M-Files was founded on the vision to help knowledge workers to work smarter

M-Files was founded two decades ago based on a simple idea: what if documents could be organized based on what they are instead of where they are located? What if users could save documents only once but view, organize and find them in multiple ways based on their unique needs? This would free organizations from trying to define a folder structure that everyone is satisfied with and free users from trying to remember where documents were supposed to be saved.

After the first idea got wings, another novel insight emerged: documents are never standalone but always connected to some context or business process. What if we could leverage what we already know about the documents and automatically apply business processes and governance rules? This approach would eliminate manual effort from users and would help organizations stay compliant with internal policies and external regulations.

While M-Files has continued product innovation and capability expansion, these two foundational ideas have remained at our core for two decades and today we have more than 5000 customers in over 100 countries helping knowledge workers find information faster, to work smarter and ensure security and compliance. Our founder and product innovator is still hands-on, pushing us towards the next waves of technological excellence and we are extremely well positioned to leverage Generative AI on our mission to help knowledge workers to work smarter.

Our approach is unique in the information management market

All vendors in the document management market have similar capabilities on paper: they all manage documents and metadata to some extent and have document workflows and business process management capabilities. However, the M-Files folderless, metadata-driven approach remains unique in the marketplace. Unlike other vendors, we have an object-oriented information model that can be used to manage any enterprise information in addition to documents. Our ability to pull in master data from multiple enterprise systems, create relationships between business objects and documents, and drive associated business processes in a single integrated solution is unique. This is also a perfect foundation for leveraging Generative AI (GenAI) since it needs curated data in context to provide accurate and relevant responses.

While these capabilities create tremendous value for our customers, they are sometimes hard to explain for people who have pre-conceived expectations for document management. Market categories help people understand products, provide the ability to make product comparisons, create a common vocabulary, and open doors for analyst firms to describe markets or software review sites to gather end-user feedback.

However, if products are not easily classified, because they offer competitive differentiation, how can they be properly compared?

Knowledge work automation describes what we do, not the segment we are in

Most of the modern workforce are gradually becoming knowledge workers, and this work is highly collaborative and involves reading, writing, and processing a lot of information. In many industries, that information requires strong governance due to sensitivity, regulation, or standards.

The emergence of GenAI has created significant new opportunities in how software-based automation can transform business processes that involve documents and unstructured information. In our experience, customer expectations have begun to shift beyond traditional document management, collaboration, and transactional use cases to include the need to automate as much of the knowledge work as possible. By doing so, knowledge workers can focus on the work that matters and are not burdened with administrative tasks. We have adopted the concept of knowledge work automation at the core of our positioning as it speaks to the fact that we can enable customers to automate all aspects of knowledge work with the help of existing and emerging technologies.  For us, speaking to our prospects and customer in a way that resonates is our priority.

Gartner recognizes our ability to execute and deliver innovation

Gartner is the most referenced analyst firm covering the document management market. Due to perceived stagnation of the market, Gartner decided to discontinue their Magic Quadrant for Content Service Platforms in 2021. GenAI created a surge of innovation to that market and in response, Gartner reintroduced the Magic Quadrant as the Document Management Magic Quadrant.

M-Files was featured in the CSP Magic Quadrant for over a decade. Gartner included M-Files in the 2024 Magic Quadrant for Document Management and we were scored high on our Ability to Execute due to our maturity with the aspects customers value including: Product/Service, Customer Experience, Market Responsiveness, Company Viability, and Track Record. Gartner also praised us for our ability to execute and deliver innovations to the market. Our integrated AI capabilities were acknowledged in a separate Gartner Market Quadrant for Generative AI Knowledge Management / General Productivity, where M-Files was positioned as a Leader.

During the assessment process, it was clear to us that there were gaps in the analysts' understanding of our vision and strategy. As discussed, M-Files is unique in the market and that presents a challenge to fit us into the mold made for traditional document management. This misalignment affected our scores for Market Understanding and Strategy, resulting in our position as a Challenger vs. a Leader.

Customer-centricity is a core value for M-Files

M-Files has three core values: Make it Happen, Help Others and Love Customers. Customer focus has been a core value for us from the beginning and our best-in-class retention rates and customer satisfaction scores prove we continue to do the right things for our customers. We engage with customers regularly through user research panels, global and regional user conferences, and customer shadowing programs. Listening to customers and taking their feedback into account for our product roadmap is evident in our ability to execute.

While it is always humbling to receive third party recognition and awards, our most important validation comes from our customers. Their feedback keeps us centered on what matters and their continued loyalty keeps our business growing. Anyone looking at M-Files can take insight from our customers; they understand our value and happily testify to that. Check out our Voice of the Customer page, to see that 96% of customers would recommend M-Files. Or browse our case studies to find customers across industries and regions and the value they have realized.

We are leading the charge in knowledge work automation, and we know many other will follow.

If you want to know  more:

• Voice of the customer
• Gartner Magic Quadrant report