Document Repository for the 21st Century
Email was not designed for collaboration on projects or documents. It is cumbersome, cluttered, and often creates versioning issues. Non-profits and corporations seek out document repositories to help reduce these issues and helped them record, organize and develop a knowledge database. There are however a few different types of document repositories.
File Transfer Services are the first type of document repositories. These services are often called FTP’s as they operate in a very similar manner as a FTP server, however they are upgraded with a few simple options having to do with compliance and privacy (some even have SSL-digital certifications). The pricing for an FTP service is based upon usage and storage, so the more data you host and the more you use it, the more it will cost.
Option number two is a cloud based file transfer service. “Cloud” is a relative new word in the business community and refers to a service that is complete web-based, meaning that it does not require a user to install anything on their computer to function. Cloud based file transfer systems are usually priced the same way as FTP services.
Although both FTP and Cloud based services are a vast improvement when compared to email, both have essentially the same drawbacks. When it comes to telework, telecommuting, or managing multiple office locations, both FTP and Cloud-based services are still cumbersome and difficult. Neither has the capacity to provide file or user audit reports, so management cannot tell who changed what files and when, which is especially troubling because both of these systems only have two levels of user access: full and none. This means that users that can view a file can also edit or delete it, and that a manager cannot tell which user deleted it without a data forensics expert looking into things. Secondly, these services often do not have technical support personnel and thus cannot help figure out how something went awry if it does.
A virtual data room is the third option and has much more robust security features and document organization. It features banking level encryption so that your data is never secure and always available. Virtual data rooms also have options to make finding documents easier such as full document text search, sorting, custom fields, filters, and a folder and file system.
Virtual data rooms also enable managers to see access logs per user and per file so that administrators know file and user history. They also have many more options and access levels than lesser document repository methods. For example, a user could be given or revoked any of these privileges: opening, viewing, editing, printing, downloading, and deleting. Secondly, for some files, users can be given these priveldges in addition to an option to turn on or off a security watermark detailing the users name, login info, time, date, and ip address.
In concussion, email is an inadequate solution for document collaboration among multiple parties. File transfer protocol services offer many benefits to emailing by getting rid of versioning issues, but have their own security risks and lack of accountability. The best solution is a virtual data room.
This information has been prepared by V-Rooms.com. V-Rooms has been providing secure document management systems and document repository solutions for corporate communications for the last 5 years.
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