Confluence, solid document management tool
January 12, 2018

Confluence, solid document management tool

Sean Scott | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Atlassian Confluence

We use Confluence to support internal documentation needs. It provides a version controlled, access manageable, configurable repository of knowledge and documentation for the company. It facilitates indexing and search of the document database for quick access to information. We use it globally in the organization as a clearinghouse of information on everything from technical procedures to organization charting.
  • WYSIWYG editing of content
  • Rich text formatting capabilities
  • Search and indexing of content
  • Sometimes search is overly inclusive or doesn't appear to be contextual, eg I may search for a keyword used frequently in a particular document, yet it appears lower in search results than others that use it less often.
  • Limiting searches, for example by business unit or time, can be clumsy or awkward to use.
  • Performance/speed.
  • I believe we've seen positive ROI with Confluence simply because it provides a repository of information necessary for the smooth operation of the organization.
  • We embraced Confluence into our organization's culture with "Wiki Fridays." We encourage people to spend a significant portion of their Friday capturing documentation from the preceding week's work. It's a good way to close out the week and summarize what took place.
I feel that Confluence performs better when it comes to managing security and user access than most other products. The WYSIWYG tools have a better feel to them, and I like the ability to perform formatting from the keyboard through shortcuts rather than relying on mouse clicks on the various formatting tools.
Confluence makes it relatively easy to produce richly formatted documents for an organization. By making it easy, Confluence takes away many of the barriers individuals might find for not documenting procedures, etc. The key to success with Confluence is to configure an organizational structure efficiently from the outset. It becomes more difficult to change or reorganize once something is established, and can lead to poor search results of a fragmented document store.

Confluence Feature Ratings

Gantt Charts
Not Rated
Scheduling
Not Rated
Workflow Automation
Not Rated
Mobile Access
5
Search
6
Visual planning tools
Not Rated
Notifications
8
Discussions
9
Surveys
8
Internal knowledgebase
10
Integrates with GoToMeeting
Not Rated
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts
Not Rated
Integrates with Outlook
Not Rated
Versioning
9
Video files
8
Audio files
8
Document collaboration
10
Access control
10
Advanced security features
9
Integrates with Google Drive
Not Rated
Device sync
Not Rated

Using Atlassian Confluence

It's overall pretty straightforward and intuitive. You get a simple editing window that presents a live view of your formatted document, plus a toolbar for formatting options. If you're familiar with any word processing program (Google Docs, Word, etc) you should be able to master Confluence without much (if any) difficulty.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • WYSIWYG formatting
  • Formatting is available via mouse-click icons and also via keyboard shortcuts
  • No excuses documentation
  • Search does not always seem to reliably rank results
  • Search refinement is not always reliable or intuitive