The importance of adopting document solutions has been key to keeping businesses running in the absence of physical human interactions, especially in the past two years of the Covid pandemic.

Employees working from home and supporting business processes were a vital factor, and adopting document solutions such as e-Signature, content management, and other document solutions made it possible to keep things moving amid Covid-19 lockdown-caused disruptions. These also forced organisations to rethink how their business processes should evolve with the changes in the business environment.

Almost half (48%) of the organisations surveyed in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) have already implemented some form of document solutions to help save cost and increase efficiency as the world begins to transition away from Covid lockdowns.

However, the majority of the organisations are still planning their transformation journey in the next 12-24 months, or have indicated that they have no concrete plans, or have not even considered any form of digital transformation journey.

These are the findings of a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) report titled 'The Adoption of Document Solutions in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan): Document Solutions in a New World'.

In developed countries such as Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, government initiatives have been a significant driver to nudge businesses to adopt document solutions by providing grants to organisations that are taking their first step in adopting these solutions.

Developing countries, on the other hand, are seeing challenges and adoption mainly come from industries such as financial and insurance institutions, leading initiatives to reduce dependency on printed documents or processes that rely on physical documents.

“While many of these document solutions have been around for some time, the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years has really fast-tracked the adoption of these solutions and has driven organisations to rethink their long-term business goals which are imperative in staying competitive," says Mark Lee, Senior Market Analyst, for Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions group at IDC Asia/Pacific.

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.