M-Files Continues Expansion with Acquisition of Apprento to Bolster AI
Enterprise content management provider M-Files has acquired Apprento, a Canadian-based provider of artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) technology solutions.
Apprento technology draws intelligence from text in unstructured content, which streamlines the process of classifying, processing, and securing business information while also providing contextual insights on related content assets and workflows. The Apprento Business Context Engine offers patent-pending technology that employs NLP and natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities to understand both semantics and concepts in content and communication systems.
The acquisition of Apprento by M-Files, along with its recently-announced partnership with ABBYY, a provider of language-based and artificial intelligence technologies, is part of the company's focus on automating and simplifying the way business professionals manage information and related processes.
Traditional approaches and solutions for managing information are inadequate and a new and more intelligent approach is required, said Miika Mäkitalo, CEO at M-Files. This acquisition, coupled with the partnership with ABBYY, reinforces the commitment to deliver human-like intelligence to the massive volume of unstructured content that resides within disconnected systems and repositories in the typical enterprise, Mäkitalo added.
Earlier in the year, M-Files introduced M-Files HR, a new offering that can be deployed on-premises or as a cloud-based service and is aimed at helping organizations to simplify and automate the management of employee-related documents and records associated common HR processes throughout the employee lifecycle, such as onboarding, training and performance reviews.
The company also recently announced a partnership with Esri, a provider of smart-mapping technology for integration of the Esri ArcGIS mapping technology with M-Files to provide in-context access to important documents and information residing in other systems directly from the ArcGIS map-based user interface.
In the first quarter of 2017, M-Files launched a Certified Application Partner program to certify and support developers of customized applications that leverage M-Files and also acquired StreamDesign. With the acquisition of StreamDesign, M-Files established its French headquarters, enabling the company to accelerate the growth of its customer base through its growing channel partner network, as well as via direct sales and support activities.