Item: Alfresco
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have implemented Alfresco Content Services to solve complex enterprise problems for content service, record management, and process management. Using Alfresco Content Services, I implemented a central repository for document management and document approval processes between different departments. I have also integrated Alfresco Content Services with different applications like Portal (Liferay), SAP, DocuSign, LDAP, SSO, etc.

Pros and Cons

Document storage with metadata
Document versioning
Document workflow
Check-on and Check-out
Rest API for integrations
Easy customization
Fine-grain-level role and permission
Vibrant community support

User interface is not intituve
Customization of user interface
Dependency on partner solution for common use cases like content capturing and imaging (e.g., OCR).

Return on Investment

Open-source production with vibrant community support
Cost effective compared to many proprietary CMS solutions
Customizations are possible; therefore, it can me utilized with many possible ways of integrating it with other ecosystems.

Alternatives Considered

The biggest positive about Alfresco Content Services is its open-source nature. There are many possibilities of utilizing it in existing ecosystems using integrations.

Usability

Alfresco Content Services' UI has never been its strength from the beginning. Therefore, rating it from a usability standpoint, I will not rank it high. However, Alfresco Content Services can easily be integrated with any application and leveraged as a backend CMS or DM system. With the new Angular-based UI approach, it's very much possible to create custom UI on top of it as required.

Support Rating

I am not big fan of Alfresco Content Services' support; it works on its own speed and sometimes it becomes challenging to achieve business needs. However, I appreciate regular delivery of security patches and updates.

Key Insights

Do you think Alfresco delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Alfresco's feature set?

Yes

Did Alfresco live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Alfresco go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Alfresco again?

Yes

Other Software Used

MS SharePoint, Slack, OpenText Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Likelihood to Recommend

Alfresco Content Services is well suited as a backend document management service where the front end is different and Alfresco Content Services is used as DM.
Alfresco Content Services can be leveraged for document storage, metadata management of document, and document searches based on content or metadata.
Alfresco Content Services provide many customization options, making it usable for different scenarios.

UI dampens otherwise great versatility

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Alfresco Content Services