Open Source ECM For Small Business
03/12/2009
By: Ben Andrews - March 12, 2009
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is not just for large enterprises anymore. Smaller organizations can benefit from the added efficiency, automated retention, and automatic routing of using an ECM solution. For many small organizations the cost of implementing an ECM solution may not seem cost effective, many costing tens of thousands of dollars. Converting to an ECM based workflow from a paper based workflow may seem daunting, but putting it off is costing your organization. Statistics show that a professional can spend 40-60% of their time shuffling through papers. Of this, up to 50% is spent looking for the needed information compared to 10-15% reading the information. Luckily, there are alternatives to high cost commercial ECM solutions within the open-source community.
The term open-source refers to software developed under licenses which release the essential rights of the authors. This allows anyone to modify, redistribute, or integrate the software as deemed needed. Open-source software has made quite an impact on technology over the years. Apache, an open-source web-server, commands 56% of internet domains (source Netcraft). The open-source web-browser Mozilla Firefox has become a major contender in the web-browser community. The November 2008 market share for Firefox was 20.78% compared to Internet Explorer.s 69.77% (source Net Applications). Between December 2006 and November 2008 IE's market share dropped roughly 10% from 79.92, while Firefox's market share grew roughly 6% from 14.04% (source Net Application's Market Share). MySQL, the world's most popular open-source database, is the fastest growing database in the industry. MySQL.com reports a 25% gain in market share over the last two years, 10,000,000 active installations and a daily download rate of over 50,000.
In the field of ECM and ERM (Electronic Records Management) there are several open source alternatives to high cost commercial solutions. These solutions are not geared towards large corporations, but are well suited for the needs of small and medium sized organizations. Some of the open source options have a robust feature set and a large community within their support forum. Most of the open source options are web-based and do not require any specialized installation or configuration on the client machines. Some do provide web browser extensions and small client applications to allow for quicker access to, and uploading of, documents.
Nuxeo 5 (http://www.nuxeo.com/) is a Java EE based ECM server which boasts a great deal of features. It provides features that allow for easy extensibility and customization of their platform. The source code for this application does not need to be modified to create add-ons or custom behaviors, just connect modifications to the corresponding extension point and it is ready for deployment. Nuxeo offers a security model that is based upon grant / deny permissions for users / groups. All actions performed are logged for auditing, thus providing efficient content and activity monitoring. Another nice feature that will be appreciated by end-users are the web-browser extensions that allow for files to be uploaded to the server using the drag-and-drop method directly into the web browser window. Also included in this application is a workflow service, which allows designing and applying of processing and routing rules to content within the ECM system.
Alfresco (http://www.alfresco.com/) is headed by John Newton, the co-founder of ECM developer Documentum, and John Powell, former COO of Business Objects. Alfresco has released a Java based ECM solution called 'Alfresco Community Network,' which is released under the GNU General Public License and runs on Windows, MacOS, Unix, or Linux. This edition provides the same functionality as their Enterprise Network edition but is only supported by a community forum. Alfresco provides a web based interface, but also allows for the client operating system to be configured to connect to the Alfresco repository by means of CIFS, for drag-and-drop uploads from an explorer window. Alfresco has the capabilities for image managements, document management, records management, and web content management within one repository. User and group permission can be implemented with the ability to select read and/or write permissions. The 'New Rule Wizard' interface allows for creating and implementing rules and routing to document of a single type, documents that match a regular expression, or are in a specific category. Document versioning and auditing can be achieved with this solution as well.
Some of the other open source solutions worth noting are:
* KnowledgeTree (http://www.knowledgetree.com/)
* Magnolia (http://www.magnolia.info/)
* eXo ECM (http://docs.exoplatform.org/)
* Jahia Community Edition (http://www.jahia.org/)
Incorporating an open source ECM solution into your organization may suit your specific needs and are definitely worth looking into. Some solutions may come close to meeting your needs and only require a small amount of customization or modification to encompass all you requirements. Open-source software is gaining ground in the business world and can be a cost effective way to migrate your organization into the information age.
|
