Dropbox is a service for file syncing and sharing, or for cloud storage.
$11.99
per month
M‑Files
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
M-Files is a provider of in information management. The M-Files
metadata-driven document management platform enables knowledge workers to
find the right information in any context, automate business
processes, and enforce information control. This helps businesses deliver better customer
experiences and higher-quality work with lower risk.
The vendor's value proposition:
EASE OF USE: M-Files increases productivity and
improves work quality by making…
M-Files can easily be setup and use workflow management, tags documents, and create destroy dates. OneDrive and Dropbox does not do those things, or at least not as easily as M-Files can.
Well-Suited Scenarios: Large Design Files: Dropbox is well-suited for architects who work with large design files, such as blueprints, CAD files, and 3D models. Dropbox's large file sharing capabilities make it easy to share these files with team members and clients, while its version control features allow architects to track changes over time. Limited Customization: Dropbox may be less appropriate for me who require a high level of customization in my workflow or project management.
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.
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.
At one point 2 gigs [were] deemed enough for the "Free" version of Dropbox and its competition. However as even the most simple picture from a phone gets larger, 2 gigs might no longer be enough. Might want to increase the free size to adjust for file size inflation.
Dropbox's app is very presumptive of updating itself every time you log on to a system that it's installed on. I know that's a feature you can turn off, but the assumption to turn that feature on by default is annoying.
Dropbox could use a phone app function that would initiate a download to a designated computer hard drive. It would eliminate having to see the file on your phone, go to your computer, turn it on and then download the file.
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.
Dropbox is a user-friendly, easy tool which requires little to no skill and they offer a free version with a good amount of storage available. There are other file sharing tools available however at a cost. Dropbox free version I have used for years and it serves every purpose I need.
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.
Dropbox is dead simple to us since right out of the box, it creates a folder on your PC and anything added to it gets synced to the cloud and any other device signed into that account. You can then dive deeper into permissions, version history, etc. Overall though, the minimalist approach is welcome since not everyone we work with is highly technical and that itself saves us time and money. Many of our colleagues already use Dropbox for their personal cloud so no training is required when using it at work other than going over our own company guidelines and best practices.
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.
Dropbox is really useful, you can access any file from anywhere and you can upload and even edit files online, but, sometimes it can be slow. Downloading, uploading, and syncing is a bit slow, it can take several minutes. Furthermore, the search engine for large amounts of data can be slow too and it is not powerful.
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.
It has not been necessary to go to customer support lately, since everything works perfectly. However, I must add that at the beginning when I started using Dropbox, and I had any doubts about how it worked, customer support was always attentive and found the best solutions effectively.
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.
I needed to stay current in improving my daily operations. Dropbox was suggested to me by a former colleague two-years ago and I've been using it just fine ever since.
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.
Compared to Google Cloud Storage, the Dropbox app has proven to be more stable and dependable. In the meantime, Google has improved and is a great alternative. But now that we've decided to stick with Dropbox, we'll keep using it. In terms of ease of use, Dropbox appears to be the better option. It has all of the features that we require and more. It's easier to use for simple tasks, making it more convenient.
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.
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.
