Alfresco vs IBM FileNet comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco and IBM FileNet based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, Box and others in Enterprise Content Management.
To learn more, read our detailed Enterprise Content Management Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata.""The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way.""Document repository.""I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar."

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"The most valuable feature is access control.""It puts governance in place around the content and processes. Access levels can be set to certain parts of the document based on role level.""It is a user-friendly system and easy to manage for anyone with basic knowledge.""​I have found that it scales well.""The usability is very good. We like the Content Navigator. It's very easy to use the search and retrieve for documents and has a lot of options for the user to download documents or send an email.""Gves us the ability to create an end-to-end [document] transaction.""The features that I have found most valuable include the Data Capture and Case Manager features.""The most useful feature is its persistent storage. Also, the full-text search and attribute searching are valuable."

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Cons
"I would like them to consider document capture functionality.""Metadata, auto class, disposition log, and legal hold.""Alfresco has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving.""I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen."

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"It may be a little complex to implement and take some effort.""IBM doesn't offer new technologies every year, they offer new technologies after five years, for each release of the product.""I would like IBM to improve with each release, continue moving towards a continual, tighter integration, and build solutions that take advantage of all the different modules the platform has from one place.""There is room for improvement in the scanning solution, Datacap. It's improving all the time. But since it's more an end-user software, the end-users are constantly improving their processes, and I believe that sometimes we're not catching up with their requirements.""I would like to see expanded search features, like content search.""It needs better collaboration between the IBM teams on the FileNet and CCM sides.""It is ability to display legacy content needs improvement.""The basic and fundamental point about FileNet is that the interface is very bad. It's just not appealing so people are reluctant to use it."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is cheaper compared to head-to-head competitors."
  • "There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."
  • "If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."
  • "The license for Alfresco is expensive - not the maximum, but close. There are also extra costs once you start building integrations, as implementation seems to be very costly."
  • More Alfresco Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The biggest issue is the cost of the FileNet, because the license cost is very high. If a customer doesn't have good technical guides that are aware of the license calculation, they will pay too much. FileNet's license calculation depends on the processor and number of users. So my advice to a new customer is to be very careful with your calculations before purchasing FileNet."
  • "It is still a leading ECM solution provider, however the cost to implement and maintain are higher than other solutions."
  • "FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. ​"
  • "For small scale industries, they allow different options. They can do open source. It is the complexity of the data security that they should think about before they choose."
  • "For the medium scale or large scale, I would recommend FileNet. FileNet is free of licensing expenses, thus good for the money. It is not expensive, but worth for the money, especially for medium scale and large scale industries."
  • "​There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need.​​"
  • "1. It will be more expensive than estimated to setup. 2. You will need to double the staff while you are running the old system and installing the new system. 3. Depending on the number of documents to be migrated, make sure you understand the potentially massive amount of time and effort required to migrate the existing content to the new platform."
  • "The physical space that we have gained back pays for the service. Therefore, it has reduced our operating costs overall. We have definitely seen ROI. I would estimate $30,000 a year."
  • More IBM FileNet Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Alfresco scores are high on all features of an ECM solution and tools.   Back office processing, rated as 3.36 good.  Business Process Application 3.55 Good to excellent.  Document Management 4.12… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata.
    Top Answer:The license for Alfresco is expensive - not the maximum, but close. There are also extra costs once you start building integrations, as implementation seems to be very costly.
    Top Answer:The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.
    Top Answer:The product is expensive. The price was 30% higher than what we needed to pay for IBM. I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
    Top Answer:The user interface of IBM content management, including the ability to customize screens without the need for coding, could be improved. Customers can use it to split the screen, enhancing its… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    3,092
    Comparisons
    2,494
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    378
    Rating
    6.0
    Views
    5,058
    Comparisons
    3,057
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    410
    Rating
    7.5
    Comparisons
    SharePoint logo
    Compared 24% of the time.
    Hyland OnBase logo
    Compared 20% of the time.
    OpenText Extended ECM logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    OpenText Documentum logo
    Compared 8% of the time.
    Nuxeo logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Learn More
    Overview

    The Alfresco Digital Business Platform offers open, secure content services to let you unlock the value from your most important business information. Give users access to their content wherever and however they work with Alfresco’s open, flexible, and highly scalable cloud-native content services platform. Easily integrate and connect with everyday business applications. Find, view, collaborate on, govern, and securely share digital content—and get information to the right person at the right time.

    IBM FileNet is a leading IBM enterprise content management product family. IBM FileNet is one of the ECM solutions that can change the way a company does business by enabling users to capture, activate, socialize, analyze, and govern content throughout its lifecycle.

    There are many IBM FileNet products available, all of which are integrated and based on the FileNet P8 Platform.

    Sample Customers
    Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
    Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Government14%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Insurance Company11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm31%
    Insurance Company16%
    Healthcare Company10%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Government10%
    Insurance Company9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business80%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise65%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise70%
    Buyer's Guide
    Enterprise Content Management
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, Box and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Alfresco is ranked 9th in Enterprise Content Management with 10 reviews while IBM FileNet is ranked 6th in Enterprise Content Management with 94 reviews. Alfresco is rated 8.0, while IBM FileNet is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Alfresco writes "Flexible and customizable but lacking integration with Microsoft". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM FileNet writes "A document management system that helps in document digitalization and workflow management". Alfresco is most compared with SharePoint, Hyland OnBase, OpenText Extended ECM, OpenText Documentum and Nuxeo, whereas IBM FileNet is most compared with SharePoint, OpenText Documentum, OpenText Extended ECM, IBM ECM and Hyland OnBase.

    See our list of best Enterprise Content Management vendors.

    We monitor all Enterprise Content Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.