Parts of a unified data system.

One login per module, often with separate user accounts

One login for everything

Maintained separately in every module

One permission model, set once, applies everywhere

Documents here, issues there, forms somewhere else

One search across documents, issues and forms

A markup in the PDF, raised again as a second issue in the model

One issue, linked to the element in the model

Each module with its own, often fixed approval stages

Predefined workflows, quickly drawn. They decide who is responsible and what may be done to the document.

Vendor templates, filled in on paper and scanned back in

Predefined and easy to build yourself, filled in on the device and searchable afterwards

Spread across several vendors and servers

One data base, in your own house if you want it there

Arrive when the module's supplier ships them

Arrive in the same interface, on the same data