It’s that time of year again and the ubiquitous analyst firm has just released the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms (CSP). Our team is proud to report that M-Files is positioned as the most visionary solution on this year’s quadrant — the ninth consecutive year on the quadrant altogether.
Pat on the back.
But while we here at M-Files are always keen to see where we land, the report serves as an invaluable tool for the business community at-large. The volume of information generated and managed in any given company is growing… and growing… and growing. Thus, information management strategy — both long-term and short-term — is a key plank in an organization’s overall strategy.
And the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms always bears a few actionable takeaways on the direction of information management strategy worth noting. Below you’ll find a summary of three takeaways, but we urge you to download your complimentary copy here.
Choose an Information Management Platform that can Integrate with Existing Systems
When an organization decides on a content services platform, it should focus on one that is tightly integrated with other content silos — email, SharePoint, CRM, network folders. If there is not a tight integration, it can quickly cause problems that get amplified throughout the organization. When there is a lack of integration, companies end up creating yet another information silo, all because they can’t or even don’t want to retire existing data repositories. They’ve made their problem worse, not better, and most distressing is the fact that a lot of people don’t realize that this is what happened at all.
In fact, with the right information management system, it’s not even necessary to go through this dramatic content migration process in the first place. All told, there are a few common challenges that most businesses face when going through content migrations, and the right information management platform like M-Files can help render every single one of them unnecessary with the Intelligent Metadata Layer — which connects repositories to M-Files for a single content hub experience.
Another consideration is user adoption. If users are still forced to switch between core applications to find the information they need, user adoption of the content services platform suffers.
Platforms with Built-In Artificial Intelligence are a Powerful Choice
It seems that artificial intelligence (AI) in enterprise information management is living up to the hype. In particular, Gartner sees three major types of intelligence that have matured significantly in the past year. AI and machine learning can help enterprises:
- Classify content
- Surface relevant content
- Protect sensitive information
Organizations that are reviewing CSP solutions should be keen to find a solution that incorporates bleeding edge AI into the platform.
AI has, in fact, become a cornerstone of M-Files technology — offering intelligence services like:
- M-Files Smart Classifier: Automatically suggests a Class for an object, such as “Template”, “Agreement”, or “Offer”
- M-Files Information Extractor: Automatically scans through the content of a document to suggest relevant metadata
- M-Files Image Analysis: Automatically examines the image to suggest captions, categories, tags, and facial analysis results as metadata suggestions
Not only that but in an information security context, M-Files AI is an invaluable frontline tool for finding and flagging personally identifiable information like social security numbers and credit card numbers. Incoming documents and existing stores of documents can be processed in a fraction of the time it would take to do manually.
A Crazy 2020 Made Cloud-Based Platforms a Necessity for a Remote, Flexible Workplace
This year exposed who was and wasn’t prepared in their digital transformation. COVID-19 forced companies to send their knowledge workers home — abandoning the confines of the office for their kitchen tables and guest rooms. They still needed to communicate with colleagues and clients, hold meetings — and most importantly have the same access to business-critical information that they would have at the office.
Thus, this year highlighted the importance of a cloud-based content services platform. Organizational continuity relied on having a system in place where users could access and manage information from home — or the airport, hotel, coffee shop, wherever — and from any device. Not only that, but — harkening back to the first takeaway on this list — it became important that a CSP integrated seamlessly with other predominant cloud-based tools like Microsoft 365.
In choosing cloud-based CSPs, companies moved vastly closer to the ultimate goal of a responsive, remote, flexible workplace, and that paid huge dividends this year in terms of minimizing disruption. The flexibility offered by M-Files, in particular, made it an easier transition for users of the platform.
Get Your Complimentary Copy of the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CSPs
M-Files has set aside a copy of this invaluable report for you. Download the Gartner Magic Quadrant for:
- A comprehensive snapshot of the CSP market
- Forward-looking market overview and analysis of the future of enterprise content management
- Unbiased vendor analysis of the top 18 platforms with strengths and cautions
- Actionable evaluation criteria for potential buyers
