Managing the growing deluge of electronic office documents is still a major challenge for nearly half of all businesses, according to research from non-profit content management organisation AIIM.

The group's State of the ECM Industry 2009 report found that three quarters of companies have no control over modern business communication channels, such as instant messaging, blogs, wikis, social networks and text messaging.

The research also revealed that the drivers behind enterprise content management have shifted from compliance to cost savings and efficiency over the past two years, as the credit crunch has started to have a greater impact.

"For many organisations, poorly managed and out-of-control information represents a huge potential source of bottom line savings in this tight economy. If only organisations would just take this cost saving seriously," said John Mancini, president of AIIM.

"Controlled content can be fed into business processes to speed them up, cut down travel via project collaboration and form a knowledge base for the business. Uncontrolled content represents a lost opportunity, and a major compliance risk."

AIIM's study found that by bringing content into a controlled and searchable environment, companies can save money through more efficient business processes, lower storage requirements and enhanced productivity.

The survey also found that spending on document-centric business process management and workflow is likely to grow strongly in 2009, with enterprise search, email management, document management and records management all set to show positive growth over the coming months.