M‑Files Scales Global People & Culture with Introist — Automating Lifecycle Communication While Keeping It Personal
M-Files chose Introist to automate onboarding and lifecycle communications, saving time and supporting faster global expansion. With Introist, message content can be tailored for each individual, role, and country, ensuring communications feel personal – even when delivered automatically.
"Introist is very logical and easy to use, with great integration capabilities into other systems. Handling a long list of processes and automating a wide range of tasks is a big advantage. It seamlessly combines data from different sources, acting as an adapter in the middle.
We’re thrilled with how versatile and broadly it can be used throughout our organization"
Elina Gröhn
PEOPLE SYSTEMS MANAGEr
Summary
M-Files turned to Introist to scale People & Culture operations globally—automating routine lifecycle communication while still delivering personal, locally tailored employee experiences across nine countries.
The goal: smart, efficient growth—reducing manual work in onboarding, reminders, and cross-team coordination so the People team can focus on strategic, value-adding work.
Introist acts as a flexible, communication-driven automation layer, integrating with existing systems, enabling personalized messaging, country-specific workflows, IT ticket generation, and replicable onboarding processes.
Implementation was iterative and collaborative, with Introist adapting quickly to M-Files’ evolving needs and empowering the People team to modify and build workflows independently over time.
The results: a streamlined, consistent employee experience, major time savings for P&C/IT/people leads, improved data quality, and the ability to support rapid global expansion—including upcoming large-scale hiring.
01 - THE GOAL
Smart Growth: Scaling People & Culture While Enhancing the Employee Experience
M‑Files is a fast-growing information management company with more than 700 employees across ten countries. Its largest teams are in Finland (400+ employees) and in the U.S. and India (100+ each). The company also has a presence in Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Australia. While People Operations is managed mainly from Finland, the organization needed consistent, timely P&C processes that could support its global operations and reduce manual work for P&C, IT, and people leads.
Before adopting Introist, M‑Files relied heavily on its people system and manual processes. They faced challenges in delivering a consistent onboarding experience across different countries, managing calendar invites and reminders manually, tracking service anniversaries and probation checkpoints with spreadsheets, and coordinating slowly between P&C, IT, and office teams. Additionally, they struggled to send personalized, role-specific communications at scale without an easy-to-use solution.
Their goal was to automate these tasks, create a standardized employee experience, and free up the People team to focus on more strategic, value-adding activities. In January 2025, M‑Files started using Introist to complement their people system and help the organization adapt to change smoothly. For example, onboarding, offboarding, or role changes typically impact employees, the People team, people leads, and IT.
“We wanted a tool that could automate routine processes while still feeling personal and flexible enough to accommodate local differences. Introist isn’t just a tool for People & Culture – it has the potential to automate communication across all functions,” says Anna Niinimaa, VP of People Operations.
"We wanted a tool that could automate routine processes while still feeling personal and flexible enough to accommodate local differences. Introist isn’t just a tool for People & Culture – it has the potential to automate communication across all functions"
Anna Niinimaa
VP of People Operations
02 - Solution
A Flexible, Communication-Driven Automation Layer
M‑Files selected Introist as a flexible, integration-friendly platform that functions as a bridge between HR systems and the people who need to take action. The implementation was approached iteratively, allowing for quick wins and continuous improvements without the need for a large, upfront project.
"It’s clear that Introist has a strong desire to meet the customer’s needs. They listen carefully, ask questions when needed, and genuinely want to understand the reasons behind how and why things are done a certain way. We always get support when building workflows, but in the future, I’ll be able to do that myself. I can already easily modify the content myself,” says Elina Gröhn, People Systems Manager.
Here's what Introist does for M‑Files:
Personalized, targeted messaging: Content can be tailored for each person, role, and country, making communications feel personal—even when automated.
Automated onboarding flows: From sending a welcome letter before Day One to calendar invites for onboarding sessions (e.g., guiding principles), IT onboarding, and role-specific task lists.
Action-driven forms: People lead forms gather access and device needs; responses automatically generate IT tickets.
Country-specific workflows: Different processes for Finland and the U.S. – for example, managing benefits enrollment or credit card requests in the U.S.
Lifecycle automation: Reminders for probation periods (30 days before end), and ending of fixed-term contracts, notifications for service anniversaries and birthdays to people leads, return-from-leave alerts, and offboarding access deactivation.
Contractor onboarding: Subcontractors are created in HR systems and included in appropriate access workflows.
Integrations and data aggregation: Introist pulls data from multiple sources (Oracle HCM, CSVs, Recruitment system integration, Workable) and pushes calendar invites via Outlook. Teams integration is also under consideration.
Reusable workflows: Processes can be duplicated and easily customized locally. They are adaptable if a hire progresses slower or faster than planned.
Introist collaborates closely with M‑Files’ People team through bi-weekly meetings and continuous support. A hands-on, practical approach allowed for easy testing of new ideas and quick implementation of improvements. It also minimized risks during setup, enabling M‑Files to start automating processes right away while gradually making small adjustments to enhance their workflows over time.
“Introist responds to our needs quickly and effectively, paying close attention to details and ensuring smooth solutions. When issues occur, they are resolved quickly. Compared to many other tech providers, Introist’s flexible approach better suits our evolving requirements,” says Gröhn.
03 - RESULTS
Streamlined Employee Experience, Reduced Manual Tasks, and Rapid Growth
Introist supports M‑Files’ global growth by ensuring employee communication and processes are consistent, yet tailored to each market. M‑Files especially values how easily the automations can be adjusted in real-time to accommodate immediate changes.
"The automated messages are sent on our (People team) behalf, and employees have noted how much they appreciate the reminders about important matters. It creates the impression that someone personally remembers them, making Introist feel like an extension of a human presence.", says Niinimaa.
Introist quickly delivered tangible benefits across the organisation:
Time savings: reduced repetitive work for IT, people leads, and the People team by automating calendar invites, reminders, and ticket generation. IT reported fewer repeated manual tasks.
Consistency and clarity: every new hire receives a standardized, role-appropriate onboarding that’s transparent about expectations and milestones. People leads receive advance notice and clear checklists.
Better governance and data quality: automation and rules expose data inconsistencies before they cause downstream issues.
Improved employee experience and culture fit: timely, personal-feeling communications strengthen the connection to company values (“Make it happen”) and make employees feel remembered.
Faster rollout capability: Introist enables rapid country expansions and team onboarding – critical as M‑Files scales hiring (e.g., planned large recruitments in India).
"Introist is very logical and easy to use, with great integration capabilities into other systems. Handling a long list of processes and automating a wide range of tasks is a big advantage. It seamlessly combines data from different sources, acting as an adapter in the middle. "We’re thrilled with how versatile and broadly it can be used throughout our organization”, says Gröhn.
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