London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Madar Research Co. announced recently that the content management market in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries is set to grow by 32 per cent in 2005. The Madar study revealed that the growth is on account of the continuing strong demand for content management solutions from government and quasi-governmental entities, oil and gas companies and the banking sector.
Findings in the recent study conducted by the company has indicated that combined spending on document and content management software and services in the GCC this year is estimated to reach US$ 94 million, compared to US$ 72 million in 2004. Last year, the UAE spent US$ 23 million on content management solutions, while Saudi Arabia”s total spend was pegged at US$ 16 million.
According to the study, a significant number of the major content management installations in the GCC last year featured solutions from FileNet, the leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions. Among the high-profile entities which deployed FileNet”s content management solutions are the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Batelco, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Telecom, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah Municipality .
"FileNet solutions have been adopted by a large number of Fortune 1000 companies to meet their content management requirements, and the growing demand for these solutions in the GCC manifests their reputation among the region”s organizations," said Carlo Stellati, Vice President, South Europe, Middle East and Africa, FileNet.
"FileNet”s ECM solutions offer enterprise-level scalability and flexibility to handle the most demanding content challenges, helping build a single virtual repository that can organize, catalogue and link various types of content, while making it available through a single access point," Stellati added.
The study showed that government and quasi-governmental entities accounted for an estimated 40 per cent of all major content management software installations and upgrades in the GCC last year. Banking and finance companies accounted for 12 per cent of total installations, followed by oil and gas companies at 8 per cent. Government policies in terms of mandating electronic transformation within the administration were ranked as the primary market demand driver, followed by the explosive growth of unstructured data, while internal security within organizations was ranked as a tertiary growth driver.
“Companies especially in the government sector have realised the importance of adopting content management solutions to achieve a higher degree of productivity and efficiency, and this is reflected in the market for ECM solutions in the GCC. We expect this favourable market trend to continue in the coming years as well,” said Abdul Kader Kamli, President and Research Director, Madar Research.
According to Madar, the content management market is expected to register a compounded average growth rate (CAGR) of 24.5 per cent for five years starting 2005, reaching about US$ 280 million by 2010.