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IBM FileNet vs OpenText Content Management vs SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 8.2%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Content Management is 10.0%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
OpenText Content Management10.0%
IBM FileNet8.2%
SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management1.1%
Other80.7%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

ARTHUR BRUNO - PeerSpot reviewer
Has provided robust content management but requires simplification in configuration and usability
We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process automation and business automation features are barely used. Currently, we primarily use it to store content. We are now trying to use all of the functionalities of IBM FileNet, but we have not yet utilized the full capacity of the system. We are trying to reduce redundancy with IBM FileNet by enhancing our business rules. However, we still have significant redundancy. IBM FileNet can help us reduce redundancy, but we need to understand the tool and use all the functionalities to accomplish this. Ease of use with IBM FileNet is a disadvantage of this tool. It is complex and hard to use. When we try to set up IBM FileNet, we have many questions. We do not understand what we need to do in IBM FileNet. There are many configurations we must make but do not know how to implement. While IBM FileNet is very reliable, it is very difficult to set up. When reading the documentation about IBM FileNet, it appears to be very reliable and secure, but setting up configurations, access rules, authorization, and authentication seems to be very challenging.
Alejandro Stromer - PeerSpot reviewer
Has provided deep integration with business applications and supported full content lifecycle management
OpenText Content Management has a feature that is unique in the market, which is the deep integration with leading applications, allowing reflection of the connections between different processes and objects in applications such as SAP, SuccessFactors, or Salesforce, visible inside the document management application. Without connecting to the leading application, for example SAP, you can navigate between all documentation, having a full 360-degree view of all information related to the process. This means that when you create some action regarding an object that has a connected document in the content management system, you can automatically see additional information connected, managed and controlled by the leading application, with automatic reflection in the document management system. This is a unique advantage that OpenText Content Management has, which is not found in the market. Another unique feature is the integration with Office 365, where you can work with different folders or binders in the document management system and connect to Teams in a simple way, making all this information available in the Teams you are working with. Digital Asset Management is a big part of the content management solution within OpenText Content Management, allowing full integration of all documentation, pictures, plans, and technical documentation if you have asset management inside SAP. It connects similarly to other modules of SAP but includes a special feature for asset management from a technical point of view and connects with the engineering department, providing the full life cycle from development through deployment to maintenance. This means you have the full life cycle from the beginning when you define the solution, construct it, and finally transfer it to maintenance to keep all information updated easily, avoiding risks and ensuring access to accurate information at the right moment.
MukeshGiri - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers advanced search capabilities, integrates seamlessly with SAP and efficiently stores non-essential business content
Consider you have some use cases. For example, something for your accounting or procurement department. And you purchase equipment, machines, and plants for plant-related operations. Essentially, there will be manuals and basically anything and everything related to your particular equipment. So, where do the equipment entries go? They go into SAP. Depending on your SAP deployment, it can go into some database. Most companies these days are talking about SAP HANA and stuff like that. So it will be stored in SAP HANA. But, these documentation, drawings, manuals, and help files for these big pieces of equipment, where do they go? That’s where Extended ECM for SAP comes into the picture. All these integrations are through a one-way push, essentially, but with two-way access. So as a user in the procurement department or the accounting department, or an engineering department where you are using SAP for asset management entries inside your system. All those related documents, drawings, manuals, and files have to be stored somewhere. If you store them in SAP, it will be a costly implementation going forward. After maybe a couple of years, you will realize that it’s too much to deal with because HANA database will be too costly. There will not be much business value because you cannot utilize a lot of search and cool features inside your application from an SAP perspective. That’s where you will integrate SAP. For example, SAP Extended ECM for SAP Plant Maintenance. One of the modules SAP provides is SAP Plant Maintenance. So what you will do is deploy Extended ECM for SAP, then try something called SAP Plant Maintenance, Extended ECM for SAP Plant Maintenance. The content maintenance, manuals, files, drawings, and related stuff, its details or tags, or any kind of stuff is stored in your SAP. But anything and everything else is pushed through this integration into Extended ECM platform. So now it is available to be utilized by your business user who knows nothing about SAP. They only live and breathe in a different management system. They can look into these details depending on what kind of integration has been done for that company. So that’s one use case. Second use case will be in SAP itself. Now, if you are an SAP user, you have this information readily available at your fingertips. Anything goes wrong in your maintenance or any kind of management, you can look into these details, which are readily available because this documentation lifecycle is being managed by Extended ECM for SAP. It will give you extended storage capabilities within your SAP application. So it will be a two-way integration, essentially. Similar, wider features will be available within Extended ECM platform. Within SAP, you have these extra features called business attachments or business content retrieval. Those business contents are stored inside Extended ECM, and those features will be available within your SAP GUI from an SAP perspective. So it’s a win-win situation for both worlds.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The important features to me are that it is stable, scalable, and the integration between this platform and the other platforms is very good."
"We use IBM Datacap's capabilities to capture data and then we use FileNet's capabilities for filing, to create an archive of documents... We [also] use FileNet's ability to expose information via APIs and interoperate with other systems."
"It has an excellent document storage repository, which is good at what it does."
"IBM FileNet has improved our organization with its single collaboration space."
"The natural interpolatability with IBM Datacap, that is a key component of our solution, as well as with BPM, and WebSphere Portal. That's why we prefer FileNet instead of some other, less world-class solution.​"
"We have probably cut out at least 40 percent of what the work process was by easing out that whole distribution of paper."
"FileNet is very user-friendly... We have business users using and it is quite friendly for them."
"It has improved my organization by how we release documents, claims, and policies."
"The engineering document management system is one of the most valuable features."
"The seamless integration between SAP and OpenText offers a 360-degree view of documents, facilitating a full-text search capability."
"Being able to search is valuable. Its search is pretty powerful. We are able to search for specific text, and it points us to the document that has that text. That is pretty powerful."
"Most of our customers are very fond of the upgraded smart user interface."
"We also have a module on top of the Content Server called WebReports that has been one of the things that helped us facilitate the workflow and give managers good reporting and visibility into where everything is. Being able to use that on top of the Content Server was a big help."
"Simplicity to roll out, features available, customization options."
"We can configure the solution with any industry's products per customer requirements."
"OpenText Extended ECM's most valuable features include permissions and security models. I also like the tool's ability to add metadata and use it to categorize information."
"All these integrations are through a one-way push, essentially, but with two-way access."
"The integration capabilities of the product are pretty good."
 

Cons

"The initial setup is complex. It is complex because there are several pieces of software that have to be installed in the right order to make it work alright."
"We'd like to use the docker, to have it containerized."
"It may be a little complex to implement and take some effort."
"It could be simpler to use, considering multiple use cases."
"The API provided by IBM FileNet is a very out-of-date implementation. From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated."
"IBM has a lot of documentation but the kind of information in a lot of the documents can be confusing to our clients. It would be easier if they used video tutorials. Right now, the information is too hard to understand, and there is a lot of it. If they used videos I think FinalNet would be easy to use for an end-user."
"FileNet and similar enterprise-level tools require substantial costs, starting in the millions, which limits their use to large enterprises."
"I think the support could be better, and it could improve."
"When it comes to addressing complex use cases, three or four years ago, we ended up purchasing an additional OpenText product called AppWorks because we started to run into some limitations with the workflow that can be done in Extended ECM. It was a little limiting, so we ended up getting another product."
"There are no additional features that I would like to see. I am pretty happy with it, but their support could be a bit better."
"We had some issues with scalability in the production. So, I would rate it a five out of ten."
"We are looking for new, advanced UI features. Currently, the UI does not look great."
"The response time is not effective, and the staff lacks adequate knowledge."
"The tool's documentation is not proper and has missing information like steps."
"Pricing could be improved and the stability or the performance needs improvement, which is very important."
"A few years ago, it would have rated as a ten, but there was a shift to a new support platform that led to significant issues."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The deployment could be costly because of resource availability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"My customers have seen ROI. There have been productivity gains, time savings gains, and things that they have been doing much more efficiently in a more modern way than they were before."
"​There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need.​​"
"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."
"We use extraction. Therefore, we can see 80 to 85 percent accuracy on data extraction. This reduces the manual indexing part, which is definitely a gain on performance efficiency."
"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."
"It has reduced operating costs by reducing the amount of manual work needed."
"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."
"The product is pricey."
"It is a little more expensive than our previous solution, but because of the fact that it has become a rallying point for different groups to come under, it might end up paying off better in the long run by not having seven siloed solutions. Even though this one solution is a little pricey, it might eliminate other ones."
"The solution is expensive."
"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for the end customer."
"Both Open Text ECM and IBM File share are expensive."
"The pricing is costly. It's costly to integrate with Office 365 and to go back and forth with the sales team."
"OpenText Extended ECM is an expensive solution."
"The tool's pricing is confusing to the end customer."
"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
Insurance Company
9%
Government
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Energy/Utilities Company
22%
University
14%
Government
8%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM FileNet?
The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
From the company's perspective, the licensing cost for IBM FileNet is still affordable. Though the license cost is so...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process...
What do you like most about OpenText Content Suite Platform?
We also have a module on top of the Content Server called WebReports that has been one of the things that helped us f...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenText Content Suite Platform?
OpenText Content Management has changed the licensing concept to one license that includes all features. Although thi...
What needs improvement with OpenText Content Suite Platform?
There are some areas in OpenText Content Management that could be improved, particularly regarding the way you define...
What do you like most about SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management?
The integration capabilities of the product are pretty good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management?
The prices can vary depending on the customer, region, and domain. I rate the product price an eight on a scale of on...
What needs improvement with SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management?
Improvement could be more about training because it is one of the giants in this market. Nobody can be exposed to SAP...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenText Content Suite Platform, OpenText Core Share
SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management by OpenText, SAP Extended ECM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
ATCO Australia, MSIG Asia, Orica, Salt River Project
Metropolitan Utilities District, MAN Diesel & Turbo
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: September 2025.
869,095 professionals have used our research since 2012.