Likelihood to Recommend There are not a lot of competitors to compare this product with, but ActiveDocs holds its own as a very useful software for the need. I recommend doing a demo to see how the process works, but it's rather streamlined and easy to create a template and produce a document from it.
Read full review I don't recall a period of time when we couldn't access our data in the Square 9 cloud. The software works really well. I can't remember the last time I had to submit a support ticket. While we were working on the project, the technicians were great at utilizing software like ScreenConnect and Calendly to complete tasks.
Read full review Pros The User Interface was pleasant to use. it is a very intuitive software the available templates help and facilitate the day-to-day work Read full review It's easy to design a form - many featured features allow you to create what you need. The workflows allow you to set conditions to take it in different directions based on the request - such as skipping approval levels. You do not have to be a programmer to design a form and workflow (although similar skills are needed). It's not hard to check on the status of a user request (form submission). Read full review Cons Template could be better by adding features that make it easier for users. Some features are missing like image editing, and SEO management. Read full review The functionality is great but it can be a bit overwhelming. There's so much you can do that it's hard to remember how to do it - even if they've reviewed it with you and left themselves available for follow up. I don't want to necessarily have to take a class to learn how to use the product in full. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We absolutely can't imagine not continuing software maintenance as there are always new additions that improve the system not to mention the excellent tech support when issues are encountered. Response times for troubleshooting are very quick and usually, my issue is resolved in less than an hour after connecting with support.
Read full review Usability Very good usability overall. Any user can pick this up and run with it.
HotDocs , the closest competitor, has similar end-user usability, but from a designer of templates perspective, ActiveDocs definitely has the edge in this regard. I would recommend this for any company that mass produces documents from templates as deliverables.
Read full review Not sure if 10 is favorable or not, but this is supposed to be an unfavorable rating. I find that the solution lacks intuitiveness that should be inherent. I liken it to a large stack of papers and you have to be creative in finding what you want.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Square-9 can get this product out to you in almost the same hour your order it. We got ours very fast.
Read full review Performance The software overall is very excellent. It responds quickly and produces documents well. The integration with systems makes data input easy. Questions can be designed to allow further expansion of template creation/customization. The rules section is very useful for complicated If/Than/Else style templates. Although experience and training help, the software is very user-friendly out of the box.
Read full review With the PDF projected viewer, the document retrieval-to-display can drag for a second more than some systems, and the capture workflow if you overload a server array can also drag, but those are the only two issues we've ever seen with this product, and they are not serious issues at all.
Read full review Support Rating ActiveDocs can be a considerably complex product because your use cases can be potentially endless. In our experience, when we have come across a problem or issue with the product ActiveDoc's support has always responded to our queries within 24 hours. Support is only provided via email in 95% of cases. Each year your support and maintenance includes support hours. These are used when you contact support and your issue is not found to be a bug or problem with the product (completely fair and understandable). When we've identified or discovered bugs (mainly with the latest version of Word) it is patched by the next release. They typically release about 4-5 updates per year.
Read full review The support we received from Square 9 Softworks was exceptional. From deployment to implementation, we always felt supported. The team we worked with had patience and exceptional response time. They were amazing to work with, I always felt supported. No matter how simple or complex my question was they always delivered.
Read full review In-Person Training It would have been higher, but the training is a bit muted for the lesser qualified office equipment vendors who signed up as partners to sell and support it. The more experienced ECM vendors and customer end-users will find the training very good, but a bit slow.
Read full review Implementation Rating I think the implementation could have gone a little smoother than it did. Now that I know how to use the software, I could do it myself. I feel that as an organization, we could have been a little better prepared. If the consultant was more aware of what we were looking for, they could have assisted in setting up some workflows for us as per the contract. But because we were not prepared, the initial implementation process was a little painful. That said, adding a document management system to ANY business kinda means everyone has to re-think the way they do their work which can be difficult for some staff.
Read full review Alternatives Considered In relation to other software that have a functionality similar to ActiveDocs, they don't even compare in relation to the interface, I didn't use all the software available on the market, but the ones I used and I can compare, ActiveDocs is without a doubt the best among them. We really likes the interface.
Read full review A similar product I have used was Time Matters. For a Law Firm, I think Time Matters is more useful as it keeps track of everything for a client, including billing. However, since I now work for a legal department of a corporation, SmartSearch is definitley more useful. It is not possible to seperate the documents we have internally in neat client files. We have various miscellaneous documents for many different services and customers or vendors. SmartSearch allows us to organize in broad categories that make sense to internal employees using it and to make sure security is set on specific documents. Time Matters would not have been sufficient for our managers to have access to, since it uploads all documents to the file - some of which are confidential.
Read full review Scalability The scale-ability is quite good actually, but you need competent sales/support folks providing it to you, so the scale is set right for the demands of your system use. Some resellers are not good at doing this, some are fantastic. If you are scaled correctly at first implementation, you'll be very happy with this system.
Read full review Return on Investment ActiveDocs allows us to create, edit and validate any type of content quickly and with no coding skills. Easy and quick editing. Really flexible and simple to set up Helped us achieve a much higher level of efficiency in our daily operations. Read full review Elimination of all filing activities, labor $$$ of at least $20,000 per year. Elimination of file cabinets, retention management, boxing and storage, purging and shredding... again, thousands of dollars of savings Estimate that we paid for the software in the 1st year and would never go backward to our old processes Read full review ScreenShots Square 9 Softworks Screenshots