Document management solutions are a hot topic in many markets today. Technology developers, manufacturers, and suppliers are introducing intuitive document management applications and solutions, targeting routine office document processes, and extending the value of document management to a broad base of knowledge workers throughout the enterprise.

Throughout the office equipment industry, device manufacturers, software developers, and resellers are wrestling with the concept of document management and its implications for the customers and markets they serve. Customers are looking at document management technologies as productivity-enhancing tools for use in managing routine office document processes.

Document Management Needs

Document management is a very broad concept, and as a system it encompasses a number of often discrete technologies. While digital document management can enable offices to work with less paper, even today it remains a challenge for organisations to create an efficient and completely digital paperless work environment.

We measured the environments and document types that document management systems most impact in our respondents' organisations. Our initial assumptions were that the need for document management solutions would be mostly isolated to dedicated departments and production environments like publishing, engineering, or data centers, where documents tend to be mission-critical in nature and of inherently high value. Almost half of our respondents (41%), however, indicated that the general office environment was the area of greatest need for such solutions.