Everything is a Case. Use IBM Case Manager.
October 08, 2014
Everything is a Case. Use IBM Case Manager.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Version 5.2
Modules Used
- Case Manager
Overall Satisfaction with IBM Enterprise Content Management
As a premier solutions provider for our clients, we utilize numerous IBM Enterprise Content Management products based upon the FileNet P8 foundation; from Cognos and Big Data Analytics to WebSphere Application Server - and just about everything in between. The group I work with specializes in creating Case Manager solutions for our clients in Banking, Mortgage, and Insurance. In addition, we further specialize in creating products for our inventory which augment and provide depth and breadth to the basic out of the box experience of the IBM suite of Content Management software, such as customized Case Manager widgets and base solutions for various industries.
- Speaking of IBM Case Manager in particular, we believe that just about every business process involving the effort of knowledge workers can be enhanced and automated using IBM Case Manager. If a process or set of tasks requires the judgment, decision-making skills, and experience of a knowledge worker, then the process can be configured for IBM Case Manager. If the process is dynamic and requires flexibility such that the business outcome depends upon the choices and decisions made during the process, then IBM Case Manager is the ideal solution for automation, tracking, and collaboration of such work.
- With regards to Content Management, we are particularly fond of and adept at utilizing both IBM Content Collector, IBM Classification Manager, and IBM Enterprise Records. As business communications have changed over the last 20 years, the growth of digital content housed within the burgeoning storage silos located throughout a company's infrastructure has swelled to nearly unmanageable levels. This impacts them in numerous ways; from the direct costs associated with ever increasing storage, to the unknowable costs associated with the legal liability of content residing on their systems, to the lost opportunity of un-mined customer data residing on their systems. All of these impacts can be mitigated by the application of IBM Content Management and Content Analytics.
- To me personally, I believe the greatest strength of products like these are their immense configurability. Depending upon the business requirements of the customer, systems such as those mentioned above can be configured in almost inexhaustible arrangements to accomplish just about any task that can be imagined - all to satisfy the needs and requirements of the demands of the business. From collecting email from mail servers and evaluating it for its context, not just it's content, in order to determine its worth to the organization, to creating File Plans for storing content in a smart repository which makes possible content lifecycle management and defensible disposal, IBM just does this better than any other products I am familiar with.
- In terms of weaknesses or negatives associated with using IBM products, to me only the cost and complexity are barriers. The cost puts these solutions out of the range of many mid-size to smaller companies who could benefit from the solutions provided by their products. As a Systems Engineer with responsibility to design and deploy solutions, the learning curve is steep and lengthy. Well worth the effort, but it requires a commitment and dedication.
- With regards to that, I'm always challenged when learning the technology.
- We have not run the numbers for our clients, but there is no question that the groups we have helped with systems deployments experience a number of improvements. Many of the most obvious are reduced costs associated with storage and disposal, reduced costs associated with task processing time and overall process duration, increased productivity through visibility into bottlenecks and the correction of work slowdowns due to bottlenecks, and better visibility into actual production within the organization for reporting purposes.
Our relationship with IBM is long standing. We have been Gold Partners for some time and are viewed by many internal groups as their Go To partner for large ECM deployments. Most of our systems engineers hold multiple certifications as solutions developers. Our clients are national and international. The support we receive from IBM has been excellent and our partnership with them on numerous projects has been excellent.