Alfresco is an enterprise content management system for which it is difficult to say whether it switched from open source into the enterprise world or from the enterprise into the world of open source. The company was founded by leading people from the ECM industry, former members of company Documentum higher management, whose development model is based on a paradigm of open source and enterprise services. This means that Alfresco is available as open source and free "community" edition, but also as an "enterprise" edition under which the company Alfresco provides contract support, SLA agreement and consulting engagement with a financial obligation for the client.
Today, in its third incarnation it offers almost all significant features that are expected from ECM system - content management, imaging (scanning and digitalization), records management, integration with office tools with CMIS support, excellent and upgradeable clients in Web 2.0 and/or Flex performances, SharePoint support, web content management, SharePoint-links portal system, collaboration platform, etc.
The company and its model were also recognized by investors, and today it is in partnership with SAP investment fund. Adobe has recognized Alfresco, and uses it as a base for its LiveCycle, but also its Acrobat.com service. Quark has integrated its publishing system in the Alfresco ECM platform.
Advantages of the Alfresco platform arise from the mentioned licensing and the company’s development model:
Fast and efficient process of solutions delivery on robust platform
Migration of the resources required for implementation of capital investments (licenses) in the operational process, increase of the project budget efficiency
Use of existing knowledge and skills in teams - Alfresco is built on industry standards
Upgradeability - all parts of Alfresco platform in both license models are available as a open source
Key platform features:
Document management
Imaging and integration with strong industrial imaging systems like Kofax (read more information here )
Document collaboration – virtual teams creation, activity feeds, versioning, search
CMIS implementation - Alfresco is the first ECM that implements CMIS implementation (defined standard for cooperation of ECM system with other applications)
SharePoint implementation - Alfresco implements now opened SharePoint protocol and efficiently "acts" as Microsoft Sharepoint server that enables direct integration with all office and likewise tools that implement SharePoint access
Shared drive, SMB – access to repository through Windows and WebDAV share protocols with all workflow options
Web content management - Alfresco WCM and Surf platforms enable exposure of your documents and contents on web servers
Alfresco runs on all server platforms, as well as Java application servers, enabling full utilization of your existing investments in hardware and software.
