Problems, solutions

Research firms stay on top of the situation by dedicating analysts to track document and content management problems and solutions. For example, IDC identifies "regulatory compliance, improved records management, the insatiable needs of driving costs down and workplace efficiencies up" as key drivers in this marketplace. "Demand for document solutions will grow as businesses across the region strive to improve document-based workflow in a business environment that is still heavily dependent on paper," said Edwin Han, senior research manager for IDC's Asia/Pacific Document Solutions Research. "This, coupled with manufacturers' active efforts to add differentiating value to their hardware, will be key growth engines."

In the inaugural report for its new Asia/Pacific Document Solutions Research Service, issued in June 2006, IDC estimates the market (for hardcopy peripheral vendors) for Document Solutions in Asia/Pacific ex-Japan (APEJ) to be US$94.3 million in 2005, growing almost 80 percent over 2004. IDC further finds the APEJ document solutions market to be young and poised for sustained high growth from 2006-2010 as hardcopy peripheral manufacturers seek new ways to compete effectively.

The Asia/Pacific hardcopy peripheral marketplace is highly competitive-not just in hardware, but in TCO, said the report. Regulatory compliance, improved records management, and the insatiable needs of driving costs down and workplace efficiencies up are other key factors that will drive document solutions adoption, said IDC, and the growing content management software market is also helping to drive demand for document solutions. The bigger, more dominant manufacturers like Fuji Xerox, Canon, HP and Ricoh, who already are in the document solutions game, are getting more active in marketing document solutions, as competitive pressures reduce hardware revenue and profit growth opportunities, according to the research firm.

IDC believes the smaller manufacturers are now beginning to feel a significant competitive squeeze as they have tended to rely much more heavily on hardware-only business strategies than their bigger, more sophisticated competitors. As a result, in order to hold market share, they are aggressively embarking on document solution programs of their own-many of these smaller manufacturers are beginning to build the necessary competencies and resources to sell and market document solutions, said the report.