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50 ECM Statistics in 2024: Importance, Market Size & Benefits

ECM systems allow companies to store, manage and analyze the content they generate. We have previously covered what ECM is and how AI impacts it, uses cases of AI-powered ECM and benefits of AI in ECM in our previous articles.

To understand ECM with quantitative stats, check out stats on:

Market Size

  • ECM is still a fast growing market with a CAGR of 16% according to Statista, where Forrester forecasts that by the end of 2020 ECM will be a global market worth $11 billion
  • Forrester research shows that, there are 14 ECM products with >$20 million in revenue with revenue leaders being OpenText, Microsoft, Hyland and Alfresco Software.

Why does ECM matter?

Employees often spend too much time on searching for information instead of working on a value adding task. An ECM system can reduce the time spent on searching for information and increase the collaboration among the employees.

  • According to AIIM survey, the overall average time spent managing information as well as searching is 45 minutes, which is roughly 8% of the working day.
  • Employees can’t find the information they are looking 46% of the time. (IDC)
  • According to IDC, time wasted on searching information costs Fortune 500 companies between $60-85 Billion in direct costs and even more in opportunity costs.
  • An Outsell research revealed that an engineer’s time spent searching for information increased by 13% since 2002. (IHS Markit)
  • According to a McKinsey report published in 2012, employees spend 19% of their average workweek on searching and gathering information, whereas they spend 14% of their time communicating and collaborating internally.
  • SearchYourCloud claims that it takes up to 8 attempts for employees to find the right document.
  • 40% of corporate users reported that they can not find the information they need to do their jobs on their intranets. (KMWorld)

Document processing stats

  • 42% of knowledge workers admitted that paper-based workflows make their daily tasks less efficient, costlier and less productive. (IDC)
  • 40% of knowledge workers reported to spend 21–30% of their week on tasks that are document-related. (IDC)
  • 44 (23 paper-based and 21 electronic) documents are created by knowledge workers per week. (IDC)
  • In a Nintex survey, 39% of the interviewees claimed to observe a broken document process within their organization:
    • 49% said they can’t locate documents easily
    • 43% claimed to struggle while sharing documents and requesting with document approval
    • 33% had trouble with document versioning
  • Xenit claims that an employee can waste up to 10 hours of working time a month on document inefficiencies.

ECM adoption

  • AIIM survey found that:
    • 24% of the largest companies that participated in the survey didn’t have ECM implemented.
    • 45% of companies with 5000+ employees had at least one content management system at departmental level.
    • 20% of medium-sized companies had an enterprise-wide ECM system or a single sign-on/multiple-repository system.
    • Companies with <500 employees tend to use point solutions for imaging and archive twice as much as medium sized (500-5000 employees) and large companies (5000+ employees).
Source: AIIM

ECM Benefits/Results of implementation

Financial benefits

ROI of ECM investments

  • ROI figures range from 38% to  over 600% for improved access to information, depending on the new ECM system is an upgrade over an existing one or is an entirely new system replacing previously manual processes. (IDC)
  • ARC’s financial analysis on the ECM implementation project shows a net present value of $185k over 5 years and an internal rate of return of 15%.
  • IDC study shows that improving search and retrieval systems of a Fortune 500 firm’s 4,000 engineers recovered the investment within a month and contributed to a $2 million monthly productivity gain afterwards.

Cost savings & productivity gains

  • Nissan saved $500k p.a. in agency costs by being able to manage all website changes in-house after implementing ECM.
  • IHS claims that ECM can reduce costs related to the inability to find documents per user per month from around $200 to $10 for medium sized enterprises (around 1000 employees).
  • 5% to 10% reduction in manufacturing costs, including materials savings, energy savings, and process improvements. (IHS Markit)
  • A small company with 35 engineers can realize direct engineering cost savings ranging from $500k to $1 million a year. (IHS Markit)
  • A large company with 1,000 engineers can see savings as much as $27 million annually. (IHS Markit)
  • By implementing an ECM, Cato Inc. eliminated at least 60% of paper and toner costs companywide.
  • After implementing an ECM system with an AI integration, Greenbank RSL’s processing costs decreased by 50%.
  • After implementing Maana‘s knowledge management tool, an oil and gas division of a Fortune 50 company enhanced its accounts receivable (A/R) collections by 65% over the previous year. Management estimates that cash collections would accelerate by $600k per day by extending the use of Maana to all A/R agents in that division.

Performance benefits

  • Xenit claims that Alfred Finder, a document searching tool built on Alfresco, enables employees to retrieve information in less than 3 seconds.
  • AIIM survey respondents considered that ECM can improve staff productivity and engagement by around 18%.
  • Speeds up time to market new products by an average of 2.5 to 4 months. (IHS Markit)
  • Improves the manufacturing yield by 1%-5%. (IHS Markit)
  • 2x to 5x reduction in defected products/processes and failures. (IHS Markit)

Reduced processing time

  • Invoice process workflow time for Greenbank RSL decreased by 84% after implementing ECM.
  • By implementing an ECM tool, a global investment bank has reduced process time by up to 60% per contract. (Mphasis)
  • According to IHS Markit, ECM can reduce time costs significantly, which results in efficiency gains:
    • 20% to 30% reduction in engineering time spent to locate relevant technical knowledge, collaborate with colleagues and manage information.
    • 50% to 75% less time is spent by employees to review and understand relevant technical knowledge.
    • 20% to 50% reduction in time spent on analysis, problem solving, and decision making.
    • 50% reduction in time spent re-creating work already done elsewhere in the organization. (75% of participants admitted to waste time recreating content due to not being able to find the existing version in Nuxeo’s survey)

Employee benefits

  • In terms of timescales and project costs, an environment where collaboration is supplied by systems like ECM can improve project delivery by 23% on average . (AIIM)
  • According to Forrester, 75% of the workforce is expected to be formed up of millenials by the end of 2020, where systems like ECM is expected to increase employee retention as millenials are used to easy-to-use tech systems and have less tolerance for lack of advanced search features

For more detailed information about ECM vendors, please check our ECM vendor selection guide or contact us:

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This article was originally written by former AIMultiple industry analyst Izgi Arda Ozsubasi and reviewed by Cem Dilmegani

Access Cem's 2 decades of B2B tech experience as a tech consultant, enterprise leader, startup entrepreneur & industry analyst. Leverage insights informing top Fortune 500 every month.
Cem Dilmegani
Principal Analyst
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Cem Dilmegani
Principal Analyst

Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month.

Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple.

Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised businesses on their enterprise software, automation, cloud, AI / ML and other technology related decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.

He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.

Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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