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Salih çakır - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good accelerated platform but it uses a lot of CPU and RAM
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the management."
  • "They should develop something so that bugs don't happen in our project. We make changes manually and some bugs happen."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the management. I like the accelerated platform but it uses a lot of CPU and RAM. 

It is easy to develop a VPN and UI.

What needs improvement?

In terms of improvement, we have had bugs with version 2.2. They should develop something so that bugs don't happen in our projects. We make changes manually and bugs happen. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for six years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy to expand. We store many workflows in it and we are going to expand the project after the next upgrade to include all of our workflows. 

There are around 5,000 uses but after the upgrade, it will be closer to 20,000 users.

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OpenText Documentum
December 2024
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How are customer service and support?

We get our support from a partner, not from them directly. I don't like the consultancy, they don't have a lot of experience but they sell this solution. The support needs to be better. 

How was the initial setup?

The installation is easy. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

They should improve the licensing model. We can't get to a license agreement, they recommend a certain license but I don't think we need everything. The licensing model should be more clear.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Solution Architect / Manager Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Lifecycle management enables different business rules for different "states" of content
Pros and Cons
    • "It needs a better UI and it should also be cloud-ready. The UI has not changed in years."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use it for enterprise content management and we have many businesses which use it for business process content management. So we have two categories of users. The primary use case is lifecycle management or flow management and that includes the enterprise content management service.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We have several customers and each one has a different "flavor." So the benefits vary with each case.

    What is most valuable?

    The lifecycle management is valuable because many of our businesses create content and it passes through a lifecycle. Each state of the lifecycle means that your business has certain business rules, which are set.

    What needs improvement?

    It needs a better UI and it should also be cloud-ready. The UI has not changed in years. These are the two major improvements I would be expecting.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    More than five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is good.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is good.

    How is customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is average.

    How was the initial setup?

    I wouldn' say the setup was straightforward but it was also not complex. It's somewhere in between.

    What other advice do I have?

    When selecting a vendor, the primary considerations are the cloud and that we need simplified solutions for all of our customers.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    OpenText Documentum
    December 2024
    Learn what your peers think about OpenText Documentum. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
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    PeerSpot user
    Director of Enterprise Applications and Integrated Solutions Department at a library with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    ​Process Engine enables handling multiple large-scale business processes/applications

    What is our primary use case?

    Using Documentum products such as Content
    Server, xCP, Captiva, 90+ large-scale Business Processes/Applications have been
    successfully implemented for moving forward to be paperless organization. These
    processes are fully integrated with our Oracle E-Business Suite (Financial Modules
    plus HRMS) in addition to integration with custom enterprise systems built
    in-house

    How has it helped my organization?

    Reduced request cycle time, along with enhancing request tracking and archiving. Moving towards a paperless organization, it has facilitated paperwork easily in a fast and elegant way.

    What is most valuable?

    Process Engine for handling over 90 large-scale business processes/applications. also Documentum Content Management System is very powerful.

    What needs improvement?

    Documentum xCP 2.3 is still has some drawbacks such as :

    1• Dependent filtration among multiple drop down lists in Result list


    2• Unable to access all user tasks from all processes in user inbox (not only the processes included within the application)

    3• Unable to include task link in task notification mail automatically

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Three to five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    No.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    No.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Seven out of 10.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    No.

    How was the initial setup?

    Straightforward, by following the installation document.

    What about the implementation team?

    in-house

    What was our ROI?

    Reduced request cycle time, along with enhancing request tracking

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Licensing according to organization scale. Captiva software in case of backlog archiving.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    SharePoint, IBM, Oracle.

    What other advice do I have?

    Make use of load balancing. Try simplifying forms as best you can to avoid performance issues.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user5988 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Anonymous User at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
    MSP
    Core components provide features such as permissions, auditing, transactions and debugging. The permissions model could be better.

    What is most valuable?

    In terms of sub-products/components, the most valuable features are definitely Content Server and DFC. The core components are the most valuable and trusted ones. These components help us make a solution that can manage documents and their metadata providing features such as permissions, auditing, transactions and debugging for when things get strange. Doing this from scratch may be a good option, but using Documentum we may be able to save some time.

    WDK is also very useful. It's not the best web framework, but it is an acceptable one for most cases and it's directed for a Documentum solution.

    For some users, Webtop can be a good solution. From my experience, a customized version, usually very customized, of Webtop is an optimal solution.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The organization needs to manage a large number of documents. Depending on the context or application, it produces from 50k documents a year to 200k documents a day.

    We designed several solutions for several business contexts. The core of the solution design was the custom-made design specific for the organization, and not the fact that it depended on Documentum. Using Documentum helped in the development process. Application development would be more costly if it was from scratch, rather than using some basic Documentum features.

    What needs improvement?

    Performance could be better. But this is a generalization. We can achieve good performance with Documentum, but we need experience to understand several details about how Documentum works to avoid performance problems. Documentum, out of the box, could be better designed so that we wouldn't fall into these problems so easily.

    Also, the permissions model could be better. For example, I don't understand why we don't have the concept of a read-only user enforced by content server. But I can understand it can be difficult to make a permissions model that can be simultaneously generic and functional.

    Sub-products like RPS and Records Manager are really bad. But I wouldn't hope for improvement here. The mission here is difficult. Trying to make a product that can handle lots of records, millions usually, is a tough mission. We have to be able to apply customer rules you don't know yet, because they're the customer's rules (and exceptions).

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I’ve been using Documentum for 11 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The core (content server and DFC) is very stable. Several sub-products, like RMA and RPS are really bad stability-wise and many other aspects.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The core (content server and DFC) are reasonably well scalable. Several sub-products, like RMA and RPS, are really bad scalability-wise and many other aspects.

    The content server could be more scalable if it didn't depend so much on dm_sysobject. The design overuses dm_sysobject without much need. Lightweight objects can be a way of solving this issue. Table partitioning can be useful also, but table partitioning can be a lot of work for solving a design problem.

    How is customer service and technical support?

    I rate technical support 1/5. Whenever I wanted help from Dell EMC, it wasn't for trivial issues. I wanted help from people that have a high degree of knowledge in Documentum and, in some cases, have access to information that I don't (like something I could only know by reverse engineering).

    For sure, some people in Dell EMC have knowledge and can be really helpful, but usually when we submit a case or question, we have to pass through some people that know less than what we know. This makes us lose lots of time asking irrelevant questions for information we already gave. Sometimes we give up before getting to someone with knowledge.

    Other times, our issue really gets to someone with knowledge (after quite some time), and only a percentage of those times the support is helpful. Also, Dell EMC doesn't support Documentum's versions for a long time. You quite often see Dell EMC personnel saying Dell EMC does not support old versions when, for most situations, we can see the issue would not be any different in the most recent version.

    How was the initial setup?

    Initial setup was complex. Several times we started with a solution. Then, in production, we started to get problems concerning performance or complexity, because we tried to use a product that needs to be generic to our customer specific solution. Then usually, when we address the problems, we figure out that replacing some Documentum-specific features with a customized feature (usually a simple one) can be a huge improvement.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I'm not an expert on this but from what I know, the pricing and licensing model is strange and I'm not sure how well it is controlled. For example, paying by user capability (consumer, contributor, coordinator) makes sense when the user application is Webtop. But we can have a WDK solution or any other web-based solution where the user capability is completely irrelevant.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I was not involved in product evaluation. The organization evaluated FileNet as one option, but I can't say much about it.

    What other advice do I have?

    Stick to the core (Content Server, DFC)! I don't want to say WDK because Dell EMC is/was always saying it was going to end it. Otherwise, it was something to consider.
    Dell EMC made DFS, which was a logical approach. But for several users (like myself), if you design web services by yourself using plain DFC, you’ll get better web services and it's not that complicated. Of course, you're not going to provide all the functionality DFS provides, but you won't need it.

    Make it simple when possible! When you need something more complex regarding specific functionality or great performance, consider custom development. Don't assume that because Documentum has a feature addressing what you want to do, you should use it. Do the pros and cons first.

    You would want to block the generic interfaces and customize your solution, unless:

    • Your solution needs to manage only a few documents.
    • Your users are IT people that understand what they should or should not do with an interface as generic as Webtop or CenterStage.
    • You use DFS services without being very careful (performance-wise, for example).
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Romas Bunevicius - PeerSpot reviewer
    Director of Business Development at ProitswProitsw
    Real User
    Top 10
    It helps us achieve enterprise content management. The biggest issue for us is the high price of the product.
    Pros and Cons
    • "It provides possibilities for us to save documents and supporting the business process while doing so."
    • "It is quite good."
    • "The biggest issue for us is the price of the product."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use this for documentation management. It provides possibilities for us to save documents and supporting the business process while doing so. It helps us with some of the overflow of documents, and that is very important for our company.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It helps us achieve enterprise content management. It is quite good.

    What is most valuable?

    It helps us with some of the overflow of documents, and that is very important for our company.

    What needs improvement?

    The biggest issue for us is the price of the product.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    It is quite an expensive product. The price is very high. 

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I would advise others that the best solution for enterprise content management is either Documentum or Microsoft SharePoint.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Hosam Salem - PeerSpot reviewer
    Hosam SalemProject Manager – Acting as Director at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User

    Although the price is very high, it is suitable for large-scale organizations implementing core business processes with different scales.

    See all 2 comments
    it_user1340349 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Enterprise Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
    Real User
    Secure document storage that is stable, has good support, and good search capabilities
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable features of this solution are the security, storage, and document search capability."
    • "An area that needs to improve is how to reduce storage space on the AWS site."

    What is our primary use case?

    Most of the solutions that we get are to be built on top of the platform. The platform can't be leveraged as it is. Most of the applications are customized applications that follow a particular life cycle workflow.

    We build custom solutions on top of SharePoint, Documentum, and Adobe. We build applications for a lot of government organizations.

    The content gets captured by a customized portal, which is written in Java, then the documents get generated via the Adobe and then get published and stored onto Documentum.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features of this solution are the security, storage, and document search capability.

    What needs improvement?

    An area that needs to improve is how to reduce storage space on the AWS site. Also, scaling up is difficult and we need to look at how to scale a system. If the documents increase the application size, then we need to know how we take care of reducing the size as well as scaling up the application. 

    In the next release, I would like to see more cooperating workflows, better integration with other systems, and RESTful services.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Documentum for eight years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    This solution is stable and it is one of the best products that we have.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    This solution is scalable, but for large scale implementations, we would always prefer Documentum, rather than SharePoint.

    Currently, we have over 25,000 simultaneous users and the total users are more than 40,000.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The technical support is good.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was a bit difficult. After we read the documentation, the setup and configuration documents, and with the help of the videos, it was easier.

    Initially, it took a lot of time to understand the architecture and planning the capacity.

    It took a few days in total to deploy.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would always recommend this solution and rate it an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Change Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
    Consultant
    Nice for document management but it's not too flexible

    Valuable Features

    Lifecycle management

    Improvements to My Organization

    We use it as a repository of our records.

    Room for Improvement

    The interface is not user-friendly, new meta data classes are not easy to create.

    Use of Solution

    6 months

    Stability Issues

    Not too stable.

    Customer Service and Technical Support

    Customer Service: AverageTechnical Support: Average

    Initial Setup

    Complex. We needed external help to set it up.

    Implementation Team

    Through a vendor team.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free OpenText Documentum Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: December 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free OpenText Documentum Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.