Many organisations use Salesforce for customer relationship management (CRM), issue management, case management and all its other powerful functionalities. But what Salesforce may not be ideal for is document management. Salesforce offers the ability to upload documents, but its capabilities are limited on a number of pain points:
- Non-Salesforce users do not have access to attached documents, which can result in multiple document versions.
- Multiple content management tools reduce employee efficiency.
- It can be difficult to find documents or to find the correct version of a document.
- Salesforce charges extra for document storage.
Fortunately, M-Files has a robust built-in integration with Salesforce that makes a large set of functionalities available directly in Salesforce itself.
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A powerful and robust document management integration
Salesforce integration has two types: one-way and two-way. Most organisations exploit the greatest advantage in terms of flexibility thanks to two-way integration.
M-Files integrates directly into the Salesforce user interface, so a Salesforce user does not need to switch to M-Files to open or manage documents. However, some users may prefer the M-Files interface. Offering users a choice between different interfaces can increase user adoption and satisfaction.
The deep integration allows users to access not only the same documents, but also the same functionality both from Salesforce and M-Files. For example, you can create an account object in M-Files and access that account in Salesforce. Similarly, you can link a document to an account in Salesforce and M-Files will automatically assign the related properties to the document. This allows users to stay in their primary application without having to go back and forth to do their work.
One of the major benefits for Salesforce organisations implementing M-Files is a reduction in the Salesforce cost of ownership. Employees who only need to access Salesforce data can do so through M-Files, reducing the need for Salesforce licences.
M-Files offers integration with Salesforce Lightening as well as Salesforce Classic, so users of both versions can take advantage of M-Files' capabilities.
Manage documents in Salesforce like never before
M-Files offers Salesforce users a complete suite of document management features. These include document versioning, history, the ability to revert to an older version, the ability to capture or automatically assign document properties, previews of documents in the user interface, document security, workflows from simple to advanced, and smart search and filter functionalities comparable to those of Google.
One of the unique features of M-Files is the way documents are organised. Unlike the traditional way of storing documents, there are no folders. All documents are classified based on their properties. With M-Files, you create so-called views based on the properties of documents. Users can also design their own views to personalise their set-up. Perhaps this is best compared to how to easily organise music in Spotify this is how M-Files manages documents.
Functionalities that make every Salesforce user happy
M-Files has some great built-in features that enable users to work with documents in a simple, intuitive and user-friendly way:
- Quick access to the most recently used documents
- An instant preview of a document in the interface
- Checking out documents as they are edited
- An overview of all checked-out documents for easy maintenance of the overview
- Viewing the version history of a document
- Assign a document to a person for a particular task
- View all documents assigned to others
- Pinning a document so it can be quickly opened later
- A duplication check when uploading so you are alerted
- A duplication check alerts if a document is uploaded that already exists
- Make Salesforce the one-stop shop for all customer information
Why M-Files is unprecedentedly flexible
To understand the flexibility of M-Files a little better, it helps to explain a few definitions.
M-Files is usually called a document management system. But it is perhaps more relevant to describe it as a platform for managing objects. Documents and document collections are standard object types, but additional object types can be created and managed to meet an organisation's specific needs.
Properties can be assigned for any type of object, not just documents. So this can also be done for all other conceivable objects such as customer, file, location, project and employee. These are just a few examples, the possibilities are practically limitless, which makes M-Files fit every organisation like a glove.