Enterprise Content Management Software Market Trends


Enterprise Content Management Software Market Trends











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Enterprise Content Management Software
Market Trends

by Brady Hicks

Copyright 2020, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights
Reserved.

Docid: 00017807

Publication Date: 2012

Report Type: MARKET

Preview

An enterprise content
management (ECM) system includes all of the technology needed to capture,
manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to
organizational processes. New products in this category allow tighter
integration between ECM and other enterprise solutions. Though top-tier ECM
systems can be costly, growth in this segment is fueled by a tough
regulatory environment that demands transparency and accountability in
enterprise record-keeping processes. This report takes a look at the
various considerations of the constantly evolving ECM market.

Report Contents

Executive Summary

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Enterprise content management (ECM) offers a system for tracking and
accounting for documents. In more recent times, ECM has evolved into other areas
as well, including Web content management and various tools to facilitate
enterprise-wide content access.

Record Management Systems Market Trends

Regardless of the enterprise function, however, interest in content
management – which tends to be fueled by mandates to cut costs, provide accountability, and offer
transparency – only continues to grow. This includes regulations promulgated as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), both of which
have driven significant growth in ECM
records management and reporting systems.

Of current ECM software systems, an emerging generation of solutions are powered by advanced architectural approaches that rely on Web services and
XML. This allows for nearly seamless
integration with other enterprise solutions, greater collaboration, and
exposure of formerly “siloed” data. In addition, a fairly
broad selection of lower-cost ECM solutions is available via hosted,
cloud-based, and virtualized models.

Market Dynamics

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What ECM Encompasses

In many respects, ECM today may be considered
an umbrella term encompassing a number of information-management
disciplines, among them the management of documents, workflows, records, and
Web-based content.

The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) – which represents the enterprise
content management industry – defines ECM as “the technologies used to
capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related
to organizational processes.” Over time, however, that definition of ECM
has continued to grow.

Enterprise-ready content management
systems also address key regulatory compliance issues raised by
the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, including due diligence and record retention
management. In addition, market leaders in the ECM arena offer products that are
both Web
based and typically reliant on Web services and XML technologies. This extends
the reach of ECM systems, allowing them to be more easily integrated with
other enterprise solutions for improved collaboration and options for formerly
“stovepiped” data repositories.

Emerging Dynamics

The competitive
environment of the ECM software
market has pushed vendors to
differentiate themselves through innovation. Market leaders
are rushing to
meet customer demand for deeper and richer feature sets such
as out-of-the-box
integration with legacy systems and flexible personalization,
XML
compatibility, and open-source code. Trends in ECM systems include
convergence with e-business solutions. High-end packages typically
include one or more shopping carts and, in some cases, provide choices
between B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) selling features.

An ECM provider – in formulating its product-development strategy – should account for the following phenomena:

  • Cloud-Based Storage – At least one aspect of enterprise content management –
    content control – appears to be incompatible with the cloud. How can an
    individual enterprise’s ECM solution truly control the disposition and use of
    enterprise content stored on third-party servers?
  • Unstructured Data – The proliferation of social
    information and mobile content within the enterprise has been a huge
    contributor to the growing amount of corporate data.
  • Big Data – Massive
    amounts of data being generated on a daily basis by businesses and consumers
    alike – data that cannot be processed using conventional data analysis
    tools owing to its sheer size and, in many case, its unstructured nature.
  • NOT a Complementary Concept – ECM is not designed to
    complement predecessor disciplines such as data, information, document, and records management. Ideally, ECM
    should replace those disciplines.

To illustrate the enormity of the issue, McKinsey noted in a 2016 report1
that the "progress in capturing value from data and analytics has been uneven,"
as illustrated in Table 1

Table 1. Data and Analytics: Capturing Value
Type Value Percentage Captured
Location-Based Data 50-60 percent
Retail 30-40 percent
Manufacturing (US)

20-30 percent
EU Public Sector

10-20 percent
US Healthcare

10-20 percent

Market Leaders

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Current leaders in the ECM market space include:

  • Open Text
  • IBM
  • Oracle
  • Microsoft
  • Box
  • Hyland Software

Illustrative of a typical multi-function ECM
product is the IBM Content Manager a
scalable, cloud-based ECM solution that helps clients manage document images, electronic office documents, XML, audio, and video for multiple
platforms. This product – like many of its competitors – provides:

  • On-demand access to content
  • Document-management functions
  • Workflow building for developing processes
  • Scalable, multi-tiered architecture

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Most-recent estimates peg the global ECM market at $36.2 billion (2019), with
MarketWatch forecasting a 10.8 percent CAPG rate through 2027.2

Features of Interest

Demands on content management systems have become increasingly sophisticated.
Recent enterprise ECM trends include a strong focus on:

  • Enabling information sharing among trading partners
  • Meeting mandated regulatory compliance deadlines
  • Reducing costs through content repurposing

As a result, there is
significant interest in features that tend to promote these objectives,
including:

  • Syndication – Companies can increase the reach of
    their brand in some cases by using ECM to either syndicate their own content
    out to portals or to enhance their sites with content purchased from
    syndicates in a form friendly to their ECM package.
  • Transactional Content
    Management     – Any associated process needs to be optimized in
    order to increase efficiency, as well as productivity, both of which strongly
    affect an organization’s bottom line.
  • Social ECM – Tools that appeal to the "social
    aspects" of content management, such as sharing and collaborating
    via mobile devices.
  • Content in Context – Increasingly,
    content, which is normally viewed as a community resource, is assuming a
    more personalized character.

Strategic Planning Implications

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There currently exist a number of business results that continue to drive the
adoption of ECM, among them:

  • Customer Service Improvements – A good ECM system
    can capture information that can help an organization improve its
    handling of data and reduce associated costs.
  • Improved Corporate
    Accountability     – With an ECM package that includes record
    retention capabilities as well as document versioning, compliance is
    more easily established.
  • Transparency – Such a system not
    only helps individuals with decision-making, but may also record how and
    why decisions were made, thus limiting risk exposure.
  • Retention – Information Lifecycle
    Management capabilities can help an enterprise to maintain information for the
    correct length of time and dispose of it in accordance with laws and
    corporate policies.
  • Knowledge Management – This can lead to business improvements across the
    board, resulting in better customer service, improved decision making,
    and innovative product development.
  • Business Process Management – While the systems still
    manage content, the leading packages have morphed into process management
    environments.
  • Collaboration – With the integration of
    collaboration capabilities, data can be better coordinated between
    organizational units and external partners.

Choosing the System

There is no single ECM system that can do all things for all customers,
and some systems are better for one vertical market than another. There are
several factors that should be considered before selecting a system.

Price. Do not assume that a leading
vendor offering a solution that has more capabilities than needed should be
excluded from consideration. Vendors can often eliminate modules to provide a
package that meets the customer’s needs.

Customization. If a customer has a well-defined
set of needs that include non-standard requirements, it may be necessary to
customize the package. Modifications, however, tend to be pricey and
come with the implied additional cost of ongoing maintenance.

Vertical Markets. Some ECM vendors specialize in
certain vertical markets, and these fields of specialization are important to
recognize and account for when shopping for solutions. Investigate what
system others in the same general business are using before requesting bids.
This will not only narrow the field but will help to ensure that the vendor
has some knowledge of the content issues involved. Examples of this are the
publishing, financial, and healthcare markets, which present requirements
that some packages cannot handle.

Site Visits. Almost all ECM vendors provide for
site visits to observe a company using their software.

Training. The deployment of an ECM system is
a major project. Purchasers must have a clear understanding of the learning
curve an ECM system presents. Vendor training is a must.

Ongoing Support. Almost all ECM vendors will
provide ongoing support for their products. These measures should be
shopped aggressively, finding out what
services are provided, the actual provider, and how services are charged.

Think “Big
Picture.” Organizations should evaluate packages in terms of the opportunity to improve
business practices, rather than simply to automate them.

References

  • 1 “The Age of Analytics: Competing in a Data-Driven World." McKinsey.
    December 2016.
  • 2 "Global Enterprise Content Management Market Size to
    Surpass USD 36.2 billion at 10.8% CAGR by 2027." MarketWatch. October
    15, 2020.

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About the Author

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Brady Hicks is an editor with Faulkner Information Services. He writes
about computer and networking hardware, software, communications networks and
equipment, and the Internet.

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