Recently I worked on a large project where the different teams were spread out across the country. This type of working is now quite common. No longer are we all working in the same office, or even the same city. Infact, teams can be spread all over the world, and they don’t have to be global projects either. But sharing information can be a challenge. On my recent project, email was crucial to stay ‘plugged-in’ and connected. But there are solutions.
Microsoft developed sharepoint, which they call ‘an enterprise information portal’; a fancy description for a platform or server that allows teams to connect and collaborate. Typically, sharepoint is not easy to use. Luckily, there are alternatives. Box.net is a simple and secure way to share, manage and access all your business content online. It’s in ‘the cloud’; and there’s been a proliferation of ‘cloud’ based services recently. Using the ‘cloud’ is a great idea and can save time and money for your business.
Box. net claim 50,000 businesses use their services. Your team can collaborate in online workspaces and create online filing systems. It’s been dubbed “sharepoint for the rest of us”. Your team can also share files and folders, but only if they have authorisation or correct permissions. You can share emails, PDF documents, spreadsheets, word documents and lots more. You can access anything from anywhere and box.net can be customised to suit your business.
But probably the two biggest fears about ‘cloud’ services are access and security. Box.net claims 99.9% uptime. Most data centres these days have quite sophisticated resilient and redundant designs. So, if there are any hardware failures or software bugs, you hardly notice it. Box.net also use SSL encryption, the same as secure shopping cart software, as well as configurable permissions and redundant storage. So, they’ve got it covered. Today’s video is a quick introduction and demonstration.
Managing your business documents has just got easier.
