An Overview of the DMS Market: how to find the right DMS for your business

Do you want to modernise your document management system or convert it to digital form? This is a difficult undertaking because there are a vast number of potential solutions that are frequently not immediately apparent. You'll get a concise and understandable explanation of how the present market is developing in this article.

You might recall the conversations about the "paperless office" if you've been following issues with company communication and the digitalization of business operations for a while. This catchphrase of the 1990s represented a vision of the future, one in which document management will transition from paper to digital.

A Growing Demand for DMS

Electronic document management is becoming as normal as making a phone call as digitalization advances. The "paperless office" is, after all, a reality today. A survey by the trade group Bitkom in 2020 found that one in ten businesses with 500+ employees now operate paperlessly.

Behind this figure is a dynamic that is fascinating. For instance, the percentage of businesses that migrated to electronic invoice interchange increased from 7 to 26% between 2016 and 2020 alone. The percentage of companies wanting to totally replace their letter post with digital communications increased from 39 to 86 percent within the same time frame. One of the hottest corporate developments in recent years is the management of digital documents.

The Reasons for the Increased Demand for DMS

Why the growing demand for DMS? On the one hand, companies now see that non-digital document management disrupts processes and makes a mockery of digitalization initiatives. On the other hand, the tools used in document management have come a long way over recent years.

The document management systems (DMS) of today:

Are easier to use
Boast new features
Are better suited to collaborative teamwork
Can be used at home, in the office and on a smartphone
Can perform tasks in an automated manner
Can be conveniently integrated into other digital business processes via APIs
Are available as state-of-the-art cloud services with flexible subscription models

In summary, the question today is no longer whether document management should be digitalized, but how.

Challenges When Choosing a DMS

Before a few years ago, businesses looking for an appropriate DMS had to decide between installing a full enterprise content management (ECM) system and choosing compact DMS solutions catered to particular use cases. In many businesses, the huge ECM system turned out to be too stiff and complex, and a smaller DMS wasn't enough to fully digitise all document operations.

The complicated state of the market presents another difficulty. An enormous variety of software solutions are now accessible on the provider side as a result of the rising demand for digital DMS solutions. Although this is generally a good thing, it does mean that project managers and decision-makers tasked with the purchase of a new DMS are overrun with options!

How to Approach DMS Selection

Essentially, you approach the selection of a new DMS for your business in the same way you would any other major software purchase. We can divide it into four steps: analysis, comparison, selection, implementation. This means:

You determine the individual needs of your company
You get an overview of the products available on the market
You match the offerings with your requirements and commence the selection process
You implement the right solution for your needs in your company

Before you start getting lost in the extensive feature lists of the various DMS solutions, you should determine the actual requirements of your company. The best way to do this is to use project management to create a comprehensive requirements specification detailing your company’s document management needs. It’s essential that you include all relevant stakeholders in this requirements specification from the very outset.

In the requirements specification, you record exactly what requirements a DMS solution must have so that it can be implemented in your company and subsequently handle all tasks it should perform. The requirements specification takes into account aspects such as the schedule, available budget, technical requirements such as any interfaces that may be required, necessary features or issues related to the maintenance of the software.

Click here for more detailed information on Document Management Systems (DMS) or contact us for a free consultation!

Resources