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Hyland Perceptive Content vs IBM FileNet comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Hyland Perceptive Content
Average Rating
6.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Document Management Software (13th)
IBM FileNet
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Content Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Hyland Perceptive Content is designed for Document Management Software and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, up 2.3% compared to last year.
IBM FileNet, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Content Management, holds 5.8% mindshare, down 9.2% since last year.
Document Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Hyland Perceptive Content3.0%
Alfresco10.0%
OpenText Content Manager6.4%
Other80.6%
Document Management Software
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM FileNet5.8%
SharePoint11.9%
Alfresco6.6%
Other75.7%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

it_user588597 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Accountant at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Once a document is scanned, you can neither edit it nor change its location.
I would like it to have more functions, like Bluebeam. It can be improved so that we can edit the file that got scanned into the system. If we scan the document to the wrong place, we can’t change it. As an example, if something was scanned as a reference, but should be an invoice, you cannot change it afterwards. I think it should have more functions that will allow us to edit the file in ImageNow -- such as adding pages, deleting pages. I also think it should have more hot keys (maybe I just don’t know there are) for easier “route forward”, “view next item”, so I don’t have to use my mouse. There is also a question that came up when I was using it recently, why do we need both “properties” and “forms”? If we index the document in Forms, it will take a long time for it to move to another queue and show the info. If we index it in Properties, it will update immediately. My question is why do we need both? Can’t we just put info in Forms and it will work just like Properties? It is time-consuming to put info in both pages. If the invoice is out of balance, maybe there should be a function that stops it being routed forward. If we route it by accident, it takes time for the approver to reject and routed back. If we can catch it in the first place and fix it when there is a warning sign. I know that there will be a red message saying “out of balance”, but it doesn’t always show up. Is it possible for us to “recall” the routed item? Just like recalling an email that you accidentally sent out. Can we make the Notes section working like a sticky note so it shows name/date, shows the most recent message on top. Sticky note is hard to read (too small) and easily get missed as people put it anywhere. We use notes section for every invoice. We often put a lot of messages there and it gets messy.
Shankar-Kambhampaty - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
Business workflows have been automated and document processes are streamlined at large scale
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The current state of the user interface development support and the ability to customize it leaves much to be desired. The backend engine, process engine, and object engine are fantastic. However, the user interface, which is required to provide an impressive experience to the user, is difficult to build. IBM will need to do something about this area. Over time, IBM has made improvements with enhancements through CP4BA and other tools, with which user interfaces can be built. But there is much more is needed. The initial setup process for IBM FileNet requires specialists. IBM FileNet is not a click-click-click deploy kind of product. It has several components that need to be installed in different versions and in a particular order. Additionally, IBM Cloud does not provide a proper experience. The problem is I cannot use IBM Cloud easily. I cannot even get a membership easily. With AWS, I just use my credit card, sign up, and I am done. With IBM Cloud, that is not how it is. They go through all validation processes, and it is a nightmare at times. There are problems around IBM FileNet, not exactly with IBM FileNet itself, but the point is that it is not a click-click-click deploy either on the cloud or on-premise. It requires specialists, and there is a big learning curve toward deploying and managing the whole infrastructure as well as the software. I communicate with the technical support of IBM frequently. I have communicated several times, and frankly, there is much to be desired on that side. When you raise a ticket, it takes 24 to 48 hours for them to respond. We live in a time where business moves at the speed of light. Twenty-four hours is a very long time. You need to be able to get technical support instantaneously. It is not like the more contemporary support models where you get turnaround in minutes, not days.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"If you want to go paperless, this is a great product."
"There are no lost documents, and everyone can see them based on security clearance."
"Customizability that the product gives to make the end user happy."
"I like the ability to have workflows."
"Records management to apply document classification for retention and disposition of business records, including email and instant messages."
"IBM FileNet was more scalable."
"The most valuable features for FileNet are the ability to do information governance, compliance, and implement case-centric or content-centric workflow solutions; to provide enterprise search capability; and we have Content Navigator."
"The product is very stable."
"The stability of the solution is good."
"Provides records management functions."
"Our leads completion process used to take two to three days, it now takes half a day."
"IBM FileNet is a very robust system with many functionalities for content management."
 

Cons

"Bar Code OCR ICR."
"Too many companies/products have been purchased by Perceptive over the past few years with what feels like little development on currently owned products."
"From my understanding, ImageNow licenses are not compatible with laptop computers (at least not with the one that I have). Therefore, if I have a PDF on my screen, in order to get it into ImageNow, I have to either email it to someone with a license, who can print directly to ImageNow, or print it out and have someone at a scanning station, scan it in and then link it to a student’s record."
"It will stop working if you are in the system for too long."
"I would say the installation process can be very complicated, and you need to to have an experience resource."
"IBM does not do very good marketing for FileNet."
"The complexity of installation can also be improved. They should re-imagine the way that they install products."
"However, the configuration does take a long time. Every company needs its own configuration design. It depends on how many applications are connecting to FileNet. It can take a long time, depending on the application count."
"We'd like to use the docker, to have it containerized, that would be great for us."
"We know that they're looking at documents, but we don't know what documents they're actually going and finding the most, or where the bottlenecks might be. It would be nice if there was some interconnectivity back into Bluemix to say, "Ok, you've got a workflow problem here." That would be a neat feature moving forward because we've got a lot of users that would just say, "The system is not working." We had a few threads would get hung up because they were just constantly banging on these few documents. If that were the case, if we knew that ahead of time, then we could fix that, change the search sequences to make it more efficient. But we were blind to that until the users said it's not working."
"The initial setup was pretty complex."
"At this time, it has improved, but it wasn't that stable not that long ago."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Talking about the cost is difficult because IBM has offers that combine different products, and each of these offers has different types of licensing. IBM also has a policy that the actual price for a given customer may be very different from the stated book price. It's hard to say whether it's expensive or not."
"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."
"The platform is inexpensive."
"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."
"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."
"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."
"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."
"Licensing costs depend on the size of the storage."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Healthcare Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
13%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
The pricing and licensing of IBM FileNet is high. We are living in a world where the minimal license from IBM costs anywhere from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand US dollars, depending...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The...
What is your primary use case for IBM FileNet?
My usual use cases for IBM FileNet involve three primary areas. The first is document management. For instance, if you have an insurance application, you can store all the documents required to pro...
 

Also Known As

ImageNow
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Hyland, Conga, OpenText and others in Document Management Software. Updated: June 2026.
903,257 professionals have used our research since 2012.