Next-generation content collaboration A brave new era

Transcription

1 Next-generation content collaboration A brave new era

2 A brave new era in content collaboration How next-generation content collaboration enables government and enterprise to collaborate on content in the cloud quickly, easily, and securely. TABLE OF CONTENTS Harnessing data for collaboration The 5 barriers in the way of content collaboration Removing content collaboration barriers About Huddle

3 HARNESSING DATA FOR COLLABORATION Data is the DNA of enterprise: the key ingredient in every activity, every decision, and every transaction. So why is it so difficult to collaborate on data? Most enterprises and government departments typically rely on tried and tested practices for sharing data and collaborating, whether it is , applications like SharePoint, or emerging personal file sharing tools, like Dropbox. But this has been at their own peril. Collaboration based on these content sources leads to fragmented data, where no one knows quite where to look for answers to questions. It s essentially the fragmentation of the enterprise brain, a situation whereby huge volumes of siloed data blocks collaboration and hinders decision-making. And it presents huge security risks. Hackers can quite easily infiltrate and cause data loss, service disruption, and damage to brand reputation. And these archaic content collaboration systems are expensive. The more data that circulates on , the greater the cost of data management and storage, and the more difficult it is to work together. A SharePoint investment requires broad shoulders 60% of deployment costs go to staffing. Finally, there are the vast volumes of data known as Big Content. Employees in enterprises and government are already overwhelmed by the amount of content they have to deal with. Quite simply, they are drowning in data. So what s blocking the path to easily storing, searching for, working on, and sharing files in a secure environment? THE 5 BARRIERS IN THE WAY OF CONTENT COLLABORATION 1. CONTENT IS OVERWHELMING ENTERPRISE AND GOVERNMENT We are in the age of Big Content. An ever-increasing production of content is making it harder than ever to access content that truly matters, and for us to sift through the data needed to perform our role in our respective teams. It s been driven by a thirst for knowledge and fuelled by cloud, mobile, and social technologies. Certain aspects of the data market managed to record high levels of growth in , or example, with the management and leveraging of information for competitive advantage driving growth in markets associated with big data and analytics.

4 According to recent research 2, the workforce may be on the brink of a meltdown. Some 55% of US employees (and 57% of UK ones) feel bombarded by all the information they are presented with. Some 28% waste valuable time searching for electronic documents. And 21% can t locate the latest up-to-date document. Whether it s , documents, images, or video, employees are increasingly overwhelmed by the amount of content they have to deal with. Take a typical sales organization for example. To attract, win, and grow a customer base, sales teams will utilize operational data, a customer relationship management platform such as salesforce.com, master data management, data from third parties like Reuters or Dun & Bradstreet, and social data from LinkedIn or Facebook. The situation is set to only get worse. Organizations and governments are now also trying to pull together traditional transactional data with social and GPS data to gain valuable insights and knowledge into consumer and citizen behavior. Witness, for example, the prevalence of GPS data in support of public services such as planning laws and refuse collection. Big Content has arrived. 2. LEGACY SOFTWARE IS FAILING TO COPE Recent research 3 provides undeniable proof that SharePoint is failing to deliver effective content collaboration. Let s look first at the high cost of SharePoint deployment and maintenance. An IDC report sponsored by Microsoft found that software licensing only accounts for 7% of the total cost of ownership (TCO) for SharePoint on-premise. Hardware, consultancy, and training account for a further 33%. However, the largest component is staffing at 60%. SharePoint is expensive. Click here to view the Huddle SharePoint calculator. Second, SharePoint isn t popular with users. It s the interface that holds it back making it the opposite of intuitive and ultimately difficult to use. And, of course, if users don t enjoy using it, they will keep on using other less efficient means of collaboration, mainly . Third, SharePoint does not lead itself to seamless collaboration across the firewall: on-premise deployments of SharePoint are designed to keep content locked inside an organization not allowing users to share documents outside the company firewall. They have to rely instead on personal cloud tools or s, which come with their own set of dangers. Today s dynamic businesses and government departments need to work securely with contractors, vendors, partners, and customers across organizational boundaries to maintain competitiveness. We should also leave as a tool for simple communication not collaboration. Research by Huddle 4 finds that 65% of staff in US companies (70% in the UK) send attachments when they need to share documents with people outside of their company. The report also finds that 31% of US employees are unable to send large files via (42% in the UK), and 28% waste time searching for electronic documents (41% in the UK). Clearly, users are already struggling to swim against the tide of inbox overload and the size restrictions of individual files. can all too easily lead to sharing the wrong document version over and over again.

5 3. SECURITY IS BEING COMPROMISED An impending cloud storage catastrophe is just over the horizon and it is blowing in fast. Recent research highlights that almost every employee in the organization or government department is taking huge risks with the security of critical data. For example, 91% use their personal device to store, access, and share documents; 64% store work documents on external hard drives; and 40% store work documents on consumer cloud services. Why should we be so worried about this? Putting aside the issues of managing all this fragmented content, organizations risk having their intellectual property leave the company whenever an employee decides to move on. Moreover, there is no way of tracking the data, keeping audit trails or retaining version controls, and this poses a significant challenge when it comes to gathering records for compliance or auditing purposes. We should be worried: the research found that more than a fifth of employees use Dropbox to store enterprise documents, while 14% use Apple icloud and 13% use Google Drive. Organizations are wrongly stretching Dropbox or Box to become permission-based content collaboration platforms. That only works if there are just a handful of users being invited onto personal drives. However, as the personal cloud storage environment grows, significant security flaws open up around who sees the confidential information and what they do with it. It s the equivalent of inviting everyone into your C: drive, or giving everyone in the organization a USB drive to share permission-sensitive data. Organizations that have turned a blind eye to employees using personal file sharing tools like Dropbox or Box for enterprise content will no doubt face damaging and costly data losses both in terms of money and brand reputation. It s not a matter of if, simply a matter of when. Gartner has added fuel to this fire, recently stating that by 2014, a worm, exploiting cloud-based personal file synchronization services, will cause massive, costly enterprise data loss and service disruption. In this age of Big Content, there is a looming crisis caused by a prevalence of consumer storage tools like Dropbox. Ultimately, it will lead to lack of access to corporate data, IP, and knowledge, while it remains locked in employee-only silos. 4. IT S TOO DIFFICULT TO WORK TOGETHER The boundaries for accessing, sharing, and working on content have disappeared. Employees in the enterprise and government departments now have the flexibility to work anywhere (in the office, on a plane, with a client), anytime (online, offline, and on the move), and on any device (PC, Mac, smartphone, or ipad). Recent research 5 finds that smartphone usage grew by 70% in 2012, with 23% of all time spent online being via a mobile phone.

6 However, there are a multitude of barriers in the way prohibiting content collaboration, including firewalls, VPN access, and technical configurations. Consider the risks associated with bring your own device (BYOD) to work policies. According to a recent global report 6, there remains substantial cybercriminal activity, spurred on by the rise in popularity of Android-based mobile apps. Trojans are a major threat, masquerading as well-known applications in order to dupe mobile users into downloading and installing it. No one feels completely safe collaborating on confidential content in a climate like this. SharePoint users will also attest to how difficult it is to collaborate on content through a mobile device. The touch experience is not optimal for retrieving information on the move. And in all likelihood, mobile users will revert to when it comes to file management and a content sharing solution further compounding the content sharing conundrum. 5. FAILED DEPLOYMENTS MUST STOP Open any newspaper, any tech publication, and a headline will leap out highlighting the latest failed technology program especially in the public sector. The legacy approach has been to invest vast sums of money on monolithic, large-scale software deployments often backed by an army of consultants. Complexity and low adoption are the hallmarks of old-world ways of introducing new technologies into organizations. Take SharePoint, for example. Too often, they are associated with a slow, expensive and resource-intensive implementation. A non-interoperable implementation that requires regular upgrades, multiple technologies, and which often doesn t support mobile access or external users. For government organizations, in particular, legacy technology like SharePoint has long hindered them from getting their job done. Why? Because it s prohibitive and difficult for users to work securely across the firewall with departments, agencies, external contractors, and partners. And there s no way to support mobile teams. REMOVING CONTENT COLLABORATION BARRIERS What s getting in the way of collaboration and effective decision-making? Let s start with the rising tide of Big Content, cost, concerns about the security of sharing data, ease of use, and sharing content outside the firewall. What if you could hurdle all of these barriers? What is you could find a way to access, share, and work on content with whomever you needed to, inside and outside your business or government department? Huddle makes it more than possible. It makes it easy. Huddle delivers a centralized place where teams of people can work on content that s owned by the enterprise not the individual. It s completely secure, so there s no sensitive data sitting in , on USB drives, or on content sharing platforms. It s intelligent, so you don t have to hunt down the content content comes and finds you. And the best-in-class, cloud-based service tackles and harnesses the growing threat of Big Content. Now you can take advantage of content, collaboration, and conversations all in one place.

7 So how does Huddle overcome the 5 barriers that clog content collaboration? 1 Content is overwhelming enterprises and government: Huddle delivers the right content at the right time. With our comprehensive platform for cloud-based content collaboration, you have all the tools for the intelligent enterprise in one place, including file sharing, document management, whiteboards and discussions, and mobile integration. Use case: Huddle has changed the way the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) works, streamlining processes and making the department more efficient. People can now get on with their work rather than spending time on administration. 2 Legacy software is failing to cope: You can deploy Huddle on top of, alongside, or instead of SharePoint, with an exponentially higher and more rewarding user adoption, increased productivity, external collaboration, mobile access, and ease of use. It s also significantly less expensive to maintain. Compared with , Huddle delivers a single view of content, activity trails, version control, secure access, and tightly aligned approval processes. Use case: Kia Motors Corporation uses Huddle to collaborate on marketing activities across 70 PR offices, 40,000+ global employees, and numerous external agencies. Huddle empowers Kia to retain control over the brand, improving campaign coordination and enabling the marketing team to participate in shared discussions. 3 4 Security is being compromised: Huddle pioneers a secure, team-collaboration approach, and is one of the most secure ways to store, share, and work on content in the cloud. Huddle protocols rival bank security systems, and our service level agreement (SLA) guarantees 99.9% uptime. Use case: The Liberal Democrats initially deployed Huddle for file sharing. However, the British political party quickly realized that it has multiple other functions. Various groups across the party are now using it to manage projects, organize conferences, and maintain discussions. It s too difficult to work together: With Huddle, there are no boundaries to accessing, sharing, and working on content. Your users have the flexibility to work anywhere (in the office, on a plane, with a client), anytime (online, offline, and on the move), and on any device (PC, Mac, smartphone, or ipad). Use case: Huddle is integral to the Commonwealth Secretariat, and forms a distinct part of this government organization s online proposition. This, in turn, has helped the Secretariat to take a step closer to its strategic vision of a better-connected Commonwealth. Huddle has greatly increased productivity and efficiency within the organization and helped to create a much-needed shift towards working online.

8 5 Failed deployments must stop: As you d expect from a cloud-based content collaboration system, Huddle is fast, cost-effective, and easy to deploy. There s no complicated IT to slow you down. In fact, Huddle guarantees 100% user adoption in 90 days or your money back. From the moment you begin your Huddle trial, our customer engagement team is at your disposal. Use case: The British energy company, Centrica, turned to Huddle to support collaboration with global teams and third parties. Adopting Huddle has grown organically across the organization, as people on various teams work together and experience the power of Huddle. ABOUT HUDDLE Huddle provides next generation content collaboration for the government and enterprise. Its intelligent recommendation technology delivers relevant content to Huddle users when they need it most, with no need to search. Teams and organizations work more efficiently, using Huddle s secure cloud collaboration service that can be accessed via web browsers, desktops, or mobile devices anytime, anywhere. Co-headquartered in London and San Francisco and with offices in New York City, Huddle's customers include 80 percent of Fortune 500 and 80 percent of UK government departments, as well as companies such as Kia Motors, SEGA, Unilever and P&G. The company is privately held and backed by venture capital firms DAG Ventures, Eden Ventures, Matrix Partners and Jafco Ventures. More information can be found at 1 British Computer Society, April Source: 2013 Enterprise Information Landscape, Huddle. Ipsos MORI interviewed 2,000 adults aged who worked in an office across the US from its online panel of respondents. Interviews were conducted online, April 2-9, Source: 2013 Enterprise Information Landscape, Huddle. 4 Source: 2013 Enterprise Information Landscape, Huddle 5 Financial Times, March 25, GFI Software, July 2012.