Survey: 2007 Will Be A Strong Year For Selling Content Management

That's according to an online survey of 232 document and content management VARs, services providers, systems integrators and consultants conducted by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM). The survey also highlighted how much government and health-care vertical markets are driving demand for content management technology and services.

Fifty-six percent of those responding to the survey said sales in 2006 increased from 2005, while another 18 percent said sales "increased significantly." Only 10 percent said sales decreased or decreased significantly, with 16 percent saying sales were flat.

Last year's gains are fueling optimism for 2007; 60 percent of content management solution providers expect sales increases this year and another 28 percent are counting on significant revenue increases. Less than 9 percent expect flat sales, while less than 4 percent expect a decrease. The document and content management business also remains a profitable one for solution providers, according to the survey. Eighty-nine percent reported that their businesses were in the black last year, while 6 percent broke even and 5 percent lost money. One-fifth of all respondents reported profit margins greater than 20 percent.

Seventy percent of the content management solution providers offer their customers professional services, while 69 percent provide document and content management software, and 63 percent sell scanning services. AIIM said the survey illustrates how document and content management solution providers are trying to "move upstream" by providing more value-added services as core content management technology becomes commoditized. Nevertheless, 48 percent of those surveyed still sell scanning hardware as part of their solutions and 15 percent still sell micrographic hardware.

"The technologies are very stable, very mature," said AIIM president John Mancini in a keynote speech at this week's AIIMexpo conference in Boston.

Most challenges surrounding the implementation and use of content management systems today are organizational, not technical, he said. An AIIM survey of companies that install content management systems found that 42 percent underestimated process and organizational issues, 31 percent failed to properly train their staff, and 31 percent said projects were derailed by internal politics.

The survey also found that the number of solution providers offering e-government content management applications and services doubled from 21 percent in 2005 to 42 percent in 2006. More VARs and service companies are also offering content management products related to accounts payable and customer service processes. But fewer are offering content management apps and services relating to Web publishing and forms-handling processes.

Health care is the most popular vertical industry for document and content management solution providers: 78 percent of those surveyed said they serve that market (see chart, above). Not surprisingly, the paper-intensive banking and insurance industries are also popular followed by manufacturing, and state and local government.