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Hyland Perceptive Content vs IBM FileNet comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Hyland Perceptive Content
Average Rating
6.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Document Management Software (13th)
IBM FileNet
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Content Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Hyland Perceptive Content is designed for Document Management Software and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, up 2.4% compared to last year.
IBM FileNet, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Content Management, holds 5.8% mindshare, down 9.8% since last year.
Document Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Hyland Perceptive Content3.0%
Alfresco9.9%
OpenText Content Manager6.4%
Other80.7%
Document Management Software
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM FileNet5.8%
SharePoint11.7%
Alfresco6.7%
Other75.8%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

it_user588597 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Accountant at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Once a document is scanned, you can neither edit it nor change its location.
I would like it to have more functions, like Bluebeam. It can be improved so that we can edit the file that got scanned into the system. If we scan the document to the wrong place, we can’t change it. As an example, if something was scanned as a reference, but should be an invoice, you cannot change it afterwards. I think it should have more functions that will allow us to edit the file in ImageNow -- such as adding pages, deleting pages. I also think it should have more hot keys (maybe I just don’t know there are) for easier “route forward”, “view next item”, so I don’t have to use my mouse. There is also a question that came up when I was using it recently, why do we need both “properties” and “forms”? If we index the document in Forms, it will take a long time for it to move to another queue and show the info. If we index it in Properties, it will update immediately. My question is why do we need both? Can’t we just put info in Forms and it will work just like Properties? It is time-consuming to put info in both pages. If the invoice is out of balance, maybe there should be a function that stops it being routed forward. If we route it by accident, it takes time for the approver to reject and routed back. If we can catch it in the first place and fix it when there is a warning sign. I know that there will be a red message saying “out of balance”, but it doesn’t always show up. Is it possible for us to “recall” the routed item? Just like recalling an email that you accidentally sent out. Can we make the Notes section working like a sticky note so it shows name/date, shows the most recent message on top. Sticky note is hard to read (too small) and easily get missed as people put it anywhere. We use notes section for every invoice. We often put a lot of messages there and it gets messy.
Shankar-Kambhampaty - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
Business workflows have been automated and document processes are streamlined at large scale
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The current state of the user interface development support and the ability to customize it leaves much to be desired. The backend engine, process engine, and object engine are fantastic. However, the user interface, which is required to provide an impressive experience to the user, is difficult to build. IBM will need to do something about this area. Over time, IBM has made improvements with enhancements through CP4BA and other tools, with which user interfaces can be built. But there is much more is needed. The initial setup process for IBM FileNet requires specialists. IBM FileNet is not a click-click-click deploy kind of product. It has several components that need to be installed in different versions and in a particular order. Additionally, IBM Cloud does not provide a proper experience. The problem is I cannot use IBM Cloud easily. I cannot even get a membership easily. With AWS, I just use my credit card, sign up, and I am done. With IBM Cloud, that is not how it is. They go through all validation processes, and it is a nightmare at times. There are problems around IBM FileNet, not exactly with IBM FileNet itself, but the point is that it is not a click-click-click deploy either on the cloud or on-premise. It requires specialists, and there is a big learning curve toward deploying and managing the whole infrastructure as well as the software. I communicate with the technical support of IBM frequently. I have communicated several times, and frankly, there is much to be desired on that side. When you raise a ticket, it takes 24 to 48 hours for them to respond. We live in a time where business moves at the speed of light. Twenty-four hours is a very long time. You need to be able to get technical support instantaneously. It is not like the more contemporary support models where you get turnaround in minutes, not days.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"There are no lost documents, and everyone can see them based on security clearance."
"I like the ability to have workflows."
"If you want to go paperless, this is a great product."
"Customizability that the product gives to make the end user happy."
"It is a faster, robust solution. The platform compatibility is very good."
"From the document management side, it is able to integrate with some of our other systems, such as SAP, and it has a robust API so we are able to have systems communicate with each other and do business process automation."
"I would highly recommend it to those seeking a robust enterprise content management solution."
"The most valuable feature is seamless storing and retrieval of documents irrespective of the format of the document."
"The Workflow feature is the most valuable feature of FileNet, and then the content management and storage."
"It is a user-friendly system and easy to manage for anyone with basic knowledge."
"The ability to tag data, as it seems to be indexed well. It is a good space to manage data, keep track of it, and organize it."
"There aren't very many ECM solutions that scale properly, both up and out. We have customers who hold billions of documents. There aren't very many that can scale that far, and that can also scale out so that they can handle lots of users, lots of documents, and that understand how to handle external users. FileNet is one that can."
 

Cons

"From my understanding, ImageNow licenses are not compatible with laptop computers (at least not with the one that I have). Therefore, if I have a PDF on my screen, in order to get it into ImageNow, I have to either email it to someone with a license, who can print directly to ImageNow, or print it out and have someone at a scanning station, scan it in and then link it to a student’s record."
"Bar Code OCR ICR."
"Too many companies/products have been purchased by Perceptive over the past few years with what feels like little development on currently owned products."
"It will stop working if you are in the system for too long."
"I'd like to see more cognitive. That's obviously where all of our world is going. I think if we can have more of those types of features and functions as a core, out of the box, that would be very helpful for us and our space."
"There is room for improvement when we need a fix to a bug in the application. It takes time for them to release any interim fixes, and sometimes it takes three weeks, sometimes it takes more than a month."
"Developers like us have an upgraded interface. That interface does not work in the process that we have today. It hangs and is not user-friendly."
"I would rate it higher if they improved the usability, because as a product, it went through iterations and things like that."
"In terms of functionality, what customers might be looking for is a little more in terms of native-records retention. Records Management is an add-on product. If there were just a little more of that built into the core functionality, that would be helpful."
"I haven’t rated it higher because of the workflow engine. I believe it can be improved upon, looking at other workflow solutions like Pega and Lombardi."
"IBM has a lot of documentation but the kind of information in a lot of the documents can be confusing to our clients. It would be easier if they used video tutorials. Right now, the information is too hard to understand, and there is a lot of it. If they used videos I think FinalNet would be easy to use for an end-user."
"We brought DocuSign into our company's solution three years before. At that time there was no direct integration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The biggest issue is the cost of the FileNet, because the license cost is very high. If a customer doesn't have good technical guides that are aware of the license calculation, they will pay too much. FileNet's license calculation depends on the processor and number of users. So my advice to a new customer is to be very careful with your calculations before purchasing FileNet."
"The solution saves time and money. It helps us to be able to accomplish the goals of our business, as opposed to being tangled in the weeds of what we could do."
"​There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need.​​"
"The licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."
"1. It will be more expensive than estimated to setup. 2. You will need to double the staff while you are running the old system and installing the new system. 3. Depending on the number of documents to be migrated, make sure you understand the potentially massive amount of time and effort required to migrate the existing content to the new platform."
"Licensing costs depend on the size of the storage."
"Talking about the cost is difficult because IBM has offers that combine different products, and each of these offers has different types of licensing. IBM also has a policy that the actual price for a given customer may be very different from the stated book price. It's hard to say whether it's expensive or not."
"My customers have seen ROI. There have been productivity gains, time savings gains, and things that they have been doing much more efficiently in a more modern way than they were before."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Healthcare Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
13%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
The pricing and licensing of IBM FileNet is high. We are living in a world where the minimal license from IBM costs anywhere from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand US dollars, depending...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The...
What is your primary use case for IBM FileNet?
My usual use cases for IBM FileNet involve three primary areas. The first is document management. For instance, if you have an insurance application, you can store all the documents required to pro...
 

Also Known As

ImageNow
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Hyland, Conga, SS&C Technologies and others in Document Management Software. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.