Re: [SLUG] Document Management Systems or ECM
Phil Scarratt wrote: Hi all Wondering what people's recommendations/experiences with document management systems (or ECM systems) are? I've got to select a DMS/ECM for a non-profit organisation (actually a publisher) and have Nuxeo, Alfresco and OpenKM on the shortlist. TIA Fil Take a look at http://www.knowledgetree.com/ Been using this one for around 8 years and have nothing but praise for the software and the people. Rgds Nigel. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Document Management Systems or ECM
Grant Allen wrote: Phil Scarratt wrote: Hi all Wondering what people's recommendations/experiences with document management systems (or ECM systems) are? I've got to select a DMS/ECM for a non-profit organisation (actually a publisher) and have Nuxeo, Alfresco and OpenKM on the shortlist. TIA Fil Hi Phil, 11 years in that industry must be good for something, I suppose :-). Of the three DM/ECM products you mention, I have experience with Alfresco, and passing knowledge of Nuxeo (as well as far too many brain cells wasted on their proprietary brethren, e.g. Documentum, TRIM, Stellent/Oracle, IBM Content Manager) There are a few issues outside of technology that you should think about regardless of your choice. Are you after DM, or the whole ECM box-and-dice? (RM, DAM/Image management, Archiving, workflow/bpm, WCM ... and DM). There is overlap, but ECM is a cumbersome beast if all you want is DM. Are you prepared for the cost/effort? Not talking about software here, but the key to successful DM/ECM projects is managing them as a change management exercise, which means people costs. Making the change to a managed DM/ECM environment is often a huge cultural shift, and the best technology can wither and die if the organisation has a bad reaction. On the Alfresco front, it definitely has some advantages. There's local support here in Sydney, the product has a great roadmap, and John Newton's team seem quick to pick up the technology trends in ECM (e.g. they had CMIS prototype support in the same month the standard was announced). Given my particular biases, I like it because it's also technology agnostic under the hood, giving you OS, database and app server choice. Another big plus is that it is definitely a growing product and company. You aren't going to be left with orphan-ware in two years' time :-). Other current trends they seem to be following are heavily tied to collaboration, so if that's a current or future requirement, it has some benefits. Probably the only major gotcha I'd warn about is the enterprise version trap. Some of the nice bells and whistles are only available in the paid version. No problem with this, per se, it's their business model and best of luck to them. They do, however, have an unusual support model where support partners agreeing to partner with Alfresco on the enterprise edition are contractually bound to *not* support the community edition. Again, that's not really a technology issue, more a business one. You are in luck again, as there are both kinds of support available here in Sydney - enterprise partners who only do enterprise support, and other support outfits that support both (without the ent. partner label). Anyway, that's my 2¢. If that raises more questions for you, please feel free to contact me. Very informative, thanks Grant - *much appreciated*. There are really only 2 definite areas that are of interest - DM and workflow. Archiving could potentially be useful, depending on complexity of setup. Collaboration could also be useful, but I have not done any research into what specifically that entails, and hence I am not sure how well that would go with the file formats being used (PDF and Adobe Pagemaker, some Quark Express). The organisation is basically a translator/publisher type deal. Fil -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Document Management Systems or ECM
Hi all Wondering what people's recommendations/experiences with document management systems (or ECM systems) are? I've got to select a DMS/ECM for a non-profit organisation (actually a publisher) and have Nuxeo, Alfresco and OpenKM on the shortlist. TIA Fil -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Document Management Systems or ECM
Phil Scarratt wrote: Hi all Wondering what people's recommendations/experiences with document management systems (or ECM systems) are? I've got to select a DMS/ECM for a non-profit organisation (actually a publisher) and have Nuxeo, Alfresco and OpenKM on the shortlist. TIA Fil Hi Phil, 11 years in that industry must be good for something, I suppose :-). Of the three DM/ECM products you mention, I have experience with Alfresco, and passing knowledge of Nuxeo (as well as far too many brain cells wasted on their proprietary brethren, e.g. Documentum, TRIM, Stellent/Oracle, IBM Content Manager) There are a few issues outside of technology that you should think about regardless of your choice. Are you after DM, or the whole ECM box-and-dice? (RM, DAM/Image management, Archiving, workflow/bpm, WCM ... and DM). There is overlap, but ECM is a cumbersome beast if all you want is DM. Are you prepared for the cost/effort? Not talking about software here, but the key to successful DM/ECM projects is managing them as a change management exercise, which means people costs. Making the change to a managed DM/ECM environment is often a huge cultural shift, and the best technology can wither and die if the organisation has a bad reaction. On the Alfresco front, it definitely has some advantages. There's local support here in Sydney, the product has a great roadmap, and John Newton's team seem quick to pick up the technology trends in ECM (e.g. they had CMIS prototype support in the same month the standard was announced). Given my particular biases, I like it because it's also technology agnostic under the hood, giving you OS, database and app server choice. Another big plus is that it is definitely a growing product and company. You aren't going to be left with orphan-ware in two years' time :-). Other current trends they seem to be following are heavily tied to collaboration, so if that's a current or future requirement, it has some benefits. Probably the only major gotcha I'd warn about is the enterprise version trap. Some of the nice bells and whistles are only available in the paid version. No problem with this, per se, it's their business model and best of luck to them. They do, however, have an unusual support model where support partners agreeing to partner with Alfresco on the enterprise edition are contractually bound to *not* support the community edition. Again, that's not really a technology issue, more a business one. You are in luck again, as there are both kinds of support available here in Sydney - enterprise partners who only do enterprise support, and other support outfits that support both (without the ent. partner label). Anyway, that's my 2¢. If that raises more questions for you, please feel free to contact me. Ciao Grant :-) Dazed and confused about technology for 20 years http://fuzzydata.wordpress.com/ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
RE: [SLUG] Document Management Systems
On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, Jill Rowling wrote: I spoke with one of Tower's employees some time ago and they actually recommend that it run on a Unix of some sort, rather than NT. But their marketing Dept only say that it runs on NT because that's what the PHBs (customers) have been asking for. 'Course the customer's engineers know better, but the PHBs have the purse strings and the engineers don't! The TRIM user interface only runs on Windows clients (or something which is win32 compliant). There is a middleware server layer which also has to run on a win32 host (the workgroup and the master servers, which deal with business logic and caching). The document store can run on anything (include DOS file systems, SMB / CIFS shares, TOWER Technologies stores, IBM stores, FTP servers etc). The SQL database can run on heaps of things (DB2, SQL server, Oracle et al -- on any architecture). The bits that you need to worry about scaling are the document store and the SQL database, which can both be on unix boxen. Mikal -- Michael Still ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Document management systems
On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 04:23:12PM +1000, David Fitch wrote: On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 04:12:40PM +1000, Jill Rowling wrote: Of course if you have to replace the license server, you have to buy (or negotiate) new licenses with the vendor. That's why people usually use a license host with high reliability hardware like a sparc rather than a PC. The license codes usually cost more than the hardware, so you don't want to be changing the hostid of the license server anytime soon. or when you change/upgrade your license server you change the hostid to match the old one (not that anyone would actually do that of course [cough cough] but it's possible). Umm.. of course, that is exactly what people would actually do! All Sun systems contain their hostid on a chip (or on some newer systems, a smart-card) on the motherboard. This chip can be moved between machines at will, thus taking the hostid with it. (And if you're moving it between hosts with different types of hostid chips, Sun will happily burn you a new one with the old hostid) Scott. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Document management systems
If your budget allows it, you can try Xerox's DocuShare. We have been using it for a while and so far it hasn't failed us yet. http://docushare.xerox.com/ --SH On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Michael De Santis wrote: The management system should be at least do some of the following tasks - Assign user access levels Indicate if the document is locked or being edited Assign users to work groups or projects Able to handle different file formats ie Word, Excel, PDF Interfaced through a browser. I would also be interested in hearing of any commercial system that be can recommend -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Document Management Systems
UTS uses TRIM pretty extensively to store document information (change of subject records, results etc). It's rather expensive and not very expandable. The last time I supported it, a dedicated NT server was needed (maybe it's changed since then). --SH On Fri, 28 Sep 2001, Michael Still wrote: I wont advertise a commercial product here any more than to say that perhaps you should have a chat with TOWER software (http://www.towersoft.com.au), manufacturers of TRIM. Call 02 6282 4655 for details... -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
RE: [SLUG] Document Management Systems
Apparently this is a marketing-FUD thing. I spoke with one of Tower's employees some time ago and they actually recommend that it run on a Unix of some sort, rather than NT. But their marketing Dept only say that it runs on NT because that's what the PHBs (customers) have been asking for. 'Course the customer's engineers know better, but the PHBs have the purse strings and the engineers don't! Who do you believe? Regards, Jill. -- Jill Rowling, Snr Des. Eng. Unix System Administrator Eng. Systems Dept, Aristocrat Technologies Australia 3rd Floor, 77 Dunning Ave Rosebery NSW 2018 Phone: (02) 9697-4484 Fax: (02) 9663-1412 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Susanto Hartono [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2001 12:28 To: Michael Still Cc: Richard Hayes; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SLUG] Document Management Systems UTS uses TRIM pretty extensively to store document information (change of subject records, results etc). It's rather expensive and not very expandable. The last time I supported it, a dedicated NT server was needed (maybe it's changed since then). --SH On Fri, 28 Sep 2001, Michael Still wrote: I wont advertise a commercial product here any more than to say that perhaps you should have a chat with TOWER software (http://www.towersoft.com.au), manufacturers of TRIM. Call 02 6282 4655 for details... -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE -- This email is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. The information contained in this e-mail message may be confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, interference with, distribution, disclosure or copying of this material is unauthorised and prohibited. Confidentiality attached to this communication is not waived or lost by reason of the mistaken delivery to you. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and notify us by return e-mail or telephone Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited on +61 2 9413 6300. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
RE: [SLUG] Document management systems
Fuji Xerox Australia is trying to get this released on Linux, the present versions don't run on Linux. They run on Windows IIS, or Sparc Solaris using apache or Netscape Enterprise Server. Producing a Linux version should be trivial for them (just don't expect them to supply the source code as GPL :p) though Solaris versions and patch levels of software are more version consistent across the board than Linux counterparts. Things like code red and nimda worms/virii have played havoc with IIS servers as you are all probably well aware so IMHO putting it on Linux servers is a very good bet. A demo version was given away on one of the latest computer magazines. It just requires a license code to be purchased to enable more than 50 documents to be viewed. This is proprietary and is based on three things the hostname of the server, the port no. of the web server and the web directory. You then logon to docushare as administrator, go to the admin section, and check the server ID that is created. This is sent to the States and a license is generated. For example a Server ID of 39397 for 50 users gives something like this with this format (not a real license) CR1R-Q9YH-Z2KZ-7KFA-99SL-W711-RCH I don't know what kind of encryption that they use to generate the string. It does have version control, and user access levels, using a thing called keyview to display documents on the fly, or enabling downloading of them. Python scripts are used and the verity database for searching etc... It is pretty straight forward and the interface can be customised to a degree. Cheers Chris -- Christopher Booth The information in this e-mail and any attachment(s) is confidential and may be legally privileged. This e-mail is intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the addressee, dissemination, copying or other use of this e-mail or any of its content is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient please inform the sender immediately and destroy the e-mail and any copies. All liability for viruses is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender. No contract may be construed by this e-mail. -Original Message- From: Susanto Hartono [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 12:21 PM To: Michael De Santis Cc: 'Slug ' Subject: Re: [SLUG] Document management systems If your budget allows it, you can try Xerox's DocuShare. We have been using it for a while and so far it hasn't failed us yet. http://docushare.xerox.com/ --SH On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Michael De Santis wrote: The management system should be at least do some of the following tasks - Assign user access levels Indicate if the document is locked or being edited Assign users to work groups or projects Able to handle different file formats ie Word, Excel, PDF Interfaced through a browser. I would also be interested in hearing of any commercial system that be can recommend -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
RE: [SLUG] Document management systems
Possibly they are using Globetrotter for their license scheme. (lmgrd, flexlm and friends) eg http://www.globetrotter.com That system works on Linux (we use it here for some Mentor apps). IMHO it works better if you have one (eg solaris) server set up as the general license server, and use the floating license system rather than the nodelocked one. That way anyone on the LAN can check out a license on their PC (Linux or NT) without having to be expressly set in the license codes. Of course if you have to replace the license server, you have to buy (or negotiate) new licenses with the vendor. That's why people usually use a license host with high reliability hardware like a sparc rather than a PC. The license codes usually cost more than the hardware, so you don't want to be changing the hostid of the license server anytime soon. Regards, Jill. -- Jill Rowling, Snr Des. Eng. Unix System Administrator Eng. Systems Dept, Aristocrat Technologies Australia 3rd Floor, 77 Dunning Ave Rosebery NSW 2018 Phone: (02) 9697-4484 Fax: (02) 9663-1412 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Booth, Christopher (Aus) - ATP [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2001 15:50 To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: [SLUG] Document management systems Fuji Xerox Australia is trying to get this released on Linux, the present versions don't run on Linux. They run on Windows IIS, or Sparc Solaris ... A demo version was given away on one of the latest computer magazines. It just requires a license code to be purchased to enable more than 50 documents to be viewed. This is proprietary and is based on three things the hostname of the server, the port no. of the web server and the web directory. -- CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE -- This email is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. The information contained in this e-mail message may be confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, interference with, distribution, disclosure or copying of this material is unauthorised and prohibited. Confidentiality attached to this communication is not waived or lost by reason of the mistaken delivery to you. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and notify us by return e-mail or telephone Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited on +61 2 9413 6300. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Document management systems
On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 04:12:40PM +1000, Jill Rowling wrote: Of course if you have to replace the license server, you have to buy (or negotiate) new licenses with the vendor. That's why people usually use a license host with high reliability hardware like a sparc rather than a PC. The license codes usually cost more than the hardware, so you don't want to be changing the hostid of the license server anytime soon. or when you change/upgrade your license server you change the hostid to match the old one (not that anyone would actually do that of course [cough cough] but it's possible). Dave. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
