intervention:

  • Initiate tracking of files
  • Detect files in e-mail attachments and on users’ hard drives
  • Confirm decisions with the Global Service when they require global consistency

GOVERNANCE SERVICE

The NextPage Governance Service maintains just enough system state to allow it to ensure global consistency of metadata across the entire NextPage system. The global service runs in a hosting data center on a redundant server cluster, or it can be installed on-premise. The Client Agent can run indefinitely without contacting the Enterprise Service; after a predefined amount of time it merely displays out-of-date information.