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Sharing Simplified Consolidating Multiple File Sharing Technologies

Sharing Simplified: Consolidating Multiple File Sharing Technologies

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Page 1: Sharing Simplified: Consolidating Multiple File Sharing Technologies

Dow Brook Advisory Services | 298 High Street | Ipswich, MA 01938 | 978-238-8534 www.dowbrook.com

Sharing SimplifiedConsolidating Multiple

File Sharing Technologies

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Dow Brook Advisory Services | 298 High Street | Ipswich, MA 01938 | 978-238-8534 www.dowbrook.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

File Sharing Technologies Proliferation and Pain.........5

Characteristics of an Ideal File Sharing Technology....7

File Sharing Technology Consolidation Case Study.....8

Conclusions.......................................................................10

Acknowledgements.........................................................11

Endnotes............................................................................11

Author: Larry Hawes, Principal Dow Brook Advisory Services

Photo: © Yunus Arakon 01/17/2011

© 2011 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved

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Sharing Simplified: Consolidating Multiple File Sharing TechnologiesEnterprise Content Management is a dirty word (OK, phrase). The term evokes negative responses from most business people.1

A primary reason for this dissatisfaction is that traditional Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies are purchased and deployed to control business content, while most workers need to share content. AIIM's 2010 State of the ECM Industry report clearly shows that business objectives requiring content control drive ECM technology decision making in most organizations. Collaboration and content sharing are somewhat of an afterthought in most ECM project decisions.2

Figure 1: Business Drivers of Enterprise Content Management Projects and Priorities

Employees need to share content both with colleagues though-out the organization and, increasingly, with others not directly employed by their company. However, traditional ECM technologies make it hard to share content within a single business and, in many cases, impossible to do so between organizations. This is partially by design and also a result of implementation decisions. In offerings from the largest ECM software vendors, the process of setting access rights to users, files, and folders (configuring Access Control Lists) is not intuitive or clear; it must be done by system administers, not business people. To make matters worse, while the need for good usability of these technologies is "critical" or "high" for 87% of respondents in a recent survey, nearly two-thirds said that their current ECM solutionʼs usability is "poor" or "average", at best (see chart on next page). 3

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Figure 2: Usability of Existing Enterprise Content Management Systems

Poor usability limits adoption and use of traditional ECM technologies. Initial training and on-going support are necessary for individuals to efficiently and effectively use them. There are, of course, financial and human resource costs associated with those mandatory training and support activities.

Microsoft SharePoint is often put forward as an alternative to traditional ECM technologies, in part, because it is perceived as being easier to use, as documented in this survey question. 4

Figure 3: Ratings of Microsoft SharePoint Usability

Not only is SharePoint judged as more usable, many also feel that it enables content sharing better than traditional ECM technologies. However, SharePoint was designed to support file sharing within closed workgroups, not across or between enterprises. All too often, organizations using SharePoint find they must turn to another solution to enable broader sharing of content (see the case study beginning on Page 8 for an example).

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File Sharing Technologies Proliferation and Pain

To overcome the limitations of traditional ECM technologies and SharePoint, many organizations supplement their primary content management system with other file sharing technologies (see table below for list.) Often, they rely on more than one of these to meet their content sharing requirements.

Some of these file sharing technologies are deployed by the corporate IT department, but others are procured or developed by employees who have had too many problems with the official corporate content sharing solutions, including traditional ECM systems. Most of the use of these employee-controlled resources, frequently referred to as Shadow IT, goes undetected by corporate IT staff. The following chart presents examples of sanctioned, as well as common Shadow IT, solutions for several file sharing technologies.

Table 1: Examples of Sanctioned and Unsanctioned File Sharing Technologies

Many problems may potentially arise when an organization uses multiple file sharing technologies. Some of the issues are specific to Shadow IT solutions lacking features required for enterprise use, but others apply to all the technologies listed above, including those deployed by corporate IT. Some of the potential problems and their impact on businesses are presented in the table on the next page.

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Technology Sanctioned IT Shadow IT

Network File ServersServers owned, deployed, and managed by corporate IT

Servers acquired and run by individuals, workgroups, and departments

Email Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail

CD/DVD Nero, Roxio Creator Enterprise Native OS utilities, PowerISO, Roxio Toast

File Transfer Protocol GlobalSCAPE, South River Technologies Core FTP, Cute FTP, FileZilla

Managed File Transfer Ipswitch, Sterling (IBM), TIBCO Adobe SendNow, SendThisFile, YouSendIt

Enterprise Social Software Jive SBS, Lotus Connections PBworks, Salesforce.com Chatter, Yammer

Web-based consumer services N/A BitTorrent, Dropbox, Facebook, Limewire

Mobile carrier platforms Blackberry Enterprise Server AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon

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Table 2: Impacts of Supporting Multiple File Sharing Technologies

To eliminate, or at least minimize, these potential problems, organizations should consider consolidating their multiple file sharing technologies into as few complementary solutions as possible.

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Issue Impact

Limited and confusing accessibility

Technologies that do not allow file sharing with colleagues, customers, and business partners – and/or with mobile devices – significantly slow business process execution, raising operating costs and delaying revenue recognition. Multiple systems, each having a unique login, trigger an increase in forgotten passwords, causing lower productivity and higher IT support costs.

Information security Many file sharing technologies, especially consumer-oriented ones, lack needed security features such as multilevel password protection and encryption of files traveling across networks. Hacked and intercepted files containing sensitive business information cost businesses in terms of lost revenue and expenses related to damage control.

No authoritative source Lack of version control and syncing capabilities in some technologies produce an inability to confidently access the latest, authoritative version of a file. This causes the spread of misinformation, potentially leading to loss of revenue and/or increased operating costs.

File duplication The existence of the same file in multiple locations creates additional IT infrastructure costs related to increased storage needs and IT staff required to manage it.

IT infrastructure growth Operating multiple file sharing technologies raises costs by increasing the necessary number of servers for applications, and content storage and backup, as well as the number of IT support staff.

Loss of content Multiple technologies create a burden for individuals to remember where files are stored and often produce an inability find needed content. Unfindable files, and loss of content related to temporary (or permanent) technology or business failure of a solution provider, create costs related to recovering and recreating content.

Need for alternatives Operating a file sharing technology with known problems often forces individuals and organizations to pay for an alternative technology or use a high-risk, free offering, so they may get their work done.

Software licensing cost The aggregate cost of licensing multiple file sharing technologies is always higher than the discounted pricing available when licensing more individuals on a single offering.

Business process delays Nearly all of the issues and their impacts presented here can negatively affect business process cycle times. The net result of these delays is higher costs and deferred revenues.

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Characteristics of an Ideal File Sharing Technology

Ideally, multiple file sharing technologies would be consolidated into a single solution with the following characteristics:

IntuitiveThe technology should be so easy to use that individuals would need minimal training, if any, when starting with it. Intuitive user interfaces and experiences also reduce the need for on-going technical support. Training and support are expensive, but a well-designed application can minimize those costs. Intuitive technology fuels faster and wider adoption, speeding benefit recognition as well.

AccessibleFile sharing technology must be accessible to many different constituents, working in different locations, and from a wide variety of computing devices running on a range of operating systems. The technology must ensure secure, but simple, access for employees from all parts of the enterprise, business partners, and customers. It must not exclude individuals because they are not in the same group or department, or because they are accessing the technology from outside the firewall. It must also enable access from desktop, laptop, and tablet computers, as well as from mobile phones, no matter on which operating system they are based.

ComprehensiveUseful file sharing technology includes a broad range of functionality that supports the deploying organizationʼs requirements. A wide range of document formats beyond common office productivity files should be supported, including those associated with media, creative, and development applications. Core content management services must be present, including access control, versioning, check-in/out, search, logging of (and reporting on) system events, and user-configurable notifications of selected events. The technology must also generate links to files that can be emailed instead of file attachments. Collaboration functions, such as the ability to tag and comment on a file or folder, or to co-create wiki-style documents, should also be available. Support for tasking related to content-centric processes and activities, such as reviews and approvals of draft content, is also highly desirable.

ConnectableAn enterprise file sharing technology must be easily integrated with other applications, both inside and outside of the corporate firewall. Open APIs and standards-based integration enable the file sharing technology to become the common content repository bridging previously siloed technologies. It should be relatively simple to integrate the file sharing technology with email, office productivity, and creative applications, as well as with enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and other traditional enterprise systems.

EmbeddableIt may even be desirable to go beyond simple integration of stand-alone technologies and embed file transfer services directly within other applications and enterprise systems. For example, an organization could make it possible for individuals to upload, retrieve, edit, and share files without leaving a creative application or a customer relationship management system. Embedding file sharing technology in heavily used computing resources increases worker productivity and lowers operating costs.

SecureLike any other enterprise-grade technology, file sharing must be highly secure. User identity management and authentication should be tied to existing enterprise directories, such as LDAP or Active Directory. Password-protection must be extended beyond system login to include access control to specific folders and files. Individuals should have the option to assign an expiration date for any content link when it is created. Files should

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be protected with 256-bit SSL encryption, whether they are being transfered across an internal network, VPN, or the public Internet.

ScaleableEnterprise file sharing technology must easily scale to rapidly accommodate new users, on-demand. Virtualized applications running in a private or public cloud are significantly more elastic than those requiring the addition of physical servers to scale. Administrators should only be required to register new users, assign them system permissions, and migrate any existing content requested into the file sharing technology.

ReliableIndividuals using enterprise file sharing technologies view them as a utility that should be available whenever needed. Therefore, the technology should guarantee at least 99.9% uptime for the primary instance and make a redundant instance immediately available in the rare case of primary system failure.

AffordableIdeally, enterprise file sharing technology would be affordably priced. Hardware, software license, storage, initial deployment and training, and on-going maintenance costs should be low enough to encourage enterprise-wide deployment and use. If the system price is not affordable, most of the other characteristics detailed here are moot.

File Sharing Technology Consolidation Case Study

A brief case study will help illustrate the pains of supporting multiple file sharing technologies, as well as the benefits of consolidating them.

FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) is a global manufacturer of infrared cameras, night vision, and thermal imaging systems, which it sells to government and commercial customers. The company has been in business since 1978 and is headquartered in Wilsonville, OR, with additional offices in the North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

File Sharing Technologies and Practices at FLIRTwo years ago, the Marketing function within FLIR's Consumer Vision Systems division was not tightly integrated around the world. Each region largely produced its own campaigns and collateral, following its own processes. While, there was little content or practice sharing between the regions, intra-regional offices did collaborate. Headquarters staff distributed digital marketing materials (image, video, some audio, and design files, as well as finished PDF files) to other U.S. offices by loading large electronic files onto hard drives, which were shipped by common carrier. Smaller bundles of files were burned to CD or DVD and shipped or mailed. Even smaller numbers of, and individual, files were emailed between offices and individuals. Other regions used different technologies to transfer marketing files between offices. Europe relied on three File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites and a Microsoft SharePoint installation. Asia primarily used a consumer-grade file sharing product called YouSendIt.

Each of the file sharing methods used had unique problems. Hard drives were usually ground-shipped, which cost less, but delayed the time-to-review of draft marketing materials and dissemination of finalized marketing collateral. In some situations, hard drives were shipped Second-Day or overnight, which reduced transit time, but raised cost. Marketing activity delays were frequently exacerbated by the physical failure of hard drives during shipping or by human errors such as writing incorrect files to the units. Both required the return and subsequent reshipping of the hard drive. CD and DVDs were subject to the same issues. Email file transfer was hampered by file size limitations and the frequent inability of employees to find an email with the attached marketing file they needed in their inbox.

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In Europe, each of the three FTP sites in use had its own authentication system, and employees were frequently confused as to which credentials were needed to access a specific site or they completely forgot their login and/or password. The SharePoint deployment had not been properly planned prior to implementation. Instead of using a common repository for all files in the region, the system was siloed into individual sites for Marketing, Product Development, Sales, etc., each with its own content store. To make matters worse, a coherent folder structure had not been established for each site. As a result, content was highly disorganized, and employees had difficulty finding the files they needed in the system.

Taken as a whole, the multiple file sharing technologies and methods in use in FLIR's various geographic regions were too expensive. The company was not able to take advantage of volume licensing discounts from the various vendors involved. The existing technologies also caused delays in marketing collateral review and publishing processes that negatively impacted FLIR's revenue. Perhaps the most significant pain associated with using multiple file sharing technologies was that they reinforced the independence of each region's Marketing function at a time that they needed to work more closely together. In sum, FLIR was paying too much for multiple content sharing solutions that weren't working well enough or enabling global Marketing integration.

Business Changes Required Technology ConsolidationSeveral things occurred that prompted FLIR to seek a better way to share marketing files throughout its commercial business units. FLIR responded to growing economic globalization by planning to better integrate operations across geographic regions. For the Marketing function, that meant that nearly all creative work would be done at headquarters, with minor localization of campaign execution occurring in the regional offices. FLIR also acquired and integrated several smaller companies, each of which had its own content sharing technologies and practices in place. Finally, in January 2010, the company's two commercial business units – Commercial Vision Systems and Thermography – were merged into a single division called FLIR Commercial Systems. The impact of these changes on the Marketing staff at headquarters was that their creative workload more than doubled, and they now needed to share content with colleagues across the world. They could not continue to work with the multiple file sharing technologies that were in place; they needed to get more done faster and at a lower cost.

FLIR Investigated Technology OptionsFLIR's Commercial Systems division started its evaluation of file sharing technologies by examining the various ones already in use within the global organization. Hard drives, CDs, and DVDs were rejected because of the aforementioned cost and productivity issues, which would only rise as use of these physical distribution media increased. FTP was deemed to be too costly to scale as well; FLIR would be required to create more internal FTP sites, and buy and maintain more storage for them. Additionally, the cumbersome nature of the FTP system would create a costly training requirement for all employees new to it.

Of all its existing file sharing technologies, FLIR gave the strongest consideration to SharePoint. The organization felt that it had the best chance of successfully scaling to meet their needs. However, they discovered that the upfront effort required to develop a content strategy, design and instantiate it in SharePoint, implement the technology, and train all employees before launch would require too much time and money. FLIR wanted a content sharing solution that was "ready-to-go" with minimal set-up or training.

While evaluating the potential expansion of its use of SharePoint worldwide, FLIR learned about Box.net. Following a one-week test of Box, FLIR realized that Box met their requirements for an enterprise grade content sharing solution (e.g. comprehensive, connectable, secure, reliable) with great usability and an affordable price. FLIR's Commercial Systems division decided to purchase licenses for 25 of its U.S. Marketing employees, who began to share files quickly, without any training. Soon after, accounts were established for the remaining

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Marketing staff in the U.S. and Asia. Today, there are 60 Marketing employees using Box, with some, but not all of the Europe-based marketers on board as well.

Results of File Sharing Technology Consolidation at FLIRConsolidation of multiple file sharing technologies has positively impacted the marketing activities within FLIR's Commercial Systems division. Draft and final marketing content travels between office locations and across time zones at a significantly higher velocity (see the sidebar for an example of how the division has shaved time off of one collaborative content creation activity in its Marketing function.) The company has not captured before-and-after consolidation metrics for marketing activities involving file sharing. However, Jackie Way, Electronic Media Coordinator within FLIR Commercial Systems Online Marketing Group, knows that Marketing employee productivity has increased, as has the efficiency of the function's content creation and publishing processes. FLIR has not formally quantified the costs savings directly attributable to the consolidation of file sharing technologies either, but Way believes that they are significant. In addition, the improved time-to-launch for marketing campaigns has enabled FLIR to sell products and recognize revenue faster.

FLIR understood that consolidating file sharing technologies would help their Marketing department become more highly-integrated, but that effort has also produced some broader, unanticipated benefits. FLIR Commercial Systems division Marketing employees began using Box to share finalized collateral with some members of the divisional Sales force, which put definitive versions of product and marketing campaign information into their hands more quickly. Those Sales employees liked the solution so much that they requested licenses and began to share files within the department, as well as with distributors and customers. More recently, some divisional Business Development executives have begun using the new content sharing technology to collaborate on presentation creation with Marketing. FLIR Commercial Systems now has about 150 Box users and is considering a further consolidation of its content sharing technologies, with Box potentially becoming the common repository for the entire division.

Conclusions

The story of FLIR Commercial Systems divisionʼs continuing consolidation of file sharing technologies – first touching internal Marketing employees, but rapidly expanding to other functions, and even to customers and business partners – is a great example of the benefits that any organization may derive by undertaking that effort. Faster activity and process execution. Improved organizational integration across business functions, units, and geographic locations. Better connections with, and

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FLIR's Marketing function is tasked with creating and publishing content related to new product launches. That content must be translated for each of the company's localized websites. FLIR Marketing employees at headquarters used to attach Microsoft Word files containing the translated content to emails and send them to colleagues in other geographic regions. Employees frequently deleted those emails by accident or could not find them later in their inbox. The email recipient would have to request that the attachment be resent, causing a delay in completing the content review.

Now those Word files are uploaded to a dedicated folder in Box. The better content organization and automatic notification of received files has made employees more aware of new content and improved their ability to find and act on it. FLIR employees can immediately perform a thorough review of the content, which allows them to find and resolve translation problems more quickly. FLIR's Jackie Way estimates that this better quality control and quicker problem solving has contributed to their saving at least a day each time new product content has to be added to a localized website.

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service to, external constituents, including customers and business partners. Lower operating costs. Quicker sales cycle and revenue recognition.

The key to success in consolidating file sharing technologies is to pick an operational pain point against which to deploy a comprehensive solution that meets your organizationʼs requirements. Be sure to document that pain before you consolidate technologies, so you can quantify the benefits afterwords. And be prepared to discover some unanticipated benefits as well!

Acknowledgements

Dow Brook Advisory Services thanks Box.net for sponsoring this white paper and providing access to customers who informed development of its content.

Special thanks go to Jackie Way of FLIR Commercial Systems for speaking with the author about her organizationʼs file sharing practices and supporting technologies. Many thanks to FLIR for allowing their story to be told here.

Endnotes1 In a survey conducted by Forrester Research, only 37% of respondents said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their organization's ECM system. Stephen Powers, Collaboration, Search, and Compliance Drive 2010 ECM Investments, Forrester Research, http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/collaboration,_search,_and_compliance_drive_2010_ecm/q/id/55706/t/2 (December 8, 2010).

2 Doug Miles, AIIM Industry Watch: State of the ECM Industry 2010, AIIM, http://www.aiim.org/Research/Industry-Watch/ECM-State-of-Industry-2010 (May 13, 2010)

3 Generis, Inc., Content Management Plans for 2011: A Short Survey on CMS and CMIS, http://www.generiscorp.com/downloads/CMIS-and-CMS-2011-Plans-Survey-Responses.pdf (November, 2010).

4 Colligo Networks, Inc., SharePoint, CMS, and Cloud Storage Adoption: A Colligo Survey, http://www.colligo.com/_documents/Survey-Results.pdf (August, 2010).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry Hawes is the Principal and founder of Dow Brook Advisory Services. He is an internationally recognized expert on the application of information management technologies to drive high-value business transformation. His research and consulting work is focused on collaboration and knowledge management practices in the technology domains of enterprise social software, unified communication and collaboration, enterprise portals, document and content management, and business process management.

Larry's thought leading opinions have been published in Wired, InformationWeek, ZD Net, C/Net, eWeek, Financial Times, Upside, CFO, and many other publications. He blogs at Meanders: The Dow Brook Blog. Larry also writes on his personal blog, Together, We Can!, and those posts are frequently syndicated to other sites.

Larry's previous work experience included three and a half years as an analyst and consultant at Delphi Group and almost five years as an IBM consultant and program manager. Most recently, he was Lead Analyst, Collaboration and Enterprise Social Software at the Gilbane Group. Clients that have benefited from Larry's experience and insight include Accenture (Anderson Consulting), Acquia, American Express Travel, Box.net, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Broward County (FL) Public Schools, Citrix Systems, Defense Logistics Agency, Microsoft, NASA, NewsGator, and the United States Joint Forces Command.

Larry holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a MA in Historical Musicology from the University of Michigan. He earned the MBA degree, with honors, at Babson College. He lives on a beautiful property abutting the Dow Brook Reservoir in Ipswich, MA with his wife, two sons, a dog, and a cat.

ABOUT DOW BROOK ADVISORY SERVICES

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