Are you ready to move your documents in to the cloud? Knowledge Tree has released the new SaaS version of its document management software, dubbed KnowledgeTreeLive. Knowledge Tree is an open source commercial vendor, with both a community edition under the GPL and a proprietary enterprise version.
The new subscription-based KnowledgeTreeLive is hosted on Amazon EC2. It has all the features of the on-premise version of the software, but also includes integration with the Zoho Office Suite for a fully cloud-based approach.
An Enviable Interface
In terms of usability, KnowledgeTreeLive was on par with the self-hosted version, though unique to it is the integration with the
Office Suite. What they both include is Microsoft Office support, and the main dashboard provides a useful, high-level overview of the system. The dashboard was made up of AJAX-y dashlets that can be added, removed and reordered in a drag-and-drop interface.
Overall, the other vendor most comparable to this level of ease is Alfresco, which operates on a similar open source model.
Bigger Up-front Cost is a Killer
It’s functionality might be superb, but there is something strange about KnowledgeTreeLive: it’s more expensive.
According to the company’s price list on-premise version of Knowledge Tree has an annual fee of $2,400 for a 20-user license at the basic level. The most basic SaaS version is $2,950 for 10 users, and is limited to 50 GB of storage.
For big enterprise, the lowered cost of IT would make up for the greater up-front subscription fee. But in a phone conversation, a Knowledge Tree spokesperson told ReadWriteWeb that the majority of those interested in the SaaS version were SMBs without strict compliance needs.
For those companies, self-hosting the community edition could end up being both cheaper and more attuned to their needs. With lower costs being a primary driver of SaaS adoption overall, the relatively hefty subscription price could drive off the very customers that Knowledge Tree says are its core users for this edition.
