By allowing efficient fully productive implementation in phases large projects begin paying for themselves before they are completed. Often competitive alternatives don't see any return on investment until well after total implementation is completed. Document imaging and workflow systems are not an end unto themselves. Often these systems have been sold on the basis of murky generalizations about the paperless office and the need to build infrastructure to support the company of tomorrow. This is a bunch of nonsense, systems can be designed to provide very rapid simple payback but this optimization of return on investment requires a flexible product that can address needs today and tomorrow.
Workflow systems have to scale well.
Many systems look good in small implementations but subtle and sometimes not so subtle architectural defects prevent them from effectively growing to meet the enterprise challenge. Foundation was designed to be cost effective for small workflows while being able to build to massive scale. We have implemented systems that clock workflow transaction decisions in excess of 10 million per hour on a single server.