Paper documents have proven to be problematic, as they take up space and consume time when handled. They also have an added disadvantage of being difficult to store and risk increased perishability.

Therefore, there has been an increase in the amount of electronic data and documents managed. There have also been immense improvements in the available technology, which resulted in more secure and efficient systems to store and retrieve documents. All these factors, together, have contributed toward making document management technology one of the fastest-developing management systems in the market.

Document management enables organizations to better manage the creation, approval, revision, and consumption of electronic documents. It also provides key features, such as library services, document profiling, searching, check-in, check-out, revision history, version control, and document security. Moreover, cloud computing has brought its plethora of advantages even to the field of document management systems. It provides an easily accessible resource and repository for documents and related software, and is also helpful in being cost-effective.

However, there are both benefits and drawbacks to using cloud computing as the base for document management systems. Though it provides ease of access and reduced maintenance efforts, it also brings in potential security risks and does not provide total control.

North America is a pioneer in the adoption of innovative solutions, which provides North America with an edge over the other regions. Additionally, several recognized IT and telecom firms are headquartered in North America, which adds to the growth of the market. Moreover, the region has a strong foothold of ECM providers, which is driving the market in the region. Some of them include, IBM Corporation, Hyland, Oracle Corporation, OpenText Corp., and Microsoft Corporation, among others.

The major players, such as Hyland, IBM Corp., and OpenText, are offering content service platform to the top fortune 100 companies, which are flexible to integrate across their business models. The players in the region are adopting mergers and acquisitions as the key strategy to stay ahead in the market. For instance, in January 2017, OpenText acquired Documentum, Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content Division, for USD 1.62 billion. This acquisition is expected to strengthen the company’s ECM solutions portfolio.

The ECM market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period, owing to the increase in the need for digital content with the proliferation of online marketing and online customer relationship. For instance, in the United States, mobile marketing is expected to be an engine for the online marketing industry, and accounted for more than 70% of all digital ad spend in 2018.