M‑Files vs. Square 9 Softworks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
M‑Files
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
M-Files is a platform for knowledge work automation, that helps knowledge workers to find information faster. M-Files features a metadata-driven architecture, embedded workflow engine, and advanced artificial intelligence. This helps customers to eliminate information chaos, improve process efficiency, and automate security and compliance. The vendor's value proposition: EASE OF USE: M-Files increases productivity and improves work quality by making…N/A
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
For document-intensive companies looking to improve business efficiency, Square 9 Softworks develops solutions for process automation that aim to drive increased productivity across all business applications.
$45
per month per seat
Pricing
M‑FilesSquare 9 Softworks
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Square 9 Process Automation Essentials
$45
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Square 9 Digital Transformation Essentials
$68
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Square 9 Enterprise Essentials
$75
per month per user (10 User Minimum)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
M‑FilesSquare 9 Softworks
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsOffered via a three-tier pricing model that allows customers to scale their solution up or down based on the changing needs of their organization. Pricing excludes professional services and implementation fees
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
M‑FilesSquare 9 Softworks
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
M‑FilesSquare 9 Softworks
Small Businesses
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.7 out of 10
MSB Docs
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Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Kofax Capture
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Score 6.0 out of 10
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Score 6.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
M‑FilesSquare 9 Softworks
Likelihood to Recommend
9.8
(68 ratings)
9.6
(42 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(15 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(12 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(2 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(11 ratings)
8.6
(22 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.1
(8 ratings)
6.4
(3 ratings)
Configurability
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.0
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
M‑FilesSquare 9 Softworks
Likelihood to Recommend
M‑Files
M‑Files is great for companies with multiple locations. Drive letters can become cumbersome to use and collaborate with colleagues and M‑Files fills that gap. The check out/check in system is great and allows only one editor at a time. This can be good and bad depending on the situation.
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Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks is great in data management and flow. For us, they've done an excellent job with the Health Screening Tools, Cloud Storage/Management and Online Applications. It seems to be a very diverse product. I think because of that, you can talk with Square 9 Softworks about what you are envisioning to see if they are capable of it. I would not do that with many other products - they just don't have that flex.
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Pros
M‑Files
  • Reliable: Our M-Files system has only gone down one time (for a very short period of time) at the beginning of the two years that we have been with M-Files. Our previous vendor's system had so many downtimes that our IT Department had to assign an associate to work with me for sending out notifications to associates etc. With our last vendor, one day I came to work and only 60 of the 260 consent for surgery forms were available to our end users although they were visible to me as the Administrator but weren't showing up for the end-users!
  • Our M-Files system was created for us. It was created by working with developers to only have on our system what we required, and I must say, there were so many extra features that M-Files offered in our program that weren't available with our previous vendor. As mentioned previously, we can have two policies or forms visible to the end-user so one can be listed as "draft" or "training only" so our end users can read and use for training as we get ready to roll out a new medical record system. I can also preload policies and leave them in the working stage until they are approved and go back and publish them the day they are approved. The list goes on with so many great features.
  • Our end users would say the greatest asset of this product is the search function. It's amazing how fast it is. There are many ways to search out a form or policy which makes it a true asset for our associates.
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Square 9 Softworks
  • Fast Manual indexing with what we consider the best in point-n-click OCR indexing.
  • Webserver that incorporates Full-Text Content Searching, Workflow Queues, Full Document Management and Live document Signing on any mobile device or location.
  • Fast workflow designers for rapid implementation
  • Broad range of capture and information processing tools, easy to configure
  • Loaded with essential security options
  • Low price, and about 10X more powerful than MS SharePoint right out of the box.
  • Multi-database support for a very low price with disaster recovery licensing, this is very rare in the industry.
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Cons
M‑Files
  • If you are new to Electronic Document Management, this can be a really difficult product to roll out. Since it is infinitely versatile, there are infinite ways to configure it wrong. I highly recommend the M-Files admin training offered by M-Files as it will set you in the right direction.
  • Many options are paid add-ons. So while you are not paying for what you don't need, many great features will come at a cost.
  • If you don't have a technical person on staff, this will be tricky to maintain. Not impossible. If your processes do not change, once setup it will be fine.
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Square 9 Softworks
  • Some of the administrative/security configuration with Windows Active Directory can be tricky when managed by separate corporate IT personnel (alignment in strategy)
  • User adoption with any new process can be challenging, but overall user friendly menus
  • As Database sizes grow (200,000+ records) paging through records can be cumbersome, probably need to migrate to an archive process to offload some of the data.
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Likelihood to Renew
M‑Files
M-files meets our almost all needs, we dont have other option to replace m-files. it saves lots, like Hardware because of Vault Feature means we can create many vaults (mini-servers) in m-files in other solutions we need more hardware for more installations.
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Square 9 Softworks
We absolutely can't imagine not continuing software maintenance as there are always new additions that improve the system not to mention the excellent tech support when issues are encountered. Response times for troubleshooting are very quick and usually, my issue is resolved in less than an hour after connecting with support.
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Usability
M‑Files
It is a powerful system that can locate content fast and effectively. The system takes quite some time to setup initially. It can be hard for M-Files support to know how businesses operate and how they want to use the system in a way that works for them. The customization makes it great for companies to cater to their own needs. Once the system is set up in a way that makes sense for the business, the user experience is positive. There is room for improvement in the notifications, workflow, and support areas.
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Square 9 Softworks
Super simple software to operate and configure. Very granular permissions and controls. Browser based setup with everything and very intuitive visual workflow building makes it easy to set things up. Troubleshooting document workflow issues is also made easy via the batch manager when you can track each document as it moves through the workflow.
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Reliability and Availability
M‑Files
always there.
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Square 9 Softworks
Square-9 can get this product out to you in almost the same hour your order it. We got ours very fast.
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Performance
M‑Files
I noticed some lagging with the integration with Microsoft Office but not so much that I would not use it. It has gotten better with updates. to be fair the issues were when Office 2013 first came out.
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Square 9 Softworks
With the PDF projected viewer, the document retrieval-to-display can drag for a second more than some systems, and the capture workflow if you overload a server array can also drag, but those are the only two issues we've ever seen with this product, and they are not serious issues at all.
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Support Rating
M‑Files
Usually when I need help from them I got support and it was very good and focused to solve my problem. I didn't have so many problems, but when used it worked. I just would like to have a support in my native language, but I can understand that sometimes is hard for the companies.
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Square 9 Softworks
The support we received from Square 9 Softworks was exceptional. From deployment to implementation, we always felt supported. The team we worked with had patience and exceptional response time. They were amazing to work with, I always felt supported. No matter how simple or complex my question was they always delivered.
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In-Person Training
M‑Files
We had online conference call training with a recording to use later as needed
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Square 9 Softworks
It would have been higher, but the training is a bit muted for the lesser qualified office equipment vendors who signed up as partners to sell and support it. The more experienced ECM vendors and customer end-users will find the training very good, but a bit slow.
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Online Training
M‑Files
They answer all questions and record your training for later use.
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Square 9 Softworks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
M‑Files
The key insight is that the most important thing is to have a open mind. The application is easy to use, but if you have a company with different views and it is not aligned could be a huge problem. So the company transformation is required together with the application. Ensure to use as much as possible the capabilities of the application helps to have best ROI.
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Square 9 Softworks
I think the implementation could have gone a little smoother than it did. Now that I know how to use the software, I could do it myself. I feel that as an organization, we could have been a little better prepared. If the consultant was more aware of what we were looking for, they could have assisted in setting up some workflows for us as per the contract. But because we were not prepared, the initial implementation process was a little painful. That said, adding a document management system to ANY business kinda means everyone has to re-think the way they do their work which can be difficult for some staff.
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Alternatives Considered
M‑Files
The customization ability seemed to be a level above and easy to navigate and available options are constantly being reinvented. We have used OnBase for years and now desire to move away from this option for a number of reasons.
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Square 9 Softworks
A similar product I have used was Time Matters. For a Law Firm, I think Time Matters is more useful as it keeps track of everything for a client, including billing. However, since I now work for a legal department of a corporation, SmartSearch is definitley more useful. It is not possible to seperate the documents we have internally in neat client files. We have various miscellaneous documents for many different services and customers or vendors. SmartSearch allows us to organize in broad categories that make sense to internal employees using it and to make sure security is set on specific documents. Time Matters would not have been sufficient for our managers to have access to, since it uploads all documents to the file - some of which are confidential.
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Scalability
M‑Files
do so much more than we need but has all the stuff we do need.
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Square 9 Softworks
The scale-ability is quite good actually, but you need competent sales/support folks providing it to you, so the scale is set right for the demands of your system use. Some resellers are not good at doing this, some are fantastic. If you are scaled correctly at first implementation, you'll be very happy with this system.
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Return on Investment
M‑Files
  • M-Files allows us to track important milestones and expiration dates. We are now able to easily track revisions to contracts with community partners and record comments and history in one place.
  • We are able to track all contracts that come through our District and to create monthly reports to present to our Board.
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Square 9 Softworks
  • OCR capabilities allow users to quickly and accurately index files without data errors from manually keying in data
  • Administrators can update users access through active directory without ever opening Square 9 and without generating accounts in yet another system
  • Users can find files needed without ever leaving their desk
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ScreenShots

M‑Files Screenshots

Screenshot of M-Files - SearchScreenshot of M-Files - Profile openScreenshot of M-Files - PermissionsScreenshot of M-Files - Process mapsScreenshot of M-Files - Pinned items

Square 9 Softworks Screenshots

Screenshot of GlobalSearch, which is used to organize and sort documents based on extracted data.Screenshot of indexed data, where users can performs a 3 way match against an order receipt and purchase order.Screenshot of GlobalCapture, which is used to build workflows and automatically assign tasks to users.Screenshot of a front-facing Portal for new hires and applicants. This lets them fill out important employee documents such as job application, Direct Deposit and W-4 forms.Screenshot of the hiring and onboarding portal, where new hire documentation is completed.Screenshot of GlobalForms, which has new hire government forms such as I-9 and W-4 forms.