PC DOCS Asia - a joint venture of Canadian technology marketing group Quorum Growth International and software company PC DOCS Group International - was established in February to distribute and support the sales of PC DOCS software in the region.

Each partner has invested a total of US$300 million over the past three years to localise products and set up operations and sales channels in Asia.

'We are now beginning to increase that as the market builds and the customer base broadens,' Bill Hutchison, managing director of PC DOCS Asia, said.

PC DOCS Asia plans to add a support team of product developers, sales and marketing staff to its Hong Kong office to localise and sell PC DOCS management software.

The territory's well-established legal community would be the biggest users of PC DOCS products, mirroring sales patterns in the United States and Britain, Mr Kyne predicted.

'Anyone involved in the legal system has heard of document management,' he said.

The Government's legal and housing departments, along with the Hong Kong Tourist Authority, presently use the English-language version of DOCS Open.

The Hong Kong version of DOCS Open will feature a Chinese-character text retrieval system developed by EPRO Systems.

Double-byte PC DOCS software was developed two years ago, enabling the creation of a Korean version of DOCS Open that had a strong customer base in the major corporations, Mr Kyne said.

Simplified and traditional Chinese character versions of DOCS Open will be launched in Taiwan and China later this year, in addition to a localised version for Japan.

The Asian market accounted for only 1.5 per cent of PC DOCS sales figures last year, but Mr Kyne predicted it would grow quickly to 10 per cent.

'With localised products and a greater staff presence in the region, there is a lot of scope to make the product bigger,' he said.