Today we published our analysis of the 2011 Document & Records Management marketplace, including our "Cross-Check" review of buyer risk. 

I can summarize its contents by saying that although a market for big ECM Suites still exists, there is also a much larger market for departmental-level document management products.  The fact is that few businesses ever really bought into the concept of consolidating all their electronic documents into a single, all-encompassing system.  Rather, they buy systems one by one and deploy them to meet specific process or departmental needs. If they do then get the notion that centralized management would be nice, it's probably too late.

As such the market for relatively simple document management continues to grow apace, yet the number of buyers interested in complex, $1m-plus ECM Suites remains steady. This spurs large, rich ECM vendors such as Autonomy and OpenText to grow more through vendor acquisitions, rather than organically. 

Hence in our most recent Cross Check chart, the largest vendors in this space at times represent the highest risk for buyers.

RSG 2011 Cross-Check for Document Management Vendors

Overall though the document management market in 2011 is likely to remain strong, with a wide array of reliable, affordable, and mature products on offer.  Of course decyphering the truth from the marketing spiel in the new year will be no easier than before....