BACKGROUND
Can you please provide a brief description of your company?
I work for Integro. We consult in the ECM [enterprise content management] and information lifecycle governance world.
What is your position in the company?
I'm vice president of support and strategic initiatives. I support our sales group and work with our consultants out in the field. I also do a lot of work with clients around their requirements. I sit down and help them understand what's available and take their needs and turn them into requirements that can be satisfied by technology.
OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE
What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?
My focus with OneDrive started personally. I needed a tool that would allow me to have my content available to me wherever I was. When I travel, I have a notebook and a tablet. I often need content when I'm out of the office, working with clients or at home. The ability to have that content available as needed drove my choice to go with OneDrive. I have gotten very comfortable with OneDrive, and I store everything I need on the platform. I don't store content locally on any device anymore.
SOLUTION
How does your company use this platform or software?
The implementation is straightforward. It's very easy to use and create the storage location. Once you have access, it becomes a storage location. If I save a document on my notebook, I save it directly onto my OneDrive location. Instead of it going to the C: drive, it goes to OneDrive. By default, OneDrive synchronizes that content to the cloud. As soon as I save the document, it's available on any device that has access to my OneDrive account. OneDrive has apps for many different platforms, be it Android, iOS, or something else. By adding those apps on all your devices, that content is available anywhere.
Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?
I was working with Dropbox and Google Drive, but, as a company, we became Microsoft Office 365 users and that integration becomes simple. It's part of the whole plan. Everything I have – my email and SharePoint data and OneDrive – it's all available in that one location. I go to one location on the cloud with a web browser, and I can get to any of my content. It made sense to consolidate down around that environment. Then, the tools work with it. I can use Word. I can share my documents with another user. We can both be editing the same document. OneDrive takes care of merging the edits together. It has all that collaboration functionality in it, which takes it to another level.
OneDrive delivers the most storage for the cheapest price. They give you a ton of storage. There are competitors in the field that are starting to offer a little more integration, a little more collaboration, and some advanced features. We've been looking at Box, too. They take the cloud storage to a new level with more enterprise content management tools associated with it.
On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?
It's a corporate account, so I'm not sure what our annual spend is on OneDrive.
RESULTS
Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?
The ease of implementation to get started on the platform is effortless. It's simple to get started in it and it saves us a lot of time and effort when accessing and sharing documents. To share a document with another user, I don't have to find it, attach it to an email and send it out. I just send a link to a coworker or external person. But, most importantly, the time savings is having the data at my fingertips when I need it no matter where I am. If I need something Saturday afternoon while I'm out with my family, it's available to me on my phone. If I'm on my client's site, I don't have to pull my computer out all the time. I can get to it on my tablet. That's where the convenience of the tool saves me time. Being able to get up to speed so quickly, have any document at my fingertips, and have nothing to worry about is priceless.
FEATURES
Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?
I think the impressiveness with the tools out there is the apps associated with all the devices. The simplicity of getting that content is where the strength of the platform comes in. The simplicity of being able to access any document from any device is amazing.
Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?
Coming from my background, the few areas that I always caution our clients on is their vast arena to store stuff. We're just building these huge silos of data that we really don't need to be building. The ability to have more of those governance type tools associated with these cloud storage environments is something that everyone's going to need to look at in the future. My ability to store hundreds of gigs of data in this silo is not useful for organizations. There's no way for an organization to search across OneDrive or apply retention to people's content. That governance type tools don't exist. That's going to be the big problem that companies will focus on.
Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?
I have not had a need to do that. I don't know of anyone that's had problems with OneDrive. The uptime has been great.
OVERVIEW
We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?
Four. I think for what it is marketed as it hits the mark. I'd like to see more of the governance and retention tools.
What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?
Five. That's been the simplest part.
For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?
Three and a half. I would like to see more information online like self-help guides.
For overall satisfaction with the platform?
Four and a half.
How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?
Five.