Possibility of replacing FileNet with Alfresco

[chetan2]

Hi All,

I was reviewing some open source alternatives for FileNet Image Services and come across alfresco which seems to be a good Content Management system.

However, I would need your help in determining  whether it is possible to replace FileNet Image Services with Alfresco having follwing features:

1. Connectivity for document flow from ERP systems like Oracle,Siebel and SAP.
2. Capability of scanning documents (both individually and in batches) into the system.
3. Annotation capability in the images.
4. Support for CSAR storage technology.
5. Workflow/Security/Metadata storage capability
6. MRII like component for batch processing of documents

Thanks in advance for your help in this regard.

Regards,
Chetan

[jpfi]

Hi,
1) yes, we've build a SAP connector
2) yes, there is a Kofax Release Script and you can manually scan content into Alfresco by using its CIFS interface
3) annotation as a new layer, or annotation as meta data?
4) There are some efforts to support CAS Storages (http://forums.alfresco.com/en/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12347)
5) yes, Alfresco is an ecm system which such capabilities
6) I don't know MRII

Cheers,
Jan

PS: Please rate my post if it is helpful…I'd like to win a chumby 😉

[chetan2]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Few more clarifications required
1. Are there connectors available for Oracle/Siebel also?
2. MRII in FileNet is used to import documents into FileNet via batch processing i.e. you submit place multiple documents into FileNet along with their metadata in a specific format and MRII imports these into FileNet.
3. Annotation can be stored as a metadata or as a new layer. But it should be transparent from the user. i.e. user should be able to annotate the image after scanning and after annotating, that annotation should appear where it was placed by the user.
4. Regarding Kofax, are some specific scanners supported or older scanners can also be used? Is there any interface application provided by Alfresco to scan the documents?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,
Chetan

[jpfi]

Hi,
1) I don't know any connector, but Alfresco has a wide range of APIs / interfaces. So it is possible to implement such connectors
2) hm, I think Alfresco ACP is the counterpart (http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Export_and_Import#Alfresco_Content_Package_.28ACP.29_File_Format) and of courde there is job framework (http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Scheduled_Actions)
3) hm, that sounds a little bit tricky…because you'll need a client which supports such annotation processing. Alfresco web client doesn't.
4) here is the wiki page: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Kofax_Release_Script. Supported scanner are depending on Kofax, take a look here: http://www.kofax.com/capture/.
No Alfresco doesn't provide a native scanning interface. But it offers protocols like CIFS (network shares like samba), WebDAV and FTP, so nearly every native scanning application should be able to scan into alfresco.
Cheers, Jan

[rbelisle]

3) hm, that sounds a little bit tricky…because you'll need a client which supports such annotation processing. Alfresco web client doesn't.

We do have an integrated view/markup tool called eReview that works with Alfresco. We have built an integration and are currently testing. You can take a look at the product by going to http://www.ereviewonline.com

Ray Belisle
Vice President, Technology and Services
BPO MANAGEMENT SERVICES, ECM Solutions

[chetan2]

Thanks Ray and Jan for your valuable inputs.

I would like to clarify following points further:

1. Is there any migration utility available for migrating data from FIleNet Image Services to Alfresco? The data resides in Optical Jukebox (OSAR) and MSAR surfaces.
2. How scalable is Alfresco? I am considering it as a replacement for FileNet Image Services which is storing approx. 50,000,000 documents in OSAR/CSAR and is having more than 1000 users accessing it worldwide.
3. Is there any native capability for annotations in Alfresco?

Regards,
Chetan

[hvyas]

3) I think kofax allow annotations and endorsement. For endorsement you need post scan imprinter

I hope you are not planning to use Alfresco community.

[kccole01]

Porting documents from a FileNet jukebox and the metadata from the FileNet databases are not simple matters.  However if you are familiar with the internal representations of the various kinds of data you could do it.

–KC

[krisapong]

hello,

Alfresco could be replace with FileNet or documentum ECM. The core features are fulfilled most of your requirements. But, you need to have the implementor or alfresco partner to implement it all.

Some of your requirement may need the Plug-in or other module to complete your requirement.

1. Is there any migration utility available for migrating data from FIleNet Image Services to Alfresco? The data resides in Optical Jukebox (OSAR) and MSAR surfaces.

We have been Implement mirgrating data from Documentum to Alfresco (the Image, File and meta-data) via Documentum API, In FileNet need to see the Filenet API first.


2. How scalable is Alfresco? I am considering it as a replacement for FileNet Image Services which is storing approx. 50,000,000 documents in OSAR/CSAR and is having more than 1000 users accessing it worldwide.


one of our customer is storing over 20 millions documents in alfresco in SAN systems and have about 2,000 Users with these system, so should quite similar to your case.


3. Is there any native capability for annotations in Alfresco?

the Annotations need the plug-in as PDF Viewer.


thank you

Krisapong S.
http://www.qdoclive.com

[marutiprasad]

hi

Is there any migration utility available for migrating data from FIleNet Image Services to Alfresco? The data resides in Optical Jukebox (OSAR) and MSAR surfaces

Noramlly using CMIS services we can do that, but depends on FileNet again. if it wnot support the CMIS need to go with FileNet API and CMIS/webscripts for alfresco.

How scalable is Alfresco? I am considering it as a replacement for FileNet Image Services which is storing approx. 50,000,000 documents in OSAR/CSAR and is having more than 1000 users accessing it worldwide

we have implemented the Alfresco ECM with 1 TB of contents and 10,000 users and 100 concurrent users. this works fine on a single 2TB HDD.with portal integration and SSO etc.