DMS industry riding on the back of Digitization

Document Management Services in India is witnessing a tractionbut there are a lot of areas which are hindering the growth which needs to be addressed. It is also true that digitization is pushing the this industry towards growth 

India at present is moving towards adopting digitization in every phase of daily life. This new way of workflows is being adopted to make a citizen’s life easy with all the information easily available at the finger tip. This is also changing the age old method of working on piles of paper documents and files. And so in order to manage digital data, organizations are looking upto Document Management Services (DMS) as a secure and easy way of handling data.

DMS industry is showing a gradual upward movement for last few years. Many organizations are coming up and adopting DMS due to increasing volume of documents, data collection, and compliance. The factor that has really triggered the acceptance of DMS is the quality of managing data in unforeseen circumstances like during disaster management.

"Another major challenge which is hindering the growth of the segment is that a lot of organizations are still skeptical about cloud based services."

Kuldeep Malhotra 
Vice President (Sales Planning & Communication), 
Konica Minolta Business Solution.

While talking about the acceptance of DMS, it can be said that the enterprise segment has been the frontrunner in implementing  documentation management and automating their businesses by removing the paper based processes. On the other hand the Digital India initiative of Government of India is encouraging the government departments in automating their process. Not only this, the initiative is also boosting the citizens of the country to adopt digitalization.     

“DMS industry can be divided into two ways, one is private sector where lot of enterprise is already looking at documentation management and how to automate their business process and remove redundant paper based processes. Second, the Government of India’s initiative, Digital India that is where digitization is helping a lot of government departments in automating their processes as well as helping citizens to create their digital footprint and it also remains with government as well. It helps them in identifying who you are as well as the pedigree behind you etc. The whole information gets captured. DMS is actually automating your current ids, authentication documents and moving into typical digital format which the country or government can see it at any particular time. 
Having said that it’s not only for government benefit, it’s also for private sector benefits. All the consumer centric organizations like banks, telecom companies, insurance companies need to use a lot of data and it means a lot of paper works is there or if paper work is not required there has to be the digital format of the documents,” views Ritesh Gandotra, Director – GDO Sales, Xerox. 

"In India, the opportunity of DMS in government sector is a lot. It is driven by government departments which are public facing will look at this as a growth area and it will happen"

Ritesh Gandotra
Director – GDO Sales, 
Xerox

Few factors that have acted as a catalyst in the promotion of DMS are effective operational process in businesses and cloud services platforms. Both the factors have transformed the way businesses operate.  

“The latest trends engulfing the Document Management System (DMS) space have played a major role in streamlining the operation processes in businesses. The introduction of cloud services have also transformed the business processes significantly with platforms like SaaS, Paas and other web based services gaining rapid adoption. Citing this, the DMS market is expected to grow considerably in the coming years as enterprises cut operational costs and seek more scalability in India,” explains Kuldeep Malhotra Vice President (Sales Planning & Communication), Konica Minolta Business Solution.

"Data Digitzation is a crucial aspect of the modern, digital economy. For a country like India, with its vast legacy of paper based documents across various sectors, data digitization assumes a critical role, both from an efficiency and data security point of view"

Leo Joseph
Senior Director, Enterprise Sales & Solutions, HP Inc. India

In modern digital economy, digitization of data is a critical aspect and for a growing economy like India it is very important as the country still follows the inheritance of paper based documents. Data digitization is important for India as it enhances efficiency and data security.  

   
“Data Digitzation is a crucial aspect of the modern, digital economy. For a country like India, with its vast legacy of paper based documents across various sectors, data digitization assumes a critical role, both from an efficiency and data security point of view. HP is supporting both the government and private sector by helping digitize critical data such as identity records, land records, financial documents among others. Through our comprehensive portfolio of products and services, we not only protect sensitive data, but help streamline and automate processes while improving productivity,“ opines Leo Joseph, Senior Director, Enterprise Sales & Solutions, HP Inc. India.

"Many enterprises are not fully aware of DMS solutions available in the market and however they can leverage information; improve efficiency and collaboration by implementing the right DMS."

Yuki Uchida
VP & CMO, 
Ricoh India
 

Challenges
No growing industry is devoid of challenges and so does the DMS industry in India. The major challenge that has been pointed out in this industry is that many organizations are way from the knowledge of the existence of DMS solutions. Organizations are not aware of the fact that DMS solutions can actually help them improve efficiency and leverage the power of data.    

“Many enterprises are not fully aware of DMS solutions available in the market and however they can leverage information; improve efficiency and collaboration by implementing the right DMS. Some of the key challenges that prevail in the market includes risk management, problem solving, meeting customer expectations and increased competition. Besides, change management is also a huge challenge in adoption of DMS by many companies as implementation of DMS changes the traditional way of the organization to completely paperless office culture. We need to develop technology that is well-designed, has integration and interoperability capabilities with customer’s environment and can be adapted by the users with a minimum friction,” highlights Yuki Uchida, VP & CMO, Ricoh India.

"It is important to note that the organizations that deal with significantly large amount of data and documents would have a requisite of document management solution"

Virender Jeet 
Sr. VP Technology 
Newgen Software 
 

With a similar view Kuldeep reiterates, “Lack of awareness regarding the benefits of DMS deployment comes as a major challenge for the industry. Another major challenge which is hindering the growth of the segment is that a lot of organizations are still skeptical about cloud based services.  An absence of high speed, consistent connectivity also comes a significant challenge.” 

Inefficiencies built-in organizations are a prime challenge in the DMS industry, and they need to realize those inefficiencies to remove it. Moreover, SMBs are the rising segment of entire nation and with the implementation of GST, they will definitely adopt automation for the smooth functioning of the organization. Another major challenge which needs to be highlighted is existence of unorganized sector and it should be addressed.    

"The fundamental premise on which these initiatives like DigiLocker, e-governance etc rest, is that of removal of paper and physical documents, visibility to information, ease of process as a result of automation etc."

Srividya Kannan
Founder, Director 
Avaali Solutions

“The challenges are many fold, lot of times organizations do not even know that inefficiencies are built-in. So the moment they start talking to organizations like us, the kind of discussion which will happen will open up their eyes. They will see that these are the inefficiencies which earlier they could not see and now when they see it they will definitely want to remove it. The challenges are hidden right now. The moment they start opening up, the information will reach out to them and they will start using it. It is happening in India a lot.SMB sector is definitely up for a boom. They will definitely look at automation more specially with the new regime of GST where competition becomes much more stringent, so everyone needs to remove the inefficiencies which are there in systems.

Competition is multifold. There are a lot of unorganized sector which is there in India and we have to look at that as a challenge,” points out Ritesh.

Digitalization in India
Digitalization is the new trend that has swayed the entire nation. It is being encouraged to create a digital environment so that services offered to the citizens become easy. Through the Digital Locker facility which comes under Digital India initiative, Government of India is boosting digitalization which will in turn help in the adoption of DMS.   

“Digital Locker is a true example of digitalization. The idea behind digitalization is to have a digital eco-system of services facilitating electronic URL based approach for submitting identity & certificate documents for availing any government service. This will help reduction of paper and paper driven drawbacks in government processes. It will directly & indirectly promote content management technology usage for generation, distribution and exchange of information among various systems and services. Moreover, various other Digital India initiatives including Mission mode projects like e-District, e-Vidhan, e-Courts, e-Secretariat etc. are also some of the driving factors for the proliferation of Document Management System (DMS) in government departments,” says Virender Jeet - Sr. VP Technology at Newgen Software.

Sharing a similar view Kuldeep says, “DigiLocker is a testimonial to the increasing digitization initiatives in the country which are aimed at offering last mile high speed connectivity to consumers. With services like DigiLocker, consumers can safely store their crucial documents in a digitised format and can retrieve them safely when required, eradicating the scenario of lost or stolen documents. We believe that many more such initiatives will be unveiled in the coming times as connectivity penetration soars in the country.” 

The DigiLocker initiative is not only encouraging people and organizations to embrace digitalization but it is also creating opportunity for the private players to offer online lockers to people.   

“Government initiatives like DigiLocker have pushed individuals and organizations to go digital, which is further fuelled by the tech-savvy workforce. Although DigiLocker is the service provided by the government, it has opened up avenues for private players in the market who are able to offer online lockers to people. DMS companies are competing against each other to provide superior customer experience and highly secure systems to customers to not only store that data, but ensure that it is easily accessible to them,” views Uchida. 

The Digital India program is a cluster of initiatives under which services are offered to citizens. These services are designed to improve day to day life of commoners.  

“Under the Digital India program, the government has introduced various initiatives including improving public internet access, DigiLocker, electronic delivery of services, e-governance, information for all etc. The fundamental premise on which these initiatives rest, is that of removal of paper and physical documents, visibility to information, ease of process as a result of automation etc..

With DigiLocker, all kinds of government issued documents from PAN Cards, education certificates etc. can be stored in secure online locker, and also, seamlessly used for conducting various transactions that needs access to the documents stored in DigiLocker. With the launch of e-signature, all documents can potentially be digitally authenticated. It is not hard to imagine the immense benefits that this brings right from reduction of administrative overheads, to reducing the cycle time to the process. In addition, customers will find it extremely convenient to undertake transactions because of these initiatives. These initiatives have an unprecedented potential for the growth of DMS and Enterprise Content Management, since digitization and archiving of records is at the very heart of these initiatives,” explains Srividya Kannan, Founder, Director – Avaali Solutions. 

Future Growth of DMS
It is true that in India, the use of paper and traditional method of storage are still followed among organizations but the country holds a high potential for automation of document retrieval. Organizations which are keen to streamline the processing of documents are shifting towards DMS.       

“In India, the use of paper and dependency on traditional methods of storage is quite high in government as well as large enterprises. Therefore, we see huge growth opportunities in the country where there is an increased need for automation of document retrieval within enterprises. Document Management Services (DMS) has become a key business priority for most of these organizations who seek to manage and streamline the processing of their documents across departments. According to Research & Market analytics, the global market for DMS is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.63% over the period of 2013-2018 and whereas in India there is constant growth of DMS by 20% year on year,” mentions Uchida. 

Information management systems make work easy as it offers many advantages like cost reduction, improved effectiveness and shorter time for data queries, managing the integrity and reliability of data etc. So organizations which generates enormous amount of data and document will of course implement DMS into its system.   

“Information management is quite the forthcoming trend in this ever evolving digital era. Information management systems dispense a plethora of advantages; cost reduction, improved effectiveness and shorter time for data queries. The systems provide an assurance of secure data, diminish possibilities of data loss and manage record versions. 

It handles time consuming tasks like handling records in different formats in a joined method effortlessly. Furthermore, it manages the integrity and reliability of data, boosts service delivery and enhances business processes; an imminent requirement for businesses. 

It is important to note that the organizations that deal with significantly large amount of data and documents would have a requisite of document management solution,” says Virender.  

Xerox finds huge opportunity for DMS in government sector. Besides this, healthcare, insurance, automobiles etc are few verticals which are keen to accept DMS into their work process.  

“In India, the opportunity of DMS in government sector is a lot. It is driven by government departments which are public facing will look at this as a growth area and it will happen. Other than government, the PSUs or the judiciary, the way they would digitize their documents and automating their processes, they are recording the documents and files in digitized form. Overall, the country is moving towards the right direction. 

Healthcare is another segment which is adopting DMS. We have patient records, patient safety and so much of data that gets generated when you start visiting doctors and unfortunately if someone gets admitted then much more data needs to be captured. Hospitals are definitely looking at automating their processes. 
Insurance, automobiles, supply chain segment are very keenly looking at digitization,” says optimistic Ritesh.

To Conclude…
Though DMS industry is moving steadily but it is true that there are a lot of areas which need to be taken care of. The prime concern of the industry is lack of awareness among people which needs to be addressed. Organizations need to understand their inefficiencies and realize the advantages of DMS. 

Digital India and GST is helping to improve the situation in the country as both the initiatives upholds the concept of digitization. So it can be fairly said that DMS is poised for a growth. 

Aparna Mullick
aparna@varindia.com