Group items tagged

If you are evaluating ECM solutions, particularly if you are interested in cost, you need to take a look at Alfresco’s TCO Whitepaper. In it, Alfresco uses licensing numbers they snagged from the United States government to compare the first year costs of their solution with EMC/Documentum, OpenText, and Sharepoint.

So what’s the fine print? Here are some considerations…

The paper shows that for document management plus collaboration and integration with SharePoint, you’d have to pay EMC/Documentum $863,937.98 for a 1000 user configuration as opposed to $318,738 for SharePoint and $33,500 for Alfresco for similarly-sized systems with equivalent functionality. Those numbers exclude the supporting infrastructure software.

An integrated library system, or ILS, is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.

An ILS is usually comprised of a relational database, software to act on that database, and two graphical user interfaces (one for patrons, one for staff). Most ILSes separate software functions into discrete programs called modules, which are then integrated into a unified interface. Examples of modules include: acquisitions (ordering, receiving, and invoicing materials), cataloging (classifying and indexing materials), circulation (lending materials to patrons and receiving them back), serials (tracking magazine and newspaper holdings), and the OPAC (public interface for users). Each patron and item has a unique ID in the database that allows the ILS to track its activity.

In the United Kingdom, ILSes are sometimes referred to as "library management systems".

Recommind, a leading provider of enterprise search, automatic categorization and eDiscovery systems for enterprises and law firms, today announced that Shook, Hardy & Bacon, a top international law firm, has chosen Recommind's MindServer(TM) Legal platform to power its internal information retrieval system. The MindServer Legal platform enables Shook, Hardy & Bacon's partners, associates, analysts, and paralegals in nine offices around the world to more effectively search, access and manage information to support client objectives in a cost-effective manner.

"We selected Recommind's MindServer Legal platform because our lawyers, analysts, and legal staff found it intuitive to use, identifying not only relevant documents and files, but also the on-point expertise of individual lawyers and analysts in the firm," said John Anderson, CIO at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. "In comparison with other platforms, Recommind's platform was more effective and will take employees less time in the searching process, leaving more time for clients."

Shook, Hardy & Bacon has chosen to deploy the following MindServer Legal components: -- Enterprise Search, which utilizes powerful, concept-based search capabilities to connect relevant information in document management, records management, portal and e-mail systems and myriad other applications and databases with the attorneys that need it. -- Matters & Expertise which provides a comprehensive, firm-wide view of matters, deals, cases, and the vast array of expertise contained within a firm by tapping into a variety of information sources such as time and billing systems, CRM applications, intranets, internal firm databases and other information repositories.