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New Revenue for the New Economy: 2010

Written by: HK Bain

Article Overview: Do you ever get asked about storing documents electronically? What about providing disaster recovery / business continuity services for clients’ existing electronic information? What if you could offer these services without the expense or complexity of acquiring hardware, software or additional IT personnel? Electronic content management (ECM) is a logical extension of the records storage and disaster recovery services you already provide. As your business recovers from what many economists are calling the “Great Recession,” ECM can be the thrust you need to spark significant business growth in the years to come. ECM is a growing market opportunity, with significant earning potential, and it doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think to get started.

New Revenue for the New Economy: 2010

Do you ever get asked about storing documents electronically? What about providing disaster recovery / business continuity services for clients’ existing electronic information?

What if you could offer these services without the expense or complexity of acquiring hardware, software or additional IT personnel?

Electronic content management (ECM) is a logical extension of the records storage and disaster recovery services you already provide. As your business recovers from what many economists are calling the “Great Recession,” ECM can be the thrust you need to spark significant business growth in the years to come. ECM is a growing market opportunity, with significant earning potential, and it doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think to get started.

The Market for ECM is Exploding The Gartner Group indicates that the $3.3 billion ECM market will grow at a 9.5% compound annual growth rate through 2013 to a size of $5.1billion.[1] This growth is fueled by organizations desire to reduce the costs associated with managing paper and paper-based processes, to implement disaster recovery, to enhance green initiatives and to comply with the plethora of government regulations impacting every industry and company.

Growth is expected among current users as well. Forrester Research indicates that 72% of companies who are already using ECM plan to expand or increase that usage in the next twelve months.[2] ECM is one of a handful of technology markets expected to show significant growth during this economic recovery, and now is your chance to expand your offerings with a complementary product that will result in business growth in 2010. Recession-proof Your Business ECM can complement your existing records storage business by offering your customers additional, flexible choices on how they want to store their data. For example, many organizations choose to store current, frequently accessed data in an electronic format for secure online access whenever it’s needed while keeping older, less-frequently needed information in a records warehouse. The benefits to your business can be significant, including improving your bottom line with a new revenue stream, achieving sales targets, generating new sales from existing customers, and improving customer service by expanding your service offering.

Many records storage organizations have already made the decision to add ECM to their product offering, and they’re finding that SaaS ECM makes it even easier.

SaaS Means Easy Implementation for You and Your Customer What is Software as a Service (SaaS)? Rather than deploying software on an in-house network, users access the application and their data online trading capital costs and complex implementation for rapid deployment and a monthly operating expense. It is also referred to as hosted, on-demand, and cloud computing. SaaS is a smart choice for your customers in today’s economic climate, because it helps in the struggle to do more with fewer resources. It’s also a smart choice for you, because, you don’t have to become a technology expert to add this offering to your product line. The manufacturer manages all software, servers, and storage and is responsible for maintaining system availability for your customers.

Analysts from the Gartner Group, Forrester and Nucleus Research agree, that SaaS is a sustainable up trend for 2010 and beyond. All three firms have included the growth of cloud computing in their predictions, and Nucleus Research even claims there is “No sign of rain.”[1]

SaaS ECM services, like ImageSilo^® from Digitech Systems, provide all of the power of the most sophisticated ECM products, but without the investment (for you or your customer) in the hardware and IT expertise to manage it in-house. The manufacturers providing the software as an online service also manage and secure the storage. You can leave system upgrades and maintenance to them and focus your time and energy on what you do best: finding and serving your customers.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of SaaS ECM is the security of the recurring revenue stream. Unlike traditional software sales, that are transactional in nature requiring you to constantly find new customers, on-demand services allow you to get customers in the door at a friendlier, lower price point and then provide ongoing service for them over time. You wake up the first of each month with a built-in revenue stream from recurring billing to existing clients. Now that’s living! Finding an ECM Partner Look for the following qualities in any manufacturing partner:

• An easy to understand pricing model that offers a lower point of entry for small and mid-sized businesses
• A flexible product that scales easily to any size organization and meets the needs of a variety of vertical industries
• Out of the box integration with Microsoft Office and simple tools to facilitate seamless connections to a wide variety of other line of business applications
• A full suite of integrated ECM components including solutions for distributed capture, print streams, email, and workflow
• Sales support that offers a quick start for your staff and ongoing support through marketing and sales materials
• Live customer support with an excellent satisfaction rating

Choose a SaaS ECM partner who has:

• A proven track record in the ECM industry
• A strong availability history for their product over a period of years (99.9% uptime minimum)
• The ability for your customers to maintain copies of their live data in a secure, offsite location
• A manufacturer who also allows you to provide software if your customer requires an on-premise solution

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Article Tags: Cloud Computing, Digitech, Digitech Systems, Document Management, ECM, enterprise content management, HK Bain, SaaS, Software as a Service
Referred by: http://www.volumepr.com



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