M-Files Corporation has released M-Files 2018, a major new version of its information management software. The company says it is the first product in the industry that can unify and manage information kept in other systems, with no need to migrate it. KMWorld reported the launch on December 13, 2017.
At the core of the release is a new Intelligent Metadata Layer. It gives users one simple interface to documents and other information, no matter which system holds them. Many companies keep data in separate silos, and older enterprise content management systems often fail to keep up. M-Files 2018 lets people find and manage that information without changing the processes they already use. As a result, costly and complex migration projects are no longer needed.
CEO Miika Mäkitalo said the release ends the myth that all content has to live in a single system.
The layer works through connectors to outside systems. Once a connector is installed, the content of that system shows up at once in the M-Files mobile app, desktop app and web access. Users can search and browse it, while people who work directly in the connected system are not affected. Metadata can also be added to outside files, so M-Files can see how they relate to other business data.
For example, a document in a network folder or in SharePoint can be tagged as a contract or a proposal. It can then be linked to a customer account in Salesforce or to a project in an ERP system. The platform has an open architecture, so partners and customers can build their own connectors. Connectors for Google Drive and Microsoft Exchange were listed as coming soon.
Artificial intelligence is the other big part of the release. M-Files 2018 can analyze, classify and tag documents on its own, and it can relate them to records in CRM, ERP or HR systems. To do that, it uses text analytics, natural language processing, natural language understanding and image analysis. M-Files built some of these patent-pending tools in-house. Even so, the system stays open to third-party AI services from Microsoft, Google and ABBYY.
