The future of the ECM systems market: a view from Europe

At the end of May, the DOCFLOW corporate information management conference was held in Moscow. Her special guest was an international ECM consultant, Michael Ziegler . Previously, Michael did not share his experience at business events in Russia (this happened only within the framework of consulting projects), so it was especially interesting to listen to him.

We bring to your attention the interview with Michael and his view on the future of the ECM-systems market, as well as the video of the recent presentation “Data management: what the customer needs to know today”.

The main source of the secrets of ECM-professional Michael Ziegler is not only his twenty years of experience in the ECM-BPM-Capture market, but also the DOCVILLE project established by him. The project gathers experts from all over Europe to communicate and discuss urgent ECM issues. This generalized expertise and observations of the professional community Michael shared with the visitors of the conference.

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Greetings Michael! Today, thanks in large part to the Internet, there has been a sharp increase in the amount of unstructured information. It is no wonder that solutions for processing Big Data are now needed by many companies. What is your forecast for big data management systems for the next 2–3 years? And how can such systems affect vendors and customers in this sector?

Yes, everyone is now talking about big data, and often they mean different things. To the usual data sources - e-mail, fax and paper documents, many new ones were added: audio, video, social networks, lists of web pages viewed by users, SMS, GPS, various sensors, RFID, etc. All incoming information is recorded and placed in repositories. 99% of this data is not structured, so before processing it must be analyzed and interpreted, but using conventional methods (for example, using IDR - Intelligent document recognition) it cannot be done. I think we are waiting for the emergence of new technologies for semantic content analysis (natural language processing), analysis of unstructured information and predictive analytics, which will be integrated into information management systems.

In addition, it is important to note that companies are paying increasing attention to data processing and information management. A large amount of information is stored in isolated systems (ERP, CRM, ECM, email clients), and each department considers itself the full owner of this data. The quality of the information available also causes great doubts. These problems need to be addressed so that enterprises can develop a clear information management strategy based on a single technology platform for working with all documents, data, structured and unstructured information.

The ongoing debate over the security of cloud services seems to have only worsened the situation, especially in Europe. “Is my data safe? Or maybe the Elder Brother is watching me? ”- this is the main question that arises among customers. In the US, there is a real cloud computing boom, while Europe is lagging behind. What are your predictions about the European market?

Today, the volume of the cloud services market in Europe is about one third of the level of the United States, and growth will lag behind. There are several reasons for this. First, cloud computing is based on trust. We believe that current public opinion will hinder the development of this sphere, at least for the next 2-3 years. Secondly, unlike in Europe, the USA is one huge market where the same solution is suitable for many companies. Europe also consists of many countries with different cultures and legislative bases. In European countries, issues of processing and ensuring the confidentiality of information are governed by a large number of different laws, and their requirements are much stricter than in the United States.

In addition, European companies do not want their data to be stored in another European country, because in case of computer fraud, they will have to file a lawsuit in another state, with different legislation and language. The German government, for example, does not allow its data to be posted abroad. Because of the recent revelations of Edward Snowden, the controversy about security has flared up with a new force, and it will take the European Union a lot of time and effort to change the situation. Currently, the European Commission is preparing an action plan that should guarantee the security and clarity of contracts governing property rights and rules for the use and storage of data. If this plan is not realized, the European market for cloud solutions and the European IT companies themselves will continue to fall behind.

What, in your opinion, awaits suppliers in the market for data entry automation, information resources management and business processes in the next 3-5 years?

We believe that in five years, data entry automation, information resource management and business processes will cease to be stand-alone products and, together with other information management solutions, will enter into a new general concept of Enterprise Information Management (EIM). Many suppliers will be swallowed up by larger companies, some will disappear altogether, since they will not be able to compete in the market, supplying only one application or working only in one country. Cloud and mobile solutions will benefit: more than 80% of users will work with mobile devices that are becoming easier and cheaper. Accordingly, convenient and simple customer-oriented solutions adapted to the specific needs of horizontal and vertical industries will prevail in the application market. A wireless connection will become available everywhere, the world of applications will merge with the world of web services, which will form the prerequisites for the emergence of new lines of services. Web sites will become “smarter”, and during their development they will take into account the peculiarities of the perception of the site by the human brain. We will stop talking about big data, since various channels to attract customers and analytics with instant results will become the norm. In this case, we will face more stringent regulatory requirements for information security, since for cloud services and mobile Internet the risks of various kinds of abuses will remain quite large. The problem of shortage of qualified IT specialists will be still relevant.

Full presentation of the speaker in the media library of the conference.

Translation by ABBYY Language Services .