The amount of information companies must manage is exploding, while demands related to compliance and the need to automate and simplify are increasing. Legacy enterprise content management (ECM) systems and other traditional approaches to managing information aren’t working. Information is either locked up in rigid, one-size-fits-all systems or it chaotically proliferates across multiple disconnected systems. Companies are struggling to effectively manage documents and other information stored across these “information silos,” and as a result, employees can’t quickly find the information they need to do their jobs.

Analysts, industry pundits and information management experts all agree:

“A different approach is needed for managing information. Every organization will have a different journey, but the following key assumptions are key for all: 1) give up on the notion of a single-repository world and focus on repository-neutral solutions; 2) drive user-adoption with simple, clean UIs and intuitive tools; and 3) understand the importance of metadata.”
John Mancini, chief evangelist at AIIM

M-Files Unlocks the Value of Information and Drives Innovation

M-Files 2018 and the Intelligent Metadata Layer delivers a simple, unified experience for intelligently finding, accessing and managing information residing within any system, without disturbing existing processes and the users that depend on them. This also eliminates the need for complex and expensive migration projects, two major stumbling blocks to innovation and business process improvement.

“M-Files 2018 introduces a new approach we call ‘intelligent information management’ that has driven analysts, industry experts and all types of organizations to completely re-think their traditional definitions and approaches for managing information. M-Files 2018 signifies the end of the myth that ‘all content must reside in one system.’ Our vision has always been that it doesn’t really matter where information is stored; what’s important is the actual information itself, as well as what it’s related to and the context that makes it relevant.”

Intelligent Metadata Layer Delivers Unified Access and User Experience to External Systems

The Intelligent Metadata Layer is a new innovation in the M-Files architecture that supports connectors to external systems. Once a connector to an external system is installed, information residing within that system is immediately available directly via the M-Files mobile app, the M-Files desktop application and web access. Users can search and browse without migrating data and without impacting users of the connected system. Information residing in external systems can also be enriched with metadata, which enables M-Files to establish relevance and context when searching for information across existing business systems. For instance, documents in a network folder or SharePoint can be classified by type (e.g., a contract or proposal) and related to other important business objects, such as a customer account in Salesforce or a project or case in an ERP“>ERP system. This provides an entirely new and dynamic contextual view of the information while leaving it in place and fully accessible to users that don’t have M-Files.

Repository connectors supported with M-Files 2018 include:

Intelligent information management is easy, dynamic and smart — and M-Files is leading the way! If this sounds interesting to you, leave a comment below and let me know what you think. You can also view a complete list of new features and capabilities in M-Files 2018 and learn more.

Source: http://www.m-files.com/blog/m-files-2018-and-intelligent-metadata-layer-revolutionizing-businesses-manage-information/