We used to know them as ‘scanning solutions’. With the advent of the CD in the mid-80’s, there suddenly arrived a new medium for storing data which ensured that the data could not be tampered with.
Many software vendors jumped on this ‘bandwagon’ and began to provide solutions for storing data on tamper-proof CD’s.
Initially, the solutions were all about storing output from core applications, output such as daily reports, financial statements, etc. The concept became known as COLD – Computer Output to Laser Disc. With automatic indexing of such information, business users found a way to store and instantly retrieve the documents which had historically been printed and stored on A3 listing paper. read the rest here