IBM FileNet vs SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management comparison

IBM and SAP are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0, while SAP is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM holds a 9.1% mindshare in ECM, compared to SAP’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SAP users who would recommend it.

IBM FileNet

Read 102 IBM FileNet reviews

3,604 Views
3,316 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SAP Extended Enterprise Con...

Read 2 SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management reviews

324 Views
321 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

SAP Extended Enterprise Con...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

IBM FileNet and SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management compete in enterprise content management. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management appears superior due to its enhanced features and perceived value.

Features: IBM FileNet provides robust document management, workflow automation, and compliance capabilities. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management offers seamless integration with SAP landscapes, enhanced collaboration tools, and advanced data analytics.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FileNet is recognized for its flexible deployment options and responsive customer service. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management integrates easily with SAP environments but may require more upfront commitment.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FileNet is cost-effective, delivering satisfactory ROI with moderately lower costs. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management demands higher initial investment but offers better long-term ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FileNet vs. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet vs. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

July 2025

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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

IBM FileNet

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP Extended Enterprise Con...

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

13th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 9.1%, down from 10.2% 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

Featured Reviews

Emad Rizki

System integrator at Indépendant

Facilitates seamless integration for large enterprises with strong deployment capabilities

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.

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MukeshGiri

Senior Solution Architect at Freeport LNG Development, L.P.

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has given us a whole new environment to do document management and document storage."

"In terms of stability, we haven't experienced any big technical issues or downtime with IBM FileNet, which is a difference compared to smaller products."

"The important features to me are that it is stable, scalable, and the integration between this platform and the other platforms is very good."

"It improves the time when providing customer service to our constituents."

"The most valuable feature for me is the possibility to share and to collaborate, the possibility to connect FileNet with many other IBM products as well. It helps avoid the possibility of creating "island applications." We have an ecosystem where everything can be interconnected."

"It is used by large enterprises. It has to be scalable and robust for them to use. We have seen that on multiple projects over the years."

"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 has increased our productivity."

More IBM FileNet pros

"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

"To start with there are too many add-ons, which makes it hard for us. If they simplified the add-ons and plugins to be added to our existing systems, it would definitely help us in the future."

"There is room for improvement in the file management. It's very complex."

"The FileNet API seems like it is very difficult and not transparent."

"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."

"The new user interface is not easy to set up, so some improvements along these lines would be good."

"Simplifying both training and maintenance would be an improvement."

"I would rate the technical support as medium. I do not like the login process. It is not great."

"It could be simpler to use, considering multiple use cases."

More IBM FileNet cons

"The deployment could be costly because of resource availability."

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

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."

"Yearly, we pay for the maintenance, which is $20,000."

"The cost is about $40,000, plus yearly maintenance."

"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."

"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."

"It is still a leading ECM solution provider, however the cost to implement and maintain are higher than other solutions."

"When it comes to pricing, IBM needs to make an effort to improve the cost. That's the main issue regarding use of FinalNet in Columbia."

"The platform is inexpensive."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

"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

10%

Government

10%

Insurance Company

Energy/Utilities Company

23%

University

13%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

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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 somewhat expensive, it remains manageable. The company rates it between 3 and 5 be...

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What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

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.

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What do you like most about SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management?

The integration capabilities of the product are pretty good.

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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 one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price.

See all answers

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 and other stuff. So the deployment could be costly because of resource availabi...

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Comparisons

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 17% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 13% of the time

Alfresco vs IBM FileNet

Compared 9% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

IBM ECM vs SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

Compared 42% of the time

Adobe Experience Manager vs SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

Compared 31% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

Compared 27% of the time

More SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

August 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

August 2025

SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management report

Download SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management by OpenText, SAP Extended ECM

Overview

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.

IBM

A digital core built on the SAP HANA business data platform and integrated applications for content management comprise the next-generation business model to complete your digital transformation and help you manage unstructured content as part of the business transactions more effectively while facilitating collaboration and storing content to avoid redundancies, minimize information growth, and support regulatory compliance. The SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management application by OpenText helps you engage customers with a 360-degree view of their profile and optimize procurement processes, employee productivity, process efficiency, and equipment ROI.

SAP

Sample Customers

Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.

Metropolitan Utilities District, MAN Diesel & Turbo

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet vs. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

July 2025

Free Report: IBM FileNet vs. SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

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