When an organization looks to upgrade its document management system, it can be difficult to sift through the deluge of information about major features and licensing tiers and APIs and so on. It is easy to get lost in buzzwords and techno-speak. That’s why seeking out real life success stories is important.
For over 20 years, TEAM IM has helped bring about a successful digital transformation of content management systems for partners across a wide variety of industries. And one of the most effective tools in these endeavors has been M-Files.
M-Files is a metadata-driven document management platform. That means that documents and other key file formats are stored and made discoverable based on the content of those files, not the format of the item.
Essentially, M-Files allows you to search based on a metadata tag to get every piece of content related to a subject across all your connected applications instead of searching for content in every individual app. By unifying your content management, you open the door to streamline processes that, without M-Files, can be stuffed full of pain points and inefficiencies.
Before looking at real-world examples of the strength of M-Files as an enterprise content management platform, let’s dig a bit deeper into what makes M-Files such an effective tool.
As an intelligent information management platform, M-Files makes searching, storing, and sharing information simple and efficient. To put it simply, with M-Files, your data is organized based on what it is rather than its file type.
The focus on metadata is central to the digital transformation that your processes can undergo through the utilization of M-Files. The benefits of M-Files spiral out from that central premise of leveraging the power of metadata.
Identifying documents via metadata tags allows a team to easily maintain version control because changes to a document can be tracked easily when only one version of the document needs to exist. It also facilitates automated compliance tracking as you can mark certain tags to require specific permissions for viewing and altering.
M-Files is easy to use across devices, allowing you to pull up documents on mobile devices anywhere in the world — and the easy interfacing of M-Files with e-signature tools like DropBox Sign means you can sign documents from any device, too.
M-Files is also an optimal tool for AI-powered document search functionality. Natural language processing tools such as ABBYY Vantage help identify phrases, apply metadata tags, and generally automate numerous document processing operations in such a way that Artificial Intelligence can crawl through your documents for an even more efficient search than was already available.
Some of the industries that have benefited most from a digital transformation to M-Files include finance, construction, real estate, legal, and health care. These are industries that rely on document processing to keep their operations flowing smoothly — and M-Files gives them what they need.
It’s one thing to look at what M-Files can do, it is quite another to look at how it has helped organizations in different industries improve their document management processes. TEAM IM is both an Authorized Service Partner and a Certified Application Partner to M-Files and that expertise has paid dividends for our clients.
Allied needed paperless office solutions because they were getting bogged down with document retrieval delays, among other paper-based process inefficiencies. In order to meet Allied’s needs, TEAM IM looked over their use of M-Files and provided ideas and software to address those needs with an eye toward scalability for future growth.
TEAM IM incorporated eForms and frevvo to facilitate business process automation across multiple workflows. This resulted in faster document processing cycles, improved compliance and version control, and a significant reduction in manual errors.
Additionally, Allied was so pleased with what they received that they have maintained a relationship with TEAM IM for ongoing enhanced support.
The oil and gas industry requires a great deal of documentation to verify compliance with safety and environmental regulations. And because periodic audits are not unusual, retaining records is an absolute necessity.
TEAM IM studied the processes and requirements needed to produce and store these key documents and implemented a system combining M-Files and AutoRecords to automate compliance tracking and store records in an easily searched database.
Thanks to this automated regulatory compliance management plan, the client reduced the risk of human error in compliance functions while improving the efficiency of their compliance tracking.
The digital transformation required by Regency Centers focused on migrating data. Regency had large volumes of legacy data that needed to be migrated to a centralized document repository without interrupting system continuity.
TEAM IM designed a migration plan that aligned with Regency’s needs and timeframe. Afterwards, Regency Centers demonstrated more efficient document retrieval along with improved collaboration across teams without any data loss during migration.
NCIS needed to manage document confidentiality as well as give end-users a way to access their information with clear document version control. TEAM IM leveraged M-Files to provide access controls, encryption, and audit trails.
NCIS’s security protocols were enhanced and its adherence to industry regulations was accommodated in their digital transformation. A web portal was also established to provide secure self-service access to their end-users that integrated seamlessly with M-Files.
HHB’s needs focused primarily on enterprise file management. Because of the nature of their operations as a financial services provider, they needed clients to send them important documents regularly and their storage and filing system was not keeping up with their requirements.
TEAM IM used M-Files to create a centralized document management hub that facilitated AI-powered search functions without sacrificing financial document security. This greatly improved employee productivity through the increased ease of discovery through searches alongside strengthened client information security.
When you decide to use M-Files for on-premise and/or cloud-based workflow optimization, be sure to come into the project with a clear idea of what you want your content management upgrade to look like. Try to follow these best practices:
Taking all of these best practices into account, the smartest move you can make when looking to improve your document management processes with M-Files is to work with an experienced group of developers and engineers such as you will find at TEAM IM.
From deployment and migration to custom application development and integration, TEAM IM has experts that know M-Files inside and out and can provide your organization with an optimized digital transformation.
Whether you are looking to transition into paperless operations or seeking to improve your existing digital storage and content management system, M-Files likely has the tools and functionalities that you need.
It is normal to have questions about making such a major change to your existing operational processes. Maybe you aren’t sure about how data security in the cloud will stand up to your existing protocols. Perhaps you are simply used to how you do things now and are hesitant to change.
That’s where the expertise of TEAM IM can make all the difference in the world. TEAM IM will work with you to develop and execute a digital transformation plan that will preserve your existing data while creating a better, more reliable, metadata-driven system that can grow with you.
And keep in mind — this is not simply a matter of installing software and moving data around. TEAM IM will identify applications that can integrate with M-Files to augment your operations and, if necessary, develop customized apps that can serve the unique needs of your industry.
M-Files stores documents and other forms of content according to what it is, not according to file type. It makes searching more efficient while providing automation opportunities to improve your processes and workflows. Making M-Files the core of your content management system’s digital transformation will pay dividends sooner than you might expect.
Reach out to TEAM IM to see how M-Files can help your organization just as it has helped so many other organizations in the past.
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