The latest edition of “The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q2 2021” is now available to Forrester clients! The enterprise content management (ECM) market continues its evolution, with vendors stepping up their investments in cloud-first, flexible platforms. While many vendors still offer products that can be deployed on-premises or in a hosted model, cloud has become the preferred delivery model for all evaluated platforms.

We included 14 vendors this year: Box, Google, GRM Information Management, Hyland, IBM, iManage, Laserfiche, M-Files, Microsoft, NetDocuments Software, Newgen Software Technologies, Nuxeo, OpenText, and SER Group.

We evaluated the 14 vendors against 25 criteria elements, including:

  • Core capabilities such as search, lifecycle management, metadata, and migration tools, among others.
  • Collaborative content services including team collaboration, support for project workspaces, and document management.
  • Transactional content services including digital process automation, e-signature, forms, and document generation.
  • Emerging capabilities such as intelligent content services (AI/machine learning and pretrained models), app design and development tools (no-code and low-code frameworks), and knowledge and/or social graphs (to provide smart recommendations and surface up patterns).
  • Strategy to understand how a vendor’s market approach, product vision, roadmap, partnerships, delivery model, and supporting products and services drive demand and adoption of the platform.

This evaluation also had M&A surprises along the way. Hyland, soon after its 2020 acquisition of Alfresco, acquired Nuxeo midway during our evaluation. Nuxeo has an independent representation in the report, as the deal was closed after the Wave commenced. Additionally, vendor M-Files acquired Hubshare, a secure external content-sharing platform, during the evaluation.

Curious to learn which companies surfaced as a Leader, Strong Performer, Contender, and Challenger? Read the full report here (Forrester client access required).

Want to discuss your enterprise content management strategy? Schedule an inquiry here or email us at inquiry@forrester.com.