Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

STAMFORD, Conn., May 21, 2007 —

Due to the increasing need for companies to manage content at the enterprise level, the worldwide enterprise content management (ECM) software market is expected to grow more than 12 percent per year through 2010, from $2.6 billion in 2006 to more than $4.2 billion in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, worldwide ECM revenue is projected to total $2.9 billion, a 12.8 percent increase from 2006 (see Table 1).

The vast majority of the information a company has is unstructured data residing in word processing documents, presentations, rich media files, spreadsheets and other file formats. Companies must make this content available to workers, business partner’s customers, and applications across the organization to automate business processes, increase efficiency, reduce costs and repetitiveness, make employees more effective and gain competitive advantages.

“For many organizations, unstructured content is fundamentally out of control,” said Tom Eid, research vice president for Gartner. “Employees are creating all types of content for internal and external use with delivery through both formal and informal channels (such as wikis and blogs). While some of this business-specific content is now being managed through insurance claims processing, loan origination, case management and Web content management, the vast majority of this content is not being managed as an enterprise asset.”

Table 1
EnterpriseContent Management Software, Worldwide, 2006-2010 (Millions of Dollars)

2006 2,614.4
2007 2,949.3
2008 3,316.8
2009 3,755.2
2010 4,248.3

Total Software Revenue

Source: Gartner (May 2007)

Gartner analysts said many factors will shape the ECM market over the next several years. Vendors and the individual technology markets from which they come will continue to consolidate. The quality, performance and ease of use of software products will improve. ECM offerings will split into two tiers: broad, platform-based solutions will tackle heavy-duty chores, such as focusing on process-centric and mission-critical documents, such as compliance efforts, while streamlined basic content services (BCS) offerings will appeal to companies that need only entry-level functions, such as document security and library services.

“In many instances, it is appropriate to have BCS and ECM technologies being used together,” Mr. Eid said. “BCS will increase the adoption of ECM technologies. As more content is created, more content will need to be managed. As the content becomes more valued, it will become more of a corporate asset that is managed in a more comprehensive manner through ECM offerings.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Forecast: Enterprise Content Management Software, Worldwide, 2006-2011, Update,” This report examines the state of the worldwide enterprise content management software market and looks at what trends are developing, and includes a full forecast for the market. The report is available on Gartner's Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=505618&subref=simplesearch.