Companies are increasingly dependent on information; within every department or team, information plays a crucial role. In recent years, the amount of information increased exponentially. Partly because information serves as the basis for insights and making the right decisions, and partly because more and more information is being created and stored. With COVID-19 and increased working from home, the number of locations where information resides has also exploded. Developments that pose the next big IT challenges to almost every organisation:
- A deluge of unstructured data: information not located in a database, but rather in documents, e-mail attachments, presentations, chats, e-mail correspondence, etc.
- Difficulty organising and classifying information: especially in a traditional location-based hierarchy of file folders and subfolders.
- proliferation of and within content sites: information in different applications, apps and systems
To meet these challenges, the 6 information management trends below can help:
Content
Improving findability of information with Federated search
More than 60% of information workers have to search for their information in 4 or more systems (source: CMSwire). Federated search is a search technology that can search multiple sources for information simultaneously. This search functionality is built into M-Files by default. M-Files does not care where your documents are located. Searches can be performed across all the organisation's information silos, regardless of where the files are located. That's the power of focusing on content over location.
Artificial intelligence (AI) for smarter information management
AI is ubiquitous in many technologies and apps that everyone uses every day, but it is now also going to play an important role in information management. AI can search large amounts of data, for example for personally identifiable information. In addition, AI can suggest metadata to help classify information.
M-Files is fully committed to staying at the forefront in terms of AI functionalities. M-Files offers unique intelligent services that help organisations further automate office work.
- M-Files Smart Classifier: automatically suggests a classification of an object, such as 'Contract', 'Invoice' or 'Template'.
- M-Files Information Extractor: automatically scans documents and suggests relevant metadata based on content.
- M-Files Image Analysis: automatically scans images suggests relevant data such as what and who can be seen in the image.
The rise of anywhere, anytime access to information
The year 2020 will go down in the history books as the year when being able to work anywhere and anytime had its breakthrough. Knowledge workers needed remote access to company information and files. They needed the same experience at home as in the office. By far the most important part of any successful remote flexible working strategy has to do with an information platform as a starting point. And that is what M-Files is at its core: one central place that provides easy and secure access to all the information needed to work. Regardless of the screen or device used to work, even without an internet connection.
Drastically improving collaboration
Like remote working, flexible tools should enable hassle-free collaboration. As traditional ways of working change to a collaborative model, intelligent information management tools such as M-Files are indispensable. From document sharing to task tracking and co-authoring, these technologies support collaboration anno 2021, even in a remote working environment.
Connecting disparate information silos
Employees should not have to switch between applications, programmes and tools to find the information they need. M-Files is the only one in the world to offer a simple, unified user experience for modern information management. You can use the same user interface to search information across all connected systems and locations, both in the cloud and on-premises.
An attractive user interface
Now that much software has reached a certain level of functional maturity, some of the focus has shifted to creating an enjoyable user experience. Users have become accustomed to Netflix, Spotify and Google and expect these dynamic user interfaces in their work too. In 2021, M-Files has focused on the UI and user experience, reflected in M-Files' new and improved web interface.
What are you waiting for?
Going beyond traditional ECM solutions, M-Files replaces manual workflows with automated ones, with built-in AI functionalities to find information faster and classify it easily. M-Files helps organisations find, manage and secure business-critical documents and information from any device, regardless of where they are stored - so that your organisation is prepared for anything post-2021.
Is your organisation looking to capitalise on information management trends? Then consider M-Files 30-day trialfree and without obligation