Is Alfresco the best solution?

[hguimaraes]

Hello.

I'm doing a research on ECM platforms, trying to realize what are some of the best ECM platform, where I can start to build business applications, starting with Document Management but with the idea of spreading the range.  I have some professional experience in BPM projects and I'm starting to work in the "ECM world". I'm trying to understand what are the main difficulties so that we can´t realy "use" BPM on an ECM Platform, ie, if we have a BPM Engine, isn't it possible to build processes, not document-centric, on the ECM Platform?
In all the reports and whitepapers I read, is told that in the future, the BPM and ECM worlds tend to converge. And all the ECM platforms or tools I know have a set of BPM features, like modelling, BAM, simulations, etc. I assumed that, if you have BPM features on a tool and we want that tool to make content and processes to comunicate, there should be no limitations to that intention…

What is your opinion? I know Alfresco's partenrship with Intalio is a step forward in this way, but what are the main advantages I would have in adopting Alfresco instead of other solution, Open Source like Nuxeo or "commercial" like IBM or EMC?

Best regards to all,
Hugo Guimarães.

[dhalupa]

Hi,
I could not agree more to the statement that ECM and BPM solutions are converging, after all if you forget for a moment IT hype and acronyms, there is no real world business process worth to mention without some kind of paper documentation passing from hand to hand. Unfortunately, IMHO (and really my opinion only) Alfresco is moving away from BPM in favor of WCM which is ok since they see market potential in that area, therefore you will not see some cool BPM features in Alfresco. Nevertheless, platform itself has great BPM capabilities which just has to be exposed through UI. We have been working on this for the last six months and if you are interested in our work feel free to contact us.

Kind regards,

Denis
http://www.icodix.com

[rdanner]

Hello.

I'm doing a research on ECM platforms, trying to realize what are some of the best ECM platform, where I can start to build business applications, starting with Document Management but with the idea of spreading the range.  I have some professional experience in BPM projects and I'm starting to work in the "ECM world". I'm trying to understand what are the main difficulties so that we can´t realy "use" BPM on an ECM Platform, ie, if we have a BPM Engine, isn't it possible to build processes, not document-centric, on the ECM Platform?
In all the reports and whitepapers I read, is told that in the future, the BPM and ECM worlds tend to converge. And all the ECM platforms or tools I know have a set of BPM features, like modelling, BAM, simulations, etc. I assumed that, if you have BPM features on a tool and we want that tool to make content and processes to comunicate, there should be no limitations to that intention…

What is your opinion? I know Alfresco's partenrship with Intalio is a step forward in this way, but what are the main advantages I would have in adopting Alfresco instead of other solution, Open Source like Nuxeo or "commercial" like IBM or EMC?

Best regards to all,
Hugo Guimarães.

You really should take a look at Alfresco.  You are correct that there is convergence between ECM and BPM (and ECM and a lot of other spaces as well.) Maybe it's appropriate to use the words convergence and overlap.  Alfresco has strong workflow capabilities and strong workflow oriented partners. Alfresco is also a great platform to stage development from and that capability is growing as additons like SURF are added to the suite. Take a look a Alfresco Share,  This is an example of a SURF based application.

Here are a couple things to think about
* Alfresco is a strong development platform with webscripts and SURF as well as many other access points and APIS
* Alfresco has strong BPM capability
* Alfresco is built on current technologies (unlike its competitors)
* Alfresco also gets that in addition to ECM and BPM, people are an important factor and that social interaction is a growing aspect in successful "ECM"

[arnaudblandin]

Hugo,

You are asking a very valid question and it is important to understand the specifics of each space.
Roughly speaking the ECM application such as Alfresco will be very good to store your documents, review them with your team, track the changes and publish them whereas the BPM engine will allow you to build business processes to describe the creation of those documents, the approval chain to follow.
There are two main scenarios that we have been working on at Intalio using Alfresco:
* You want to ensure that every document used during a workflow task can be easily shared with other people through Alfresco. You also want to easily start a complex business process when you publish a new document in Alfresco
* You want to use an ECM such as Alfresco to keep track of all your process artifacts (business requirements, business models, org charts…)

I would encourage you to look at the following post if you want to learn more on ECM and BPM.
The combination Alfresco+Intalio|BPMS should bring you what you are looking for.
Don't hesitate to download Intalio|BPMS at http://bpms.intalio.com.

Thanks,

Arnaud
Intalio