ECM and CSP (Global Market)

Market Volume and Key Players

2021 - Gartner Data

In October 2021, Gartner introduced a new version of the Magic Quadrant for the global Content Services Platforms (CSP) market. In 2021, analysts assigned four companies to the leaders of the CSP market - Microsoft, Hyland, Box and OpenText. Contenders (Challenger)  this time in Gartner did not include anyone. The Visionaries section includes 6 players - Laserfiche, SER Group, M-Files, Newgen, Intalio and d.velop. The group of niche players included companies NetDocuments, IBM, iManage, Objective, Fabasoft, DocuWare, AODocs and Kyocera Document Solutions.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for CSP Market, 2021 Data

2020: Cloud ECM Market Reaches $18.7 Billion - ResearchAndMarkets

The global market for cloud-based enterprise content management (ECM) in 2020 reached $18.7 billion. This is evidenced by the data of analysts ResearchAndMarkets.

They did not specify the dynamics of the market in comparison with 2019, but said that the costs of such decisions are growing, which is partly facilitated by the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 - in the context of a difficult epidemiological situation, companies began to use cloud technologies more often.

USA In 2020, sales of ECM systems launched in the cloud reached $8.1 billion, which corresponds to 43.3% of the total world market. In second place is where, China according to experts, the costs of such products will grow by 37.5% from 2020 to 2027, and by the end of this period the revenue there will be measured at $12.4 billion.

The study mentions Workflow Management Systems. We are talking about IT solutions for managing the "workflow" associated with a specific stage of the business process. For example, if a customer calls a service center with a complaint about the quality of equipment, then the following works are required:

• Commit inbound requisition.
• Determine which type of repair is required.
• Identify the employee who will perform the repair.
• Set a time limit.
• Assign a person who monitors the quality of repairs.
• Make a settlement with the customer.

In 2020, the market for cloud ECM systems exceeded $18 billion

All these steps are workflows for this department of the company. They are characterized, first of all, by the fact that they are largely routine, repetitive in nature. According to analysts, the sales of such solutions in the world at the end of 2020 year amounted to 18.6% in the total cloud ECM market.

Electronic document management systems are another segment of this market. Expenses for them for 2020 are not indicated. Experts only say that the volume of this segment will increase by an average of 28.4% and will amount to $23.3 billion by 2027. The entire market for enterprise content management software by this time will reach a volume of $122 billion with an average annual growth rate of 30.7%.

Analysts named the following companies as the largest manufacturers of cloud ECM systems (listed in alphabetical order):

• Alfresco Software;
• ASG Technologies;
• Box;
• Docuware;
• Epicor Software;
• Everteam Software;
• Fabsoft Software;
• Hyland Software;
• IBM Corporation;
• Laserfiche;
• Lexmark International;
• M-Files Corporation;
• Micro Strategies;
• Microsoft;
• Limited;
• Nuxeo;
• Objective Corporation;
• OpenText Corporation;
• Oracle Corporation;
• SERgroup Holding International;
• Xerox Holdings.

Major manufacturers of cloud ECM analytics systems - Alfresco Software, ASG Technologies, Box

According to analysts, companies, choosing an ECM system from a particular manufacturer, are guided mainly by the following criteria:

• for small companies, the total cost and usability for a particular task is important. Here, cloud services come first, providing the ability to quickly connect/disable the necessary functionality;
• mid-tier organizations look at ready-made box solutions that best cover their ECM needs. It also shows an increase in confidence in the clouds, but midrange companies prefer to leave critical services in their infrastructure;
• large organizations rely on their own single technological platform, on the basis of which they will be able to develop the services they need. Platform performance, scalability, fault tolerance, and functional extensibility are important. Often, large corporations think about providing industry cloud IT services on the basis of the created platform to other, smaller companies.^[1]

2020 - Gartner Data

In the fall of 2020, Gartner introduced the next version of its "magic quadrant" for the global CSP (Content Services Platforms) market. CSP in Gartner terminology is a set of services and microservices embodied in an integrated set of products and applications that share common APIs and repositories. CSP uses different types of content and has numerous applications in the organization.

Gartner analysts included Microsoft, Hyland, Alfresco, Box and OpenText among the leaders of the CSP market. Challenger status  was received by Laserfiche. SER Group, M-Files, Nuxeo, Newgen and IBM are classified as Visionaries. The group of niche players included iManage, NetDocuments, Objective, Kyocera Document Solutions, DocuWare, Axway and AODocs.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for CSP Market, 2020 Data

2019 - Gartner data

In October 2019, Gartner released a new "magic quadrant" of the global market for content services platforms (CSP). CSP in Gartner terminology is a new name for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems.

Analysts attributed the companies, Microsoft, Hyland, and to the leaders OpenText of the CSP market. IBM Box Challenger status  received,, Oracle Alfresco Laserfiche, SER Group and Newgen. M-Files and Nuxeo are classified as Visionaries. The group of niche players included Objective,, Micro Focus Everteam, DocuWare, NetDocuments, iManage and AODocs.

Gartner Magic Quadrant in Content Services Platforms, 2019 Data

2018 - Gartner data

In October 2018, Gartner introduced a new "magic quadrant" of the global market for content services platforms (CSP). In terminology, Gartner CSP is a new name for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems.

Analysts attributed Microsoft, OpenText, Hyland and IBM to the leaders of the CSP market.  Oracle, Alfresco, Laserfiche, SER Group and Newgen received Challenger status. The category "Visionaries" includes Box, M-Files, Nuxeo and Objective. The group of niche players included Micro Focus, Fabasoft, GPM Information Management, Everteam and DocuWare.

Gartner Magic Quadrant in Content Services Platforms, 2018 Data

2017 - Gartner data

In October 2017, Gartner analysts introduced the "magic quadrant" of the global market for content services platforms (CSP). In the terminology of researchers, CSP is a new name for enterprise content management (ECM) systems.

Among the CSP solutions, experts include "a set of services or microservices, which are either an integrated set of products or individual applications that use common APIs and repositories." CSPs are used to develop different types of content and can be hosted on local servers, in the cloud, or use a hybrid storage model.

Specialists assigned companies and Hyland to the leaders Microsoft OpenText of the CSP market. Challenger status  received,, IBM Oracle Alfresco and Laserfiche. M-Files, Nuxeo got to category Visionaries, and, SER Group and Box the group of niche players includes Newgen Software, Micro Focus iManage, Fabasoft, Objective, Everteam, DocuWare and Comarch.

Gartner Magic Quadrant in Content Services Platforms, 2017 Data

Analysts include the SharePoint family as platforms for providing content services in the Microsoft product portfolio. The company's customers acknowledge the professionalism of the services provided by Microsoft itself and its partners, as well as the ease of collaboration and a wide range of contextual capabilities that are included in Microsoft SharePoint. As a downside, Gartner pointed to the dependence of SharePoint users on other corporation products.

In the "magic quadrant" of Gartner, OpenText received the highest marks for the completeness of the vision of the CSP business, which is being developed by the manufacturer through two main products - OpenText Content Server and Documentum Platform. Both solutions are named among the best in the market in terms of opportunities for partners, market share and professional services. According to experts, OpenText is "an obvious candidate for those organizations looking for a proven and reliable partner in the CSP market." Other advantages of the OpenText included a close relationship with SAP and other vendors and deep integration with the products of these manufacturers.

Speaking about the shortcomings of OpenText, analysts pointed to the audit of software licenses, which increases costs and forces users to carefully study the terms of the agreement. In addition, some products OpenText have similar functions, as a result of which customers have to spend time choosing the optimal solution.

Oracle was not included in the group of leaders of the "magic quadrant" due to the lack of completeness of the business vision. Although interviewed by Gartner customers praised the company's CSP software for its scalability and compatibility with other Oracle products, they said that the software user interface looks outdated, and integration with third-party programs is extremely limited.

The study also describes the advantages and disadvantages of IBM. Gartner's first employees included the company's ability to work with content and predictive analytics, as well as a high degree of integration with other products, thereby supporting complex processes such as fraud detection and patient care. Global business coverage and IBM's partner ecosystem are unparalleled, especially in customer circles such as insurance companies, banks and government agencies, the report said.

However, IBM was not named the leader in the CSP market due to the slow implementation of cloud solutions compared to competitors, the large client costs of deploying and supporting the local IBM Content Foundation and IBM Case Manage platforms, as well as due to personnel changes that led to the development of the wrong strategy.

2015 - Gartner Assessment

According to Gartner, in 2015, the global market for enterprise content management (ECM) software grew by 9.4% to $5.9 billion. At the same time, in 2014, market growth was 6.2%.

In the new Gartner 2016 Magic Quadrant on ECM Systems, analysts evaluated 15 enterprise information management solutions.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for ECM Systems

Market leaders named, IBM OpenText, Hyland Dell and EMC. Gartner analysts included 4 companies - Oracle Lexmark, Alfresco and. Microsoft The visionary (or strategist) is named M-Files. Niche players, according to observers, are Laserfiche, Newgwn Software, XeroxSer Group, Objective and Everteam.

2014 - Gartner Assessment

On October 21, 2015, Gartner^[2] published a new study of the global ECM market in the format of a magic quadrant.

According to Gartner, in 2014, the global market for enterprise content management (ECM) software grew by 6.2% to $5.4 billion. At the same time, in 2013, market growth was 8.6% and the same dynamics was predicted for 2014.

According to researchers, the growth of the ECM market was unevenly distributed across regions of the world. In Asia/Pacific, China, and the Middle East and Africa, there has been double-digit growth through first-time solutions, composite content applications, and mobility-related updates. At the same time, Western Europe grew more slowly than the global market as a whole. Gartner also predicts that the ECM market in Western Europe will grow at about 5% in both 2015 and 2016.

The combined market share of the three largest ECM suppliers continues to decline - from 46% in 2012, to 44% in 2013, and to 41% in 2014. SaaS and cloud delivery models provided about 5% of the total revenue of vendors. At the same time, most vendors account for about 5-10% of all ECM licenses for cloud sales.

Gartner Magic Quadrant

According to the Gartner magic quadrant, published in October 2015, IBM, OpenText, EMC, Lexmark, Hyland, Microsoft and Oracle became market leaders. Gartner representatives did not include any companies among the applicants this time. A year ago, HP was in this segment, which is not even mentioned in the new quadrant.

Newgen Software, Alfresco and Xerox are among the visionaries this year. Niche players are Laserfiche, Fabasoft, Everteam, M-Files, SER Group, Systemware, Upland Software, Objective, Software Innovation and Siav.

According to Gartner, consolidation in the market continues. Specialized tools developed by niche vendors (for example, enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS), video content management, asset management) are now becoming part of large ECM packages.

For 2015, Gartner sees the following main components that the ECM platform must perform (specific gravity is indicated in parentheses^[3]:

Document management (Management of documents, 20%) is control the entering and proceeding, versionny control, services in safety and library services for business documents. Advanced capabilities such as composite document support and content copy accounting. Enhanced capabilities also include digital rights and document metadata management rather than rigorous taxonometric structures. Value lies in the ability to manage documents in a distributed file or cloud environment and support for flexible user interface configuration.

Web content management - To control the content of a Web site by using specific repository-based management tools. Includes content creation features such as templates, process and change management, and content deployment features on web servers. The minimum requirement is a formal partnership with a WCM provider, but the "native" functionality is valued above the partner one.

Records management (Management of records, 10%) - for long-term archiving, automation of storage and observance the politician and providing legal, regulatory and industry requirements. The minimum requirement is the ability to store important business documents based on a record retention schedule. Higher ratings are given for certification according to the standards of the Ministry of Defense (DoD), 5015.2-STD, as well as for compliance with ISO standards, such as 15489, VERS and MoReq2010.

Image-processing applications (Applications for processing of images, 15%) - for capture, transformation and storage of images of paper documents. For this component, the vendor must be able to do two things: (1) the capture of the document (optical scanning technology, intelligent character recognition and processing) is made using built-in capabilities or through an official partner; (2) the ability to store images of scanned documents in a vault as "just another" type of document in a folder.

Social content (Social content, 15%) - for exchange of documents and support of cooperation in project teams and scenarios of management of knowledge. There should be blogs, wiki and support for other Internet interactions. Social content - including video and audio - is a rapidly growing category of corporate content.

Content workflow (20%) - to support business processes, content routing, task assignment, and audit scripts. The minimum requirement is simply an overview document and an approval workflow. Aerobatics - the presence of graphical process builders, case management tools, both serial and parallel routing.

Extended components (Additional components, 15%) - can include mobile applications, management of digital assets, search, analytics, opportunities for integration (for example, with portals, ERP i). CRM

2013

IDC: ECM System Vendor Revenue Reaches $5.8 Billion

According to IDC^[4], the revenue of global vendors in the ECM systems market in 2013 reached $5.8 billion in 2013, which is 8.7% more than a year earlier. According to analysts of this company, the main growth in the global market was provided by the United States and Western Europe.

Gartner^[5] gives similar market estimates: an increase of 8.6% in 2013 to $5.1 billion. Analysts say that ECM-class systems continue to attract corporate users, so in 2014, the growth of the global market for this class of systems could be proportionate to 8.6%. Moreover, according to Gartner, although the markets of Western Europe and the United States are really large, their growth will be expressed in a single digit. Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa show maximum dynamics . The growth of the ECM market in Western Europe, for example, amounted to only 2-3% in 2013.

IDC expects stable growth of the global ECM market. According to her research, in the future, companies plan to approximately double the number of employees who have access to corporate content management systems in the next two years (for 2014). A significant part of the companies intends to invest in systems of data capture, records management and projects. The driver is the development of regulatory requirements for electronic document management in companies.

Web content management systems will be a key component of digital platforms combined with personalization, targeting, analytics, social marketing, audience optimization, and campaign launch tools. Tools for building and interacting communities, social tools and mobile access to content from various devices will also be developed.

Vendor Positions

Among other vendors of ECM platforms, whose revenue in 2013 exceeded $200 million, were Hyland and Adobe. By the way, their revenue growth far exceeded the growth rate of income of vendors of the top five: in 2013 it amounted to 16.2% and 35.6%, respectively. At the same time, the global ECM market is still not consolidated: the first three suppliers account for only 30% of it in monetary terms. There are especially many startups in this market that offer a new look and approach to working with electronic documents, whose revenue, as a rule, is growing very quickly.

IDC, 2014

Interestingly, IDC included vendors such as Box and Dropbox in the ECM market assessment: although these companies provide only web-based file sharing and synchronization services, as well as cloud storage, their contribution to the document collaboration segment was recognized by analysts as significant.

In its next magic quadrant for the ECM systems market, which was released in September 2014 at the end of the year 2013, Gartner named suppliers such as IBM, Perceptive Software, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenText, Hyland, EMC as market leaders. Recall that the Gartner methodology involves assessing not only the revenue of vendors, but also technological advantages, geographical coverage and other parameters.

HP is among the contenders for world leadership, with technological visionaries - Xerox, Alfresco, Newgen Software. Niche players are called M-Files SED, Unisys, Upland Software and others.

Many vendors in the global ECM system market offer solutions designed for narrow vertical markets, geographical regions, strictly defined size companies, and so on. The key to a successful project is to select a system that best meets your business needs. Large enterprise companies choose powerful ECM platforms that fit into their existing IT environment while offering great opportunities for castomization. Midsize companies choose solutions that can scale as their needs grow.

Radicati forecast: In 2017, market volume will grow to $9.3 billion

According to the forecasts of the research company Radicati Group from May 2013^[6], the implementation and development of ECM remains in the focus of business, so that in this market there will be stable growth in solutions, since they allow to ensure an effective process of storage, delivery and management of corporate content.

So, as a result of this, already in 2013, the global market for ECM platforms can reach $5.1 billion, and by 2017 it will approach $9.3 billion, so that the average annual growth rate in this time period will be 16%.

Radicati Group, 2013

2011-2012

According to Gartner^[7] of September 2013, the global ECM market continues to show steady growth. In 2012, it grew by 7.2% to $4.7 billion. In 2011, according to Gartner, the global market for ECM platforms grew by 11.1% compared to 2010 and amounted to $4.3 billion.

As in most other business software markets, the maximum number of implementations and, accordingly, the growth in sales of ECM vendors falls on the IT markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, where enterprises are currently actively catching up with automation. Here, in many countries, ECM market growth is calculated in double digits, while in Western Europe and North America it is unambiguous.

Vendors revenue in the global ECM market, 2010-2011, $ million

Gartner, 2012

Analysts note that more and more enterprises go beyond the use of ECM for their main purpose, not limited, for example, to the safe storage of files in organized libraries. Now, companies see ECM as an environment for making decisions that meet current business needs.

In the next few years, starting in 2013 and beyond, Gartner experts also predict the growth of the cloud ECM segment of solutions. This is partly due to the convenience and cheapness of such solutions, partly due to the need for ECM vendors to compete with online file storage services, which also partially provide the basic functionality of ECM platforms.

In addition, Gartner believes that the trend in the use of ECM systems on mobile devices due to the rapid development of mobile technologies will only increase, so that "ECM will increasingly break away from its roots in the back office."

Vendor Positions

Magic quadrant for ECM platforms for 2013

According to the Gartner magic quadrant of September 2013, vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, Hyland Software, Open Text, Perceptive Software, EMC are among the leaders in the global ECM platform market . The Challenger segment, that is, applicants for leading positions in the market, is represented by one company, Oracle. Gartner included more than a dozen players: Laserfiche, HP, Saperion, Newgen Software Technologies, Fabasoft, Objective, Systemware, SpringCM, Ever Team, M-Files, Software Innovations, Unisys, SunGard and Siav. Xerox and Alfresco are among the niche vendors .

Regarding 2012, as can be seen from the quadrant in the edition of the previous year (figure below), there were no significant changes: only Oracle and Perceptive Software changed segments.

Magic Quadrant for ECM Platforms 2012

As seen in the magic quadrant for 2012-2013, large vendors are under intense pressure from more specialized solutions and new players in the global ECM platform market. This is confirmed by revenue data: since 2009, the combined share of EMC, IBM and OpenText has decreased in the ECM market from 50% to 46% in 2011. Another trend is that the global ECM market continues to actively consolidate: since 2004, more than 70 transactions have been recorded here. M&A M&A activity peaked in 2011 and 2012.

In terms of revenue in the ECM market, Gartner divides all vendors into three categories:

• Tier 1 — EMC, IBM и OpenText. These are vendors present in the ECM market globally with a total market share of 46.2% in 2011.
• Tier 2 - HP-Autonomy, Hyland, Microsoft, Oracle and Lexmark-Perceptive Software are vendors with North American roots that have a multi-regional presence, mainly in EMEA. They accounted for 23.9% of the market in 2011, compared with 19.9% in 2009.
• Tier 3 - This includes regional vendors mainly from the EMEA region and best-of-breed vendors, they accounted for 29.9% of the market in 2011, compared to 30.6% in 2009.

The research company Forrester Research gives in 2013 similar estimates^[8] leadership of vendors in the ECM platform market. True, fewer vendors pass through the Forrester filter (for more information on Forrester and Gartner terminology, see below).

Forrester Wave Study for ECM 2013

Forrester Research, 2013

According to Forrester, the leaders in the ECM market in 2013 included IBM, EMC, Open Text, HP Autonomy, Oracle took the edge. Among the vendors with strong market positions, analysts included Microsoft, Xerox, Perceptive Software, Hyland Software, Newgen Software Technplogies, Alfresco. There are two companies in the bidder segment - M-files and Unisys.

Terminology

Gartner

In Gartner terminology, key components of ECM platforms include:

• Document Management: The basic functionality for working with documents includes the registration of incoming and outgoing files, version control, information security and the creation of service libraries for business documents. Advanced functionality also includes document content replication and other features.
• Image processing applications - These built-in tools enable ECM users to extract, transform, and use images from paper documents. Scanning recognition tools can be developed directly by the ECM vendor, or used under agreement with third-party technology manufacturers such as KnowledgeLake, Kofax, EMC (Captiva), or, for example, IBM (Datacap). This function block also includes the ability to store images of scanned documents in special repositories and use in electronic business processes.
• Workflow/business process management (BPM) - This part of ECM platforms is responsible for supporting specific business processes, managing content, setting business tasks, and conducting audits. The minimum possible functionality consists of document review and document approval. More advanced capabilities involve graphical constructions of document processing processes, as well as their sequential and parallel routing.
• Records management: Such tools ensure long-term content retention through automated policies, and guarantee compliance with legal, industrial, and other standards for stored documents. Minimum tools provide easy storage of business-strategic documents, and advanced tools provide compliance with regulatory requirements according to the legislation of a particular country.
• Web content management (WCM) - Web content management components are responsible for interacting with the network, including the intranet, based on the primary repository. That is, this includes creating content functions such as templates, processes, and change management, as well as processing content requests on web servers.
• Social Content: This feature block allows you to share documents with other users, as well as interact with other participants in the system., manage knowledge and support the project team. This can include blogs, wiki and other online features. Social content, including video, is currently one of the fastest growing categories of content in enterprises. The competitive advantage is the ability of ECM to interact with and share content with social networks.
• Additional components include digital asset management, document composition, e-forms, content analytics, search, e-mail and information archiving, correspondence management, and integration with other applications.

In a Gartner study, the magic quadrant in 2013, when evaluating ECM platforms, the "weight" of these function blocks was taken into account as follows (the figure for the 2014 study is indicated in parentheses):

• Document Management - 15% (20%)
• Image processing applications - 18% (15%)
• Workflow/BPM - 22% (20%)
• Records Management - 13% (10%)
• WCM - 7% (5%)
• Social content - 15% (15%)
• Additional components - 10% (15%)

Forrester Research

The Forrester Wave research methodology involves evaluating ECM platforms in three key blocks of functions: the ability of the system as a whole to work with content, the ability of the system to operate and work specifically with business content, as well as in terms of the availability of technologies for content transactions. The key functions blocks of ECM platforms according to the Forrester version are presented in the graphic diagram:

See also

• SED (more)
• ECM – Enterprise Content Management
• SED (Software Technologies)
• SED (Implementation Methodology)
• Main ECM Trends
• SED (Russian market)
• SED in Russia: industry specifics
• Trends of the Russian market of SED/ESM-systems
• Geography of SED/ESM projects
• SED in SaaS format
• EDI - Electronic Data Interchange

Notes