Frustrated Shopper ... Comparisons to other software

[joevans3]

I am a non-IT professional, I have been shopping around for an ECM solution for our firm.  We have about 40 people in 3 separate offices and want to set up an "intranet" and document-sharing system.

I have used SharePoint extensively in the past, and I've used demos of Mind Touch and Alfresco now, as well as shopping around for some of the dashboard builders/ site creators like One Hub.  Even Google Sites can do some of the things we want.  I have tried to use the demos to mock up some of the pages we want: basic document management, communication, calendars, sites/groups etc., so we can get a feel for it.    While Alfresco seems to have these functions, it has been much, much harder for me to get everything set up than on any of the other programs.  I can get some dashboards going, but that's about it.  Even really simple things,  like mocking up a company page with our logo on it, seem completely out of reach.  Am I missing something? Is Alfresco designed to require a full-time IT person with open source background to design and maintain it?  Do I have to use code to create pages?  Is it not designed to let "power-users" set it up and run it?

Or am I comparing apples to oranges?

[mlarkinmn]

Alfresco can easily do wahat you are asking and more.  You might want to check out these books which are extremely useful and well written.  Great references for folks with limited IT backgrounds.  They will walk you thru examples of what you are trying to do with good details on How!

http://www.packtpub.com/alfresco-3-ente … ation/book
http://www.packtpub.com/alfresco-developer-guide/book
 
The first one would be best in your situation and you can get the ebook version as a download.