File hosting software – the foundation of digital teamwork

The digital workplace has gained importance in recent years. It is hardly conceivable without digital collaboration. Software solutions that support collaboration and file sharing have increasingly gained significance.

Every document that is collaboratively edited or shared between employees needs to be stored and transferred somewhere. The transfer must be immediate and secure so workflow is not interrupted and to promote efficiency. Simplified workflows make teamwork easier.

Communication software

Communication applications enable digital collaboration with file exchange, messaging, conferencing, and chat functions. Slack, Teams, and Zoom are the most popular tools.
If you only need to exchange files, full communication software can be overkill. However, communication tools such as Microsoft Teams offer the possibility of working directly together on documents, presentations, and other file formats.

Sending documents

If you only want to send finished files and do not want to edit a document synchronously, there are numerous ways to send the files. We often first think of the classic e-mail attachment. However, larger files can quickly exceed Outlook’s maximum attachment size. File hosting providers such as WeTransfer come to the rescue, which can send files of up to 2 GB free of charge.

Note that this method does not allow direct editing. Received files must first be opened in an application that supports the file format before they can be processed further. Also, sending can take more time, since uploading and sending the files requires individual steps. This process reduces the efficiency of collaboration.

Collaborate on files

In the digital workplace, collaborative work on a document is often key to success. Whether that means collaborators are on different devices in the same room, communicating via video call, or communicating via edits and comments in the document, synchronous work enhances productivity. Ideally, each person involved can see what changes and enhancements have been made and what the other team members are currently working on. This enables effective knowledge management, avoiding knowledge gaps and facilitating the best possible work result.

File hosting software that allows synchronous work is available in various forms. Well-known examples include:

• Microsoft OneDrive
• Google Drive
• SharePoint
• Dropbox

These applications can be used online in a browser and optionally permanently installed on users’ devices.

With its integrated library, empower^® offers a more coherent solution for hosting, sharing and editing files directly. The empower^® Library advantage is that all stored files are clearly and centrally accessible. Everyone throughout the company can access them directly from within the applications they normally use. A simple authorization management system allows you to define who can see, edit, and share content. Updates can be automatically distributed to content in the empower® Library and version histories make traceability easy.

Connection with other applications

The fewer different software applications that need to be installed and used during the daily routine, the smoother and easier work will flow. Integrating file hosting software with your other enterprise software makes sense from an efficiency and user-friendliness standpoint. Microsoft Office is widely used and allows files to be opened and edited both within the company and with external partners, usually without any transfer difficulties. File hosting software that specializes in Office files is therefore ideally suited for many industries.

As a Microsoft add-in, empower^® makes use of the universality of Office documents in a very efficient way. Its direct integration into the usual Office applications saves cumbersome transfers via other software systems. Integration with SharePoint and Teams is also possible. Sharing files immediately after editing saves employees from having to upload a file to an external cloud and allows them to continue working without interruption. It also makes it less likely that confusion will arise as to whether a document is already visible and editable by everyone.

For more information about empower^® and its file hosting capabilities, please contact us.