It is a complex world out there where employees need to collaborate beyond the enterprise to get work done – with consultants, partners, contractors, prospects, customers, or agencies. Moreover, with advanced technology, new tablet, mobile devices and apps need to find ways to get their content on their devices to be productive.
Traditional ECM solutions have never easily supported these extended collaboration needs and some internal systems (like, say, Microsoft SharePoint) have been slow to provide adequate support for mobile devices with lack in scalability. Frustrated users have turned to the consumer cloud to share files, collaborate and keep files in sync between multiple computers and devices.
However, these services were never designed to manage corporate information. They do not provide the required security or level of control that many companies need. What happens when the employee leaves? Whom have they shared corporate documents with? Where are the documents stored? Moreover, how do you ensure that they are deleted after their useful life? What about compliance and eDiscovery? Users might be happy, but the corporation is right back where it was with USB stick – exposed, inefficient & chaotic.
Introducing Alfresco One, a new subscription-based offering from Alfresco, that blurs the boundaries between the office and the cloud. Alfresco One gives employees the freedom to collaborate both within the office and outside the office via mobile devices and with the extended enterprise, while enabling IT to regain control of all corporate content. This is Cloud Connected Content.
To understand the power of Alfresco One, let us take a financial accountant at a construction company as an example. The accountant needs to get information from internal and external vendors to manage finance and clear dues. In the past, this process may have been managed through multiple emails and the scanning of paper-based files.
Now using Alfresco One, rather than having to rely on email and paper documents the vendors can simply upload the documents, photographs and reports to a secure site in the cloud. These new documents are automatically synced back to the office where the person handling the account can review and process the payment. Once the payment is finished, the folder can be ‘un-synced’ and the content will be removed from the cloud, but saved in the office. The vendor never gets access to internal corporate files and the accountant has a simpler process allowing them to respond to the customer much quicker.
Also in global enterprises with multiple hierarchies, have many touch-points increasing the complexity in workflow causing slow delivery of results with less satisfied customers.
That is just one of many potential examples where users need easy, mobile and flexible tools to make them more productive, while IT maintains control and insight into what is happening with corporate content.
Alfresco One addresses the complete lifecycle of corporate content by extending powerful ECM capabilities from behind the firewall to the cloud – and all the way to mobile devices. But how you choose to deploy those benefits is up to you. If you are comfortable with a full cloud solution, use Alfresco in the cloud. If you require enterprise integration or customization and want to deploy on your servers or private cloud, use Alfresco on-premise. In addition, if you want to control the entire lifecycle, connect the two with Alfresco Enterprise-to-Cloud Sync.
Alfresco One includes:
- Alfresco on premise – A scalable, robust & feature-rich full ECM platform to manage the 80% of content that will never leave the organization. From simple document management to rigorous records management, Alfresco integrates with your existing enterprise systems (like Salesforce.com, SAP or Peoplesoft) and is the one source of truth for corporate content.
- Alfresco in the cloud – A secure, corporately controlled cloud service. Invite people from outside the organization to collaborate with your employees in the cloud, without having to involve IT every time – but only grant them access to the content that you want them to see. Alfresco is a true SaaS service that can be up-and-running for your team in minutes. With new use cases like desktop sync and mobile access, your users are happy while IT stays in control.
- Alfresco Enterprise-to-Cloud Sync – Allows employees to select documents and folders from Alfresco to sync to the cloud. Did you update the document in the office or in the cloud? Doesn’t matter – Alfresco keeps everything synchronized. Alfresco is the only ECM platform in the world with a seamless cloud sync.
- Alfresco Mobile – Workers today are mobile and need to be able to work anywhere. Native mobile apps provide secure access to content with any device, anywhere. Users can now choose to work through a web browser, via their tablet or on their smart phone – and IT stays in control of the content.
- Encryption and Security – Content is encrypted in the cloud and while on the tablet and smartphones reducing the risk should a device be lost or stolen. IT can revoke access immediately if someone leaves or a device is stolen.
Could connecting content to the cloud with Alfresco One help your business? Leave your feedback here and let us know what you think.
