PaperTrail vs. PowerDMS by NEOGOV

It is very easy to use. We utilize it to save and show the logs for as many apps as we want. You can use it as an addon on Heroku.

Incentivized

Getting 100% signature compliance on policy updates used to take months but since automating out policy management updates in PowerDMS, we can get 100% compliance in as little as 2 weeks. Internal requests for things such as training, purchases, etc used to be pushed up the chain of command via a paper copy and would often get misplaced or lost in a full mailbox. Using PowerDMS to automate those requests put the power back in the requester's hands and increased transparency and accountability across the organization.

Incentivized

• Makes keeping similar types of logs together. ie: app vs server
• Searching logs is extremely easy. Finding what you're looking for is extremely easy.
• Setting up new applications or servers is extremely simple as well.

Incentivized

• PDMS is extremely user-friendly from both the administrator aspect and the user.
• The workflow process is awesome and easy to set up.
• PDMS's support team is barred none. We've never had issues with reaching out to find a simple solution to our challenges.

• PaperTrail could improve how they handle hitting plan limits

Incentivized

• The Workflow process in PowerDMS is not as easy to grasp as some of the other concepts and requires a little more explaination, especially for non-administrative background users.
• Users are unable to view the steps in a Workflow template in order to determine which Workflow would work best for their needs when routing documents.
• It would be great to have multiple message options for past due inbox notifications in addition to the options for past due tasks to encourage users to go to their inbox to review their messages.

Incentivized

I have had nothing but positive experiences with PowerDMS from day one. If we ever run into a situation we are unsure of, PowerDMS support has ALWAYS been able to answer us basically immediately. I really love that they are constantly seeking to improve and expand.

PaperTrail is extremely easy to use. Engineers can open the web console and begin tailing or searching logs. Simple searches are very intuitive; you may need to consult their documentation to write more complex queries. It is also very easy to configure alerts for specific log events. Configuring log collection with PaperTrail is simple.

Incentivized

While not necessarily user-intuitive, with a small amount of dedication to training and learning how the system functions, it becomes very usable. I would say that the usability scale is quite user-dependent. For a standard user that just needs to review and sign documents, it is very easily used. On the other end, management does a bit more of a learning curve.

Never had an issue with PowerDMS not being available. Speed is an issue from time to time

Pages loads quickly. The only thing I would like the team to improve is the way we are able to navigate between app groups It is easy but doesn't respond as quickly as I would like.

Incentivized

We use PowerDMS in the cloud so our performance might be different from other users who use on-premise. The program has always been up with very minimal downtime and always seems responsive and snappy when navigating the UI and searching documents. We don't currently have any integrations with other software.

I just wish we had some in-state support. The contacts I have had with customer support have been great. Awesome communication, problem-solving, and support. I have talked to and met Stephanie Williams (CSA for Power DMS) at the most recent Entrust conference. She was professional and devoted time to addressing our agency needs.

In-person training works really well.

Online training works well and keeps from having to have classroom training

Implementation of PowerDMS was near seamless. The product was able to input existing policies and procedures within a few hours, which helped to lay the foundation for future use. Having PowerDMS on-boarding readily available was also a huge benefit.

Amazon CloudWatch logging is integrated with most Amazon products out-of-the-box. Both offer web consoles for searching logs, and both are fully-managed and can be configured easily. We chose PaperTrail because some of our services run on Heroku. We would have chosen PaperTrail even if this weren't the case because its search capabilities are better.

Incentivized

Our previous document product was Image Silo. It was a stable-enough product, but was strictly an indexed filing system. PowerDMS goes well beyond indexing (which it does very well) and provides countless more features and functions as described above. I would describe the difference between our previous product and PowerDMS like the difference between the library and the Internet. Both contain information, but on is limited, while the other has it all.

Because of features and functions.

• PaperTrail saves developers ($$$) a lot of time trying to track down where errors occured; rather than needing to SSH into machines and view error logs, all error logs for certain applications are available in one view

Incentivized

• Created efficient processes for approving document revision
• Migrated what originally was a paper system to electronic
• Accessible for any employee by logging in, employees do not have to seek out policy and procedure binders, and updated documents can be automatically sent to inboxes when updated.

Incentivized