Content without Compromise – Inside the M-Files & Microsoft Alliance

Polaris is a production of Synozur – the transformation company. Synozur reimagines business for our clients, navigating the complexities of transformation and strategy with ease.

In this episode of Polaris, Chris McNulty hosts Ryan Barry from M-Files and Ian Story from Microsoft to discuss the evolving landscape of content management, particularly in light of their new partnership. They explore how AI is transforming traditional content management systems, the unique offerings of M-Files, and the importance of unstructured data in leveraging AI effectively. The conversation highlights the benefits of their collaboration, which allows organizations to utilize the strengths of both M-Files and Microsoft without having to choose between them. The episode concludes with insights into future trends in content management and the significance of tailored solutions for specific industries.

Key Takeaways

·       Content is Exploding: The $73 billion content management market is booming, with enterprise data volumes expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025 — most of it unstructured. Businesses need effective solutions to transform this information into insights.

·       No More Either/Or: The partnership between M-Files and Microsoft removes the old dilemma of choosing between a specialized system and Microsoft 365. Now, clients benefit from M-Files’ purpose-built content management solution for industry use cases natively within Microsoft 365, blending collaboration with structure. SharePoint Embedded serves as the storage backend, enabling native Office co-authoring, and native access to M-Files content for Copilot, while keeping content within Microsoft’s compliance framework for unified security and governance.

·       AI-Ready Content: This joint solution also prepares organizations for the future of AI. By combining M-Files’ semantic architecture with Microsoft’s AI tools, companies elevate their AI solutions, ensuring accurate and relevant information is accessed by LLM technologies. SharePoint provides broad content services while M-Files delivers out of the box solutions for industry use cases —allowing businesses to tailor solutions to their needs without fragmentation of their investment in Microsoft.

·       User Adoption through Simplicity: Ultimately, this seamless approach encourages user adoption. Employees can work in familiar apps while M-Files manages content in the background, promoting compliance and readiness for the AI era.

· Sound bites

Ryan Barry (M-Files) – Vice President, Strategic Operations & Corp Dev

• “In the next five years, every organization – big or small – will be challenged to find a way to effectively implement AI… because they’ll be left behind if they don’t.”
• “A document management system is basically a structured approach to your unstructured data. That’s how you make AI work for you – garbage in, garbage out.”
• “We’ve eliminated a painful choice for customers. You no longer have to pick between the Microsoft platform and a specialized solution – now you get both, seamlessly.”
• “The reality is, the lowest common denominator tends to prevail. Whatever is easiest for users is what happens. This partnership makes the right way the easy way.”

Ian Story (Microsoft) – Principal Architect, OneDrive & SharePoint

• “This is some of the biggest news in content management since SharePoint itself. Two former rivals are teaming up – and the result is greater than the sum of its parts.”
• “Everybody loves the library… nobody wants to be the librarian. We need tools that organize and govern information for you, without extra effort.”
• “If you’ve ever named a file ‘Final_final_V2.doc’, you know you need a better content management system!”
• “Language is the rocket fuel of AI, and language lives in documents. By bringing all your content into one intelligent system, you’re filling your AI’s tank with high-octane fuel.”

References

M-Files and Microsoft

M-Files – https://www.m-files.com

Microsoft – https://www.microsoft.com

SharePoint Embedded

Ryan Barry – M-Files VP Corp Dev

Ian Story – Microsoft Principal Architect

M-Files & Microsoft Partnership Press Release –

Microsoft SharePoint Blog – “SharePoint Embedded & M-Files: a new wave of document management”

Forrester Blog (Cheryl McKinnon) – “M-Files Deepens Microsoft Integration”

Content Management

IDC Data Age Report – Global Datasphere to reach 175 ZB by 2025

Congruity360 Blog – Unstructured Data Stats (80% & 95%)

AIIM Industry Research – “No single ECM system”

Pop Culture

“Happy Gilmore 2” - July 2025

Dodgers vs. Red Sox - July 2025 – Red Sox take the series in Fenway, 2-1.

Kirk Gibson 1988 HR – The Natural in real life

Events

FY26 Forward - Microsoft Partner Success Strategies - August 26 (Teams Online)

London Tech Leaders' Summit | October 7-8., 2025 (London UK) Minster Building

Experts Live | October 10, 2025 at Microsoft NYC in Times Square

Vancouver AI Summit | October 20, 2025 (Vancouver BC) – Harbour Centre

TechCon 365 Dallas - | November 3-7, 2025 (Dallas, TX). Irving Convention Center

Microsoft Ignite 2025 | Nov 17-21, 2025 (San Francisco, CA). 

ESPC25 (European SharePoint Conference 2025) | Dec 1-4, 2025 (Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) Dublin, Ireland).

Production

Polaris is produced with the help from Riverside.fm. Our theme song, “Alternative Dream” is provided courtesy of Adobe.  Additional music and sound provided by IndieGuy Records. Graphic design by Josh Brantley.

Polaris is available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Thanks.

Chapters

00:00 The Rise of AI in Content Management

01:40 Terms and Data Points

03:20 Navigating the Challenges of Unstructured Data

03:28 Introduction and Backgrounds

05:48 The Partnership Announcement

07:27 Sportsball - Red Sox and Dodgers

09:13 In the News: M-Files and Microsoft

10:21 M-Files Now Native to Microsoft 365

12:30 Customer Reactions and Market Impact

15:16 The Value Proposition of the Partnership

24:29 Content Management and Human Nature

25:21 What's SharePoint Embedded?

30:07 Understanding the Value of Content Management

31:58 The Role of AI in Content Management

37:37 Future Trends in Content Management

41:42 Personal Insights and Recommendations

45:35 Upcoming Events

46:46 Closing Thoughts