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M‑Files

M‑Files

Overview

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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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

M-Files is a versatile software that is widely used across various industries and departments. Users have reported significant …
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Why M-Files

10 out of 10
March 01, 2023
Incentivized
As I have been consultant for M-Files, I implemented M-Files in almost 10 organizations. These organization were Manufacturing, Education, …
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Awards

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Pricing

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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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  • No setup fee

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  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

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

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

M‑Files Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Supported CountriesM-Files is available in 100+ countries through direct support or via the company's partner network.
Supported LanguagesM-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

Laserfiche, OpenText Content Suite Platform, and Alfresco are common alternatives for M‑Files.

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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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(147)

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!

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

(1-25 of 30)
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March 03, 2023

Strong DMS

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
M-Files is well suited for what it is designed for - document management. The quality of API documentation makes customization of M-files for a particular client a cumbersome task.
March 01, 2023

Why M-Files

Zakir Hussain | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
M-Files is best for companies who have multiple sub companies they can manage whole the operations from one single machine. Companies who only want to get DMS for archiving M-Files is not considered suitable as the it has many features and cost is becoming high.
Anssi Mäkelä | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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).
M-files is well suited for its core tasks like document and information management, automating workflows, keeping track of tasks, sharing materials easily and securely, etc. but I would also recommend to customize M-files to fit for any specific needs. M-files is very versatile and you can integrate it with other software.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am a Power Initiator. I create, review, and update Safety Policies, Procedures, and Work Instructions. Train and Re-train employees on the above by Creating and Managing Learning Rules. Troubleshoot and correct user error. Train and Re-train M-Files users. The product helps achieve my work tasks by keeping all our documents organized and in one place.
  • Decent document search engine
  • Notifies when action is needed
  • Recently accessed history
  • Search finds retired or superseded documents leading to potential confusion.
  • Would like to be notified when employee completes Learning Rule I created.
  • Hard to master as a beginner
I am not a software expert but understand the complexity of a product such as this, but in my opinion the product is difficult, confusing, and time consuming to master. It takes years if not used constantly. After several years of use I am still learning to manipulate the interface to work as I desire. It gets the job done by holding all of our documents in one place and fairly easy to access once learned.
July 07, 2022

Satisfied user

Päivi Lentovaara-Msadek | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
M-Files is easy to use as long as you get to know it properly. M-Files support is available quickly when you need it.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
M-Files is a wonderful enterprise document management tool. The only area where I see it lacking is visibility into the workflow; i.e. a visual of what step/person a certain task is with. Secondly, most of the integrations to do document federation is custom code. I'd like to see them have more out-of-the-box functionality to plugin with other major systems such as Oracle.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
M-Files is used by the whole company and it is where we store all of our project data for the whole company. Having over 10 locations, file management becomes cumbersome to deal with as well as file security rights. M-Files makes this difficult task super easy with their check out/check in option. I would highly recommend using this program.
  • Version History
  • File Management
  • File Rights
  • One interface for all
  • Ability to add custom fields to virtual folder views
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
All our business agreements are in M-files. Problems: Search capabilities within M-files are unclear. There's too much metadata to use it user-friendly.
  • Always available (Saas)
  • No lost of data (Backups are done)
  • Performance (Saas and desktop)
  • Search functionalities and complexity
  • Tailored datamodel per customer
  • Difficulty understanding the product and its functions
  • Consideration of customer feedback in product development
Good:It is stable, Bad: difficult to use for search purposes and duplicate information via meta data.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
M-Files serves as the document hub for our sales and projects. The scope of our use case is fetching data from external cloud apps (sales, forecasting, and CRM).
  • Document hub/center
  • Views (based on roles)
  • Search
  • They make it rather painless to re-think and re-do metadata or an information structure
  • It is hard to stage changes in a controlled manner (test environment -> production)
  • Mostly manual administration of changes
  • Competitive offering to onboarding new customers
It is hard to sell an M-Files roll-out for new opportunities due to the lack of new joiners' offerings and support. Otherwise, M-Files is an easy, no fuss, and stable information and document management system.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

M-Files holds the policies and forms for our hospital system. It is used by all associates/manager's/physicians within Catholic Health. Our M-Files account was created and designed for the needs of our hospital system. It is a very reliable system with easy access for our users. The search capability is extremely fast and reliable. When an associate needs immediate access to a policy or form, it is readily available. This is critical since we have surgery consents on this system as well as many other policies and forms and our five hospitals rely on these documents to function.

From an administrator's view, this system was created by working with M-Files so we have everything that is required, such as the documented date and time stamps for pathologists approvals on our policies, easy access to all versions of each policy, more than one version of a policy visible at a time for training purposes, and excellent customer service.

  • 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.
  • When our account was first live, shortly after that we had our one and only downtime. When I called for assistance, I was told that I needed to work with Strickland Solutions, who created our vault for M-Files. When I called my contacts there, they told me I needed to contact M-Files. It was frustrating and did get to the bottom of it. There are now account reps that I can work with if I need to but I would recommend (and I had already suggested) that the support team is well aware of what level of support each customer has for their account. My account rep does call to check in with me periodically, but seriously, we aren't having issues and are a very satisfied customer.
For Catholic Health, M-Files has been a huge success. We have around 27,000 documents on this system and it's an extremely easy system to use and a great resource for our end users. It's hard when you make the decision to change vendors and need to pick a new system. There are a lot of companies out there offering their services and promising you everything but when it comes down to it, not all can provide what was promised. I honestly don't think we could have picked a better system for us. We had a few glitches in the beginning because we thought we had 10,000 policies and forms, but when we went to transfer them over, we really, at that time, had 25,000 documents because we had the previous versions that were required to be retained. When creating this system, there was tremendous time spent on our special requirements, and it is well worth that time spent to make a system that is exactly what is required for your company, and I think we accomplished that. Honestly, Strickland Solutions has made enhancements to our system since it was created to increase the quality of our system. I think it's endless what can be done by the programmers. They have always been able to come up with a solution for us. As far as scenarios that are less appropriate, we only asked for a presentation based on our needs but it seems like M-Files could create a system for anything based on the amazing skill of the programmers.
Arto Määttä | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use M-Files across the whole company. We have an ERP system that is built on M-Files, so we use it widely for production, quality, and purchasing. Basically all documentation is stored and handled in M-Files. We also use its workflows to manage production flows, purchase orders, agreements etc.
  • Document versioning is very easy and you can easily come back to earlier version
  • You can define, which metadata is needed to each document type. This makes saving with correct metadata easier.
  • Document sharing is easy and you can select, if you want to share a certain version or the newest one.
  • NA
I think practically everyone can benefit from M-Files. It is especially suitable for those companies that have multiple locations. With M-Files it is easy to share documents and make sure that everyone has the most updated one. If you want to keep things simple, you can replace old folder-based file system with M-files. However, if you want more complex system, that is easy to build.
May 22, 2020

M-Files Review

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
The M-Files workflow feature is fantastic, and a lot of our departments use this feature to review/approve various documents.

The metadata feature is a concept that is lost on a lot of people, so there is a big learning curve when new folks start using it.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use M-Files as a global document and workflow management system.
  • Document version history
  • Global sharing of documents
  • Structured storing and fast finding of relevant information and documents
  • GUI is a bit over complicated these days
  • After updates to software, I need to select my offline views again
  • No search in offline mode
M-Files is pretty much the only way to enable structured management of business process documents on a global scale.
Sarah M.C. von Innerebner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
M-Files centralizes documents to present in a filterable view based on metadata, this creates confidence that users are seeing the content that they need for what they have permission to access. There is a learning curve for users if they have not yet encountered an ECM in their career, to learn a new approach to document management and learning to share their content beyond themselves so their team has access or their successors have access. Content is no longer a silo to just a user's purview but can unite efforts for a team working together toward a common goal. These efforts can be automated in workflows to ensure steps are not missed and content is not seen by those not permitted for access. The administrator needs to be creative to listen to the business needs and configure the simplest solution for users, no easy task. This could mean coding the IML to detect terms and suggest the appropriate property or leveraging an automatic object or workflow to feed another filtered property, or adding a property, to automatically restrict access to a related document.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
M-Files is used in the whole company as the main document handling system. With meta data all contracts are classified and saved.
  • Metadata classification helps to find the correct document or all equivalent items.
  • Version method of one document helps to get rid of different documents that are hard to recognise ("final. FINAL").
  • Documents can be defined by different Permissions and confidentiality level. Well appreciated feature by our customers.
  • Interface (API) from our CRM system produces the metadata structure to M-Files.
  • Scanning settings from multiprinter directly to M-Files should exist by default.
  • The number of documents grow hard to manage. I have not found assisting feature to pack or separate historical data.
For filing of individual documents and document classes M-Files is unbeatable. If there is need to save folders or files with numerous different types of documents the saving is tedious and time consuming.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
It is best to be used in document management, like quality and internal documents, such as legal and IT purposes. It has several features that help the user to find documents, and the main one is metadata. It is also a good tool to be integrated with your current ERP, because metadata can be used to easily find documents. It is less appropriate to be used fully by an Engineering area, due to missing functions related to file transmitters and other minor issues.
Özgür Erkek, MSc, PRINCE2® | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
M-files is being more required especially due to security purposes. I think more companies (especially big organizations) will require M-Files or similar programs in the future. Although user interface is easy to get used to, file management and view logic is quite different to MS Windows; which at this point creates a confusion for the users. It is a bit hard to get used to with file management/view logic. I think users lose much time to do correct/enough categorization in order to upload the documents.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
M-Files is well suited for a manufacturing company or business looking for an established content management structure. It's a solution for version control, automated workflows, permission settings, quick searchable database and automated retention. Any company seeking ISO certifications or working towards standards should consider this system for managing their content. M-Files could be less appropriate for a company not wanting to customize the product, as it will take time to structure and implement to the company.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used across the entire organization. Eliminates paper documents, for the most part, reducing clutter and filing. Searching for and retrieving documents is now much simpler. Overall, the office function is more efficient.
  • Centralized store of purchasing documents.
  • Centralized store of quality and safety documents.
  • Sales process has been streamlined.
  • Initial set-up was rather complex, but not impossible.
  • Metadata card customization could be simplified.
  • Search function returns too few results at times.
It is very good at managing documents. It doesn't seem to interface very well with SolidWorks, which is definitely a negative.
Todd Ek | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized

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.
M-Files is well suited for almost any environment, my favorite being Quality Management. It is a great fit for any compliance or regulated organization that wants to enhance compliance or is working towards compliance. M-Files powerfully assists with document control, change requests, audit planning, and execution, issue and risk management and training with a turn-key approach.
Matthew Sirois | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.

M-Files is specifically well suited for document management, especially when the population documents are significant. When the number of documents is small, that advantages of using M-Files may be offset by the need to setup an appropriate document type and metadata structure.

M-Files is also excellent at managing customized workflows.

Rebecca Sims | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
MFiles is well suited for companies with large amounts of content, that have confidential information, that are related to other "objects" and much more.
Rush Hoag | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use M-Files to help our customers keep track of and control their documents.
  • Storage of documents
  • Customer service
  • User training
  • M-Files used to offer a more entry-level program, but they have done away with that, limiting the type of the customer that can justify the product
It's perfect for people managing complex financial portfolios
Tom Purdy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
M-Files is well-suited for searching files, documents, etc., that are located in several different databases and/or applications. It also simplifies the search process quickly by displaying results from several different sources simultaneously.
September 11, 2017

M-files Magic

Vineta Rubene | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use M-files across the whole organization (50 users). M-files helped to implement a paperless office - our documents are agreed and approved in M-files. Documents are available at other company locations immediately. Version control is great with M-files.
  • Very user-friendly interface.
  • Quite easy to configure.
  • Extremely powerful user access rights management, including access based on document metadata.
  • Add comments to read-only document.
  • Minor improvement - posibility create a new document based on existing document (not copy, just duplicate common metadata).
Very good for typical document management - create document (based on template or not), approve, share, store, search. Good version management. Works with Microsoft. M-files is not a task or resource management system (however quite a lot of things could be done through M-files tasks).
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