It’s not often that two competitors team up to solve a customer problem – but when they do, the results can be game-changing. Recently on our Polaris podcast, I spoke with Ryan Barry from M-Files and Ian Story from Microsoft about a first-of-its-kind partnership that’s reshaping how businesses manage content. If you’re inundated with documents and data in the AI world, this new alliance has a clear message for you: you no longer have to choose between productivity and control – you can have both.
The Challenge: Content Chaos – Every company today faces information overload. Analysts estimate the world will hit about 175 zettabytes of data by 2025 – an almost incomprehensible number. (Imagine a stack of paper stretching halfway to the nearest star!) Roughly 80% of new business data is unstructured content like documents, emails, PDFs, and media. And according to industry surveys, 95% of organizations find managing that unstructured data to be a significant problem.
M-Files + Microsoft: Better Together – Enter the partnership of the hour. M-Files is a leader in AI-powered document management, known for its AI-native, semantic approach – essentially, tagging and organizing files by what they are (contract, invoice, project plan, etc.) rather than where they live in a folder. Microsoft, of course, provides the ubiquitous productivity suite (Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and now Microsoft 365 Copilot). Historically, if you wanted M-Files’ advanced capabilities, your documents had to sit in a separate M-Files repository, outside of Microsoft 365. That meant sometimes duplicating files or doing without some Microsoft features. No more.
In July 2025, the two companies announced a strategic partnership: M-Files became the first document management system to natively use the Microsoft 365 cloud as its backend storage. In practice, this means when you save a file in M-Files, it’s actually stored in your company’s Microsoft tenant (via an API-only technology called SharePoint Embedded). Your users can still work through the M-Files interface to benefit from its rich business-specific context, workflows, and vertical solutions – but now the content resides in Microsoft’s ecosystem. (I covered this in our blog post: M-Files and Microsoft: A New Era of Document Management.)
Why is that a big deal? Let’s look at a few concrete benefits:
Effortless real-time collaboration within Microsoft 365
Simplified governance and compliance through unified policies
AI-enriched insights powered by comprehensive content access
Industry-specific solutions integrated on a scalable platform
Breaking Down Barriers (Real Customer Impact): In our conversation, both Ryan and Ian shared anecdotes of how clients reacted to this news. One CIO told them, “Despite how much we love M-Files, we often feel pressure to standardize on Microsoft – now M-Files protects and extends our investment in Microsoft .” Another organization had been storing internal files in SharePoint and client files in M-Files; they were struggling with compliance oversight because Purview could only see the SharePoint side. The minute they heard about the new joint solution, they realized they could unify their governance and even decided to invest in Microsoft’s advanced compliance licenses because it would apply to all their data now. It’s not often that a single change checks boxes for IT, security, and end users at once – but this one did.
During the podcast, Ian used a memorable analogy: “Everybody loves the library; nobody wants to be the librarian.” In essence, people want the benefits of organized information but dislike the hassle of organizing it. With the M-Files/Microsoft solution, the heavy lifting of content management happens behind the scenes, so your team can just do their work in familiar tools, and always find what they need later.
Looking Ahead: Ian and Ryan agreed that we’ll likely see more such partnerships across the industry. The reality is that no single system will ever meet all needs – and that’s okay. What’s important is connecting systems so that data flows and nothing gets lost. Ian predicted more content management vendors will adopt a similar approach (using platforms like SharePoint Embedded) because it frees them to focus on what they do best – solving specific business problems – while leaving commodity storage and cloud scale to the big players.
On the AI front, Ryan drove home that the time to get your content “AI-ready” is now. If you don’t have your digital house in order – if critical knowledge is tucked away in rogue file shares or outdated systems – your fancy new AI tools will be running on fumes. The companies that succeed will be the ones who can feed their AI a rich, well-organized diet of content.
If your enterprise is drowning in content chaos, take a look at what M-Files and Microsoft are doing. Thanks.
FAQ
How is the new Microsoft + M‑Files solution priced and billed? Is it MACC-eligible?
Pricing remains under M‑Files’ standard subscription model. Customers choose one of three M‑Files platform editions – Base, Team, or Business – with per-user licensing. The integrated Microsoft 365 features come included for M‑Files Cloud subscribers (no separate “Microsoft” fee). Billing can be handled in two ways: either directly through M‑Files (you pay M‑Files for its subscription and Microsoft for your Microsoft 365 licenses separately) or via the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. If you purchase M‑Files through Azure Marketplace, you get one consolidated bill from Microsoft for both M‑Files and your Microsoft services. Moreover, this spend is MACC-eligible – meaning it counts toward your Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment if you have one. In short, you can continue with separate vendor billing or opt for the convenience of a single Microsoft bill (with the bonus of applying M‑Files costs to your Azure commit).
What is the migration process for existing M‑Files customers to the new integrated solution?
For most current customers, the transition is designed to be seamless. If you’re an M‑Files Cloud customer using Microsoft 365, switching to the new SharePoint Embedded storage is very straightforward – M‑Files automatically migrates your documents into your Microsoft 365 tenant behind the scenes, and admins just need to enable the M‑Files app in the M365 admin center. This means minimal effort or downtime. If you’re an M‑Files Cloud customer not using M365, nothing changes – your content continues to reside in M‑Files’ cloud storage as before. And for on-premises M‑Files customers, there’s no forced change – your system stays as is, with M‑Files continuing to support the on-prem product.
Show Notes
Polaris is a production of Synozur – the transformation company. Synozur reimagines business for our clients, navigating the complexities of transformation and strategy with ease.
Polaris is available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Polaris is produced with 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.
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 – otherwise it's 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
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).
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