SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space Between EFSS and ECM

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1 ESG Solution Showcase SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space Between EFSS and ECM Date: June 2015 Author: Terri McClure, Senior Analyst; and Leah Matuson, Research Analyst Abstract: With the increasing adoption of mobile computing environments that enable employees to work anywhere, at any time, and from any device, IT organizations must step up and provide employees with the appropriate tools to enhance productivity and collaboration around the clock. But many IT organizations are having a hard time finding tools that offer everything needed for seamless and simple mobile file sharing and collaboration. Most enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) solutions on the market were designed for mobile file sharing, with collaboration as an afterthought. And most enterprise content management (ECM) solutions were designed for use in a desktop environment. There really isn t a one-size-fits-all mobile collaboration solution. But that doesn t mean there aren t other types of solutions that can enhance what organizations are already using. SavvyDox is the name of a collaborative mobile software solution for document management. SavvyDox is not an EFSS solution, nor is it an ECM solution, but rather a complementary technology that works in conjunction with one or both. Positioning itself as a disruptive technology, SavvyDox sits between EFSS and enterprise content management (ECM), offering what appears to be those missing capabilities that could support seamless mobile enterprise collaboration for PC, Mac, and mobile users. If this is the case, the eponymous solution could give SavvyDox what it needs to speed ahead of challengers in this newly created niche within the burgeoning enterprise file sharing and collaboration market. Overview Workforce productivity and secure collaboration are today s buzzwords. With business being transacted anytime, anywhere, and on any device, to stay competitive, organizations must provide their workers with the right tools to increase productivity and collaboration. And while EFSS solutions can and do provide convenience for the workforce and can enhance productivity and collaboration to some extent, most EFSS solutions still lack the necessary features to enable the workforce to be as productive as possible. Although most organizations understand that workforce collaboration is essential to the growth and good health of the business, only in the past couple of years have enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) solutions come to gain acceptance in the workplace for use as a means to that end. According to ESG research published last year, organizations have deployed EFSS to enable workforce mobility, enhance productivity, and increase collaboration (see Figure 1). 1 1 Source: ESG Research Report, Online File Sharing and Collaboration: Deployment Model Trends, February This ESG Solution Showcase was commissioned by SavvyDox and is distributed under license from ESG.

2 Solution Showcase: SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space between EFSS and ECM 2 Figure 1. Top Five Reasons Organizations Deployed EFSS Solutions What objectives was your organization looking to achieve by using an online file sharing and collaboration service(s)? Which would you say was the primary objective for your organization? (Percent of respondents, N=231) Provide employees with the ability to access and work with (edit, annotate, etc.) documents from multiple devices Increase employee productivity by streamlining file sharing and collaboration tasks Make it easier for employees to search for and access documents and other files Increase our employees ability to share files and collaborate on documents and projects 10% 8% 6% 7% 35% 34% 33% 33% Primary objective (one response accepted) Top objectives (five responses accepted) Enable document sharing and collaboration in a controlled and regulatory compliant environment 7% 33% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, EFSS solutions can and do enhance productivity and collaboration, but are limited in how far they go. At the very least, business-focused EFSS products sync data and allow for easy file sharing. Some solutions are introducing some lightweight workflow and collaboration functionality. But it is important to note, EFSS was designed for sync and share as a primary use case. And though there are a number of EFSS products available today, and despite their broad adoption, many IT organizations are struggling to get their arms around the broader potential use cases. Most organizations have only deployed solutions for particular individuals and departments, still trying to determine where and how the solutions fit into the business. 2 While accessing and sharing corporate files was relatively straightforward when everyone used desktops and laptops, as the device mix continues to change (ios, tablets, iphones, ipads, etc.), users are demanding access to files anytime, anywhere, and from any device. So, while much of EFSS is about improving access, it s also about effectively managing content from both the knowledge worker and IT enterprise data governance standpoint as well as enhancing collaboration and boosting productivity. But the true business value of these solutions is not just about the data stored within these solutions, it s about tying an organization s data into existing data stores, such as file server-based home directories or SharePoint repositories. Unfortunately, many business-focused EFSS solutions don t offer all of the capabilities needed to provide organizations with a great deal more than just access to files for simple sharing and basic collaboration. So what can businesses do to further improve workforce productivity and collaboration? The first thing is that IT organizations really need to have a good understanding of what the workforce needs (as opposed to just what EFSS can provide). The workforce needs to do more than just share files. It needs to manage content and workflow to enable greater productivity and more efficient collaboration. Basic file sharing is a good start, but productivity gains come from tracking and managing which steps in the workflow are required, which have been accomplished, and who is responsible, all 2 Ibid

3 Solution Showcase: SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space between EFSS and ECM 3 surrounded by appropriate mechanisms to track activities and document history, and keep lines of communication open and teams in step. A Complementary, Value-added Technology to Enterprise File Sync and Share Sitting between EFSS and ECM solutions is SavvyDox. SavvyDox is a relatively new collaborative mobile software solution for document management. SavvyDox is not an EFSS solution nor an ECM solution but rather a complementary technology that can work with EFSS and ECM solutions. That s not to say SavvyDox can t work on its own as a lightweight repository and workflow engine it can. But given the fact that many organizations have ECM solutions in place, and many organizations are adopting one or more EFSS solutions, SavvyDox value is in tying together these applications into an endto-end productivity and workflow solution that supports legacy and new endpoint devices and mobile workflows. To understand just where SavvyDox fits into an organization, it s helpful to understand the types of features that ECM and EFSS solutions provide, and what they don t. ECM systems organize, manage, deliver, and store all of a company s documents, as well as other content, from content creation to archiving and deletion. These systems are generally very powerful, highly scalable, file-type agnostic, and found in large enterprises. Long implementation times, high costs, and extensive training are often associated with ECM systems, which focus on the documents themselves and not on the documents content. ECM systems store files in their central server-based repositories and they generally don t sync them to desktop or mobile devices. With ECM systems, tracked changes are usually based on Microsoft Word. A massive number of colored lines (i.e., lots of edits) can often make a document hard to read and not mobile-compatible. Comparing different document versions can be cumbersome, especially when two or more previous versions must first be imported into MS Word to perform this function. When sharing comments and changes, a number of ECM systems only provide serial review processes, while others just support parallel reviews. EFSS solutions are generally designed to allow for file syncing and access across multiple devices. They enable anywhere, anytime, any device content access, but lack most of the more robust content management features required to drive team productivity and enhance collaboration. Like ECM solutions, EFSS solutions also focus on changes at the document level, and not on the document content. Tracked changes are usually based on MS Word. Comparing document versions uses the same process as ECM systems. When it comes to conflicted copies of documents, when two different people are making changes to the same file at the same time, problems arise when the second person saves the document either overriding the changes made by the first person or creating two conflicted copies that someone needs to manually mediate between. And the system often provides no notification that there are now two copies, so workflows can branch off as collaborators work on different versions of the document. For the most part, the way to get around this when using EFSS is to only allow serial reviews. Some solutions offer file locking to get around the conflicted version problem, thus requiring serial review. This means once a document is opened by one person, it cannot be edited by another person until the first person closes out of the document. This can help ensure there are no branched workflows, but slows productivity because it is a serial rather than collaborative process, and a project may stall if someone forgets to unlock a document, leaving the collaborators unaware that it is ready for the next step. SavvyDox: Filling the Need for Advanced Collaboration Founded in 2011, SavvyDox is a privately held company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Targeting SMBs of employees, SavvyDox is a provider of mobile document collaboration solutions focused on increasing workplace productivity and efficiency. Its mission is to simplify mobile document collaboration and management. And while SavvyDox is a cloud-based document collaboration platform, the vendor isn t another EFSS contender vying for market share in the

4 Solution Showcase: SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space between EFSS and ECM 4 crowded EFSS space. Au contraire it s a complementary part of the EFSS story. SavvyDox is promoting its solution as one that is changing document collaboration from a serial process into an intelligent interaction with documents and all within an enterprise-class, private or public cloud-based secure infrastructure. The company s solution targets fields ranging from financial services and law to health care and pharmaceuticals; from government and publishing to construction and enterprise resource planning (ERP) industries that rely on features where SavvyDox excels, such as efficient document workflow, collaboration, and tracking. Secure Collaboration for a Wide Variety of Use Cases With compliance as an integral part of enterprise security, businesses need to ensure not only that they are keeping their data secure, but also that they are in compliance with government and organizational regulations. It s essential that an organization s file sharing and collaboration programs are enabling compliance processes, not hindering them, especially in regulated fields such as health care, finance, and government. SavvyDox offers the security aspect of collaboration solutions for regulated and non-regulated industries. Today, SavvyDox is experiencing demand for: Government version control. Hospital and pharmaceutical compliance. ISO processes, safety, and QA. Legal document revisions. Medical protocols. R & D. Construction. Project management. Using SavvyDox in conjunction with existing EFSS solutions rounds out the toolset for knowledge workers, providing organizations with those pieces currently absent from typical EFSS solutions. SavvyDox seems to provide the missing links when it comes to the collaboration, document management, and content-enabled workflow portions of the equation. SavvyDox also appears to be addressing one of the biggest problems in locating files today trying to find specific files in a complicated file and folder structure developed by someone else. For example, an ipad has limited storage, so SavvyDox allows users to determine which files they want to sync on their ipads, then allows users to organize them into virtual containers that make sense to the user, while never changing the original file organization structure. The file remains in its original location. One of the more valuable tools in the long run is the ability to track content access and usage. SavvyDox provides granular reporting on who has read each document, what pages have been read, and how long each user spent on each page. This is all rolled up at the document level (rather than the version level), enabling compliance reporting and auditing.

5 Solution Showcase: SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space between EFSS and ECM 5 A User-centric versus IT-centric Model SavvyDox seems to not only be addressing access issues; the solution also focuses on the constant challenges regarding managing content, streamlining collaboration, and boosting productivity. As what could be called a disruptive technology, SavvyDox appears to address these issues by providing parallel collaboration in a user-centric model rather than an ITcentric model. But how does this work? Streamlining the Workflow, Enhancing Collaboration It s all about streamlining the workflow. The solution offers a viable alternative to Word Track Changes, providing thumbnails to identify only pages on which things have changed from the previous release. While the solution allows all reviewers to suggest changes in the parallel review process, only the document owner can change the source document. Additionally, SavvyDox allows threaded comments on suggested changes to align with what might occur in a face-to-face meeting, and all suggested changes are aggregated by the page they impact, in a sidebar. The solution also eliminates the need to gather comments from multiple tracked changes document responses and sync them to the master document, thus saving time, enhancing productivity, and simplifying collaboration. When using the new SavvyDox HTML5 browser-based reader, users can review, suggest changes, and approve documents from any browser, whether from a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. And while a large majority of business users work on PC-based Word, SavvyDox also supports Macs and ipad readers. With improvements made to the Microsoft Word add-in, users can post due dates for reviews and approvals, create and respond to proposals with multiple contributing authors, and control printing privileges. To keep track of all the content, SavvyDox includes a central dashboard to track workflow, including progress of deliverables, providing real-time updates on document status and a clear view of all assigned tasks. SavvyDox features the following: Collaborative review. Reviewers can suggest changes but only the author can change the source document. The author retains full responsibility and authority. Highlighted revisions to documents. SavvyDox includes page thumbnails to identify pages that have changed. On the changed page, SavvyDox highlights what has changed. Hovering on the change shows the previous wording. The document is clean and free from multiple sets of colored tracked changes. The elimination of conflicted copies of documents. SavvyDox allows reviewers to see each other s comments in near real time, and also supports threaded comments among all reviewers. Since the document owner is the only one who can modify the source document, there is no possibility of conflicting copies. Simplified version control. Comparing the current version with the previous version takes one mouse click. Comparing any two previous versions takes two mouse clicks. The user does not need to retrieve the previous version of the document; it s all handled automatically by SavvyDox. In addition, documents are synced to the server regardless of where they are stored on a user s device, and can be accessed online or offline. Compliance reporting. It s a given that businesses are well aware of the need for strict compliance, especially in regulated industries such as finance and health care. SavvyDox provides intelligence in this aspect, identifying who has opened a document, how long it has been open, and who has read which pages. Cloud hosting. SavvyDox supports cloud hosting on a private or public cloud.

6 Solution Showcase: SavvyDox: Next-generation Collaboration Bridges the Space between EFSS and ECM 6 Document security. Unlike what happens in many EFSS solutions, when documents are opened in SavvyDox using a SavvyDox reader, since they are PDFs, they: o o o Cannot be saved under a local name on a desktop. Cannot be modified by anyone other than the author. Cannot be forwarded to anyone else except by the author. The Bigger Truth SavvyDox appears to be the missing ingredient for organizations that are relying on EFSS solutions to help increase productivity, since it complements EFSS by adding efficient collaboration, document management, workflows, and reporting capabilities. By using SavvyDox in conjunction with existing EFSS programs, organizations can add value and deliver a more compelling solution to their workforces. SavvyDox provides some features associated with ECM systems, but it is not a full blown ECM system. It does offer simplified document distribution/version control and collaboration, but it is a much lighter weight solution than traditional ECM. SavvyDox is not highly customizable, and not designed to manage a document across its lifecycle or ensure retention over long periods of time. SavvyDox complements ECM as much as it complements EFSS, providing simple content-based review and editing functionality as well as mobile user support. It already supports Microsoft SharePoint and Office365, and there are a number of other ECM vendors in the queue for near term support. SavvyDox needs to continue to develop native clients for a broader range of endpoint devices it supports ios, PC, and Macs via clients, while Android and Blackberry are supported via HTML5 browsers. It also needs to continue to educate the market on this segment. Many organizations feel that EFSS will solve the collaboration problem, which it does to some extent, by simplifying file sharing. But many EFSS solutions were designed as storage solutions offering multiple device and user access to a central folder. And while some are evolving their solutions to focus on workflow and collaboration, these efforts are still in their early days. IT needs solutions now. If SavvyDox continues to focus on providing customers what they need for a seamless EFSS/collaborative experience, bridging traditional ECM and EFSS, and executes on its vision, it will have a promising future. SavvyDox provides a valuable tool missing from most organizations toolkits. Many organizations are still trying to figure out where mobile and cloud can have the most impact to their business, and when they get to focusing on productivity, they ll seek out these types of solutions. SavvyDox will be there waiting. All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at Enterprise Strategy Group is an integrated IT research, analysis, and strategy firm that is world renowned for providing actionable insight and intelligence to the global IT community by The Enterprise contact@esg-global.com Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. P