Statistics/Research Information

AIIM Study on Records Management for E-mail and IM

According to an upcoming survey of 1,000 organizations by AIIM - The Enterprise Content Management Association (www.aiim.org), most organizations do not have any real plan or strategy when it comes to managing e-mail and instant messages (www.aiim.typepad.com). Click here to read rest of release.

TAWPI To Conduct Second second Forms Processing and Data Capture Study

The Association for Work Process Improvement (TAWPI) is organizing a second Forms Processing and Data Capture Study to be conducted for the benefit of TAWPI’s membership, fortune 1000 corporations, and solutions providers.

The 2006 Study will build on TAWPI’s first Forms Processing Study that was published in 2000 and read by more than 1,000 industry professionals. The Study shall provide a comprehensive assessment of forms processing, data capture and document capture systems, operations and trends.

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Payback Time: The Practical Application of ECM Technologies

AIIM State of the ECM Industry Study Reveals That End-Users Are Focusing on Extremely Practical Applications With Clear Payback.

SILVER SPRING, MD -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 05/17/2005 -- AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) industry association, today announced the findings of their annual State of the ECM Industry study entitled: "Payback Time: The Practical Application of ECM Technologies."

This study, a summary of findings from user research in nine countries, points to the continuing movement of ECM technologies and solutions into the mainstream.

"The survey clearly demonstrates that ECM technologies are becoming part of the core infrastructure of both large and mid-sized organizations," notes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "Users who first look to the huge cost savings and rapid return on investment of ECM solutions are now also examining the compliance and process improvement benefits of ECM."

"We found a great practicality among end-users in their approach to ECM. Across the entire sample, the top 5 projects under consideration by end-users -- records management, document control, email management, information capture, and forms handling -- reflect the practicality and need for short-term ROI that is characteristic of most IT investments in the current environment."

Key Survey Findings:

Finding: There are clear differences among the nine countries surveyed in the business drivers for ECM solutions, with compliance and risk reduction a far more important issue in some countries than in others.

Finding: While cost-reduction is still dominant in driving decisions, customer- and risk-related business drivers are rising in importance. There was an almost 20% decrease over the past two years in the percentage of users citing cost-driven concerns as the primary reason for looking at ECM technologies. In Germany, those naming compliance as the primary reason rose from 2% (in 2004-2005) to 7% (in 2003-2004), in the UK, the percentage rose from 13% to 17%, and in Ireland the percentage rose from 9% to 19%. In the US, the percentage rose from 17% to 24%.

Finding: As the scale and scope of implementation increases, the obstacles encountered shift -- from getting senior management commitment and defining requirements -- to "softer" (although conversely much more difficult to address) obstacles such as change management, maintaining employee commitment, and content integration. For example, for users in the UK, requirements definition is twice as likely to be a major obstacle among those who are just beginning to investigate ECM solutions. Selling the project to the executive management and justifying its cost continues to be a far greater challenge for new potential users than for experienced users.

Finding: There is remarkable consistency across nations in terms of the project and technology interests of end-users. Users are focusing on extremely practical applications with clear payback. If it can't be justified quickly, it won't get approved.

Finding: Email management, forms, and security are growing concerns for end-users. It is clear that the increasing media coverage of privacy, security, and email disasters is reaching the ears of end-users. Interests in projects like email management, forms handling, and statutory and regulatory compliance, increased the most in the rankings since our last survey. The rising technologies identified by end-users mirror this: content management/web content management, email management, and security.

Finding: Mid-sized organizations (those with 100 to 1,000 employees) understand the need to get their core document requirements under control and represent a huge untapped market. These organizations voice their concerns in terms of business continuity and risk -- with 40% planning projects over the next 12-18 months.

Finding: The mid-sized market for ECM solutions is very large due to the sheer number of mid-sized organizations (for example, there are 167,000 such organizations in the U.S. alone). However, the expected price points for solutions are very different, and suppliers will not simply be able to apply solutions appropriate to a Fortune 500 organization to the mid-sized market. In Germany, only 14% of users at mid-sized organizations plan to spend EUR 500,000 or more on ECM solutions, compared to nearly 60% at large organizations. The data is comparable for the UK, 25% vs. 71% and for the U.S., 15% vs. 49%.

Finding: Despite having the most litigious culture in the world, users in the U.S. are not as aware as they should be of the importance of managing electronic information. U.S. users are the least confident, among the countries surveyed, in the integrity of their electronic records. Only 64% of U.S. users consider the process by which electronic information is managed to be "very important" or "quite important" relative to potential future litigation. This contrasts with 95% of German users and 83% of UK users.

Finding: ECM technologies and solutions continue to increase in importance for end-users. The percentage of end-users that have purchase plans exceeding $1 million for ECM technologies rose from 17% in 2003-2004 to 19% in 2004-2005 (among those reporting purchasing intentions).

For a full copy of the survey results, go to http://www.aiim.org/viewpdfa.asp?ID=29815

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HSA Capture

Harvey Spencer Associates has done a comprehensive study on the Document Capture software space. According to their research, rapid convergence will force industry consolidation as industry leaders jockey for position and growth shifts to new market segments. For a summary of the survey click on the following link:

Worldwide Document Capture Software Market to Exceed $1 bn for the First Time in 2005

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Capture and Imaging Technologies: User Perspectives and Buying Intentions.

Silver Spring, MD – April 5, 2005 - AIIM conducted the study in February 2005, with over 800 respondents representing small, medium, and large organizations in the public sector and all major industries.

"Sometimes people think of 'imaging' as simply the scanner attached to your home computer or the output from digital cameras," notes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "The reality is that the scanning and processing of documents within businesses and government has now become a critical building block for organizational processes. Two out of three end users utilize scanned documents to exchange invoices and statements with customers and suppliers. Half of those surveyed use scanned documents to file official documents with government agencies, and 45% use scanned documents to respond to litigation."

Key Survey Findings:
Scanned Images are a Core Part of Critical Business Processes.
One of the major insights from the survey is the ubiquitous nature of scanning in core business processes. Even in processes with potential exposure-contract negotiation, handling of confidential information, dealing with government agencies, and responding to litigation-scanned documents play a critical role. For many organizations, this has simply evolved as the technology has matured, and has often occurred at the department level rather than enterprise-wide. Organizations are now thinking through the implications of this evolution, and are attempting to put more structure around the management of scanned images.

Scanning and Imaging Satisfaction is High.
Over three-quarters of those surveyed-and an even higher percentage for larger companies-report that the ROI of their capture implementations met or exceeded their expectations. The awareness of this success is not limited to the IT staff. Regardless of the primary function within the organization, there is a high degree of satisfaction with implementations of scanning and capture technologies.

Users Are Increasing Their Spending on Imaging and Scanning Technologies.
Significant numbers of users, of all organizational size, anticipate growth in their capture spending in 2005. Two trends bear greater examination. First, the number of users expecting to increase spending on multi-function peripheral devices—these are for the most part casual users of capture technologies, but represent a target audience with significant up-sell opportunities. The second trend is the expectation of increased spending on those elements of a capture solutions that "surround" the scanner itself—forms processing software, service and maintenance agreements, and outsourced services.

The Key Business Driver for Users is Efficiency.
In organizations of all sizes, the fundamental business driver for capture technologies is greater efficiency and process improvement. This is not to say that compliance concerns are unimportant—they are significant for mid-sized and large organizations-but successful solution providers cannot rely on compliance concerns alone to selling capture technologies.

For a full copy of the Survey Results, go to:

www.aiim.org/article-docrep.asp?ID=29585

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Struggle Continues Between how Organizations use Electronic Communications Technology and how they are Managed

Joint AIIM and Kahn Consulting Industry Survey Shows Continued Need for Organizational Policies Around Electronic Communications Technology.

Silver Spring, MD - March 2, 2005 - AIIM - the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) industry association, and Kahn Consulting, Inc. today announced the findings of their follow-up industry study that indicates a continuing gap between the way organizations use new communications technology and the way that they control and mange its use.

"Electronic Communications Policies and Procedures: An Industry Study," illustrates how e-mail and other electronic communications technology (including instant messaging, text-messaging, e-mail enabled phones, and wireless-enabled handheld devices) are increasingly being used to execute and document major business transactions and decisions.

"Many organizations are simply failing to put in place the basic policies, controls, and technology to manage electronic information," notes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "As a result, these organizations not only suffer from process bottlenecks. In an era of litigation threats and new compliance requirements, organizations without a plan are putting the very existence of their organization at risk."

"Substantive business is done every day by organizations through e-communications technologies with little consideration for the business and legal issues. In deed, contracts are now regularly executed in email, modified in voice mail and breached with a text message," states Randolph Kahn, ESQ., founder and principal of Kahn Consulting. "While some organizations have recognized the growing need to take seriously their responsibility to manage electronic communication technologies, what is evident is that massive gaps continue to exist."

Read the full release at http://www.aiim.org/article-pr.asp?ID=29428

Read the full report at http://www.aiim.org/viewpdfa.asp?ID=29430

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WHO IS USING ECM and WHY?

AIIM reveals the results of its biannual survey of current and potential end-users of ECM technologies in the Industry Watch Study Why Enterprise Content Management? Why Now?

A copy of the news release is located at:

Enterprise Content Management Technologies Move to Center Stage Among User Organizations

Service Companies Critical Element in Delivering Content and Compliance Solutions

Growth Prospects for Sector Strong

SILVER SPRING, MD—December 8, 2004 - AIIM, the international authority on Enterprise Content Management (ECM), reveals the results of its annual "State of the Industry" survey of document-focused Service Companies.

This survey was distributed during September 2004 to Service Company members of PRISM International and AIIM using an on-line survey instrument. A total of 158 executives participated in the survey. This is the second year in which this survey of Service Company executives has been conducted.

"The risks of mismanaging paper and electronic information are growing," notes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "At the same time, the complexity and the scale of the challenge is increasing daily. This combination is making outsourced document solutions more attractive than at any point in the past five years."

According to Bob Zagami, a member of the AIIM Board of Directors and Vice President at ImageMax, "Service companies are uniquely positioned to deliver the full range document solutions needed by end users—from paper to microfilm to electronic document management. The survey shows that service companies are focused on the 'core' of enterprise content management: capturing information in all its forms, managing critical business records, and controlling documents."

Among the specific findings:

72% of service companies are small businesses with less than $5 million in revenues and an average of 94 employees.

Revenues are derived from a mix of professional services (39%), conversion services (31%), and hardware and software sales (23%).

The conversion services provided by service companies are primarily scanning (59%). Film-based imaging represents 13% of the conversion revenue mix.

The business environment for service companies has improved considerably in the past 12 months, with over 70% reporting rising revenues in 2004, vs. only 55% in 2003.

78% of companies were profitable in 2004; 43% reported profits of 10% or more.

74% of companies will add head-count in 2005, with 34% reporting they will add 6 employees or more.

A copy of the full survey results is available at: http://www.aiim.org/viewpdfa.asp?ID=29031

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