Item: Dropbox
Rating: 9
Author: Ardath Dixon

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Dropbox as the official storage for all of our documents. It allows multiple people to access the same documents (PDFs of legal agreements, meeting minutes, etc.) and provides a platform to share large documents quickly (photos, videos, etc.). We are a nonprofit, so not exactly a business. We use it for storage and sharing of all electronic material.

Pros and Cons

Upload photos in full size and quality from my phone to an automatically shared folder.
Allow smooth access to the same files from multiple devices.
Allow different privacy sharings for different folders.

I discovered some hidden files on the desktop version that appeared on the website version when the title name was included or other symbols. I then renamed the files and they appeared, but would be smoother to somehow sync those files to appear both on the website and the desktop Dropbox folders, regardless of title names.
I still don't fully see the difference or the appeal to one or the other with shared folders vs. team folders. We have both for different files, and I'm not sure why two formats are necessary.
Allow for some sort of setting that puts a cap on the GB of files allowed to download to each device. I first also synced the Dropbox drive on the desktop of my personal laptop for the occasional work while traveling, but it downloaded too much for the device to function properly, so I had to uninstall it and access the files via remote desktop, instead.

Return on Investment

Helped us to streamline boxes of papers into electronic folders.
Enables a more solid backup of necessary files, not dependent on one specific computer or one specific box of papers.
Enabled a quicker search to locate specific files than the previously used operations.

Key Insights

Do you think Dropbox delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Dropbox's feature set?

Yes

Did Dropbox live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Dropbox go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Dropbox again?

Yes

Other Software Used

ArcGIS, Google Drive, Adobe Acrobat

Likelihood to Recommend

Dropbox is great for sharing and storing a high volume of files that are not to be edited, such as PDFs or jpegs. Dropbox is also helpful for me to access files that I alone wish to edit, as it allows for access from different devices. Dropbox is less helpful if a document is being edited by more than one person, and sometimes prevents an editor from saving their changes. Google Docs is often preferable for that scenario since all viewers can see the current status when edits are being made.

Helpful for Storing and Sharing Much Across Devices

Overall Satisfaction with Dropbox