9 Best ECM Software Solutions for Efficient Enterprise Content Management

When it comes to ECM, there are plenty of solutions to consider and choose from. But we know you don’t have time to try them all.

In this article, we have decided to try and review the 9 best enterprise content management systems - or ECM software - so you don’t have to.

When a business can count on its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to securely manage and take advantage of the content and information embedded in all its documents, it can do business more efficiently.

ECM software solutions can handle the capture, reading and indexing of information that was previously unstructured and unavailable, such as Word documents, resumes, PDFs, emails and scanned images. They provide opportunities to use the information and streamline work, improve team collaboration, enhance customer engagement and automate business processes.

Let’s take a closer look at the best ECM software solutions out there.

M-Files is an ECM software that provides a unified view of all content. It can easily be customised and integrated with other tools to meet your specific needs. Easy to use, it is a real asset to all businesses looking to improve their operational efficiency.

Features

• Easy search and retrieval of documents
• Encryption
• Advanced security features
• Dynamic access permissions
• A single view of all documents
• Automated processes and workflows
• Versioning
• Collaboration tools
• Integration
• Cloud, on-premise, and hybrid installation

Pricing

M-Files offers on-demand pricing for 3 plans: Base, Team, and Business.

2 add-on solutions are available:

• Ment for no-code document automation
• Hubshare for enhancing the digital customer experience

Free demo available.

Appvizer’s Opinion

M-Files is a great option for medium-sized businesses as it is affordable and offers extensive capabilities. We love how intuitive and easy to navigate the interface is, and how quickly we could find the information we needed.

DocuWare provides ECM, digital document management and automated workflow solutions to organisations of any size and across all major industries. It is available in 18 languages and supports cloud and on-premises deployments. Best for medium-sized and enterprise-level companies.

Features

• Activity tracking
• Content management
• Data import/export
• eSignature
• Document capture, classification & automation
• Secure data storage
• Templates
• Drag & Drop
• File recovery
• File sharing
• Versioning

Pricing

DocuWare offers on-demand pricing.

Free demo and 30-day free trial available.

Appvizer’s Opinion

We like DocuWare’s ability to streamline processes. It is a powerful tool for routing paperwork through workflows and provides plenty of useful features to improve work efficiency and productivity.

Hyland is a great ECM provider that offers useful end-to-end features. It provides robust service support, industry-specific solutions for services-heavy organisations and is best suited to medium and large businesses.

Features

• Streamlined workflows
• Insights and analytical reports
• Collaboration tools
• Intelligent capture
• Content management
• Process automation
• Case management
• Enterprise search
• Retention and records management
• On cloud or on-premises

Pricing

On-demand pricing.

Free demo available.

Appvizer’s Opinion

Hyland offers powerful and versatile ECM solutions that easily integrate with other business apps and tools. Its highly-customisable ECM tools can fit into nearly any enterprise ecosystem but are better suited to large businesses.

Developed by Atlassian, Confluence is a very versatile system that keeps all your information accessible and trackable. You can use it to create documents, organise knowledge and collaborate on projects. It provides remote-friendly workspaces and seamless connections across teams.

Features

• Collaborative editor
• Feedback
• Mobile and desktop
• Workspaces
• Versioning
• Blogs and discussions
• Best practice templates
• Granular permission controls
• Hundreds of extensions and integrations
• Enterprise-level support

Pricing

• Free Plan: Free, up to 10 users, up to 2GB file storage
• Standard Plan: Up to 50,000 users, 250GB file storage, about £37 for 10 users per month (billed annually)
• Premium Plan: Up to 50,000 users, about £70 for 10 users per month (billed annually)
• Confluence Enterprise: Up to 50,000 users, custom price

Free trial available.

Appvizer’s Opinion:

Confluence is an excellent ECM that provides many useful features. We particularly appreciate how great it is at effectively organising large volumes of documentation. If you are a medium or large organisation aiming towards growth, Premium and Enterprise plans offer better scalability.

Laserfiche is a robust Enterprise Content Management solution that mainly focuses on document capture and organisation to convert content into searchable information. It helps businesses of all sizes comply with regulations and improve teamwork.

Features

• Content Capture
• Archive
• Workflow automation
• Records management
• eForms
• Automated indexing
• Collaboration tools
• Analytics
• SaaS, on-premises, and hybrid

Pricing

Prices per month, per user.

• Starter Plan: £38
• Professional Plan: £53
• Business Plan: £60

Appvizer’s Opinion:

What we love most about Laserfiche is its search capabilities as it can quickly locate specific information contained within large document databases. We also appreciate the ample training material that smoothes the learning curve. There are a few downsides, but overall, Laserfiche is a great ECM solution.

Alfresco is a full-service ECM system that is also provided by Hyland. It offers plenty of advanced features for efficient management of all your documents and content and helps organisations comply with rules and regulations. Alfresco is ideal for organisations that need high scalability, performance and 24X7 support.

Features

• Versioning
• Workflow
• Document scanning and capture
• Customisation
• Fine-grained role and permission
• Community support
• Intelligence and analytics
• Enterprise Collaboration
• Digital asset management
• Scalable and flexible
• Easy integration with other apps
• Automated lifecycle management of all documents

Pricing

Pricing is available upon request, please contact Alfresco for more information.

Free trial available.

Appvizer’s Opinion

We were quite impressed with Alfresco’s AI-powered features but found that the interface was not as intuitive as some of its competitors. We appreciate that it is easily scalable, which makes it a great ECM for medium and large businesses aiming for growth.

Box is a robust ECM software that also serves as a complete employee administration and collaboration platform. It is easy to use and manages the full content lifecycle. On a single platform, team members can access, share, review, and discuss projects, improving team collaboration and project workflow.

Features

• Content management
• Workflow automation
• Collaboration tools
• File conversion
• Advanced search
• Versioning
• File locking

Pricing

Price per month, per user (minimum of 3 users), paid annually,

• Business Starter: £4
• Business: £12
• Business Plus: £20
• Enterprise: £27
• Enterprise Plus: Custom Price

Appvizer’s Opinion:

We love that this ECM solution is designed to serve as a complete administration and collaboration platform, which highly helps streamline operations, improve collaboration and enhance overall productivity across the team. Box could benefit from a few more useful functionalities but is an excellent ECM system, especially for medium-sized businesses.

SharePoint by Microsoft is a collaborative, cloud-based platform that functions as a single knowledge base. It gives businesses tools to organise and manage content throughout the content life cycle and integrates with all the Microsoft Office tools you’re familiar with.

Features

• Advanced search
• Central Repository
• Document IDs
• Lists
• Reusable settings
• Analytics and Reporting
• Access control and permissions
• Collaboration tools
• Direct Media Player
• Media Libraries
• Audit trails
• Archive

Pricing

Plan 1: £4 per month/per user (Annual subscription)

Plan 2: £8 per month/per user (Annual subscription)

Office 365 E3: £18 per month/per user (Annual commitment)

Appvizer’s Opinion

We can confidently recommend using SharePoint as your ECM system to quickly find information and empower teamwork. We appreciate that SharePoint is a platform you can build on, which gives businesses more flexibility, even though customisation needs improvement.

Nuxeo by Hyland provides a cloud content services platform for large organisations. Nuxeo can manage all types of content, from your traditional PDFs or Word doc files to images, videos, audio, etc. regardless of file size or location. This platform is designed to help you automate and accelerate all document-based processes with workflow.

Features

• Classification

• Search

• Lock

• Editing

• Versioning

• Sharing

• Security

• Audit

• Workflow designer

• Records management

• Integration to key capture

• Integration to digital signature

Pricing

Custom pricing is available upon request.

Free demo available.

Appvizer’s Opinion

Nuxeo is an ideal tool for larger organisations that deal with large volumes of documentation and want to extract more value from them. With a modern UI, Nuxeo is highly customisable to match your requirements and streamline your workflow.

Increasing productivity and efficiency is crucial to every organisation. ECM software is one of the best tools to significantly improve business efficiency, reduce costs, enhance customer satisfaction and mitigate risks.

Here is how effective Enterprise Content Management software can help your organisation work more effectively and stand out against the competition. Your ECM software will help you:

1. Benefit from a single source of truth for collaborative work
2. Get more value from your data and documents
3. Reduce reliance on paper-based processes
4. Streamline document search and retrieval
5. Automate document-based workflows
6. Provide greater security for business-critical documents
7. Improve regulatory compliance
8. Enhance collaboration, remote work, and productivity
9. Reduce storage and operational costs
10. Improve document management & version control

ECM software solutions bring measurable value to almost any department within a company: accounting, human resources, sales, legal and more. Not only does it help organise large volumes of documentation, but it is also the key to improved collaboration and communication within and across teams.

• Scalability, ease of use, and integration capabilities
  To support the potential growth of your organisation, make sure your ECM meets your needs now and in the future, whether you decide to open new offices or get more work done remotely. To ensure user adoption, it should also be easy to use and integrate with other apps and tools you already use in the office.

• Vendor reputation and support services

  If things go well, your ECM service provider will become a long-term partner. Make sure they provide excellent support and maintenance services and can solve new business challenges as you grow.

  • Mobile accessibility and customisation options

    Mobility is crucial to any organisation that needs to access and share documents from any location. The right ECM software should also be highly customisable to meet your unique business needs (customisable workflows, document types, and access permissions to match your business processes…)

    • Evaluation of features, pricing models, and implementation requirements

      Think long-term. Identify all your present and future business needs so you know what features and pricing models you need. Also, clearly define the objectives and requirements of your organisation when it comes to the implementation process.

There’s no doubt that effective ECM software can be extremely valuable for medium and large organisations.

Our main advice is to identify your organisation's needs and key areas for improvement and take the time to select the perfect ECM software that will help you bring your organisation to new levels of efficiency, productivity and security, all while saving time and money.