FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Oct. 3 -- According to IDC, the worldwide document and content technologies market will continue at an above-average rate despite the economic downturn. Although this market will not duplicate its extraordinary growth of 89% as it did in 2000, IDC predicts continued high performance. IDC's original prediction, based on figures gathered in 2000 and the first quarter of 2001 was growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.2%, from $2 million in 2000 to over $14 million in 2005. IDC has revisited that prediction since the tragedy on September 11. While growth will be diminished in the last quarter of 2001, IDC believes purchasing plans will be delayed but not cancelled by enterprises during the next three quarters. Growth is expected to rebound in late 2002 and through 2003-2005. "Content management and related technologies are critical to the management of today's businesses,'' said Susan Feldman, director for IDC's Document and Content Technologies program. "Despite the economic downturn, we expect this market to grow significantly in the next three to four years, gradually leveling off as this market moves from its emerging status toward maturity.'' Document and content management software, as well as retrieval technologies sustained little damage from the economic downturn in the first part of 2001. These technologies are critical to the effectiveness of the organization, and their purchase and implementation cannot be put off indefinitely. IDC expects heavy investment by government agencies in technologies that support intelligence work. These include technologies for building and retrieving from large databases and repositories of information in multiple formats. They also include pattern matching, trend identification, and retrieval technologies that were already coming to market. This investment will spur development of the next generation of information systems that will be of interest to enterprises for competitive intelligence as well as for mining their own data. IDC's recently published research Document and Content Technologies Market Forecast and Analysis Summary, 2001-2005 (IDC #25296) presents a five-year revenue forecast by region and operating environment of this market, along with key trends, market drivers, and market inhibitors. While the figures have been revised downward, the extensive analysis of trends and opportunities in this market are still pertinent. To purchase this document please contact Cheryl Toffel at 1-800-343-4952 extension 4389 or at [email protected].