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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 feature is the way in which it enables clients and customers to quickly access the content and information that they use for everyday functions."
"Instead storing our documents offsite, we are storing all of our documents electronically."
"It improves the time when providing customer service to our constituents."
"The main features we find impactful are the workflow and document management along with FileNet file stores."
"FileNet can for sure cover the requirements of a medium and a big company, because of the scalability and the possibility to connect with many other IBM products."
"The most useful feature is its persistent storage. Also, the full-text search and attribute searching are valuable."
"We are able to find the proper documents which are needed for business processes."
"Gves us the ability to create an end-to-end [document] transaction."
"The solution's automatic document numbering, state management, and process flow are very useful features to go through the full cycle of the document."
"Scalability is great. We can extend areas horizontally and vertically."
"The tool's most valuable features are document storage, security, and compliance."
"WebReports has a lot of capabilities that offer good opportunities to customize the applications the way we want to."
"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."
"We use Core Share to share documents with external auditors or with vendors, and that prevents them from being able to get into the whole system. It is useful."
"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."
"An SAP user can store documents directly into OpenText without a connector."
 

Cons

"I would like to see expanded search features, like content search."
"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.... In that area, they really must improve."
"The FileNet API seems like it is very difficult and not transparent."
"I would like IBM to improve with each release, continue moving towards a continual, tighter integration, and build solutions that take advantage of all the different modules the platform has from one place."
"If I had a concern, it would be that we are sometimes not getting to the root cause of the issues from a technical standpoint as quickly as we should. For the most part, it's good. However, when things get a bit dicey with more involved issues, we have had some delays in getting feedback. If I had a concern, it's around the technical support and their responses in regards to things like root cause analysis."
"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 solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The analytics in FileNet are too complicated and they consume too much infrastructure, memory, and CPU. They're too expensive to work with."
"The solution should work better with partners and be more developer-friendly."
"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."
"User interface needs improvement (at least in the version we are using, desktop client)."
"OpenText Extended ECM's user interface could be improved."
"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."
"More out-of-the-box automation features should be added to OpenText Extended ECM."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The platform is inexpensive."
"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."
"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. ​"
"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."
"Licensing costs depend on the size of the storage."
"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."
"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."
"Both Open Text ECM and IBM File share are expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"OpenText Extended ECM is an expensive solution."
"The product is pricey."
"The total cost of the product will vary on the capabilities required"
"The tool's pricing is confusing to the end customer."
"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for 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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
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?
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: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.