Currently we have been contacted for alternative scenarios of replacing the existing content management system. In that way, we pretend to show you the reasons of this replacement request and what we have been doing in this direction.
The main reason to ECM replacement is COST. Microsoft Sharepoint, Documentum and Filenet are all ECM’s and we have been contacted in a way to evaluate their replacement.
The present times require a rationalization of corporate budgets and IT departments, so we present three critical pressures for the replacement studies:
- Costs. Whether the high maintenance cost or the fact that the current licensing system is linked to the number of users/documents, the cost becomes indispensable.
- Features. After verifying the used features, becomes evident that are important: documental archive, access and demand control system. There are many others open source ECM’s that support more than these three components.
- Complexity. “Less is more”. The huge number of features and the complexity of big systems becomes an obstacle to the pragmatic use of ECM. Many organizations don’t need to have, in the same platform, survey systems, forums, micro-sites, and blogs. What they want is to archive and index documents efficiently, with a low cost of deployment and administration.
Open Source iFlowBPM/ECM replaces high cost ECM
In clients, with this scenario, we implement an open source ECM. There are several options in the market with different characteristics (Alfresco, LifeRay).
Where does iFlowBPM enter?
The iFlowBPM enters in BPM orchestration and simplifying handling procedures.
In this scenario, iFlowBPM is not used in its primary vocation, but as a helpful tool to implement features that ECM doesn’t have.
For example, iFlowBPM can, archive, introduce meta-tags or send documents to a set of recipients.
Innovative Products – iFlow Virtual FS and iFlow Drive
If iFlow Drive or iFlow Virtual File System were implemented too, the users can save time in documentation manipulation, between 30 and 60 seconds by document. Even when comparing with original systems of Sharepoint, Filenet or Documentum.
Our customers have a solution with lower licensing and administration costs, with more power and functionality than they had with the original systems.
For example, iFlow Virtual FS allows authorization access systems to documents against AIM (Application Integration Management) generics.
iFlow Virtual FS can be an alternative to a complete ECM by extended the Windows NTFS capabilities, expanding NTFS, allowing files tagging and with a more clear system of ACL’s. You can use your own ACL’s in NTFS if necessary, iFlow Virtual FS can also eliminate your actual ECM.
Another ECM’s problem is that many of ECM’s require documents search by a web browse. The open time of a web browse, autentication and navigation can be a restraint for its utilization.
If that scenario fits yours please don’t hesitate to: