As most current electronic contract management systems work well for only a few but not all processes in a contract lifecycle because of their inabilities to handle electronic documents in more than one file format simultaneously. In this paper, we present an efficient and automated enterprise electronic contract management system using both XML and secure PDF documents. The advantages of such dual file formats are to provide the best capabilities and functionalities for contract creation, negotiation, execution and data mining. The structured XML document allows an easy and flexible way to create, negotiate, revise and finalize a contract while the PDF document permits adding signature as watermark on a secure signed contract. A novel conversion method to convert between these two file formats is also described.
By: Thomas Kwok; Thao Nguyen
Published in: RC24052 in 2006
LIMITED DISTRIBUTION NOTICE:
This Research Report is available. This report has been submitted for publication outside of IBM and will probably be copyrighted if accepted for publication. It has been issued as a Research Report for early dissemination of its contents. In view of the transfer of copyright to the outside publisher, its distribution outside of IBM prior to publication should be limited to peer communications and specific requests. After outside publication, requests should be filled only by reprints or legally obtained copies of the article (e.g., payment of royalties). I have read and understand this notice and am a member of the scientific community outside or inside of IBM seeking a single copy only.
Questions about this service can be mailed to reports@us.ibm.com .