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M-Files is a versatile software that is widely used across various industries and departments. Users have reported significant …
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What is M‑Files?
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…
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What is M‑Files?
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…
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What is M‑Files?
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 information easy to find and use.
- WORKFLOW AUTOMATION: M-Files increases consistency of work and reduces errors by automating workflows.
- COLLABORATION: M-Files enables superior customer experiences through a collaborative workspace.
- COMPLIANCE: M-Files reduces business risk by ensuring compliance.
M-Files is designed to improve business performance by helping people find and use information more effectively. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, M-Files breaks down silos by delivering an in-context experience for accessing and leveraging information that resides in any system and repository, including network folders, SharePoint, file sharing services, ECM systems, CRM, ERP and other business systems and repositories.
M‑Files Screenshots
M‑Files Integrations
- DocuSign
- AutoCAD
- AutoCAD LT
- ChronoScan
- Microsoft 365
- Google Workspace
- Salesforce CMS
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Adobe Sign
- Esri ArcGIS
- SAP
- Open Text eDocs
M‑Files Competitors
M‑Files Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone |
| Supported Countries | M-Files is available in 100+ countries through direct support or via the company's partner network. |
| Supported Languages | M-Files is available in 30+ languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified/PRC), Chinese (Traditional/Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Mongolian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese |
Frequently Asked Questions
Reviewers rate Availability highest, with a score of 9.1.
The most common users of M‑Files are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
M-Files is a versatile software that is widely used across various industries and departments. Users have reported significant improvements in document retention, retrieval, and collaboration. The software serves as a central repository for storing business-critical documentation, including customer data and agreements. It has helped organizations achieve a paperless office by archiving financial data and recording invitations to tender. M-Files has been instrumental in streamlining manufacturing operations, quality control systems, and corporate functions. It simplifies access to files and data from different databases and applications, improving search capabilities and facilitating workflow management. Users appreciate the high configurability of M-Files, enabling the creation of sophisticated systems for structured information. It is also utilized by individuals for managing business and personal documents, easily finding and organizing various types of files. M-Files has successfully been implemented in education institutions to organize and manage decades worth of contracts and contractual details. Risk intelligence analysts benefit from M-Files' AI support and metadata-driven properties when developing risk assessments. The software serves as a strategic DevOps platform and a main database for industrial asset management deployments. Additionally, it is relied upon for powerful workflow tools, allowing organizations to manage internal processes and support growth without additional staffing resources. Overall, M-Files provides efficient information and document management solutions across industries such as manufacturing, education, health, and social sectors.
Users commonly recommend M-Files for its security and affordability. They suggest trying it out and learning all its features to transform the way organizations operate. M-Files is recommended to organizations of all sizes and resources. Users appreciate the convenience of file sharing and the high-level security system provided by M-Files. They also recommend creating specific folders for each topic to enhance organization. Additionally, new users are encouraged to try M-Files.
Another common recommendation is due to M-Files being a next-generation intelligent content management platform. It is highly recommended by users, including business concerns and friends. They find it easy to use and almost bug-free, making it suitable for companies dealing with numerous files and documents. Suggestions include setting up low-hanging fruit in M-Files and utilizing online training materials. Effort should be put into information and document management models and architecture.
Furthermore, users highly recommend M-Files without second thought. They advise allocating sufficient time and resources for training and persuading colleagues for successful implementation. Users suggest trialing the M-Files solution before partnering with another Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vendor as adoption rate is critical for successful implementation. An improvement suggestion is to make the product OS and platform agnostic while implementing optional features into the standard version for a competitive advantage.
Overall, users recommend M-Files for its secure and affordable nature, its convenience in sharing files, its high-level security system, and its next-generation intelligent content management platform capabilities.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-22 of 22)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
March 03, 2023
Strong DMS
M-Files is used as a platform to provide document management solutions for out clients
- The most powerful part of M-Files is workflow automation.
- System has quite a simple interface.
- Good integration with other applications like MS Dynamics.
- Workflow definitions need better graphical interface.
- M-Files API need documentation and complete samples.
- Files upload is very slow.
- Have to have better diagnostics and logging tools
March 01, 2023
Why M-Files
As I have been consultant for M-Files, I implemented M-Files in almost 10 organizations. These organization were Manufacturing, Education, health, Social Sector, Public Sector, Oil and Gas Sector, etc.
There were different problems in different organizations, but the main one was with Oil and Gas Sector, who were using Documentum and they wanted to replace with M-Files. The organization is now using M-Files in Operations Department, Engineering Dept. and 8 other Departments. Due to COVID situation they are not fully dependent on M-Files and also now SAP integration has been done which is also favoring in Organizational Operations from remote. The main difference in Documentum and M-Files was that Documentum they used to implement on 4-5 Server Machines and when they require an other implementation they were to replica these exercise and again need 4-5 serve Machines where in M-Files there is Vault concept which reduce Hardware and Maintenance Cost with Minimum Administrative Support can manage different organization of one company in Single Installation by creating Separate Vaults.
- The import tool is the best tool for data migration from other repositories. It helps a lot in migration from Documentum to M-Files.
- The API enables to add additional customized features which made M-Files different from other solutions where they won't be able to provide solution.
- User License Model with combined vaults makes organization very affordable like if one company has different organization and they are using concurrent licenses, they can they share those licenses within vaults if there is no load on other organization.
- There is need of text editor to be built in as currently MS Word is being used for adding more text and drawing features.
- Some views base reports would be with graphical presentation as to add reporting module, every organization can't always afford that.
- Regional Languages Support.
February 28, 2023
M-files and a small laboratory company
We use M-files across the whole organization. We manage literally everything with it—quotes, purchases, orders, workflow, tasks, etc. We have also tailored it to work as a laboratory information management system in our laboratory, where we manage the samples, analysis data, and quality control.
- Document management
- Workflows
- Easy access and intuitive to use
- More features without coding (for example more options for automatic naming of documents, more functions when changing workflow state, etc.).
- Customizable front page (work example: different kind of page depending the user's task or department).
- Editing notification settings by admin (not only by user).
July 07, 2022
Satisfied user
I use M-Files in my daily work. I save documents, read instructions, create instructions, manage user accounts, and more. The problems are often user-driven.
- Saving and editing documents to the system
- User management
- Training documentation and monitoring
- Appearance of the Client version
- The whole system in Finnish
- The admin tool is a bit complicated to use
May 03, 2022
Great Product, Great Team!
We use it to address compliance and workflow issues.
- They have a high level of customer service
- The sales/pilot team was truly a pleasure to work with
- The workflow tool is extremely user friendly
- workflow visibility
- API integrations to other applications is lacking
May 19, 2021
Decreased dependency on paper based processes.
M-Files is used as our major document management tool. It is being used in our organization to store large amount[s] of data to provide a central repository for all our interlinked departments to access data whenever they need it. It is automating all our workflows and eliminating the need for a paper-based system. And the management of complex data is efficient.
- Quick access of information with up to date data.
- Easy to use interface that makes using the features and functionalities simple.
- Integrates seamlessly with our existing systems.
- High speed in upload and download of files.
- I found the set up complex, but once it was complete it is a powerful product.
May 16, 2021
M-Files review
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it to become a paperless office. It is mainly used to record invitations to tender and, then, if accepted, to manage the contract from inception to completion.
- Easy to track contracts.
- Easy to record and price variations.
- Easy to keep a record of progress claimed.
- We are not allowed to access the admin vault by our reseller.
- I have been unable to find what the M-File policy is for this.
- It appears to me that this refusal is so we have to get the reseller to do any changes no matter how small so they can charge us.
- I am looking for a reseller that will allow us access to the admin vault. I have found this a frustrating exercise so far.
May 22, 2020
M-Files Review
M-Files is used across the organization for document management.
- Workflow
- Version history
- Permissions: a "search" bar would be incredibly helpful for adding users on the permissions tab in the client and admin tool
- Search: sorts by document score and not document name, which is what most folks search on
M-Files is our internal document management solution. With the recent move to working from home as organizations deal with the current pandemic, we have been able to migrate paper processes to digital workflows. This has increased our productivity and reduced our dependence on legacy systems. Documents get a full history attached to them for tracking and auditing purposes which older systems never offered.
- Infinitely versatile. We have created non-document objects that documents can relate to. These NDOs can be leveraged to find relationships between documents to present versatile views, automated permissions and workflows. No more WHERE is my document, but WHAT is my document!
- Intelligent Metadata is a great ability to capture what you need to properly categorize your documents and the system will scan the documents to capture that data for you. Users still accept the presented data to ensure accuracy.
- Customization of notifications is exceptionally useful when monitoring adoption of M-Files. In real time you are able to capture if a user is struggling with a process.
- Using assignments with workflows means users are not troubled with finding what needs to be done, they simply get the assignment, carry out the work and move on.
- Integrating with fully custom systems can be a breeze also with several ways to import content and even an API to build your own integrations. The API documentation is thorough!
- 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.
M-Files is used in our organization as our primary document and content management application. Nearly all departments rely on it heavily for organizing documents, as well as materials related to meetings, projects, programs, and committees. The versatility of M-Files means that we've been able to continue to adapt our business needs and processes to have M-Files automate processes and security permissions. Prior to M-Files, our organization, like many others, relied on the typical shared drives and department folder approach with email attachments to share content. Now we are able to collaborate on content across teams and streamline the organization of meeting content without worry of the current version or who last edited the document. We've also standardized how content is accessed while simultaneously providing users with the ability to customize their interface so they can work according to their preferences.
- Version control and history tracking on documents.
- Search ability to filter content for a team, creator, or another property.
- Permission control, limit access to documents to read or edit, or only specific workflow states.
- Administrative control to access all content.
- Administrative control to restore deleted content.
- Administrative control to audit and retag content when needed.
- Robust workflow capabilities.
- Sharing content externally requires organizational efforts involving information governance, risk management, and IT strategies. There are options the administrators need to consider to permit external sharing. External collaboration requires other IT infrastructure solutions to incorporate M-Files. External facing content can be done, but not easily done without first planning workflows and permission configurations.
- Configurations are determined by the customer primarily. The creation of properties and classes are at the discretion of the customer administrator. An organization needs to understand information governance and enlist collaboration with M-Files, IT, Records Management, Risk Management, and Legal. This is not so much a downfall of M-Files, but it is a consideration that embarking in the adoption of an ECM is a significant investment for an organization, both financially and human resources management, but the benefits with best practice configuration will ensure success.
- There are features that are advertised, but further investigation is available with an additional purchase of an add-on. Unfortunately, not entirely unusual in this business
March 18, 2020
Flexible tool for document and metadata management
M-Files is used for:
- Metadata management in sales, project deliveries, and services.
- Document management.
- Service task management.
- Combines document and metadata management well in one package.
- Flexible and easy to configure.
- Good support for the use over Internet, no VPN connection needed.
- Good data replication tools over data vaults.
- Opening of a metadata card is a bit too slow on average.
- Offline use features are too limited.
- Mobile phone client user interface needs improvement.
- There are still many things to improve in the everyday use in M-Files client.
December 30, 2019
Superb Document Management System
Today M-Files is being used worldwide inside my company to handle files and another similar kind of documents, like control revision, file storage, and workflow for approvals. It is a very important application for Engineering areas, because this area needs to be conforming to many legal compliances.
- Great workflow.
- Works with metadata, which makes files easy to be found.
- It has excellent versioning control.
- It has integration with other applications, like Office 365.
- It could have more CAD integrations.
- Has the possibility to have online revision, inside the application.
- It could have a better documentation transmitter section.
October 16, 2019
Good for file management and security; but not user friendly due to file view system
M-Files is currently being used by all the Product Development organization following the closure of local hard disk drives. We use it for two main purposes: 1) Storage for the critical files and documents 2) File sharing for the company's internal and external communication. It brings safety and target to prevent loss of information. It now comes default with our laptops/computers and is being used as a default application. A mobile version is also available for usage. It is also integrated for daily office tools like Outlook etc.
- Ease of use. It does not require (or requires limited) user training. You can easily get used to the interface.
- File organization - but once file systematic (or the views) is being copied by the users.
- Compatibility - add-Ins with other MS Office products.
- Mobile platform integration.
- Folder views have to be created by each user. Otherwise you're not able to view the created folders by the other users by default.
- While saving files, it has to be done by using keywords - otherwise later on document cannot be easily found.
July 12, 2019
Happy M-Files Review
M-Files is being using by the whole organization to store, retrieve, revise and approve documentation. The system uses metadata properties allowing users to search and view documents quickly and easily, eliminating chaotic network folders; users are no longer required to remember where a file or folder is stored. Workflow capabilities allow users to route documents for review and sign-off, keeping content in one system vs. multiple databases. Creating assignments in M-Files provides traceability for routing and reviewing of documents, eliminating email attachments and uncontrolled paper files. Permission settings within the system allows only authorized persons to access certain files. The Check In/Check Out system creates automated version control and leaves a history trail, leaving a structured audit trail.
- Metadata drive - searches through metadata and throughout the document itself to retrieve what the user is looking for. Finds documents fast and easily using the search bar. Additional filters can be added if needed to filter further.
- Advanced automated workflows. Assignments are automatically generated once a workflow state is reached and emails notifications are sent to assignees. Automation ensures smooth transitions and eliminates manual triggers.
- Traceability and version control. M-Files tracks each change to the document itself and to the metadata. This is important for audits and having the version history at your fingertips.
- Extremely customizable. Users can create their own views for themselves or common views for the whole company to view a group of documents. These options can be customized based on the metadata properties. Administrators can create the properties and structure in the Admin tool.
- Notifications could be improved. Once an assignment has met the deadline date, it will no longer notify the assignee of an overdue assignment every day after the deadline. The assignee will only see the overdue assignment by opening up M-Files and seeing it on their home screen or referring to the email last received.
- Once an action has been taken within the system, the page needs to be refreshed frequently. Improvements could be made to reduce the refreshing required to see the changes that were made.
- M-Files acts like a library - in order to edit a document it must be checked out by a user. Once changes are made the document should automatically check itself in by default. When exiting out of a document, sometimes it does not automatically check in and requires manual check in. Consistency of automatic actions could be improved.
- The M-Files Admin customization and workflows could be explained or assisted more at initial setup. Since the system is out of the box, trying to setup the system to cater to the company's needs can be time consuming and a confusing process. It took a lot of trial and error to get the metadata properties and values setup properly. It something that we still struggle with at times since M-Files support doesn't know how our company operates and how we want to use the system.
We have implemented M-Files as a service management system for service business and quotation management system for capex projects. This solution covers service agreements, service work management and reporting of service activities for customers and invoicing. Customers' install base of service agreement lines is included. All capex quotations are included with classification information. Already decided further development includes project document management and customer document distribution.
- Defining and implementing data requirements with business people is very flexible
- Defining and implementing business workflows is very flexible
- Document management is efficient
- Creating simple views in M-Files is easy but with increasing data complexity also creation of views becomes complex.
- M-Files has competent people but their support processes can be enhanced.
- User interface could be more user friendly.
October 15, 2018
Empower yourself with content, information and process
We use M-Files workflows to manage business units across the organization. Such as Project implantation, contract life cycle, sales, commissions and more. Tracking project status, history, and documents are key to our success. We utilize M-Files workflows to track key project tasks, personnel and follow up. Workflow notifications keep me on track with contract balances, end dates because the consultant and projects records are always at my fingertips. M-Files standardizes our documentation employing templates for quotes, proposals, contracts and project documentation streamlining our processes.
- Workflows are powerful; they notify personnel of the status and details of a project. Routines, tasks, and checklists are assigned automatically via email or views based on roles or process.
- We can track and inform on anything, from customer requests, formal internal communications, requests, audits, and risk. When a teammate is assigned a request, it brings instant visibility and accountability. Colleagues receive reminders on task deadlines, and tasks escalate when not completed on time, resulting in stronger communication and faster result all around.
- I often say, “If we track it on a spreadsheet today, the process needs to be moved to M-Files tomorrow." There are many micro processes within a team where an individual manages an important procedure in a homegrown manner often on a spreadsheet with date, check boxes, and reminders. Finding these and deploying their methods in M-Files can ease the task and share responsibility among the team.
- I would like to see M-Files implement spellcheck in the user interface and the administration module. It seems like a no-brainer improvement for the end user.
- A web-based template tool or integration would be also wonderful enhancement .
- Enhancement of the Intelligent Metadata Layer (IML) to ease migration of documents from Network Folders.
October 12, 2018
M-Files is great!
M-Files is used throughout our organization. We rely on the powerful workflow tools to help us manage our internal processes. As a growing company we needed a powerful tool that would help us grow without requiring additional staffing resources. M-files has allowed us to continue our growth plan with great success.
- Ease of use for both technical and non-technical staff.
- Ability to search within M-Files as well as other repositories.
- Support and service of the software.
- The M-Files software has very few areas for improvement.
October 08, 2018
M-Files is the Document Management Solution We Needed
M-Files is being used across multiple departments as a library for raw material and packaging specification documents. It is also being used to manage a number of workflows related to those documents, as well as the onboarding process for new record creation in our main ERP system.
- M-Files offers fantastic document management capabilities that solve virtually all of the issues associated with managing document libraries in a traditional folder structure. Version control and document history, the ability to classify documents such that they appear in multiple views, and the excellent access control are all tools we can no longer live without.
- M-Files is extremely customizable without requiring a deep technical background. Basic administrative functions can be learned with relative ease.
- User support for M-Files is top notch.
- M-Files lacks the ability to audit for users who have never accessed it.
September 07, 2018
Why M-Files will make you Smile!
M-Files is being used to store content that is related to individual departments, across departments and across business functions. We had issues sharing and finding content, having too many duplicates and restricting permissions to certain content (or too much restriction).
- Search functionality - M-Files has a robust search system that allows users to quickly find content in seconds
- Relationships between content - how M-Files relates objects to content makes finding valuable information easy
- Versatility - MFiles allows users to integrate with current systems and microsoft office to easily integrate into normal business operations.
- One major frustration we have had has to do with our particular project, not the tool in and of itself. We had a combination of development efforts, some from M-Files and some from our developers in house. It has been hard to push the project forward at times since we are not allowed to control the cloud environment or develop in the cloud environment. We have had to wait on things to get pushed via content packs we develop on prem, which are then shared via a dropbox to M-Files. We hoped there would be a smoother solution for this.
September 05, 2018
M-Files - Allows you to search for what you need wihout knowing where it's located.
M-Files is being Piloted by a few NC Board of Nursing departments prior to being used organization-wide. M-Files is simplifying access to files, data, etc., located in several different databases and applications. We're also combining the implementation of M-Files with the OCR conversion of 10+ years of graphic files into electronically searchable files, which will dramatically improve accessibility and drastically reduce search time.
- M-Files simplifies access to files, data, etc., located in several different databases and applications. You just need to know what you're looking for not where it's located.
- M-Files Intelligent Metadata Layer (IML) tool can search several different databases and applications simultaneously, including but not limited to Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and shared drives. The IML results of your search criteria are displayed on a single page, which simplifies review, access and storage.
- M-Files automatically tracks file/document versions to simplify management and version control, as well as prevent duplicates.
- Searching specific files using the IML Tool is streamlined by displaying company/customer names, document types, contacts etc.
- None so far, since we're early in our implementation.
August 27, 2018
M-files Review
We use M-Files for our U.S. HR department. While we are a global company, we have not rolled this out outside of the U.S. so it is not used across the whole organization at this time. It addresses elimination of paper files and having everything stored electronically.
- Electronically located on users' desktop and users can drag and drop documents quickly and easily.
- We were manually filing papers, so this has been a nice tool to have.
- Once our system was set up, it has been user friendly.
- Main menu not as intuitive.
- Client set up was not as easy and streamlined.
September 11, 2015
M-Files has allowed us to embark on our path to a paperless business
M-Files has been an instrumental tool for our organization to stream line our manufacturing operations, quality control systems and corporate functions. After implementing M-Files, visibility to key information has been moved from a paper system to M-Files which has allowed our company to make real time business decisions.
- The integration of M-Files into our ERP system is very powerful in overlaying our buisness processes on to the functionality of M-Files.
- Customization has also proved to be valuable to our organization as our team demanded a system that could to modified to fit the way we run our business.
- The user interface is good, but as we bring new employees on board it takes time for them to learn the layout and features.