A new study highlights a number of economic advantages to investing in Alfresco Enterprise Content Management (ECM), and finds that the platform pays for itself after just 10 months. Alfresco’s ECM solution is an open source alternative for ECM which enables organisations to manage all of their documents from one centralised repository.

The study, which was conducted by Forrester Consulting, was commissioned by Alfresco to examine the total economic impact and potential ROI that can be realised by enterprises by deploying Alfresco ECM. The study highlights the benefits and ROI of Alfresco when compared to the total costs for IT and training, and is based on analysis of four implementations with major clients and extensive interviews with customers.

Benefits of Alfresco ECM highlighted within the study were:

• 10 month average payback period
• $1.3 million in IT & training cost savings
• 53% ROI in three years

Whilst the savings identified in the study are already striking, it is commonly agreed that document management systems lead to greater collaboration between employees and a resultant rise in employee productivity. This means that the ROI of an Alfresco implementation is often much higher than the cited 53%. The study also praised the flexibility of the platform, as well as Alfresco’s support for open standards.

Specific reasons to invest in ECM cited by enterprises include: a need for more increased production efficiency, more findable content, compliance and risk mitigation and decreased time-to-market; although there are many more advantages of document management which can be read about on our Solutions page.

John Powell, CEO of Alfresco, said that Alfresco was “proud of the results of this study as they confirm the value we provide to our customers”, and that the study “confirms that Alfresco’s innovation extends beyond great technology to creating unprecedented economic value”.

The study, ‘Total Economic Impact of Enterprise Content Management’, can be read in full at http://alfresco.com/forrester, where you can also register for a Forrester webinar taking place on 1st February 2012 at 11am ET/4pm GMT. Forrester Analyst Sebastian Selhorst and Alfresco’s Director of Product Marketing, Paul Hampton, will be discussing the findings of the study, as well as taking questions from the floor.

About Forrester Consulting

Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their organisations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit www.forrester.com/consulting.

About Alfresco

Alfresco is the open platform for social content management. With nearly 2,000 customers in 55 countries, Alfresco is the world’s most trusted open platform for highly scalable, enterprise-class content management. Boasting over 250 partners, a vibrant open source community, and customers including Home Depot, Michelin and the New York Philharmonic, the Alfresco ecosystem is driving innovation across the globe. Headquartered in London, with US headquarters in Atlanta, Alfresco was founded in 2005 by a team of content management pioneers including CTO, John Newton, and CEO, John Powell. For more information, visit http://www.alfresco.com.