OpenText Extended ECM Reviews

We use OpenText Extended ECM for our document management purposes. 

We help clients to upgrade and migrate. Without the product, we wouldn't be in business. 

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. 

The solution needs to improve the user interface. 

I have been using the solution for 23 years. 

OpenText Extended ECM is stable. 

The solution's support is good most of the time. The hardest part is finding the right resource to answer the question. 

Positive

The product's deployment is complex because of the integration and the time to complete an upgrade. Our implementation strategy focused on minimizing the impact on the end customer. 

We have seen ROI with the tool's use. 

The tool's pricing is confusing to the end customer. 

I have evaluated Microsoft SharePoint before choosing OpenText Extended ECM. 

Over the years, we have been trying to manage massive data amounts and ensure that employees get what they seek. 

The tool's integration capabilities with Microsoft and Salesforce help eliminate content silos if done correctly. It has made our operations smoother and more efficient. 

The solution has helped us connect the content to our business processes. It helps to take away barriers. 

The product increased productivity in our organization by 25 percent. 

Any company refusing to integrate OpenText Extended ECM for Microsoft products will change its mind in two years. 

I rate the product a seven out of ten. 

The biggest use case in our company, which I help support, is that our accounting department uses it to help compile and do all the tax returns that we use. We are a private company. We work for a wealthy Chicago family, and the accounting department handles thousands of tax returns that they do every year. We use the OpenText Capture product to bring in all the forms and documents and get them into the Content Server. We have built a workflow and reports around that process, which includes getting the documents, compiling the tax returns, having them go through multiple reviews, and then eventually filing them with the IRS.

By implementing this solution, the biggest challenge that we were trying to overcome was to give our accounting department a little bit more visibility into that workflow. Prior to this, they were literally doing everything on paper by hand. We wanted to automate the workflow and have a way to store those documents on a long term. We wanted them to be able to work from home without taking a stack of papers home with them. All these things were the big gains from moving over to it.

They handle thousands of tax returns a year. They are usually in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 every year. It was always a slog and a lot of work to get all that done on time and racing against the October 15th deadline. By giving them visibility in that process, they are now able to run some analytics and organize things better year to year. They can figure out when to do certain things in terms of timing, how things go in a sequential order, and what needs to be done before what. They have been able to do that a lot more easily. There is a lot less tracking of everything on a spreadsheet. They are able to see the data. That has been extremely helpful for them.

I have some personal success stories of some older people who have now retired. Seven or eight years ago when we first did this, they would say, "Why are we doing this? Our way works just fine. It is no big deal." We implemented it, and a year later, we went back and talked to them, and they said, "We actually know what everything is. It is amazing." That was nice. We want people over.

It allows them to collaborate more easily. The content silo here was that an accountant had the papers on their desk, so only they could work on them and look at them, whereas now, anybody can. Anybody who is in the approval process does not need to pick up papers and put them on somebody else's desk. There is a notification that says that somebody needs to go check this out. 

Extended ECM has helped connect our content to our business processes. There is more flexibility. People only have to take their laptops home to do work now. This is something that we have been talking about for a decade but it was something that we were behind on. I am so glad that we already had this in place when COVID hit because otherwise, it would have been a disaster. Because it was in place, it was a pretty seamless transition. 

Extended ECM has helped to increase productivity in our organization, but being on the IT side of things, I do not have the statistics that the account team might have. They are the ones who know how quickly things got done beforehand versus now. I only have a once-a-year meeting with them to discuss what we are improving on for the next year. 

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 where everything is. Being able to use that on top of the Content Server was a big help.

We make iterations on it. Every year, they usually ask for some small things. Overall, they are pretty happy with it. Being the IT person here, I do think there are areas for improvement, but both for us and them, it is 80% to 90% good enough. It might take a big overhaul to get to that next step of being able to do even more. They are fairly happy with it right now, so I do not see that coming immediately down the pipeline. It is like the juice or the squeeze on some of those things, but there is definitely some room for improvement. We have learned more since we implemented this, so there are things we could do for sure. Overall, they seem to be pretty happy with the process.

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. They integrate together, but in some of the more complex scenarios, we have started to shift and start building things in AppWorks. Documents are still stored in the Content Server. It is almost like an additional layer that helps us do a little bit more. So, Extended ECM Content Server does a very good job for a lot of use cases, but if you do need to do something that is a little bit more complex, you might need other tools.

I have been using their Content Server in our business for about a decade.

I have had both very good and very bad experiences with it. It sometimes depends on the product. I have sometimes struggled with support and getting answers in a timely fashion. I am also not a huge fan of the change in platforms. I am getting used to it a little bit, but it still leaves something to be desired from the old support platform. 

Overall, I would rate their support a five out of ten. Specifically for AppWorks, I would rate them one or two. I have had a tough time with support with that one. The support for the Content Server and other things around that has generally been much better, and I would rate them a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

Our only document management solution has been the Content Server.

It was fairly complex because we ended up using a couple of different modules to help us out. We built the workflow and a lot of custom reports. It was definitely some work to get them up and running and to get there, but I would not necessarily call it a con because it would be naive to ever think that you can just flap something down and have it work great for anybody. There is going to be some configuration, and there is going to be some tailoring to make it work for not just your organization but also the individual department. There was a decent amount of work to get it there and to get it to work well for them.

We even did a couple of different stages. We started off using something a little bit more basic to help them manage their process, which we eventually upgraded to a full-fledged workflow. We did it in stages because it was just too much to undertake all at once. They are busy from February until April, so we have this small window to roll things out and implement new changes. We stepped up over two or three years. In year one, we just cared about getting their documents digital in there and giving them some minimal tools to track the process. We refined that. In year two or three, we made that an actual workflow, so it did take a couple of years to get there. It was not simple, but we did it. You need to build that roadmap or that plan and keep iterating it.

We try, but we do not do a super great job of measuring the ROI in IT at this point. The accounting team would have a better understanding of the ROI.

I was not involved in that specifically, but there were a number of other options we looked at. Laserfiche was one of them. There were one or two bigger names in the field. Documentum might have been one of them. It was a separate company at that time.

To a colleague at another company who says they do not need Extended ECM because they are invested in Microsoft solutions, I would say that we too are a Microsoft shop, but there are a lot of things that are limited. Years ago, we tried to do some of the things years with SharePoint and fell flat. It just did not have enough features. It could not do all the things. Now with Teams as the front end, it is a little bit better in terms of usability, but you do not get the same capabilities, options, and extensibility that you get with OpenText products. In general, you will have to work a lot harder to do the same things, and then you are going to have gaps in terms of certain things that you cannot do.

Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten.  

I work with the business users who are using it. I work at a Utility Gas company. We have a storage team set up for post-project document storage, and now we are setting up the transmission pipeline team with both mid-project and post-project document storage.

By implementing Extended ECM, we were trying to address the challenge of retention management. The biggest challenge with our previous solution was retention management. We are working on implementing a pretty complicated schedule of retention for different documents connected to assets. Extended ECM has a lot of capacity for this kind of work.

It has been a rallying point for us for document management. Previously, we had solutions very siloed in different parts of the company, and we are now starting to bring a lot more groups together under the same platform. That is pretty huge.

We have been working on tying it to SAP and a bunch of workflow management solutions that we already had in place. We are trying to bring the underlying document management layer into the same home. That has been going really well, and then we have some great ties into some data sources that we use to validate metadata. We get a bunch of information from the GIS system. These are still early days, but the hope for the future is that we can eliminate a lot of duplication of documents and we are able to do proper retention. We are able to get rid of documents when we are ready to, but we are also making sure that we have them, and we can find them.

The integrated capabilities of Extended ECM have been good so far, but we struggled with figuring out how to relate integrations from cloud storage to on-prem systems and what security issues are involved. It took a while, but it is mostly solved now. It has been good, but I remember that was a thing that we were struggling with for a while.

Extended ECM has helped connect our content to our business processes. We have been building either new workflow systems or rebuilding old ones onto new platforms, either the ECM itself or AppWorks sitting on top of it. We have been doing very well in terms of getting people off terrible email-based processes and onto managed systems.

Extended ECM has helped to increase productivity in our organization. We have been seeing a lot of reduction in downtime due to issues with not having everything in a well-regulated system, which led to things getting lost or forgotten. We are eliminating those hiccups and increasing efficiency.

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.

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.

I have been using OpenText Extended ECM for a year.

It does not go down. There are occasional issues with a new release that have to be worked through, but nothing crazy.

Scalability is why we chose it. So far, it has not proven to be a terrible idea.

We have been working with some vendors. A part of the reason why we have been working with vendors is that we did have some challenges with their solution group, which is like a part of their tech support team. We did have challenges getting good responses from them. They have gotten better by going through an intermediary vendor that is experienced and can already answer a lot of the issues that we have been having. Based on my second-hand knowledge, I would rate them a seven out of ten.

Neutral

We were working with a smaller company called Syntax. We were using their document management and workflow management solutions. They were good, but we needed something that would scale up better and also had better documentation retention capabilities than what that had.

I was initially involved in the very first parts of deployment, but then I got out and was focused on the legacy solution. Now that we are more ready to move the legacy solution into the new solution, I am coming back to the project. So, I was not super involved, and even if I was, I do business systems analysts work. I am not involved at a technical level except for a single question or two here and there.

I have not done the numbers, but I can see where it would be.

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.

Overall, I would rate OpenText Extended ECM a nine out of ten.

We use it to manage our engineering documents. We use it for the drawings and our asset documents.

The challenge that we have is that some users are reluctant to use the system, so we still need to come up with a way to motivate company-wide acceptance.

The search capability is great, and it is far better than File Explorer, which is what we had before. That was a network drive. When it is indexed and it is OCR, it is easy to find things.

We are working to integrate with SAP completely, and we are hoping that would help to eliminate content silos in our organization.

The range of Extended ECM's integrated capabilities for addressing complex use cases is pretty good.

Extended ECM has helped connect our content to our business processes. People are able to find what they are looking for quickly.

Extended ECM has helped to increase productivity in our organization.

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.

In terms of features, problems are mostly internal. We are still struggling with fixing our taxonomy and how we want our browsing to work. That is what we struggle with the most. 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 have been using OpenText Extended ECM for about six years.

We do go down sometimes. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of stability.

Its scalability is good.

Sometimes it takes a while, but things do get resolved. I would rate them a seven out of ten.

Neutral

We were not using any other solution previously. We were using network shares.

It was complex in terms of understanding the users and their processes at that moment. We are doing interviews and trying to understand why that even was the way it was. That part is always complex. We are now going to translate them.

In terms of implementation strategy, we have multiple sites in our organization, and one site at a time was rolled out.

We have seen an ROI.

I was not involved in the decision-making process, but other solutions were evaluated.

To a colleague at another company who says they do not need Extended ECM because they are invested in Microsoft solutions, I would say that they just have to look at each product and see what would help them the most.

Overall, I would rate Extended ECM an eight out of ten.

We use OpenText Extended ECM to build a connector to view documents on ServiceNow. It also helps to create a custom search for archived documents. 

OpenText Extended ECM has improved our exposure since our product is available in the market. It helps us get more business. 

We can configure the solution with any industry's products per customer requirements. 

The tool's documentation is not proper and has missing information like steps. 

I have been using OpenText Extended ECM for three years. 

OpenText Extended ECM's stability is good. It keeps improving with newer versions. 

The solution is scalable. 

We contact the support to resolve documentation challenges. The tool's support is good. 

Positive

A few things are complex in the tool's deployment due to the missing information in the documentation. We first build a development environment on our on-premise server for our implementation strategy. We test it out and report to the support if we find any bugs. 

We can address a lot of problems using OpenText Extended ECM. You can build different connectors to the configuration. 

The product has helped us boost productivity by 30-40 percent. 

Microsoft doesn't have as many features as OpenText Extended ECM. You get more features in the solution compared to any other product. 

I rate it an eight out of ten. 

We build products that add value on the OpenText Extended ECM.

Our products run on OpenText software.

OpenText Extended ECM's most valuable features are document storage, security, and compliance.

The solution should work better with partners and be more developer-friendly.

I have been using the solution for 20 years.

OpenText Extended ECM is pretty stable. I rate it an eight out of ten.

I rate the tool's on-premise scalability a six and cloud scalability a nine.

For support, when we open a ticket, we get assigned logs. We need to wait a week or two for a response.

Neutral

The solution's deployment is straightforward. Our implementation strategy involved the deployment of SAP systems with the product.

The tool offers value for money.

The solution is expensive.

The tool's integration with Microsoft and Salesforce has eliminated content silos in our organization.

OpenText Extended ECM makes things simple for business users.

The tool has helped our customers connect business processes.

OpenText Extended ECM has boosted productivity by 75 percent.

Anyone who says they don't need the product should give it a try and understand its value-adding capabilities.

I rate the product an eight out of ten.

The integration of a document management platform with many other applications, e.g. SAP, SuccessFactors, Salesforce, SharePoint, etc. There is a large amount of documentation available, along with solution accelerators to speed up and facilitate the initial setup and integration.

Initially there can be stability issues due to unknown factors such as usage of the system, quantity of documents ingested, load during peak hours. Over time, these stability issues can be solved by tweaking the system and scaling according to the volumes and requests done to the system.

Over two years.

No, Content Server is highly scalable, both horizontally and vertically. Additional servers can easily be added to the cluster. At the back-end, additional resources can be added to increase performance of the agents, indexing, and searching capabilities. The front-end can also be scaled horizontally or vertically to improve performance when dealing with a large number of simultaneous users.

High. When contacting OpenText support we always get an answer within a few hours. The technical support is also very knowledgeable on most of their products, and provides frequent updates when working on a ticket.

The initial setup was, and still is, complex because there are many components interacting with each other. There are multiple settings to check and configure. A vast knowledge of infrastructure, networking, security, software tools, and more are required to install a performant solution.

Get in touch with experts, either directly from the vendor or consult with an external party that has deep expertise in implementing a similar solution.

Building an ECM repository for a leading high street bank in Scotland and integration with internet banking applications.

It is a very stable system, and we are using it to store billions of customer documents which are readily available for search and browsing. It is very easy to integrate all ECM features with other enterprise applications that are helping the bank with easy modernization. 

• Content server
• Archive server
• Search and indexing
• Enterprise integration
• Records management
• Patching
• Web reports
• Scaling and auditing.

• Compatibility with external source code management tools like RTC is missing. This would help in the automation of deployment activities for enterprise applications. 
• Improvement in analytics and machine learning would help in getting a more holistic view of content.