ECM Health Check: Is Your System Working for You or Against You?

Why This Matters

Most organizations still depend on document management platforms built years ago. They keep running, but few leaders know whether those systems are delivering value or wasting money. A quick health check reveals that difference.

At Doculabs, we apply a simple rule. If your ECM system no longer controls cost, adoption, and compliance, it has stopped being an asset and has become technical debt.

1. Usage Test — Are People Using It?

Ask three questions.

1. What percentage of licensed users logged in last month?

   If fewer than 70 percent, the system is shelf-ware.

2. How many documents per user are added or retrieved each month?

   Flat or falling numbers mean staff are using email or shared drives instead.

3. Are new projects selecting the platform or bypassing it?

   Bypass signals loss of trust.

Low adoption means you are paying for licenses, storage, and support that deliver no return.

2. Cost Test — Is Total Cost Growing Faster Than Value?

Look at your latest budget lines for licenses, cloud storage, and support.Then compare year-over-year changes to document growth and active users.

If costs rise more than five percent annually without matching productivity or user growth, the system is consuming value instead of creating it.If storage grows faster than content, your system is keeping duplicates and obsolete files.

Uncontrolled cost growth is the most common trigger for replacement projects that Doculabs analyzes.

3. Risk Test — Could You Pass an Audit Today?

Review governance inside the system, not in policy binders.

• Is retention enforced?

• Can you apply a legal hold without exporting data?

• Do disposition reports prove deletion?

Any hesitation on these points signals real exposure. Audit failures rarely appear overnight; they develop over years of neglect.

What the Results Show

Test	Result	What It Means
Usage below 70 %	Low adoption and shadow systems	Lost ROI and fractured process
Cost growth above 5 % per year	Rising storage and license expense	TCO drift and budget strain
Missing governance controls	Weak audit trail	Legal and reputational risk

Two or more red results mean your ECM is losing value each quarter. That is the point to request a formal Doculabs ECM Health Assessment.

Why the Full Health Check Matters

A detailed Doculabs health check quantifies cost per document, measures adoption trends, benchmarks operational risk, and defines corrective actions. Many clients discover that 20 to 40 percent of licenses are unused and that retention settings have never been enforced.

The result is a clear business case with financial and compliance justification. It identifies whether to modernize, migrate, or retire the platform.

Call to Action

Run the three tests now.If you find declining usage, rising cost, or missing controls, contact Doculabs for a deeper health check.We will verify your metrics, measure value loss, and define a plan to restore control and ROI.

Your ECM system manages content. Now it is time to manage its performance.