The term Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is falling out of use along with the viability of its legacy vendors like FileNet, Documentum and OpenText. Biffar noted that Gartner positions Content Services – narrowly focused cloud-based offerings that meet specific business needs – as the evolution of ECM.
“Our customers in the small and medium-sized (SMB) market never warmed to using the term ECM. They’ve always confronted different IT challenges than what large corporations face. At DocuWare, we understand that capture is a Content Service, as is document archiving, invoice processing or managing personnel files,” he said. “This is the language our customers speak. This modular, results-driven approach is built into our software development efforts.”
Information is the currency that fuels an organization and its most important asset. “Every business leader knows their company has to go digital to succeed,” Biffar said. “This transformation requires the skills of more IT specialists than the labor market can supply. Moving to DocuWare Cloud eliminates the need for our customers to maintain on-premises software and reduces the burden on their IT staff.”
In his presentation, President Thomas Schneck also noted the growth in DocuWare Cloud sales, a major factor of success in 2017. DocuWare’s cloud revenue grew by 140% and cloud customers comprised 45% of all new systems sold.
Schneck delved into the business goals that drive digital transformation for customers which include the achievement of increased operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and market share. He noted that in a 2017 Keypoint Intelligence Survey of small and medium-sized businesses, 44% of participants were considering investing in a document management solution and 23% were just beginning to make plans. This presents a tremendous untapped opportunity for DocuWare and its partners.
Chief Technology Officer Dr. Michael Berger characterized DocuWare as sophisticated technology that is easy to use. He noted that DocuWare version 7 represents a quantum leap in scalability, performance and ease of maintenance. These changes were driven by cloud requirements but are also essential for on-premises customers.
“DocuWare is aligned with Gartner’s definition of a Content Services Platform because it provides repository and functional services to cover specific uses cases and its services can be integrated and accessed easily,” Dr. Berger explained. “There is a clear separation between the platform front end and the business process services back end which offers separate scalability. Our platform is also highly configurable on the repository, utility and user interface levels.”
DocuWare’s advanced technology along with a deep understanding of its customers’ business needs offer an unmatched combination. Customers achieve these net results from a digital first approach: knowledge worker empowerment, secure automation, and enhanced business agility.
