Liveink 9.5 Versus Sharepoint 2003/2007

[madhuusa]

Friends,
I have been working apace and things were going on smoothly on Livelink. It is being used by nearly 2000 users with 1000 users very active and around close to 400 gb EFS. LL is in a clustered environment with worldwide users and we use other stuff such as Workflows, Custom OScript modules, etc.

Then suddenly, they bought a VP and now he wants to evaluate Sharepoint versus Livelink. - talk about the mr.softee lobby in my offce

As these discussions have started, I am wondering what is the experience of the members here who have seen and worked in Sharepoint (say 2003 or 2007). Some points I would like to know are,
1. Scalibility
2. Speed of document management, workflows, custom modules (I guess .net is the underlying code for custom modules), etc
3. Maintenance (how easy it is compared to say Livelink administration) of admin pages, user administration, etc.
4. Any good books or online resource I can tap to jumpstart my understanding of Sharepoint. I have already downloaded Sharepoint and dabbling with it.

I guess mr.softee has not lost to anybody (except perhaps google) and my office will be no exception and so preparing for it

 

[appnair]

As a product OpenText has very friendly ties with Sharepoint.Having said that both have their place in the universe.The GUI part of sharepoint is very appealing and more freindly to use .In fact the RM part of sharepont is running livelink as the backend for most part,they will work with Documentum as well.Sharepoint strategy is the collaboration workspace and the product will support genric use according to MS.If a product can do 90 % of what people want they will make a prouct like that.It is the 10 % difference that allows products like OT and DCTM have a menaingful place.

Things that are severely limited in sharepoint and these are based on my exposure to these products
1)Uptill now SP does not have an EFS option so it is blob storage in SQLserver so go figure.Both DCTM and OT has had EFS at some point.
2)SP seems to be designed by web developers whereas both DCTM and OT seems to have been developed by Document Mnagement systems people.
3)Search is far very superior in LL than in SP or DCTM.
4)The workflow product is much more easy to work with in LL than in SAP,SP or DCTM.
5)OT always seems to be listening to customers many of the things people have asked is part of core product now.
6)Scalability is most often the employement of hardware resources so we can't jsu say LL is more scalable than SP or vice versa.Both needs to be looked at some basic criteria to judge,TPs and such like.
7)LL upgardes are musch easier to do provided you know what you are doing.I have not been part of a SP upgarde so really don't know.

LL favours to be retired by SP(I have been part of several of those) because managment tends to think SP is free.OT's pricing always shows hard dollars for licensing et al so on a powerpoint or excel OT always seems costlier than SP.Nothing is more far from the truth as these organizations will soon find out.Many of them reverse their decisions also.In most orgs Sp will exist(that is a win for managment and LL will co-exist as the real brains of SP.




Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937

 

[tamjak]

SP is a good solution for a small company who can only afford a hosted solution. Once your company moves up the ladder of features- with workflow and records management as the top rungs, Livelink or DCTM make a lot more sense.

What the question I want to know is, do you have any custom applications on Livelink that don't exist in Sharepoint? If so what are they and how will you address that issue?

 

[madhuusa]

Thanks Appnair for detailed posting.

One more to add: Microsoft has a HUGE lobby that no company can ignore!!!! except perhaps goog, orcl and aapl.