Box vs. M‑Files vs. OneDrive

I think Box is great for research teams or anyone that has a large number of files that need to be securely stored. Particularly in the case of social science research, where it is important to protect identifying data, Box is a great option. In cases where teams need a more reliable means for real-time collaboration, I would probably consider a different alternative

M‑Files is great for companies with multiple locations. Drive letters can become cumbersome to use and collaborate with colleagues and M‑Files fills that gap. The check out/check in system is great and allows only one editor at a time. This can be good and bad depending on the situation.

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I can speak from my own experience: in cases where workstations are switched every year or so, one drive makes it very simple to keep things synced, even for very large files. This is even true for large files (such as video or CAD files) that are enormous.

• The main feature that I like the most in Box is that it makes collaboration seamless, workers can easily check the documents any time and make changes according to the needs.
• Box manages and backs up all of your files on its cloud servers, and provides a very nice interface for creating, viewing, editing, and collaborating on the most commonly used file types (PDF, XLS, DOC, etc.).
• Over the past few years, Box has built on top of its basic cloud storage management with a host of other tools, such as workflows, AI, monitoring, and analytics.
• It is helping us to make good connections with clients and our workers themselves as to its syncing and viewing feature to all is very much helpful and easy to go.

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• Reliable: Our M-Files system has only gone down one time (for a very short period of time) at the beginning of the two years that we have been with M-Files. Our previous vendor's system had so many downtimes that our IT Department had to assign an associate to work with me for sending out notifications to associates etc. With our last vendor, one day I came to work and only 60 of the 260 consent for surgery forms were available to our end users although they were visible to me as the Administrator but weren't showing up for the end-users!
• Our M-Files system was created for us. It was created by working with developers to only have on our system what we required, and I must say, there were so many extra features that M-Files offered in our program that weren't available with our previous vendor. As mentioned previously, we can have two policies or forms visible to the end-user so one can be listed as "draft" or "training only" so our end users can read and use for training as we get ready to roll out a new medical record system. I can also preload policies and leave them in the working stage until they are approved and go back and publish them the day they are approved. The list goes on with so many great features.
• Our end users would say the greatest asset of this product is the search function. It's amazing how fast it is. There are many ways to search out a form or policy which makes it a true asset for our associates.

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• Allows for easy organization of documents
• Secures files separate from general documentation
• Allows for documents to be collaborated on in live real time with multiple editors accessing the same copy
• Provides online access across the globe to resources for teams development and project needs

• The graphic design of the dashboard should be simpler and more tangible that can be changed to the liking of the Admin.
• Sometimes there are some syncing issues in the background.
• The product has very limited functionality in some areas which could be a bit frustrating at times.

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• If you are new to Electronic Document Management, this can be a really difficult product to roll out. Since it is infinitely versatile, there are infinite ways to configure it wrong. I highly recommend the M-Files admin training offered by M-Files as it will set you in the right direction.
• Many options are paid add-ons. So while you are not paying for what you don't need, many great features will come at a cost.
• If you don't have a technical person on staff, this will be tricky to maintain. Not impossible. If your processes do not change, once setup it will be fine.

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• Some functions and apps are not available to all countries/regions
• The one drive app takes too much space in mobile devices
• The apps for mobile devices lack some tools, like the option to search templates
• It could allow to manually plan when to sync, specially photos, which take long times to sync

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I like the security features and I like the website. It's easy to use and create and move things around as needed. The main reason for a lower rating is because the Box Sync app is just not a good program. It's a memory hog, it's slow, transfer speeds are slow, and it's not the most efficient route. If you have a large Box account and you need to get a computer up to speed on a large amount of data within Box, you are in for the long haul. Last time I had to do this, it took 3 days to sync all of the files and we are talking around 100 GB worth of data

M-files meets our almost all needs, we dont have other option to replace m-files. it saves lots, like Hardware because of Vault Feature means we can create many vaults (mini-servers) in m-files in other solutions we need more hardware for more installations.

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I like Box better. If you sign into Microsoft using a personal account, be EXTREMELY careful. All of your downloads could suddenly be available to your entire company, and that is incredibly embarrassing. Did that happen to me? Not going to say, but just always check which MS account you sign into.

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Everything with Box is seamless. It can be integrated into virtually any other software or application. You can even get the app for your phone or tablet to work on the go. File syncing is so quick. The only reason I gave it a 9 is the issue I discussed earlier about the local file application rebooting and not continuing to sync files. Other than that, it's great!

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It is a powerful system that can locate content fast and effectively. The system takes quite some time to setup initially. It can be hard for M-Files support to know how businesses operate and how they want to use the system in a way that works for them. The customization makes it great for companies to cater to their own needs. Once the system is set up in a way that makes sense for the business, the user experience is positive. There is room for improvement in the notifications, workflow, and support areas.

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Using OneDrive is very intuitive and has been improved over the years. It's just like using native file management on either your Mac or PC. It's drag and drop functionality is easy and it clearly shows when files are uploaded to the cloud or if there are errors

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Yeah, it's always worked, I've never had any kind of connection issues, the only issues I've had it I've been on our end when the Internet hasn't worked.

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always there.

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The general operation and management of Box is very efficient, both when accessing the account, and when adding files, downloading or modifying any document directly. The web platform, mobile and desktop versions work really well and quickly, making all the work and process flow smoothly and without setbacks. So far I have not been able to observe any inconvenience

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I noticed some lagging with the integration with Microsoft Office but not so much that I would not use it. It has gotten better with updates. to be fair the issues were when Office 2013 first came out.

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It has a good performance, the pages load normally, access to the files, management, reports, everything is working well. With regard to integration with other systems, we have not done so yet.

I found their support community lacking in clarity when I experienced a login issue. The error messaging was poor on my Box Sync application. I did not reach out to support staff for help, instead, I reasoned that I should try downloading the Box Sync application again and reinstall it. That fixed my issue, thankfully. I think a less computer-savvy user would've been much more frustrated.

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Usually when I need help from them I got support and it was very good and focused to solve my problem. I didn't have so many problems, but when used it worked. I just would like to have a support in my native language, but I can understand that sometimes is hard for the companies.

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It's a Microsoft product so there is a wealth of information online both from Microsoft directly and from millions of users but as a corporate user we also have access to direct Microsoft support through a variety of avenues (phone, email, etc.). This makes finding answers to issues more accessible, however, it does also mean that any new feature requests will get buried.

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The in person training was done in house and I helped with the training, people seem to respond well.

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We had online conference call training with a recording to use later as needed

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The documentation is good. Since Box is a popular service, there were also a number of YouTube videos and other sources that were helpful as we were considering the product and planning for deployment. Also, the ability to try the free version helped to prepare us.

They answer all questions and record your training for later use.

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Be careful with settings. It is easy to get overwhelmed with updates. For example, you don’t want to be updated when doing historical data uploads. I recommend taking off notifications initially and then turn on post you have done your historical data upload.

The key insight is that the most important thing is to have a open mind. The application is easy to use, but if you have a company with different views and it is not aligned could be a huge problem. So the company transformation is required together with the application. Ensure to use as much as possible the capabilities of the application helps to have best ROI.

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They are kind of the same. And both of them do their job as promised. But for company and project wise I think that Box slightly wins for some points. Which [makes him] win over Google Drive (don't forget that Google Drive is very easy to use and has a lot [of] nice features too).

The customization ability seemed to be a level above and easy to navigate and available options are constantly being reinvented. We have used OnBase for years and now desire to move away from this option for a number of reasons.

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Box is another file-sharing application that is very similar to OneDrive. Box falls short of OneDrive in its syncing capabilities. OneDrive is very quick with syncing so you never have to be concerned that you are not using the most up-to-date materials. Box was always a bit delayed and did not always accurately sync across systems. OneDrive benefits from being backed by Microsoft, so you expect the connection across applications that it allows. OneDrive also provides consistency for use and intuitive understanding because of that Microsoft consistency. I'd prefer OneDrive over Box.

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It's great, as we put more files on there it's done very well.

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do so much more than we need but has all the stuff we do need.

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• Box has been an only positive experience. It provides a seamless way for me and my team to collaborate on documents in such a way where we're not sending the document back/forth via email. It's a huge timesaver.
• Box reduces the risk of sharing a sensitive document to the wrong person via email.
• Box has provided a platform where my team can share notes in meetings - this has helped streamline and organize our meetings. Our meetings are more productive and actionable.

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• M-Files allows us to track important milestones and expiration dates. We are now able to easily track revisions to contracts with community partners and record comments and history in one place.
• We are able to track all contracts that come through our District and to create monthly reports to present to our Board.

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• OneDrive allows us to save much time on creating and archiving backup copies of our data. Microsoft gives a guarantee on the possibility of recovery of files or folders even from 30 days ago. It provides a great comfort of work.

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