Document Mgt Roll-Up: Google Improves Drive, Box Rebuilds iOS App

doc management.jpg

A busy week in the document management space with the relaunch of the rebuilt iOS app from Box and the addition of a new activity stream to Google Drive,. There is also a new mobile capture platform from Kofax and more SharePoint migration expertise from Metalogix.

Google Drive’s New Activity Stream

Google Drive Activity Stream.jpg
Google Drive Activity Stream

You may recall earlier this month we reported the City of Boston and turned its back on Microsoft’s Office suite and Office 365. We questioned whether pricing might be one of the major issues, given that Office 365 has considerable more functionality than Google Apps.

However, we also pointed out that for an office worker who only needs to create and edit documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoint-type creations, Google Drive is probably enough. Google has been building out Google Drive (where Google Docs previously resided), so Microsoft has to make a strong case to persuade its clients to invest in Office 365.

Today, Google has extended Drive's functionally by adding a new activity stream that will provide users with a single view of all actions taken on their files and folders.

In a Google Enterprise blog post, Ian Gunn, Google Drive interaction designer, noted that the idea is to give workers a complete overview of their teams' activities as well as providing the ability to edit and insert notes into all documents, whether they are spreadsheets or presentations.

This follows last month’s improvements that made it easier to rename, share, organize and move folders using a drop-down menu at the top of each shared folder.

The addition of the activity stream is not a big move in itself, but it keeps the pressure on other productivity providers to keep building their offerings.

In this case, Google underlines Drive’s use as a social collaboration tool and adds another string to Google’s social enterprise bow along with Google Plus. While it still doesn’t equal Office 365 as a productivity suite, Google Drive is becoming increasingly attractive for businesses and enterprises that have limited productivity needs.

Box Revamps iOS App

Box kicks off what is likely to be a big year for it — we are not going to talk IPO here — with a revamp of it iOS app. In fact, according to a blog post by David Still, this is not so much a revamp as a complete rebuild.

Box iOS app.jpg
Box iOS app

Before looking at the app itself, it's worth noting that to mark the occasion, Box is offering anyone who downloads it over the next 30 days a total of 50GB of free storage, about five times more than it usually offers its new users. Chalk it up to pressure from the battle to keep potential customers away from the likes of Dropbox and to pull in users that haven’t yet signed up for any such service.

According to Still, the new version is simpler and faster to use — he describes it as "superfast" — and offers a level of iOS document viewing that Box hasn’t offered before.

There is a whole range of new features here, including an intuitive interface, faster document rendering and progressive low-to-high resolution photo loading for fast scrolling and previewing. It has also made it easier to move and copy files, something that was previously only possible through its website. If you’re interested and want to get the free storage, it’s available for download now.

Metalogix Offers Migration Expert

For SharePoint this week, Metalogix announced the addition of Migration Expert to its portfolio of SharePoint solutions and offers users a free assessment of their existing SharePoint environments.

Continue reading this article:

1 2 Next Page >

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Articals

Pages

Jan 16, 2014