Magic Quadrant for Document Management

How does Gartner define the Document Management market in 2024?

Gartner defines document management as the tools and practices used to capture, store, process, and access documents and content in support of personal, team and enterprise needs. It is used for a wide range of collaborative and operational purposes, enabling the digital workplace, content collaboration, content-centric processes, content services for enterprise applications and content governance. Gartner estimates that 70% to 80% of enterprise information is unstructured, posing a significant challenge for organizations that must unlock the potential and mitigate the risks of content. Document management tools are critical to enterprise application strategies that need to support unstructured information or content.

Key Facts for Magic Quadrant for Document Management in 2024

Publication Date: 18 December 2024

Document ID: G00808538

Coverage: Global

Authors: Tim Nelms, Marko Sillanpaa

Core Purpose: Document management tools are a foundational technology deployed by enterprises to enable and automate content-centric activities. Application leaders should consider document management solutions for a wide range of collaborative and operational content purposes.

How was the Document Management market evolved in 2024?

Document management is defined as tools and practices used to capture, store, process, and access documents and content in support of personal, team and enterprise needs

Gartner estimates that 70% to 80% of enterprise information is unstructured, posing a significant challenge for organizations

Document management tools support five key use cases: digital workplace, external collaboration, enterprise application content services, content-centric business processes, and information governance

The market includes both collaborative uses (digital workplace, external collaboration) and operational uses (enterprise applications, business processes, information governance)

AI and GenAI are critical trends, with vendors increasingly offering GenAI-enabled search, document Q&A, knowledge base Q&A, document classification, and metadata extraction

Deployment models are shifting toward self-service SaaS for collaborative use cases and vendor-managed services for operational use cases

The number of content experiences is expanding with prepackaged applications or templates solving common departmental or industry needs

Recent acquisitions include OpenText acquiring Micro Focus, Box acquiring Crooze and Alphamoon, and Ricoh adding AxonIvy, RICOH Kintone plus and PFU

Leaders in this market include Microsoft, Box, Laserfiche, SER Group, and OpenText

The market is mature with many vendors active for over 20 years, with change being gradual rather than revolutionary

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

Content storage services help control where and how content is stored at every stage of its life cycle. As part of an information life cycle management strategy, services may include encryption; sovereign storage; storage tiering; on-premises storage; cloud storage; file system storage; content-addressable storage; database storage; and write-once-read-many (WORM) storage.

Metadata services describe content using summary data. Simple systems have read-only system metadata, but more sophisticated services support document classification, user-defined types and attributes using industry-standard metadata models.

Search services find content based on metadata or the full text of documents. Search tools use natural language processing to create an inverted index or more advanced vector embeddings. Many systems support faceted search, which can filter results based on metadata.

Library and repository services organize and index collections of documents. Library services provide facilities to check content in and out, and to track and maintain version history. Some solutions support complex relationships between content such as renditions. These features are tightly integrated with content storage, metadata, search, governance and security services. Advanced library services include support for templates.

Security and protection services prevent unauthorized access and changes to content and metadata with role-based access control. Advanced features provide endpoint protection, data-loss prevention and security classification.

Digital workplace integration ensures documents can be used in digital workplace suites which include collaborative work management, workstream collaboration, meetings, intranets and collaborative document editing.

Information governance services classify, preserve, and dispose of content according to operational and legal needs. This includes retention policies that determine the lifetime of content; content classification to support personally identifiable information (PII) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); record administration; and, in advanced cases, support for complex records standards.

What are the common features of top products in the Document Management space?

Multiexperience support allows users to access content regardless of device and location. Document management tools support document browsing, searching, and viewing services on web and mobile devices. Some provide native support for devices and operating systems like file sync and share services.

API and integration services enable customized integration with other applications for a wide variety of content-centric use cases. Integration services interfaces include command line interfaces, language framework software development kits (SDKs), web services and batch interfaces. Some vendors support standards such as secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), WebDAV and Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS).

Collaboration services help employees and third parties work together on content. Collaboration services include support for team workspaces, synchronized content across devices, support for real-time coauthoring and collaborative editing, integration with digital workplace suites, and support for external collaboration.

Workflow automation coordinates and automates document-centric tasks between users and systems. Common uses are document review and approval life cycles, case-centric processes and electronic signatures. For more advanced needs, see the markets for business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA) and enterprise low-code application platforms (LCAPs).

Enterprise application integration helps users access documents in context when using tools like Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP ERP and SAP SuccessFactors, and Workday. Integration with applications like Epic Systems in healthcare and Duck Creek Technologies and Guidewire in insurance are also common.

Capture services help users ingest and classify content from sources that include the user's device, end-user imaging services and other repositories. Document processing techniques for classifying content data include optical character recognition for text-based images, bar codes, text extraction and intelligent character recognition for handwritten text.

Artificial intelligence solves significant knowledge management challenges focused on turning content designed for humans into data designed for machines and vice versa. Common AI-enabled capabilities help capture text from images, populate metadata and classify documents. Advanced generative-AI-enabled capabilities help users apply natural language queries to both individual documents and repositories using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Deployment model flexibility helps organizations commission and manage services in a wide variety of ways including through SaaS, vendor-managed services and client-managed services. Multitenant SaaS models are most common in collaboration use cases, and vendor-managed services are most common for operational use cases.

Administration and analytics help power users and administrators configure the system, assess its performance and manage the system.

Scope Exclusions

Did not meet minimum revenue threshold of $100 million in 2023

Did not acquire 50 new enterprise customers

Did not rank in top 25 for Customer Interest Indicator

Did not have at least 500 enterprise customers with 100+ deploying over 500 licenses

Did not have at least 200,000 active seats

Did not have active presence in at least three regions

Did not offer mandatory features

Not available as SaaS or vendor-managed service

Did not offer at least three language choices

Chose not to participate in the research

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Meet the Gartner definition of document management

Nominate a document management product or closely linked suite of products, which are licensed primarily on a per-user basis

Be generally available as of 1 May 2024

Have acquired 50 new enterprise customers for the nominated document management product/service

Have 2023 revenue of over $100 million

Rank among the top 25 for the Customer Interest Indicator (CII)

Offer mandatory functionality: Content storage, metadata, search, library and repository services, security and protection, digital workplace integration and information governance

Offer common functionality: Mobility, API and integration services, collaboration, workflow automation, enterprise application integration, capture, artificial intelligence, deployment and administration and analytics

Have at least 500 enterprise customers for the document management product/service, with at least 100 customers deploying over 500 licenses

Have at least 200,000 seats of the document management product actively used by clients

Have an active presence in at least three regions

Must be available as either SaaS or as a vendor-managed service

The product(s) must offer at least three language choices

Ability to Execute — Relative Weighting

Product or Service - High

Overall Viability - High

Sales Execution/Pricing - Medium

Market Responsiveness/Record - High

Marketing Execution - Medium

Customer Experience - High

Operations - Low

Completeness of Vision — Relative Weighting

Market Understanding - High

Marketing Strategy - Low

Sales Strategy - Low

Offering (Product) Strategy - High

Business Model - Medium

Vertical/Industry Strategy - Medium

Innovation - High

Geographic Strategy - Low

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates 15 document management vendors across five key use cases: digital workplace, external collaboration, enterprise application content services, content-centric business processes, and information governance. It assesses vendors on their ability to execute and completeness of vision, providing detailed strengths and cautions for each vendor. The research includes analysis of mandatory and common features, market trends including AI integration, deployment models, and user experiences.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: Application leaders and IT decision-makers should use this research when selecting document management tools for collaborative and operational content purposes. It is particularly valuable for organizations evaluating vendors for digital workplace suites, external collaboration with third parties, content-centric business processes, enterprise application integration, and information governance. The research helps buyers understand vendor positioning, capabilities, and market trends to make informed purchasing decisions aligned with their specific use cases and requirements.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: Vendors must offer the following mandatory functionality in their document management solution: Content storage services (encryption, sovereign storage, storage tiering, on-premises, cloud, file system, content-addressable, database, and WORM storage); Metadata services (document classification, user-defined types and attributes); Search services (metadata or full text search with natural language processing); Library and repository services (check in/out, version history); Security and protection services (role-based access control, endpoint protection, data-loss prevention); Digital workplace integration (collaborative work management, workstream collaboration, meetings, intranets, collaborative document editing); and Information governance services (retention policies, content classification for PII and HIPAA, record administration).

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

Failed to meet business performance criteria (revenue under $100 million, fewer than 50 new enterprise customers)
Insufficient customer base (fewer than 500 enterprise customers or fewer than 100 customers with 500+ licenses)
Limited market reach (fewer than 200,000 active seats)
Inadequate geographic presence (not active in at least three regions)
Did not rank in top 25 for Customer Interest Indicator
Missing mandatory product features
Not available as SaaS or vendor-managed service
Supports fewer than three languages
Vendor chose not to participate in research

Q: What differentiates Ability to Execute vs. Completeness of Vision?

A: Ability to Execute focuses on the vendor's current performance and operational capabilities in the market, measuring factors like product quality, financial viability, sales effectiveness, market responsiveness, marketing execution, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. It evaluates how well vendors are performing today. Completeness of Vision focuses on the vendor's strategic direction and future potential, measuring factors like market understanding, marketing and sales strategy, product strategy and roadmap, business model innovation, vertical/industry focus, innovation capabilities, and geographic expansion plans. It evaluates how well-positioned vendors are for future market needs and their ability to anticipate and shape market direction.

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