Answer
The first priorities are usually retention schedules, role-based access, audit trails, retrieval speed, and any legal or regulatory requirement that affects how documents must be stored and produced. Search quality matters because a repository that holds records but cannot surface them quickly still creates operational drag.
Buyers should ask which requirements are truly mandatory for their environment and whether the software can prove them consistently. It is easy to overspend on theoretical compliance features while missing the retrieval and control gaps that hurt day-to-day work.