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IBM FileNet vs OpenText Extended ECM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

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
7.1
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenText Extended ECM
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Content Collaboration Platforms (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 10.5%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Extended ECM is 11.5%, up from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Emad Rizki - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Jaideep MS - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables effective document control yet requires better affordability and clarity
I use extended ECM for procurement, sales, engineering documents, and sometimes invoices and accounts payable or receivable The version controls and the business workspace part integrate well with SAP and OpenText, providing granular level control over who accesses the workspace. The seamless…

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 features are the interconnectivity and the collaboration. No longer do I have to wonder what system I need to go to for the data I need. I know it's in FileNet."
"The product has helped with compliance and governance issues. There are some archiving policies which a financial organization has to keep. Our organization can keep up with them because of the IBM product."
"The most valuable features for us are Wex (Watson) for search, Datacap for OCR/ICR, and Automation Anywhere for RPA."
"[The most valuable features are] scalability and ease of use. These features are important because the customer where we have deployed it has millions of documents... And over the last five years, the volume of the documents has been increasing. It's handling all of them and without any errors."
"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."
"​I have found that it scales well."
"It has an excellent document storage repository, which is good at what it does."
"The ability to tag data, as it seems to be indexed well. It is a good space to manage data, keep track of it, and organize it."
"Being able to tag metadata on documents and being able to have different workspaces in there for our documents is valuable. We do loan documents, and different types of documents have different types of retentions. We are able to categorize based on that, and we are able to do tag searching to find what we are looking for."
"Smart Viewing videos are most valuable for the end users. The end users like the look and feel of Smart View. It's similar to SharePoint, with the latest HTML5 features, filters, and everything. It's like online shopping."
"The solution's automatic document numbering, state management, and process flow are very useful features to go through the full cycle of the document."
"The tool's most valuable features are document storage, security, and compliance."
"We can configure the solution with any industry's products per customer requirements."
"WebReports has a lot of capabilities that offer good opportunities to customize the applications the way we want to."
"An SAP user can store documents directly into OpenText without a connector."
"The ability to add metadata and use that to categorize information is a valuable feature of OpenText Extended ECM."
 

Cons

"It is ability to display legacy content needs improvement."
"I would like to have more governance features with more supervisory layers."
"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."
"There is room for improvement in the file management. It's very complex."
"The new user interface is not easy to set up, so some improvements along these lines would be good."
"It needs better collaboration between the IBM teams on the FileNet and CCM sides."
"What I would like to see is more integration."
"​I would like to see Azure AD added."
"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."
"The initial setup can get really complicated, and it takes time."
"The solution needs to improve the user interface."
"I have not used it enough to start running into issues. Some of my technical guys could name a couple of things, but in terms of support, we did have challenges getting good responses from them."
"The solution should work better with partners and be more developer-friendly."
"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."
"User interface needs improvement (at least in the version we are using, desktop client)."
"Initially there can be stability issues due to unknown factors such as usage of the system, quantity of documents ingested, load during peak hours."
 

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."
"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."
"It has reduced operating costs by reducing the amount of manual work needed."
"The licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."
"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."
"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."
"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."
"The solution saves time and money. It helps us to be able to accomplish the goals of our business, as opposed to being tangled in the weeds of what we could do."
"The licensing is not that complex for the core products, but it becomes more complicated for some additional modules."
"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for the end customer."
"The tool's pricing is confusing to the end customer."
"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 product is pricey."
"The pricing is costly. It's costly to integrate with Office 365 and to go back and forth with the sales team."
"The total cost of the product will vary on the capabilities required"
"Both Open Text ECM and IBM File share are expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
The product has become more expensive and requires significant investment for enterprise solutions.
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
FileNet needs improvement in pricing as it has become very expensive. Also, in comparison to local solutions, the need for coding is a disadvantage.
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 facilitate the workflow and give managers good reporting and visibility into wher...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenText Content Suite Platform?
The cost is a significant factor that may deter medium-sized businesses from using OpenText extended ECM.
What needs improvement with OpenText Content Suite Platform?
The cost of the product could be improved. Currently, there are certain snags in document viewing, and communication from the pre-sales team is not clear. The expectation from the customer versus t...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenText Content Suite Platform, OpenText Core Share
 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FileNet vs. OpenText Extended ECM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.