In this, the second of a two part Q & A with Document Manager magazine’s Editor, Dave Tyler, we ask Dave how he sees the DM market

We hear a lot about bigger technology trends changing the DM market. From where you sit, Dave, what do you see happening?

It’s a very interesting question. We’ve heard a lot in the sector, especially in the last year or two, about certain big buzzwords that we’ve been told are set to change everything in the ECM (Enterprise Content Management) market. But I am just not seeing too much of that on the ground.

What do you mean specifically?

Well, things like ‘Big Data’ and the impact of social: they get a lot of airplay, but I don’t see them – as yet – playing much into the practical plans of businesses and companies. I just don’t hear much about end users applying these ideas that much, in the ECM context at least. There’s still a sense to me that these ideas need a year or two for users to catch up; they’re still a little bit coming mainly from the technology companies themselves, they’re not quite in ‘real world’ yet.

What about Cloud? Is that just another ‘buzzword’ at the moment?

I think it’s just not happening in as widespread a way as many people expected. At least in the ECM market; I just don’t see ‘capture in the Cloud’ happening, certainly not in any big way.

I think there are a couple of reasons behind that. One, people just don’t see good enough business or cost reasons to change what they are already doing yet. And secondly, there is more of a ‘social’ issue; I think a lot of people have been very put off by all the security concerns in the wake of the Snowden revelations about NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance and so on

Does that mean things are completely static, then?

No, not at all – I think there are definitely changes, especially around mobile. Mobile and mobile capture are becoming huge. While there are certainly some functions that look to centralise scanning and keep it all in one place, the move is very much towards capturing images at the point of origination.

Can you expand on that a little bit?

‘Point of origination’ means in practical terms, the field – when the engineer is out on a job, at the point of collection, sale, delivery and so on. We are seeing more and more technologies getting set up in ECM to support ‘scanning’ at that point, not later on in the process.

Mobile is the key to making that trend a reality, after it has been talked about for a while. I think that is the biggest driver for change in the ECM market right now, without a doubt.

Dave is Editor of DM (Document Manager), an independent editorial resource for the UK Document Management industry available in both print and online. Dave has extensive experience in the DM market as both a journalist and PR for sector players