For most new users of Enterprise Content Management systems, the chaotic state of their documents, emails and electronic content is the final trigger to get things under control, according to the annual AIIM “State of the ECM Industry” report.

Whilst existing users are putting increased productivity and optimised business processes well ahead of compliance as the main justification for their ongoing ECM investment, new adopters are more likely to be galvanised by the need to take control of their proliferating file shares, email stores, web pages and paper records.

The AIIM survey of over 750 respondents shows evidence of strong growth in the industry, with 17% of the organisations surveyed implementing an ECM system for the first time and 17% in the process of replacing a legacy system.

Microsoft SharePoint is playing a strong role, with 53% of surveyed organisations having SharePoint 2007 in use or in rollout, compared to 42% in last year’s survey - a proportionate increase of 26% on last year's user base. However, the survey indicates considerable confusion as to where SharePoint is best used and how it fits with existing systems. There is also growing interest in open source systems, with a potential growth of 50% over the next two years.

For many organisations, their only hope of coping with the deluge of generated content from within and beyond their organisations is to invest in an ECM system.

“We have seen a tipping point in information management over the last year or so,” comments John Mancini, President of AIIM.

“For many organisations, their only hope of coping with the deluge of generated content from within and beyond their organisations is to invest in an ECM system. This will provide both management control and universal access to shared knowledge. Mobile working, virtual meetings and team collaboration are driving the need for shared electronic access to core business knowledge through a single interface – and it needs to be simple.”

The survey results show the use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for document management is set to double from 6% to 12% in the next 18 months, but the AIIM community is somewhat skeptical about cloud solutions for content management, with 3% using it now and just 2% with plans. Even with the availability of a corporate cloud or a government cloud, 50% would not even contemplate its use.

The AIIM research report is entitled “State of the ECM Industry 2010” and is free to download from the AIIM website, www.aiim.org.uk/research. It is underwritten by ASG, EMC, Nuxeo and RivetLogic.