M-Files with Microsoft Co-Authoring

Following the announcement of the partnership between M-Files and Microsoft, they have confirmed the availability of native Microsoft Co-Authoring within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

What means native and what is the differentiator to other ECM’s

In this context, “native” means that documents stored in M-Files can be edited using the native capabilities of Microsoft 365, such as Co-Authoring. It is not necessary to move or copy the data outside of M-Files in order to use the Co-Authoring capabilities of Microsoft 365.
As we are aware, the functionality of these features is contingent upon the storage of data within the Microsoft 365 Tenant of the collaborating users working on a document.

This new experience is only possible because the documents are stored in the same back-end storage system. Currently, Microsoft has made this possible especially for M-Files as they work close together in the development of the M-Files Sharepoint Embedded Application. No other content management vendor has this deep partnership and integration in Sharepoint Embedded.

Benefits and Differentiator

• No need to move the documents outside of M-Files
• The security is always managed by M-Files
• The desktop application of the Microsoft Office can be used
• True Collaboration Anywhere, it doesn’t matter from which application the co-authoring is started (Microsoft Office Suite or M-Files Vault)
• No More Version Chaos
• User stay in the application they know and benefit from M-Files features

Technical background

It is called native because the data is stored in the Microsoft 365 storage of the client tenant, like his other Microsoft 365 native documents.

How is this possible ?
M-Files developed a Microsoft Sharepoint Embedded (SPE) application to store the M-Files data in a SPE storage container. This enables the possibility to get use of the Microsoft 365 capabilities like a Microsoft Co-Authoring. In addition, such a SPE container allows to respect the defined security boundaries of a M-Files Vault.

Illustration of the storage changes

The diagram below illustrates the high-level architecture. The key point to take away from this is the importance of understanding the change in data storage location.
At present, M-Files stores data in Azure Blob Storage, as illustrated in the orange box of the diagram. By enabling of the co-authoring function this will change.
Please note that data for Microsoft 365 will be stored in a SPE container in the Microsoft 365 Tenant, as shown in the blue box in the diagram. All other data is stored in a new Blob Storage area, as shown in the green box.

The Master Storage, displayed centrally, is responsible for managing the allocation of data to its designated storage locations.

It is my hope that this will provide a clearer understanding of the new storage management approach developed by M-Files. Should you require further information, I would be happy to provide it in a separate blog post. Please do not hesitate to leave your comments below.

Enablement

To enable the function the following prerequisites must be taken in consideration.

• M-Files Cloud is required
• M-Files Sharepoint Embedded requires admin consent in the Microsoft 365 Tenant
• At leaset a M-Files Business user license is required
• The M-Files Enterprise Application must be configured in the Microsoft Admin Centre and the users in scope must be added
• In M-Files Manage the user provisioning configuration for the M-Files Enterprise Application must be configured

The process to enable it is very straightforward, only the two steps below are required, and these are clearly documented by M-Files.

• Grant tenant-wide admin consent to the M-Files SharePoint Embedded application in Microsoft 365.
• Enable desktop co-authoring in the M-Files Admin tool vault properties

It is important to understand that all data will move to the new storage and this cannot be reverted !

Co-Authoring in action

I am delighted to share that, to showcase the capability in a recorded video, a demo environment was created. Please find below a high-level description of this exciting project.

• M-Files Cloud Vault
• M-Files Desktop Client (new version)
• M-Files Web Client
• Microsoft 365 Tenant with two demo users
• Microsoft Word application with logged in demo users

Conclusion

By leveraging the capabilities of both Microsoft and M-Files, businesses can optimize the use of their data while ensuring its secure storage within the designated domain. The use of the Sharepoint Embedded application ensures that data is stored within the client-owned Tenant, with Microsoft’s trusted security and authentication functions providing robust protection. This marks the start of a collaborative effort to leverage the native Microsoft functionalities in conjunction with M-Files, integrating the capabilities of Microsoft Sharepoint Embedded.

We are able to assist your business in advancing to the next level of digitalisation. Please do not hesitate to get in contact with us for further details.