Document management software is mainly used for the storage and retrieval of self-contained electronic data sources in the document form. These systems are designed to help organizations manage the creation and flow of documents through a centralized repository. Document management software play a pivotal role in sourcing, monitoring, and managing content and extracting intelligible strategic business insights from the voluminous content generated by enterprises. Owing to this, there is an increased demand for document management systems mostly among enterprises as data is regarded as a corporate asset in enterprises. Depending on the organization, document management software can be installed in both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large enterprises. Based on deployment mode, the market is further segmented into on premise, cloud-based, and hybrid models. On the basis of applications, the market is further classified into banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI); government; healthcare; education; corporate; industrial manufacturing; retail; and other applications.

Market Overview

Document management software is the application of certain processes, tools, and practices that aid in the easy creation, storage, tracking, and retrieval of documents, which is a more efficient process than traditional paper-based workflows. Document management software can either be single workstations or complex infrastructures spanning hundreds of terabytes of data. The advantages of using document management systems are numerous for enterprises of all sizes. Growth in the document management systems market is mainly driven by factors such as the increasing need to streamline business operations, growing initiatives to digitalize content across enterprises, and the increasing need to adhere to compliance requirements. High implementation costs, on the other hand, are expected to limit market growth to a certain extent.

Drivers

Growing need to streamline business operations

Most web-based document management systems have inbuilt workflow capabilities that help them streamline business processes by eliminating repetitive manual tasks and freeing up staff for more important activities. Data management streamlines business processes by making strategic decisions and identifying bottlenecks in business processes. Most business processes involve the movement of large volumes of documents from the company to a third party, from one department to another within the company, and from one person to another within a department. Well-planned and efficient movement of documents can significantly speed up business processes and enhance their quality.

A better data management framework can ensure proper utilization of resources and better communication and collaboration between business entities. This cohesiveness between different business entities can improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organization on the whole. The integration of document management software with back-office applications increases the overall efficiency of an organization. By enabling automated workflows, it defines tasks for a department or for business processes across various departments while enabling greater collaboration across multiple users, even in geographically dispersed locations. A unified view of enterprise data can quickly resolve organizational conflicts as well as consumer complaints.

Benefits of digitalizing content across enterprise

In the last decade, enterprises across all domains have witnessed an exponential growth in the volume of data generated. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) (US), almost 90% of the world’s existing data has been created in the last few years, and by the end of 2020, it is estimated that the data would grow from 4.4 zettabytes to approximately 44 zettabytes. Furthermore, smartphones account for nearly 40% of the global ecommerce transactions and thus generate voluminous content.

The surge in internet usage, driven by the social network phenomenon, has also redefined the scope and scale of content created and distributed. There is an increased need for firms to manage this commercial and private data to enhance their business competitiveness.

These factors have made it essential for enterprises to explore efficient database applications and implement scalable content and document management software. Document management systems capture, store, manage, and deliver unstructured data into a structured format without any error or data loss and within seconds. To work more efficiently, traditional management systems have evolved with new components, such as intelligent information platforms, to capture and manage the new variety of data.

Increasing need to adhere to compliance requirements

Compliance enables enterprises to address industry standards and regulations such as the European Union Data Protection Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Freedom of Information Act, and Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) for assessing the overall security risk of a cloud provider. Many end users are adopting enterprise-class clouds that can address their cloud compliance issues and governance needs. In today’s diverse computing environment, enterprises require cloud service providers that are capable of addressing these compliance and governance needs. Cloud service providers assist end users in meeting their regulatory standards while leveraging cloud solutions and applications. Cloud-based management systems enable enterprises to quickly enforce and monitor their information governance policies. For example, Veeva Systems (US) offers Veeva Vault, a cloud-based enterprise content management platform and a unified suite of applications, which enables enterprises to fulfill their compliance requirements.

Many businesses today are making considerable modifications to their IT systems and internal processes to comply with federal regulations and mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, OSHA, and SEC.

Online document management systems make this easier with built-in audit trails, which enable access to histories and transactions for each document. Some solutions also make record management more convenient by integrating with online document management applications, which allows users to set retention parameters for relevant files and documents. Online document management is an outstanding way to better prepare organizations for audits and protects them against litigation, thereby eliminating the potential for fines and penalties.

Government regulations require maintenance of different kinds of data and documents, and the requirements are often very complex. Best document management software helps to ensure compliance with the rules, using such means as checklists and standard forms.

Increasing adoption of cloud computing

Secure cloud-based document management plays a pivotal role in both SMEs as well as large organizations. With cloud-based systems, authorized users can adopt one system within their business, which helps to deliver real-time information that can be securely accessed anytime and from any location. Cloud-based systems also provide the tools for a more consistent, collaborative practice of document management software.

There are many document management software available for businesses; however, most of these require individual user licenses, which makes a full-scale corporate roll-out a costly exercise. Cloud-based systems provide both commercial and security advantages over on-premise electronic document management.

Cloud computing provides an easily accessible resource and repository for both documents and related software and is also cost-effective. Such ease of accessibility can have significant benefits for customer service with the ability to instantly view important documents and access the latest real-time information. Customer queries can be dealt with quickly, accurately, and efficiently, which is imperative for all businesses.

However, there are both pros and cons to using cloud computing as the base for DMS. It provides ease of access and reduced maintenance efforts, but it also brings in potential security risks and does not provide total control. However, cloud security is among the most researched areas, and improvements in this area are expected in the coming years.

Opportunities

Integration with client and employee portals

In the years to come, best document management software are expected to become much more personalized, efficient, and capable of handling larger volumes of data. Technological advances, new devices, and the contemporary workplace are all shaping up these solutions.

A major trend in this market is the integration of client portals that can be used for the purpose of improved customer service and the creation of a loyal clientele base. Innovative document management solutions facilitate communication between coworkers and business partners. These solutions can also be used to improve communication with clients.

Client portals make it easy for customer service reps and clients to share documents with each other. A company’s intranet can feature a client portal, which is equipped with a reliable document management solution. While email is still prominently used for this purpose, client portals lead to a higher level of customer satisfaction and more productive interactions.

Reduction in paper wastage

In every organization, millions of sheets of paper are utilized in the form of invoices, documentation, record keeping, and communication. Whether printing, receiving, mailing, or faxing, paper plays a big role in any working environment. While certain elements of business such as forms and correspondence have successfully transitioned to digital versions, others still remain paper-based.

Considerable time is wasted and used inefficiently in managing paper documentation, especially when a high percentage of the data is created and generated electronically. Document management systems are a valuable solution for organizations as they help in reducing paper wastage, which in turn reduces the cost of printing. Owing to this, many organizations are increasingly transitioning to a paper-free environment. This can be efficiently achieved with the use of best document management software.

The competitive leadership mapping showcased provides information for Document Management Software. Vendor evaluations are based on two broad categories: product offering and business strategy. Each category carries various criteria, based on which vendors have been evaluated. The evaluation criteria considered under product offerings include the breadth of offering, delivery (based on industries that the vendors cater to, deployment models, and subscriptions), features/functionality, delivery, product quality and reliability, and product differentiation. The evaluation criteria considered under business strategy include geographic footprint (on the basis of geographic presence), channel strategy and fit, vision alignment, and effectiveness of growth (on the basis of innovations, partnerships, collaborations, and acquisitions).

One View, SmartDocs, Vault, Zoho Notebook, CloudConvert, Zoho Docs, Bynder, PaperSave, and Laserfiche have been identified as Visionary Leaders in the best Document Management Software market.

Worldox, Webdocs, ISNetworld, Inteum, VKS, Loyal, and Xinn have been identified as Dynamic Differentiators in the best Document Management Software market.

Blue10, FilesAnywhere, eStudio, empower, MetaShare, GDocs, OnBase, and Bitrix24 have been recognized as the Innovators in the Document Management Software market.

Content Manager, ApowerPDF, Copyleaks, ImageSite, YellowFolder, and Forcura have been positioned as the Emerging Companies in the Document Management Software market.

What are the key features every document management software should have?

Document Storage

Allows users to archive their files in a sole vault for easy recovery, storage, and sharing for future use. Consolidating this process guarantees appropriate information is instantly available when needed.

Security And Access Control

With document management software, businesses can avoid unsanctioned access by employing role-based consents for file entry. Some software programs also confine IP addresses. This guarantees only the correct people can open, view, and modify certain files.

Version Control

This software helps users to stay in control of their document’s versions without having to preserve numerous copies of a single document. It enables users to see all the versions made and notifies every member of the most up-to-date version.

Indexing and Classification

Index files methodically for a rapid, easy recovery later on given its file key.

Bulk Upload

In most circumstances, documents come in huge numbers. Uploading them one by one is time-intense. With the help of the document management software, businesses can upload everything in one go more competently.

PDF Document Editor

Applying alterations and amendments to a PDF file is made easier. The software allows users to add text, textbox, date, and check bar for customizations. They can also take notes and remove typo mistakes with an online spell checker.

White-Labelling

Businesses can define their company’s branding by setting up its color, theme, and logo to guarantee it carries their brand’s look and feel efficiently. Doing so makes their brand appear more proficient.

Mobile Apps

With the best document management software, users can access their files even when they are using a tablet or mobile device. This also streamlines image capture of documents and swift uploads.

File Synchronization

It allows businesses to sync online files with the duplicates of documents stored in their system. This is important in updating their team with the newest documents.

Audit Trail

Referring to a document’s track in its lifespan, this feature allows users to collect comprehensive reports on the path that the file has trailed. This comprises the name of the user, date and time the file was retrieved, the type of action done, and keeps comments from the user.

What are the benefits of using a document management software?

Convenient Retrieval

Documents are kept with the objective of recovering them later whenever required. These requirements can be transactional, research, legal, or similar. Recovering a specific document from the usually large volume of business documents can be demanding or even impossible unless a comprehensive DMS is in place. Appropriate and quick retrieval is a main objective of installing a DMS.

Version Control

Where dissimilar versions of a document need to be preserved it’s important to clearly identify the newest version, including the arrangement of all the diverse versions in presence. A best document management software can remove the chaos that can otherwise outcome when trying to locate a particular version.

Improving Workflow

Business processes normally include movement of documents from the business to third parties, from division to division within the company, and from individual to individual in a department. Numerous persons with dissimilar roles (such as creation, evaluation, endorsement, and dispatch) will have to reference the document before it finishes its envisioned purpose. Well-planned and well-organized movement of documents can considerably speed up business processes and improve their quality.

Regulatory Compliance

The advantage here is one of evading trouble, which can be severe enough to shut down the business. Government guidelines need maintenance of various kinds of data and documents, and the necessities are often very multifaceted. Best document management software will help guarantee compliance with the guidelines, using such means as checklists, standard forms, and automatic organization.

Document Security

Preserving documents becomes completely necessary to meet several diverse requirements. Documents can comprise business secrets and other private data, such as product formulas or employees’ private details. If unapproved persons gain admission to these documents, it can lead to business loss or legal damages. Best document management software guarantees that only approved persons can access specific documents. Documents also need to be protected from dangers such as fires and floods. A good DMS can make it much simple to restore the documents in case of a tragedy.

Cost Reduction

Handling the substantial volume of documents produced in the course of business is costly. In a paper-based structure, paper, ink, file folders, filing cabinets, filing workforce, and other supplies cost money. Even in an electronic system, businesses need computers, storage media, and system-administration workforce. Best document management software can lessen these costs by meeting all document associated requirements in a well-planned style.

Improved Competitiveness

By refining business processes, decreasing costs, and averting serious losses, a DMS can dynamically contribute to business effectiveness.

What are the typical services offered by document management software providers?

Implementation Services

Vendors offer implementation services to organizations for the efficient installation of DMS solutions within an organization’s existing IT infrastructure. In this market, vendors offer services that evaluate the complete project lifecycle and help with staffing and assigning the right person to the right task. For the implementation of services, vendors cover all phases of solution implementation, right from planning and deployment to support. Implementation services include solution integration with an ERP and independent solution integration with the system.

Training and Education

Training and education services enable clients to gain in-depth knowledge regarding the management of digital content. Service providers help users by providing continuous training sessions as and when needed to resolve business complexities. These service providers educate business organizations by helping them in gaining expertise in the newly adopted solution. Moreover, vendors provide online as well as on-site training to users. The mandatory requirement for training and education services while deploying ECM and DMS solutions has encouraged the growth of this market segment.

Support and Maintenance

Maintenance and support services are crucial as they directly deal with customer issues that impact customer satisfaction. Every software vendor has a dedicated support team to serve customers. Support, software maintenance, customer portal, post-deployment assistance, and client testimonials are some of the services provided under maintenance and support services. To ensure consistent customer satisfaction, service providers focus on enhancing their product knowledge base by receiving feedback through interviews and surveys. Support and maintenance services also provide a single point of contact for resolving customer issues. Customer portals, customer forums, technical tips, and software updates are some of the other helping aids made available for the customers.

Which verticals make the most usage of document management software?

BFSI

Best document management software help leverage existing businesses and legacy systems to address the challenges of the BFSI marketplace. The BFSI sector is rapidly adopting document management systems because of the secured and confidential nature of data. Using DMS, BFSI companies can build centralized back offices to reduce employee workloads as well as improve the overall customer experience. As huge sums of money and critical business data are at stake, well-informed decisions must be taken by the BFSI vertical. Thus, decisions relating to the BFSI vertical can have serious effects and can change the course of the economy of a country or countries. A document management system helps the BFSI vertical to gather and manage all financial data while providing enhanced data security and access controls in the event of cyber-attacks, bank robberies, and natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. The deployment of document management systems in the BFSI sector can ensure better accountability, risk management, operational management, end-to-end content governance, management among different functional departments, and communication.

Government

Government agencies handle the secured and private data of individuals, departments, processes, and agencies. The volume of data generated in government agencies is huge and is subject to high levels of scrutiny. Government agencies need to collaborate with each other to ensure the migration and integrity of the data. Moreover, better management of IT infrastructure to support resource sharing ensures better security compliance controls and better data security. Government agencies are also subjected to strict data security policies, regulations, and audit policies. This has led a majority of government agencies opting to deploy enterprise data management solutions to ensure business continuity as well as maintain a data trail.

Education

Higher education institutions use document management systems to streamline operations and standardize procedures across departments. A document management system is used in the management of academic records, record storage, and minimization of paper management costs. Integrated workflows simplify the processes that involve managing student records, student applications, employee records, correspondence, and circulars. ECM solution providers also have solutions for educational institutes, such as IBM’s Education Assistant, Perceptive’s (Lexmark) higher education ECM solutions, KnowledgeLake’s document management for education, Newgen’s document management solution for educational institutes, and Hyland Software’s OnBase education institution-based application.

Healthcare

The healthcare industry requires efficient content and document management techniques for different activities, such as patient management, hospital resource management, doctor-patient relationship management, medical supply management, and maintenance of master data for patients’ health records. Document management systems can also be instrumental in facilitating the exchange of digital medical information between different medicating units or institutions quickly, thus reducing downtime and ensuring that medical facilities are complying with healthcare norms. Moreover, there is an increasing need in the healthcare sector to improve and manage interoperability within various subsystems. The deployment of a fully integrated management system suite can provide transparency in operations and induct control and visibility mechanisms. These systems help health information management departments to reduce document management loads by storing online patient data and documents and ensuring secure transaction and processes from one user to another.

Corporate

Document management solutions are employed in the corporate sector to manage the large volume of content generated on a daily basis. The IT sector can deploy document management solutions for activities such as managing records, documents, projects, digital data, and operational schedules and connecting developers and customers. Embedding third-party integrations is essential in streamlining the audit process and detecting fraud and malpractices. Document management systems can also be useful in resolving complex integration and interoperability issues as well as managing and developing channel support, developing a centralized repository for digital assets, enforcing the digital asset rights management policy, and securely managing website content. Additionally, this system is also used to reduce the cost of printed statements and confirmations, minimize operational costs, increase operational efficiency, minimize customer service costs and resolution problem time, and create new profit and revenue sources. Document management systems for the telecom and IT sectors help address key business imperatives for growth by obtaining a complete view of the customers with advanced case management and content analytics tools.

Industrial Manufacturing

Increasing pressure to minimize product lifecycles, increase production quality, reduce operational costs, and meet and enforce standards have created an opportunity for the greater adoption of document management systems in industrial manufacturing. The manufacturing sector utilizes document management solutions to manage product documentation lifecycle management and support for just-in-time manufacturing processes. DMS solutions for the manufacturing industry help manufacturers to aggregate and synchronize data throughout their organization and the network of partners and customers. End-to-end document management can significantly reduce product documentation and document lifecycle costs.

With the help of document management solutions, different types of document management risks such as economic, technical, and supplier risks can be mitigated in an orderly manner. The manufacturing supply chain relies on the operational data of suppliers, vendors, trade partners, retailers, and distributors. It is a complex web of content that must integrate seamlessly to allow manufacturers to make cost-effective decisions and streamline their supply chain. Document management can be of vital importance to manage the capital project, introduce robust ecommerce facilities, optimize the digital supply chain, manage website content, and increase the efficiencies of the manufacturing processes. Moreover, document management is useful in archiving document to maintain long-term competitiveness and reduce go-to-market time.

Retail

The retail sector is quickly adopting technologies related to document management to support business continuity and enhance the level of competitiveness. With the help of document management systems, most retail enterprises are planning to merge their legacy product information management systems with inventory management systems. Document management by e-commerce companies can be instrumental in enhancing their competitiveness and reducing the total cost of ownership. These systems can help simplify the different strategic goals of retailers, such as customer retention, product information lifecycle management, and brand management to maximize efficiency. Moreover, these systems are of vital importance to retailers to establish associations between different product variables and map their associations to reinforce their marketing strategy. It also improves the efficiency of retailers and customers, provides a high level of security control for regulatory compliance, minimizes cost expense, and increases sales.

How do small and medium businesses and large enterprises use document management software?

The document management systems market caters to both SMEs and large enterprises. The need to maximize the value of the available data across the globe is a major factor driving the adoption of document management systems between both types of organizations. The adoption of document management systems is expected to be high among SMEs during the forecast period. Large enterprises currently hold the largest market share, as they have already implemented software for the management of enterprise documents.

SME

SMEs are organizations with up to 1,000 employees. For SMEs, the implementation of document management systems results in increased revenue, flexibility, desired outcomes, and improved business efficiency. However, they face three critical challenges in implementing document management systems— capital, skills, and scalability.

To overcome these issues, SMEs adopt the pay-as-you-go model, which offers the flexibility to manage IT infrastructures as per their requirements. SMEs face intense competition from large enterprises; thus, to gain a competitive edge, they are adopting document management services, which would enable quick responses, timely decisions, and overall enhanced business productivity. This trend is expected to continue among SMEs during the forecast period.

The market for SMEs is expected to show high growth, mainly because the deployment of innovative technologies such as Social, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC) by new entrants in the market is compelling existing players to modernize their traditional IT infrastructures to meet changing customer requirements. Moreover, the North American region has a lot of software vendors offering document management systems to SMEs. Therefore, North America is expected to contribute the largest market share to the global document management systems market.

Large Enterprises

Large enterprises have more than 1,000 employees. The adoption of documents management systems among large enterprises is high due to the ever-increasing adoption of cloud; this trend is expected to continue during the forecast period. Large enterprises heavily invest in advanced technologies to increase overall productivity and efficiency while reducing CAPEX and OPEX. With the ever-increasing amount of data, large enterprises need to invest in IT infrastructure and technical expertise for automating various tasks regularly, ensuring cost savings, and staying competitive.

Document Management System Trends 2021

Cloud Storage

After being hit by pandemic, majority of offline business have suffered. So, almost every business is looking for an online platform for itself to overcome loss and walk with the time. Cloud based Document Management software is likely to see a drastic rise in demand as majority of corporate sector is working remotely. Cloud based document storage procedure have unlocked the new doors for administrations as data in this server can be retrieved from any location and at any time. No geographical border is set if the businesses are using cloud based server.

Smart and AI Enabled

In a recent study it was found that by the end of 2024, most of the businesses will shift from piloting to operationalizing Artificial Intelligence, driving a huge increase in streaming data and analytics organizations. With current methods, there are glitches. Pre-covid replicas can no longer be precise, based on big amounts of past data. Though, Artificial Intelligence disruptions will allow for understanding algorithms such as reinforcement learning, interpretable learning such as Artificial Intelligence that can be simplified, and powerful set-ups such as edge computing and new chip types.

Machine Learning Infrastructure

Machine learning (ML) has a status as too tough for most enterprises, similar to AI, but the payoff is nearly priceless. In data processing, automatic tools driven by machine learning can be operational because they gather data and amass it into simply digestible visual formats. ML efficiency tools are introduced into most SaaS offerings concentrated on the cloud or provided as a stand-alone cloud-based construction that offers ease of deployment and use.

Data Security

With all the new trends coming into play, new safety actions also need to be taken. Data security has constantly been the top most trend as well as significance in best document management software industry. So, it is not a latest trend, but the trend is sophisticated now. The cases of cybercrimes and frauds are snowballing on a daily basis, so suitable measures need to be introduced. Clearly, we have been hearing the term data security usually so pondering what’s new about it. There will be innovative algorithms, new level for fire walls and sophisticated access distribution to evade illegal access to data.

Augmented Analytics

Augmented analytics makes use of technologies like machine learning and AI to help users with data planning, generation of insight, and elucidation of insight to upsurge how people in analytics and BI platforms discover and assess data. Algorithms can be used to identify schemas and joints, tedious transformation and combinations can be totally automated, data quality and enhancement references are auto-generated by the system, and users can also automate the profiling.