EAST NORTHPORT, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2005--
Rapid Convergence Will Force Industry Consolidation as Industry Leaders Jockey for Position and Growth Shifts to New Market Segments
Spending on document capture software by the public sector and corporations grew by 14% in 2004 to $901M, and can be expected to surpass the $1B mark in 2005. Driven by the requirement to speed transaction processing while reducing data entry costs, substantial annual growth is expected to persist through 2008.
However, megatrends such as globalization of geographic markets, convergence between production document scanners and office copier hardware, and increasing adoption of electronic processes for business transactions have produced a volatile, rapidly changing market offering both high risk and opportunity for software vendors in this space.
"The leading segment, Data Capture for Transaction Processing, is showing a growth rate of only 6% as IT investment shifts from optimizing data entry for single forms to automating entire business processes," states Harvey Spencer, author of the study 'The Worldwide Market for Document Capture Software 2004-2008.' "Companies are capturing incoming paper documents more quickly as they enter the organization so that they can align these documents with their electronic transaction data flows. As a result, ad-hoc desktop capture software usage with networked office copiers for scanning is increasing, along with batch oriented high volume capture systems that are becoming distributed. These segments are both growing at rates in excess of 18%, and both promise to surpass data-centric capture in total revenue size by 2007. It is ironic that increasing use of the internet for business transactions would accelerate demand for automation of paper based processes, but that is exactly what we are seeing in the document capture software market."
This turbulent market can be expected to produce both winners and losers as vendors scramble for positioning and enter new segments of the capture market. "We can expect consolidation of vendors and broadening of the functionality of leading software products," stated Spencer. "Over time, capture software will become a broad office application that sits at the front end of office automation -- in some ways more similar to Microsoft Office than to the highly specialized niche products that dominate the market today. The successful vendors will be those who best understand the underlying trends and take advantage of the new opportunities, while defending their core markets against new competitors."
The new study is available to Harvey Spencer Associates' clients who subscribe to the Document Capture Software Market Information Service. The new service, already subscribed to by many of the document capture software market leading vendors, offers year round expert analysis and commentary of industry trends and events, personal inquiry support, the Worldwide Market for Document Capture Software 2004 -2008 Report with quarterly updates, and a comprehensive Vendor Tracking Report that profiles the 90+ software vendors active in this market.
Harvey Spencer Associates is an analyst and market consulting company founded in 1989 to specialize in document scanning, recognition and allied technologies. Based on Long Island, NY, Harvey Spencer Associates specializes in the hardware and software used for capturing images and data from business transactional forms and paper based media. This includes electronic document imaging, forms processing software, OCR and other associated recognition technologies and the integration of paper and electronic forms in B2B and other environments. More information on the company and the services offered can be found on its website at: http://www.harveyspencer.com/, by calling Harvey Spencer Associates at 631-368-8393 or e-mailing to inquiries@hsassocs.com.
Microsoft Office is the registered trademark of Microsoft.
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