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OpenText Solutions Business Manager vs. Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    OpenText Solutions Business Manager

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AOpenText™ Solutions Business Manager, formerly from Micro Focus is enterprise-scale business process automation software. It helps IT quickly create, adapt, deploy, and govern process-based apps and workflows for humans and systems across the organization.N/A

    Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AVisual SourceSafe is a discontinued source control software offering, from Microsoft.N/A
    Pricing
    OpenText Solutions Business ManagerMicrosoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    OpenText Solutions Business ManagerMicrosoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    OpenText Solutions Business ManagerMicrosoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
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    Score10 out of 10
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    OpenText Solutions Business ManagerMicrosoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    1.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.8
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.2
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    OpenText Solutions Business ManagerMicrosoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    OpenText
    How many users will be using the system? What part of the organization will own the product? Serena is a great workflow tool. It can be tailored to fit in any scenario and so I dont believe there is any situation where it would be inappropriate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I would not recommend Visual SourceSafe to anyone out there as there are so many better, more modern solutions that do what it does and much more. Visual SourceSafe should be retired in most cases.
    Read full review
    Pros
    OpenText
    • One of my favorite capabilities within the Serena user interface is the reporting. Detailed searches into the workflows allow the users to create reports containing any field that is in the workflow. Users here use the reporting during review time to pull metrics on tickets they have worked during the year. From a process perspective, the system provides a specific report with details around how long the items have been in various states. I use this information to measure my process peformance and to identify bottlenecks within the processes themselves. The reports are fairly easy to use but they can also be very complex too. Reports can be set up and shared across groups. Generic reports can also be set up so that query at run time fields can be entered.
    • Developing new processes in Serena Business Manager is relatively easy and does not necessarily need to be done by a developer. Serena has added some key features that reduces the need to add Java scripts. Serena Business Manager is a blank slate and it can be as complex or as simple as you make it. The forms are the same. I have seen some very simple designs and some very complex and beautiful form designs.
    • From a user perspective, it is fairly simple to just pick up and start using. I introduce our new hires to the systems in a thirty minute session. Most users are more confused by which process to use for what than by how to use the system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • At this point in its lifecycle there are not many things VSS does well
    • Its main strength would be its ability to be self contained on a local drive
    • It is a basic Code repository
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    OpenText
    • Serena's documentation for the product is well written but it can be a bit challenging because it is often missing key components, best practices or tips and tricks that you get when you call into their customer support. It is also very frustrating to have their release notes refer back to their knowledge base to have their customers figure out what they fixed in their releases.
    • Serena Business Manager manages their users in an Administrator function. Any changes made in this part of Serena is only logged in the database. It would be nice to have some reporting out of of this system. When you have multiple administrators of a system, it would be a nice feature to have some reporting here rather than having to go into the database.
    • The notification feature within Serena can be a bit challenging and time consuming. You can't copy the notifications so if you want to duplicate a notification you had previously created you have to recreate it again. The notifications have three levels to them and they can be a bit tricky to get them to work just right.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • The system stability could be improved. Often we get file corrupted errors.
    • The User Interface is not modern and not user-friendly.
    • Concurrent check-outs could be added, allowing more people to work on the same file at the same time.
    • Add conflict resolution, files comparison, blame file, features that any modern source control program should have.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    The current status of Visual SourceSafe is not usable. There are many things that are just so out of the date that it should be retired and not looked at any longer. If you have an existing application that is stored in it, I'd consider migrating it to a modern tool.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    It's a Microsoft product so the customer support is great. The program has been around a long time so there are plenty of places on line to get assistance. Also almost any development shop you go to will have at least one developer who has used this product extensively in their career.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    OpenText
    We have been using Serena for eight years and I don't believe I can answer this question since it was so long ago that we made the decision to purchase Serena.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    OpenText
    • We use Serena to standardize our business processes to ensure a more efficient work day experience for our employees. By having the employees use Serena for the processes we can ensure the process is completed the same way every time.
    • By having our key processes in Serena we are able to measure our processes at any time. Some of those key metrics include a 90% reduction in rework and a 47% reduction in overall process time. With the ability to measure processes at any time, we can react to process problems and correct them quickly. Serena Business Manager is flexible enough to allow quick development and rapid promotion when necessary.
    • Serena is very ingrained in our culture and the culture has taken on the "ticket" mentality unfortunately. With everyone trying to measure their work and justify their body counts through ticket counts, having a ticket opened for every act of work has become the standard.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • When we started using it, it allowed us to do source code versioning and store the code in a centralized location and not locally.
    • We are using it for very few projects with few developers that still maintain those applications and do not have time to merge the source code to Git.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots