Describe Alfresco for non-techs

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shieldfire

Hi,

How would you describe Alfresco for non-technical people?
I know there is a kind of description on alfresco.com but it is full of (sorry marketing guys) techno-babble that would be off-puting to my target audience of students and generally "What does it do" people…

Suggestions welcome 😃

jpotts

Alfresco is a little bit like a file system on steroids. You know how on your computer you can go into Windows Explorer or Mac Finder? That shows you a list of files in folders. You can move them around to different folders to organize them as you wish. Depending on the features of your operating system you may also be able to tag the files or see thumbnail images that give you a hint of what is inside each file. If you click on the file it launches in an application that allows you to make changes to the file.

Now suppose you work on a team or are part of an organization. What if the only tool you had to manage the files your team produces was your local computer's file system? There would be all kinds of problems:

- It would be tough or confusing to work together on the same file (who's got the latest file, who's allowed to make changes, what happens if two people make changes to the same file, etc.)

- Given enough volume, it might be difficult or impossible to find a specific file out of the thousands or millions that exist in our organization.

- Our computer's file system might support tagging, but it usually doesn't support more than that. You can see the name of the file, when it was created/modified, but that's about it. So if I want to track information about each file ("metadata"), such as a customer number or a product name that the file is relevant to I'd have to do that in some other system.

- I might need to share a file with someone who doesn't have the same software as I have. How will they view the file?

- Some files get created as part of a formal business process, with steps that need to be followed and different routes through the process based on characteristics of the file or other factors. A plain file system doesn't know how to deal with that.

- Some files are sensitive. They may need to be kept for a certain period of time and then disposed of. Failure to handle legal records properly could expose individuals and the company to the risk of civil and criminal lawsuits.

Alfresco gives you the same basic file system functionality that your operating system provides you but it takes it to the next level by addressing all of these shortcomings. The end-result is that you and your organization can be more productive in how you create, organize, and share digital content.

Hope that helps,

Jeff