In business, if you were to ask a group of executives to name their top five investments which have a measurable positive return on investment (ROI), you would probably see many of the same, usual suspects on their lists: ad programs, salespeople, fulfillment systems, marketing infrastructure, lead generation programs, to cite a few.

That checks out. Sales and marketing investments are usually viewed through the lens of ROI, and as well they should. But what about the ROI of technology investments? Forbes recently cited eleven top IT investments businesses will make in 2021 — and they include investments like cloud migration, communication automation, employee engagement and digital customer experiences.

But there’s another big one to add to the list — one that’s all too often ignored yet has a huge impact on business efficiency… a top-flight information management system. It’s traditionally been classified as an intangible that presents significant benefit, but sometimes challenging to quantify the return on investment.

Not anymore.

M-Files ROI Study: Unveiling the Power of Intelligent Information Management

M-Files has just released a newly published study commissioned with Forrester Consulting to apply research methodologies and answer the question, once and for all: What is the ROI of an intelligent information management system for an enterprise-level organization?

The research report, The Total Economic Impact of M-Files — which is available for download here — provides business managers a competent framework to evaluate the potential impact of intelligent information management, and M-Files specifically, on their organizations.

In the film Moneyball, about a baseball team pursuing a data-driven, analytical approach to the game, one character explains that evaluating players is all about boiling their value down to one number. That’s what Forrester has done through their research. They’ve interviewed several M-Files customers to arrive at one number — the ROI of M-Files intelligent information management for these organizations — and the findings will exceed your expectations.

Quantifiable Benefits: Increased Efficiency & Saved Time

Nearly 270% Return on Investment. Let’s just start with the number you really want.

The customer interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization (based on the 5 companies interviewed) experienced benefits of over $5 million, over a three-year period. Compared to the accompanying costs, that added up to an ROI of 267%.

Let me just state that plainly. For every dollar an organization spends on M-Files intelligent information management, they will potentially realize a return of nearly $2.70, over three years. The impact cannot be understated.

You might say, “So, we can find documents easier. How does that equate to such a large ROI number?”

The answer is simple: an enterprise-class intelligent information management system like M-Files is so much more than just storing documents and finding them a couple minutes faster than before.

Below you’ll find the top four quantifiable benefits from the study — although we highly recommend you check out the report for a comprehensive analysis.

Improved Compliance & Reduced Audit Costs

The Impact of Finding Documents with Lightning-Fast Accuracy.

Gartner says that professionals spend 50% of their time searching for information, and on average, take 18 minutes to locate each document. Amplified throughout a large organization, that presents significant slowdowns in productivity.

How much time (and money) can be saved with a more efficient search?

The Forrester Total Economic Impact research reveals that organizations achieve more efficient searching for documents by 40%, with savings up to almost $1.65 million.

Why? Several reasons.

M-Files connects to all the systems and nooks and crannies where information hides. It’s the problem of dark data — which is the information assets an organization collects, processes and stores during regular business activities, but generally fails to use for other purposes, including analytics. Ultimately, it is content that is important to a business that has become invisible because it can’t be found effectively. M-Files connects to existing systems to present information no matter where it lives. Imagine a world where it doesn’t matter if the information you need is in your CRM, SharePoint, ERP, network folders, wherever.

A single keyword is all you need to find information. Metadata underpins the entire M-Files intelligent information management platform and it’s what enables you to find what you need with just a keyword.

Find content with Google-like results. In M-Files, simply enter a keyword (and a filter or two, if you want), and the system returns a search window with the most relevant results at the top. Again, no matter where your information is stored, M-Files reaches across your entire information ecosystem to present the most relevant search results.

Enhanced Document Classification & Retrieval

The Impact of Improving Compliance and Audit Processes.

In the event of an audit or compliance issue, chasing files down on employees’ laptops and searching through dreaded paper files can present a significant expenditure of resources and time.

The Forrester Total Economic Impact research reveals that M-Files helped organizations enhance their compliance and audit processes by up to 25%, with savings over $583,000.

In addition to providing enterprise-level security to safeguard the security and privacy of an organization’s data, M-Files features full audit trails for every document that reveals who has accessed the document, and what actions they took. M-Files customers can find a full document lifecycle in a couple clicks — for every file in their ecosystem.

In regulated industries, compliance audits can be the exhaustive and demanding. Needless to say, the impact of improving compliance processes with M-Files, especially in the event of an audit, is significant. Users can find and access all required documentation in minutes, instead of days.

Revenue Generation & Streamlined Client Management

The Impact of Properly Classifying Business Documents.

What if it didn’t matter where a document lived, but only what the document is? That’s what organizations get with M-Files and it’s a powerful capability. The “what it is” sits at the heart of the M-Files intelligent information management platform.

Every file has metadata associated with it — meaningful descriptions that serve to classify and index those files. At a glance, users can determine what a document is, what it pertains to and other important data about that file. Not only that, but M-Files comes with AI and automation features embedded at the core of the solution, automating the process of categorizing and indexing documents across departments. In fact, in a recent M-Files survey, 82% of workers reported that they spend too much time searching for documents. M-Files addresses this issue head-on, ensuring that documents are properly classified and easily retrievable.

Unlocking the Full Potential of Information Management

The Forrester Total Economic Impact study highlights how M-Files can transform your business by improving efficiency, compliance, and document management. The benefits are clear: significant cost savings, enhanced productivity, and a substantial ROI.

Ready to unlock the power of intelligent information management and achieve a near 3x ROI? Download your free copy of the Forrester Total Economic Impact of M-Files study today! Schedule a free demo or start a free trial today!