DM is no longer just an exercise in cost reduction, says Ovum

Document management systems can and should be justified by business growth and risk reduction, not just cost reduction according to UK-baseed analysts Ovum.

In a new report on document management Ovum states that electronic document management can enable businesses to avoid critical failures and leverage operations to make more money.

According to Philip Carnelley, principal consultant at Ovum and co-author of the report, "Document management can now be applied across the enterprise. Electronic document management systems are designed to help with this critical task, which if done correctly, will lead to competitive advantage.

"Organisations are doubling the amount of documents generated every two years, and managing those documents is a key business function in any company."

According to Ovum, benefits from improved customer service, business resumption and compliance with regulatory pressures are driving the document management industry. The financial, pharmaceutical and legal industries are leading the way.

"The rapid rise of the Internet and company intranets has created a high demand for businesses to place a large proportion of their documents on-line, either for external or internal use.

Organisations need to build and maintain documents without worrying about format conversion, broken hyperlinks, document version control or filing and retrieving the constant stream of email message," Mr Carnelley said.