In our last post, we looked at some all-in-one cloud apps combining e-mail, document sharing/storage, and calendar sharing to save time (and money!) for your agency’s daily operations. These all-in-one tools bring the benefit of synching operations, yet some agencies are hesitant to go right for the multi-operation overhaul. If your agency is looking for a slower start in to cloud applications we at SIS suggest beginning with document storage and sharing as a jumping off before moving your agency to using more cloud apps. Although your agency has great client and policy related document storage ability in Partner XE’s DocBox, documents related to other parts of your agency and “work-in-progress” docs also need a place to be shared and stored.
In conjunction with Partner XE’s DocBox, we suggest a great document sharing and storage tool called DropBox. DropBox is an easy to use application offering up to 16GB of free storage. If needed, your agency can opt for a paid plan ranging from $9.99/mo ($99/yr) to $49.99/mo ($499/yr) depending on your size need (ranges from 100 to 500GB). Larger agencies may find 500GB too restricting, so DropBox offers business plans at $795/year for 5 users with $125/additional user/year. The size of your plan depends on whether you want to store all your documents on DropBox or if you’re using it just to share docs between individuals and departments.
Once installed, you simply move your files to the DropBox folder created on your computer. As you add files, they will stay updated and backed up on your computer and on DropBox’s server. You can grant access to different folders, allowing multiple people to open and edit documents, and DropBox will let you know when and by whom documents were edited. Of course, DropBox uses great security: it’s the same 256-bit AES encryption, which you remember from a previous post, is used by online banking and shopping sites.
DropBox is easy to use, and quick to install. Also, it keeps a 30 day revision history of all your files, so if you decide you didn’t like the changes made on a document, you can go back and start from a previous version. And, since it is all cloud-based, if your computer is lost or damaged, your data is not.
Using DropBox in conjunction with Partner XE’s DocBox ensures all your agency’s documents are up-to-date and backed-up safely. The Partner XE DocBox gives you the added benefit of attaching docs right to client profiles, and is completely E & O compliant. To find out more about Partner XE’s DocBox and its other features, call us at call us at 800-747-9273 or email [email protected].
