SharePoint and OnBase are popular solutions for document management. However, these platforms have several key differences, making them ideal for specific organizations and use cases.
Choosing which system best suits your needs can be challenging. However, what is clear is that OnBase and SharePoint need a proactive monitoring tool like Reveille. Our solutions help you ensure your ECM processes are always running in optimal condition.
In this guide, we will explore SharePoint vs. OnBase features, strengths, and weaknesses. By the end, you will be comfortable choosing the best system for your company.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to Document Management Systems: OnBase vs. SharePoint
- Feature Comparison: SharePoint vs. OnBase
- Strengths and Weaknesses of SharePoint
- Strengths and Weaknesses of OnBase
- Choosing the Right Platform for Your Business
Introduction to Document Management Systems
SharePoint and OnBase are valuable solutions for managing documents and business content. However, the key differences mean they are ideal for specific organizations and use cases.
SharePoint is ideal for cross-department document working and file sync. Onbase is best used for enterprise content management and workflow optimization.
Let’s think about it in real-world terms. Organizations could rely on SharePoint to improve project management efficiency and productivity, making files, images, and data accessible to various teams. Yet, they would use OnBase if they needed to manage and automate content workflows and stay ahead of content analytics and reporting.
Feature Comparison: SharePoint vs. OnBase
While SharePoint and OnBase have similar features to help organizations manage documents, the extent of these capabilities differs. For example, SharePoint provides fantastic collaboration tools, while OnBase delivers robust document storage and management.
Let’s examine the differences and similarities of core SharePoint and OnBase features.
Collaboration Tools
SharePoint is content collaboration software. Because of this, it offers loads of cross-team capabilities. Various departments can co-author files, access different document versions, leverage content libraries, and provision ready-made templates. Organizations can seamlessly share content with and give access to users inside and outside their companies. Another critical aspect of SharePoint’s tools is that they support any device. This allows teams to access documents wherever they are.
OnBase also provides collaboration tools to help enterprises manage documents. Organizations have core capabilities to share, edit, and access documents across teams. OnBase’s tools allow teams to co-author documents, assign user permissions, and receive custom task notifications on document progress.
Document Storage and Management
SharePoint offers content storage and management. The amount of available storage depends on an organization’s licenses. But, there are storage limits that businesses must consider:
- 1 TB plus 10BG per license
- 25 TB per site
- 2 million sites per organization
- Up to 300 licenses per organization
The document management features are limited because SharePoint is designed for something other than enterprise content management. However, organizations can share, edit, control, and analyze their content workflows.
OnBase offers document storage for enterprises. Organizations can store millions of documents annually, from marketing material to sensitive employee information. OnBase provides document repositories and retrieval functions, all compliant with industry regulations.
There are more functions to store and manage documents with OnBase, including:
- Permission controls to maintain data security
- Various methods to search for files through keywords, metadata, dates, etc
- Document version control, helping departments maintain data accuracy
Workflow Automation and Customization
SharePoint is the ultimate choice for content workflow and customization. Organizations can create workflows for cross-team working, maintain consistent business processes, and improve productivity. It allows teams to focus on completing tasks, rather than work processes.
Site users can create and join workflows through customizable forms from a document or item in a SharePoint library or list. Businesses can customize several built-in workflows to their specific operational needs. These include:
- Approval: This workflow directs documents to specific users to teams for approval. Administrators must configure this workflow for each document type.
- Three-state: Organizations can implement this workflow to track a high volume of items or issues. For example, businesses can stay ahead of sales leads or customer support problems.
- Collect Feedback: Content in this workflow will be routed to users for review and feedback. Reviewers will provide feedback, and the content will be returned to the user who initiated the workflow.
- Publishing Approval: Publishing approval workflows automatically send content to the specified users for publishing confirmation.
- Collect Signatures: Teams can rely on this workflow to collect digital signatures for documents.
OnBase also offers a workflow management engine to improve business productivity. With a rich set of configurable rules, businesses don’t need coding to implement automated workflows. This engine consists of one or more customizable Life Cycles, including Queues containing Rules and Actions initiated by users. OnBase reports these Life Cycles in real time to show document status and store historical data.
OnBase aims to reduce costs through these workflows by freeing labor from low-value tasks. Like Reveille’s compliance solutions, OnBase helps organizations maintain industry regulations. It also supports organizations in delivering improved customer service through quicker processes and turnaround times.
When configuring OnBase workflows, users can choose multiple interfaces and pre-built rules and actions to make this process easier. But, unlike SharePoint, Onbase’s workflows are more complex to configure.
Integration with Other Systems
Organizations can integrate many solutions with SharePoint, including CRM software, productivity tools, and project management platforms. These options include Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Oracle, Zendesk, Jira, and PowerApps.
In addition, OnBase has many integration options, such as Google, Adobe Sign, Microsoft Dynamics, DocuSign, and JD Edwards. As OnBase is targeted at enterprise organizations, it has many integration capabilities for various departments and use cases.
Both OnBase and SharePoint integrate with Reveille. Organizations implementing OnBase or SharePoint can gain complete visibility and control over these ECM environments, stay ahead of issues and alerts, and ensure it functions correctly.
Strengths and Weaknesses of SharePoint
SharePoint can manage and optimize business content workflows. There are many advantages of this software for organizations, including:
- Central Storage: SharePoint stores all your data in a central location, making it easier for teams to find the necessary information.
- Highly Customizable: SharePoint is a platform, not a product, so organizations can customize it and build functionality based on their requirements.
- Create Layers of Sites: By purchasing sufficient licenses, businesses can develop multiple layers of sites to streamline data storage and operations among various departments.
- Diverse Features: SharePoint provides extensive features to simplify, automate, and optimize content management.
There are disadvantages SharePoint organizations must consider before implementing this solution, such as:
- Steep Learning Curve: SharePoint is complicated to configure. Organizations must prepare to spend much time training their teams on this platform. Even then, it is still challenging to use.
- Ongoing Maintenance: This software requires ongoing maintenance to ensure efficient content management. That’s why it’s imperative to use Reveille for proactive remediation before minor issues evolve.
- Features are Challenging to Navigate: With so many features and functions, finding the capabilities organizations need can be challenging.
- Poor Search Functionality: SharePoint’s search functionality could be better, making it time-consuming for users to find historical data.
Strengths and Weaknesses of OnBase
Tailored for enterprise document management, OnBase has many advantages:
- User-friendly Navigation: Considering OnBase is such a robust software, the navigation and user interface are straightforward. This platform makes it easier than most to create workflows and manage high volumes of documents.
- Reliable Data Storage: Companies can rely on OnBase to store documents in the correct folders. They won’t experience misplaced documents and can check audit trails to find out who edited or removed content.
- Extensive Customization Capabilities: OnBase allows organizations to customize this software precisely to their needs.
- High-Level Security: Enterprises handle a lot of sensitive information, and OnBase has the ideal security features to ensure that only the right users can access specific documents.
Although OnBase is a fantastic platform for managing enterprise documentation, there are some drawbacks:
- Slow Customer Service: OnBase’s customer support is prolonged and unresponsive. This is not ideal for organizations that need assistance quickly, as they may have to rely on documentation or troubleshooting before getting help.
- Poor Integration with Outdated Software: OnBase doesn’t integrate well with outdated software, which can sometimes affect the file sync features.
- Updating Old Forms is Challenging: It’s very tricky to update old forms and workflows. Businesses may find it easier to start the process from scratch.
- No Drag-and-Drop for Multiple Files: Businesses must do this individually when importing multiple files, as there is no drag-and-drop function.
Choosing the Right Platform for Your Business
There are factors to consider when choosing an ECM system – we compiled a list of the top 10 criteria here. Companies and organizations must:
- Evaluate their document and data management requirements
- Understand what kind of documents they need to manage
- Determine the required features
- Find a platform can integrate with their existing ECM stack
Suppose a company needs help to manage, optimize, and store content across different departments. If this content is documents, images, and files, SharePoint is the ideal choice.
However, OnBase is the best option for enterprises that need to automate high volumes of documents. These organizations likely need a solution to track, manage, and store HR processes, sales and marketing teams, and customer support queries.
Get Reveille for OnBase and SharePoint Monitoring
When choosing your platform, it’s important to keep in mind this distinction –
OnBase is the best choice for enterprise organizations managing high volumes of documents across various departments, while SharePoint is better suited for content management workflows.
Whether organizations opt for OnBase or SharePoint, one thing is guaranteed: they need Reveille’s proactive monitoring to maintain these ECM environments.
With Reveille for OnBase and SharePoint, companies can track over 70 critical dashboard metrics. They can leverage real-time tracking and access agent less ECM monitoring.