Document Management Industry Revenue and Growth Statistics (2024)

Document management key statistics

• Fortune 500 companies in total lose an average of $12 billion per year due to inefficiency caused by unstructured document management.
• 45% of small-sized businesses still rely on traditional paper-based document management.
• 11% of small-sized businesses have no document management system in place.
• 45% of companies spent at least 1 week to have a contract signed.
• By 2025, the world will store 200 zettabytes of data.

Sources: Pericent, CPA Practice Advisor, CyberCrime Magazine

What is Document Management (Overview)?

Document management, usually known as document management system, is a system of storing, managing, sharing, and tracking files or documents usually done with computers, servers, and databases. During its earlier days, document management simply includes storing and managing files or documents. Nowadays, different functions were added over time such as sharing and workflows thus a system was created to put everything under one umbrella.

Document management system is usually computerized. It saves a lot of time, money, and effort which is why it is more recommended than traditional paper-based managing and storing of files or documents.

Source:

Document Management Industry Revenue Forecast

Document management industry had a revenue of $3.59 in 2017 and would grow to $6.78 by 2023.

Source: Statista

Document Management Industry Market Size

Document management industry had $7.31 billion in market size at the end of 2022. During the first week of January 2023, this climbed to $7.38 billion.

Source: IBIS World

How much paper is used throughout the world?

Each year, the world produces 300 million tons of paper. In the U.S. alone, although they only cover 5% of the world's population, the country and its citizens are responsible for 30% of global paper usage. The data below shows us how much paper is produced in the world.

Now, this is important to take note of. Document management industry’s main selling point is that companies, institutions, and organizations can save a lot of money by diverging from traditional paper-based document management to a more recommended computerized system. Just imagine how much trees are saved if the entire world will invest more on document management industry.

Sources: The World Counts, EPA

How much paper is saved through document management system?

In 2014, Sierra club revealed in one of their studies that the United States alone produced millions of tons of paper. With the presence of document management systems nowadays, 20.7 million tons of paper would be saved, that would be 55 to 110 million trees each year in the US alone.

Source: Pair Soft

How much time do document management systems save?

According to a study by AWV, a regular-sized company can save time spent in manual file sharing by up to 80% when using Document Management Systems.

For file sharing, document management systems cut off 50% to 80% of the time used.

For archiving, document management systems save up to 90% of processing time. This includes transportation, wait times, research, administration, troubleshooting, etc.)

Source: AWV

How much salary cost is saved by using document management systems?

With time spent in manual filing and storing reduced, a company can also save on salary costs. It is estimated that around $49,600 is saved in salary costs if a regular-sized company starts using document management systems.

Source: AWV

Is Document Management Industry profitable?

Yes. Document management industry is profitable. Using document management systems and software, businesses can save both time and money. Here are some important statistics to prove that document management is profitable.

• 40% reduction in document-related costs when using document management systems.
• 404% return on investment (ROI) over five years of using document management systems
• 10% reduction in overall operational expense for document processing
• 30% fewer errors when using document management systems
• $1 to $5 saved per document

Sources: Laserfische, DocStar

How much money is wasted due to paper-based document management?

In U.S. alone, businesses waste $8 billion just by managing paper documents and files. Money is also wasted on filing documents, misplacing documents, and reproducing lost documents. The cost ranges from $20 to $220 per document.

Source: Corp Magazine

How much money do businesses waste due document issues?

A lot of money is wasted due to document issues. When we say document issues, this broadly defines issues that are encountered during the creation, filing, or storing of files and documents. Some examples of this would be:

• File Management Chaos
• Inconsistencies
• updating versions of the documents
• file processes taking much longer time than anticipated
• and so on.

With these issues, your company is losing money. It is estimated that a company loses $20,000 a year due to document issues.

Source: Finances Online, The ECM Consultant

How much upkeep cost does the document management system save?

Using document management systems saves you at least $1,500 per filing cabinet each year. Not only does it saves you money, but it also saves you office space. A filing cabinet takes up 9 square feet. It can hold 10,000 to 12,000 documents.

Rummaging through tens of thousands of files across these cabinets, even though they are in alphabetic order, will consume time plus maintaining healthy conditions for the files and documents is a must, thus it requires upkeep costs.

Source: Scan Search

Types of Document Management Systems

Source: What Fix

Are cloud-based document management system expensive?

Usually, it costs around $15 to $200 per user on a monthly basis for cloud-based document management system. This might look expensive but it is totally worth it to invest on cloud-based document management. That is because, a lot of benefits include saving time, money, and effort. It also reduces human error because most of the processes are automated.

In addition to that, cloud-based document management system provides ease of access where you can access and share files and documents from anywhere across the globe.

Source: Business New Daily, What Fix

How much productivity is wasted due to manual document management?

Cloud-based document management is suitable for large-scale businesses. Companies that are using software that belong to this category will save a lot of time and money, reduces human error, and saves money on all other things.

Source: Hubbion, Modern Impressions

Which industries and sectors need electronic document management the most?

These are the sectors and industries that needs electronic document management the most:

• Government
• Manufacturing
• Healthcare
• Transportation
• Education

Source: Federal Records Management

Which industries benefit from electronic document management the most?

These are the industries that benefits the most:

• Insurance Agencies
• Law Firms
• Libraries
• Real Estate Companies
• Pharmacies

Source: River City Data