Camunda vs. Laserfiche

Camunda Platform is well suited for scenarios where there are different stages in a business flow and the flow is driven by user action at each stage. For example placing of an order on an ecommerce platform. Depending on whether user was able to make the payment or not the workflow would go to dispatch or retry stage. Now the retry stage would trigger further actions like sending follow up emails etc. Likewise, dispatch stage would have a different set of actions. Since every order is important and we need to know where it stands, using Camunda Platform is imperative. Camunda Platform might not be a right choice where just a one off thing needs to be done. For example, uploading of product information by user or periodic processing of heavy images by a worker. These are all either one step processes or periodic automated processes where we can track the status without using a business modeler like Camunda Platform.

Incentivized

Laserfiche is well suited to the submission of simple routine reports to create a record repository. We use it for routine transport reports, audit reports, and anonymous citizen complaints. It creates a simple chronological record of routine events that can be reviewed and easily stored and recalled. Because the reports are in PDF format, it is not well suited to anything that needs to be imported into a common database or amended after submission.

Incentivized

• Asynchronous functionality of Camunda Platform and different types of gateways.

• Laserfiche is easy to learn. Anyone, whether they have experience with IT or not, can learn how to use Laserfiche.
• Laserfiche Forms allows people to use the form without having each person needing to be fully licensed which saves money.
• Laserfiche Workflow and Forms can make processes quick, easy, and efficient, freeing up time so staff can get more work done.

Incentivized

• Camunda expects that you will develop your own user interfaces. This is either a benefit or a barrier depending on your perspective on packaged UI.
• As an open source vendor, Camunda is under-covered in analyst reports.

• While Laserfiche has some powerful development tools, it is difficult to manage configurations while promoting code across environments. For example, SQL connections and other environment specific resources have to be manually configured in each environment.
• Laserfiche forms are a newer addition to the product family and could use some product maturity. While easy to use for simple forms, once your forms become more complex, you need to accomplish tasks by heavy JavaScript coding.

Incentivized

We plan on renewing Laserfiche for the coming year but also have been considering a scanning and document management solution that can be purchased from our new accounting system company, we are implementing the accounting system this year. It will be a couple years before we make a decision to stay with Laserfiche or change.

Incentivized

It has an intuitive design that feels very natural to any user that has ever used Outlook or Windows Explorer. There are multiple ways to perform every action in order to help users with various software experiences find the shortcuts and actions they seek quickly and effectively.

Incentivized

I am very satisfied with Laserfiche. I have found that certain larger jobs may are slow. This may also be related to our infrastructure environment. We have been able to tune Laserfiche to increase performance on larger jobs.

Incentivized

Performance, of course, is largely dependent on the underlying environment. Laserfiche does its part with multi-threading, taking advantage of multi-core servers on scanning, workflows, and bots. A SQL-Server back-end is suitable for small to medium-sized company, but may not scale to large, where Oracle would be the better choice. Workflows can be poorly written and perform recursive work slowing down the system. It's better to run batch type workflows at night when possible.

Incentivized

Camunda provides pretty standard product support offerings.

I have never had to wait for help from Laserfiche. If I cannot find the answer online, I can easily send an email to a customer support representative. I have always been helped the same day and my questions have always been resolved. The Empower conference is always a great learning opportunity and the online resources and webinars are top-notch.

Incentivized

Easily accessible 24/7 so am able to complete courseware whenever time allows: Commute to work; waiting for friends or family; at night while relaxing [with a delicious glass of wine!]; whenever and wherever time and circumstances permit. Courseware is well written and presented in an easy to follow and understand format.

Incentivized

Lacks good documentation. Training and documentation is geared towards those who are already technically adept. Does not have as many data integrations as other full fledged products. Paid version of Camunda is not as fully fledged as other products.

Incentivized

The core infrastructure of Laserfiche, and the end user experience, is vastly superior. OnBase has a TERRIBLE UI and administration console by comparison. The core architecture of OnBase is also more scattered, while all Laserfiche processes go through a single service. Overall, the Laserfiche product is easier and more intuitive to install, maintain, and use.

Incentivized

• The positive impact is that we are able to ensure the business process is being followed and that results in orders getting processed successfully leading to customer satisfaction and revenue
• Another positive impact is that we are able to track any anomalies and any errors in the order flow and retry them so that users don't have a negative experience.
• A negative point is that it is an overhead to maintain so there is significant engineering effort getting invested there

Incentivized

• Laserfiche has increased the efficiency of our sales reps by giving making all of the historical sales deal information very simple and fast to retrieve.
• Laserfiche has increased our efficiency with our AP department and gave department heads the ability to approve invoices where ever they are.
• I would say the biggest ROI came with the transparency of the order process for new deals. Before there would be numerous phone calls made daily to find out where an order was within the process, and now you can simply look at all deals at any time.

Incentivized