SharePoint’s Next Billion Dollars

SharePoint had over $1B in sales in 2008. And is on track to add another Billion (or more) in '09.  I submit that SharePoint can add another $1 Billion dollars to this by focusing on Pillar One of the ECM market alone.

Pillar One is the Document Capture section of the ECM market. Which includes scanning, faxing, and otherwise importing paper based documents. Once captured the documents might have additional image processing steps applied to them which includes everything from de-speckling and de-skewing the image to advanced form processing steps like OCR, ICR, and other data extraction and recognition functions.

It’s a Wide Open Field

In the SharePoint world this is a wide open market. There are a few players in this space today and they have done well. However, there is a huge market waiting to be tapped. My estimate is that this is another billion dollar market for Microsoft’s SharePoint and the partner ecosystem.

Increase Productivity & Help the Environment

Next week the Nexus 09 conference will be held at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, WA . This event will highlight some of the key players in the Document Capture market.

I’ll be there both days. I’m looking forward to seeing, hearing, and participating in the sessions. If you will be in Seattle and have an interest in learning more about the next billion dollar market for SharePoint you can still register. There are a few slots available. Register today. Look for me at the event or track me down via  contact info below.

It’s a Wide Open Field

SharePoint 2010 will open up a whole new world of opportunity for customers and partners. If you missed the SharePoint Conference last week in Las Vegas take a look at my wrap up here and also search the #SPC09 hashtag.

Thanks to John Mancini (@jmancini77) – President of AIIM for permission to re-use content from one of his many “8 Things” series.

About The Author:
I have spent the better part of the last 16 years working in various aspects of the ECM industry. I spent time at Kofax, Microsoft, FileNet, K2, and most recently Captaris (which was acquired by Open Text in Nov 2008). Prior to that I was a Unix VAR running my own company. Follow me on Twitter, check my blog, send email or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

** I am available for speaking engagements and consulting projects. My areas of emphasis are business development and alliance management where Social Media and Enterprise Content Management intersect.