Investigating Alfresco as Document Management for SMB

[tsalin]

Hi All,

We are a company located on Southern Europe, expert in Document Printing Devices -like professional printers, MFPs and copiers-. As we understand that the future of our sector will move sooner or later to Document Management software, we are investigating for a software which can support projects either on cloud or on premise.

The challenging part is that our area is more focused on Small and Medium Businesses (5-50 users), where cost plays significant role; however Alfresco Community seems(?) attractive -at least in comparison to SharePoint or other propriety software.

As I understand the hybrid character of Alfresco (open source with commercial version as well), I would like to have your opinion in the following topics:

a. Can Alfresco Community seriously used for SMBs production environment? I have seen the differences with One version, however the question is if anyone has used successfully Community version in production environment. 
b. As red somewhere in this forum, Alfresco One is charged per processor basis. Could anyone give me a rough idea of the cost? This is important especially in comparison to One and to competition (basically against SharePoint).

Thanks in advance for your help!

[afaust]

Hello,

Alfresco Community can be used in production environments. A lot of users in SMB range as well as institutional users (i.e. scientific, cultural or non-profit organisations) have used Community in production for several years. This includes e.g. Spanish National Library and CERN.

Alfresco One was charged purely on a per-processor basis up until 2013, but now a primarily user-based model is in place with per-processor pricing only for some addons / opt-in elements. The Alfresco One price model lists a 300-user installation as the smallest option, which means that it often is not an affordable option for SMBs. But Alfresco also provides a cloud-based service starting at 50 users which provides the same core functionality and avoids any additional costs (in hosting / infrastructure) that an on-premise installation entails.

Unfortunately it is difficult to give even a rought idea of the cost as the new price model also includes far more flexibility for custom-designed price constructs / discounts than the previous one. Also, any comparison against SharePoint often moot as Microsoft too may be giving ridiculous discounts to snatch up a particular customer.
Last I checked, using rather pessimistic list price models of both, Alfresco One offered about 10-20% savings on a per-user basis compared to SharePoint (not including licenses for additinoally required/related Microsoft infrastructure products).

For a better comparison you should really talk to an Alfresco sales contact.

Regards
Axel

[tsalin]

Hi Axel,

Thanks for your reply. I believe that you cleared my view on Alfresco. I will discuss internally in my company and then probably ask for help from Alfresco Sales Team! However as far as I understand it, it might worth investing resources.
Thanks for your time !