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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
7.0
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenText Extended ECM
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Content Collaboration Platforms (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 10.3%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Extended ECM is 11.5%, up from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

WolfgangPichler - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to integrate, and enables our clients to guarantee compliance
The area of migrations to new versions must be made easier. It's quite good that they have now begun to improve the API area, to modernize the interfaces, but there's always a very big investment involved in migrating from one version to another. That prohibits rolling out new functionalities to customers. It's not so easy. You can't release a new version every three months to bring in new capabilities. That is the old-fashioned, the way it worked ten or 20 years ago. That is bad. In that area, they really must improve. We have FileNet, Content Manager, and TSM in our own installation. We migrated that installation three years ago to version 5.12. Now we have to migrate to 5.25 to bring in new facilities, and it's a big task. We have to do it in addition to our other tasks where we support customers. We need a parallel machine and to set it up there and to migrate step-by-step, then test it and roll it out. It's not so easy. That is a big area where there is much to be done to satisfy the needs of customers.
Mukesh Giri - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers an engineering document management system and supports multiple database partners
Our company has implemented a few customized application integrations in-house with OpenText Extended ECM, but we haven't tried any large integrations with high-end vendors. The product's maintenance depends on the number of user capacity licenses. Due to its complexities, Deploying OpenText Extended ECM for engineering use cases can be highly time-consuming. For engineering use cases, sketches of each file of GB size can be stored and managed by OpenText Extended ECM. The solution is being used mainly in our organization for applications built in Texas, but I have personally carried out OpenText Extended ECM deployments in the US for one of the customers. The applications' network and WAN are hosted internally in our organization.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"​Streamlined our business processes."
"One of our clients, a customer of IBM, rolled out and replaced their existing ECM system with FileNet. Their productivity has increased pretty dramatically."
"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."
"FileNet is very user-friendly... We have business users using and it is quite friendly for them."
"It has an excellent document storage repository, which is good at what it does."
"The key way that this product has improved the way that that our business functions is by its stability. Its ability to remain up despite other pressures, its consistency, and lack of downtime are really the greatest things that it brings."
"It is really usable. There is a lot of support for it. You have the online components to trawl through the storage. I have a lot of fun with it."
"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 engineering document management system is one of the most valuable features."
"Scalability is great. We can extend areas horizontally and vertically."
"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."
"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."
"Retention is useful. I have been pleased with the search functionality and the extensibility for tying it into integrations with other systems and building workflows on top of it."
"The tool's most valuable features are document storage, security, and compliance."
"An SAP user can store documents directly into OpenText without a connector."
"Simplicity to roll out, features available, customization options."
 

Cons

"I would like to have an offline DR deployment. If that is doable, then it would be a big win."
"Simplifying both training and maintenance would be an improvement."
"There are only a few products large enterprises can choose from, and it doesn't really matter which one as it often depends on the consultants and the team implementing the solution."
"I know it took them seven months to convert, so the initial setup was, probably to some degree, complex."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"If there was more AI capability, into Watson, that would be a benefit."
"The usability is fair. It could be a bit better. It could be better designed. They could put more effort into the user experience and do a better job of integrating other components, like Datacap, to be a bit more seamless."
"I would love it if single sign-on was a lot easier to set up. That's the most difficult part of it."
"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 could be improved and the stability or the performance needs improvement, which is very important."
"OpenText Extended ECM's user interface could be improved."
"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 are looking for new, advanced UI features. Currently, the UI does not look great."
"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 architecture needs improvement, as it's complex."
"The annotation tool needs improvement. In other tools, such as Hyland OnBase, you can easily do annotation. You can easily merge documents. You can easily compare documents, whereas with OpenText, it seems to be a challenge."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is expensive, and I rate its pricing a ten out of ten."
"1. It will be more expensive than estimated to setup. 2. You will need to double the staff while you are running the old system and installing the new system. 3. Depending on the number of documents to be migrated, make sure you understand the potentially massive amount of time and effort required to migrate the existing content to the new platform."
"Yearly, we pay for the maintenance, which is $20,000."
"​There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need.​​"
"The licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."
"It is still a leading ECM solution provider, however the cost to implement and maintain are higher than other solutions."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for the end customer."
"The licensing is not that complex for the core products, but it becomes more complicated for some additional modules."
"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."
"Both Open Text ECM and IBM File share are expensive."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Insurance Company
9%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
 

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?
It depends on the business partner providing the solution to the customer. We have an ESA contract with IBM which allows us to offer the solution at a competitive price, providing added value when ...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
The setup process is very complex, and I would prefer if it were easier. A modern interface would also be an enhancement.
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?
OpenText itself is a too expensive tool. But why the reason customers opt for is OpenText is one of the best and provides very good complex data with their managers.
What needs improvement with OpenText Content Suite Platform?
There are some workflows which need to be more user-friendly. We need to improve here on the specific map of the developers. Also, the support from OpenText is really difficult. Honestly, I had a v...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenText Content Suite Platform, OpenText Core Share
 

Learn More

 

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: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.