Hawkins Companies Utilize M-Files to Support Company Growth

Optimized and expanded M-Files usage across the organization

Highlights

  • Learning the Hawkins process
  • Making configuration changes and usability suggestions to increase user adoption of M-Files
  • Providing Enhanced Support for issues as they arise
  • Upgrading integration for M-Files working with their ERP system move to the cloud

Customer Background

Hawkins Companies have been developing commercial real estate with a focus on shopping center development since 1976. They have completed more than 300 projects, partnered with over 400 clients, and currently manage over four million square feet of retained commercial property throughout the United States. All told, Hawkins has developed over thirteen million square feet of property.
 

Project Details

Hawkins was looking to expand their property development and management business without significantly increasing their overhead. To do this, they needed to make their current business processes more efficient. They were already using M-Files as their content management system, but it did not represent their business well and the user adoption was low. To help increase adoption, Hawkins worked with TEAM IM to help them better utilize their M-Files solution and, specifically, to move forward with rolling out the software to the internal legal team.

Upon getting engaged, TEAM IM set-up workshops with the Hawkins staff to learn about how the legal team managed the information about Hawkins’ properties and interfaced with other departments in the organization. Through an iterative process, TEAM IM designed an intuitive and flexible content metadata structure in M-Files that better aligned with the business.

Having a strong metadata base improved user adoption and made M-Files easier to use. An existing numbering schema was incorporated to keep the information consistent and familiar to the users. Lease and property information was synced from the source of truth ERP system (MRI) to eliminate data reentry and keep the information clean. Familiar and relevant business objects such as project, customer, and investor were included to link and categorize the data.

TEAM IM also worked with the Hawkins IT team to make M-Files available outside the company network while still ensuring the system and data security through encrypting the data at rest and in transit.

By optimizing the way team members at Hawkins utilized M-Files and expanding the user base within the company, TEAM IM began the process of ensuring Hawkins gets the most value out of their investment in M-Files. Getting the organization onto one content platform, starting with the legal team, has helped knock down the data silos, decrease data entry, and increase collaboration among the departments.

As TEAM IM and Hawkins continue to work together in 2023, the goal is to continue data migration and expand M-Files adoption to more departments. By using M-Files to streamline and connect the various departments within Hawkins and make use of TEAM IM’s enhanced M-Files support, the ROI on their investment in M-Files will continue to rise.

TEAM IM stepped in and provided the much-needed value and expertise that allows us to fully utilize M-Files. They are our partner in designing our M-Files deployment and help us figure out the best ways to customize M-Files to meet our needs. Their team is fantastic to work with and they are experts in their field.
Devin Thorngard
Director of IT, Hawkins Companies

Value Added

  • Expand usage of M-Files to more users within the organization
  • Made documents easier to find by creating an intuitive content structure
  • Connected and categorized data, even when files have different names, to reduce data duplication
  • Automated document naming and review processes to increase quality of data
  • Made the system accessible from anywhere

Software and Cloud Services Involved

  • M-Files
  • MRI ERP system