IBM FileNet Reviews

We are a systems integrator, and we deployed FileNet for a big insurance company in Pakistan. We implemented FileNet in seven departments, using the case manager and capture for content management. We served them for about eight or nine years before they became capable of handling the product themselves.

FileNet was scalable and could be implemented into big multinational organizations. However, it has become very expensive recently. Compared to low-code solutions such as Appian and outsystems, FileNet has gaps, mainly because it requires coding, which is not preferred by clients due to pricing concerns in Pakistan. We transitioned clients to cloud solutions, although FileNet has been strongly integrated with on-prem deployments.

I am in the presales part of a big seller, and I am an IBM partner. I wanted to compare IBM FileNet with OpenText as there are not many tools at this level of enterprise content management that can meet our needs. The competition at this level is limited, which is why OpenText was interesting to me.

In my experience, larger enterprise tools like IBM FileNet help manage billions of documents and support thousands of users, which smaller tools cannot handle effectively.

We are using IBM FileNet for our new business process workflow. This is the main purpose, alongside some integrations with other applications.

IBM FileNet supports our document management and compliance processes. It aids integration with other business systems by utilizing FileMaker API for document retrieval and database interactions.

IBM FileNet was supposed to be the organizational system for all our content. A lot of departments used it for their files. We were trying to do records management, but people did not really want to put in the effort to do the RM part. They used the solution as a shared drive. We also used it for simultaneous edits, just like SharePoint.

IBM FileNet was more scalable. We were not limited, and we could have one repository as opposed to all of the chaotic websites we have with SharePoint. As records management administrators, we could have a broader overview of the organizational content. However, it's all over the place now. I feel we had better control with IBM FileNet. It was more controlled because of how we had set it up, and we had it in-house.

We knew how much we were using in terms of storage, and we didn't have to panic whenever there was a price increase. We could also control the changes whenever the vendor put in new rules. We could do the upgrades, test them in DEV and UAT, and ensure that when we release something, it is tested and communicated. Now, it happens, and we know only when users start complaining.

Our client is using it for search and retrieval and for archiving. From the very onset, it was deployed for archiving of their legacy records. We did not implement any workflow for them. We use the FileNet Content Engine Web Services to retrieve documents. We use high-end production scanners to scan the records. After that, users can use FileNet to search for these records.

There is automation involved in the process. At the point of scanning, the scanner dispatches the records to a particular folder. In each folder, there is an application that has been designed by us, which files the records in FileNet. We are not using any FileNet application to do the filing. We have an application which renames the XML to FileNet to do that.

We mainly use it for inactive documents. These are records they don't need to edit any longer. They are still necessary for their day-to-day operations; they provide evidence about their operations so they cannot be deleted.

 Our client is using version 4.2 on-prem.

We implemented it, per our client's request, as an archival solution. FileNet has given us what we needed.

FileNet has helped our client implement a retention policy for their inactive records.

FileNet is a really robust and powerful tool for document management environments. It's very well designed, especially on the storage side, and also on the application server side. It's really powerful, robust, and highly available. In our environment, we store more than six billion documents. Some of these documents are more than 1,000 pages.

We also have other FileNet environments – FileNet Image Services environments – and we have federated these image services to a FileNet P8 environment, first as a federation. Then, we have successfully migrated all our old documents to the FileNet P8 environment without any demolition of the documents. It was a nice project.
Also, the elasticity of the APIs IBM provides us is powerful. We are also using IBM WebSphere as the application server. We are hosting our FileNet P8 services on top of WebSphere. It serves as a powerful tool.

Troubleshooting is very proactive. We can easily monitor the system, and we can easily define the problem and take action on it.

ECM is our heart on branches, for example if you cannot check the id and signature of the customer, you can do nothing. Also it’s very vital for us to predict how long does the the operation take for each customer. These makes stability as one of our major concerns Based on 9 years of experience with IBM ECM solutions; I can say that, the power of IBM products comes from stability predominantly. Both FileNet Image services and FileNet P8 are five-nines percent successful on this manner.

Document management is a new concept for some managers, and some kind of innovative concept, also. When you have content, when you get the documents, then you can fetch the data from that document. You can do analysis, business analysis, predictions with that data, especially in banks, mostly because of regulations.

We have buildings we use for physical documents. Some of them are photographs, images; some of them are computer output data; some formatted, some non-formatted. With FileNet, especially by creating our services for capturing solutions, we can easily store and analyze these documents through the FileNet environment. It's a huge benefit to us. Our response times are no more than 300 milliseconds. We have so many branches all around Turkey. Some of them are more than 500 kilometers away, and we have this response time also in those locations. It's also very fast, and for customer satisfaction, it's a nice feature for us.

We use the product for document digitalization and workflow management. It is our document management system. 

We chose IBM FileNet primarily for its scalability and interoperability. Additionally, we appreciate the mobile app, which allows us to access documents using smartphones from anywhere. We also utilize various other IBM products for security purposes, creating a cohesive environment that works well together. The transition from a paper-based to a digital environment has significantly impacted our workflow systems and document management practices.

The standout feature for us is undoubtedly the Google-like search functionality, which allows us to search for documents within the system effortlessly. Instead of just querying the document database, this feature retrieves all relevant documents, akin to searching on the internet. It is very easy to use. 

Implementing the product has brought about significant positive changes within our company, especially in how we archive and access documents. The availability of documents on the go via the mobile app has brought positive impact. As a result, adoption rates have been very high. 

We are resellers of IBM FileNet, and I have been reselling this tool. The primary use case is for enterprise content management, possibly extending to various document handling purposes.

The best part of FileNet includes its advantages and most valuable features, which are its scalability and stability. Moreover, it stands out for its integration capabilities, making it a practical choice for our needs in managing content and related tasks.