Alfresco vs Commercial Document Archiving Systems

[catch]

Hello,

I'm a newbie for Alfresco and wanting to use it later as a project. However, I want to know how it surpasses commercial document archiving system (aka digital archiving of documents). I'm not even sure if I'm on the right path here that Alfresco is a substitute to such commercial product. I don't like to spend millions for such a software. I would like to be enlightened as much as possible. Little help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[mrogers]

You could start here. http://www.alfresco.com/about/

[catch]

Hello,

Thanks for your response and I know Alfresco can do document management but how does it work for me? Especially, if how the system manages scanned documents as image files and how it searches for it…

[invictus9]

Hello,

Thanks for your response and I know Alfresco can do document management but how does it work for me? Especially, if how the system manages scanned documents as image files and how it searches for it…

How it works for you is a question you have to answer for yourself.

It's free. You can also get a maintenance package for it, which will have a better-tested configuration.

It's open source. Extending it can be done from completely outside the box (for instance, from an existing portal or front end), from within the box but independently, using Alfresco Share or the Surf app-building tools, or inside the box, using JSP/JSF/Surf and extending Java classes.

The foundation repository, the engine, is built on a very powerful model – everything is a node, with properties, and associations. A search engine and a user interface give you document management.

For your scanning needs, …

You have to remember that "scanning" means a lot of different things, and has some critical parameters.

1) What kind of volume?

2) Are you doing OCR?

3) What kinds of documents do you have, and what are the attributes of those documents?

4) Who can see them?

5) What is the retention period for those documents?

[catch]

For your scanning needs, …

You have to remember that "scanning" means a lot of different things, and has some critical parameters.

1) What kind of volume?

2) Are you doing OCR?

3) What kinds of documents do you have, and what are the attributes of those documents?

4) Who can see them?

5) What is the retention period for those documents?

What I meant about scanning is, scanning papers into its digital form, say as an image file. The documents are most likely records of communication letters, memos, receipts, contracts, proposals, personal records of employees, and etc. Each document will only be shared to the right department which I assume Alfresco can do, no doubt! However, I'm pretty worried on how it will search for a document I'm looking for. Perhaps I put in a keyword and searches for it then the system will give me some listings. Whenever I click on an item, it would direct me to an image file of a particular document. That would absolutely will work for me.

The retention period of some documents will be in years, if that matters.

[zladuric]

For what it's worth, my company uses alfresco for this sort of thing, we scan around 250-500 documents daily into the system now. It has some stability issues, but not much more then any other software we use (including, for example, outlook, firefox, excel, or anything else). From my experience, you need a few months to get into how things work, but more then that, you need to know how to set the stuff up.
For example, we're now strugling with some of the things I wish were done differently, but since we're already deep into the production (alfresco was deployed half a year before i even came into the company). But nothing is so big a problem that it can't be resolved.

So, I can only say, software like any other. If you need something to handle your process of document digitalization and handling later, it's excellent. If you have some specific questions, I'd be happy to help.

[catch]

Thanks, Zlad.

Earlier, a company has just presented their demo of their product. However, my company can't afford such price. Anyway, Alfresco was already deployed months back and I'm just the new guy here. I guess, Zlad, we are here on the same situation. I hope you don't mind sharing me your experience.

I like Alfresco and I have long plans for it 🙂

Cheers!