Item: Dropbox Business
Rating: 10
Author: Daniel Ledbetter

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Dropbox Business to store all of our company files. This includes files accessible to all employees, files only accessible to the administrative staff, and files each employee can store for use at home. We have electronic copies of all of our records now and I am able to track changes as well as undo unwanted changes. Any files that are deleted by accident can be stored easily and there is more than enough space to store all of our files.

Pros and Cons

Easily restrict file access for users
Restore deleted files
Track changes and restore previous versions of files
Large amount of storage

You have to use the website to remove files from the shared company folder, even if you are an Admin
The default settings produce a notification every time a file is edited
When using mobile, the app defaults to a preview mode rather than opening the file with Word, Excel, etc.

Return on Investment

It is less expensive than the previous file storage system we used. We can also downgrade the number of users and thus our payments easily.
The amount of time I've saved not having to reproduce files that we inadvertently saved over is hard to measure but it has been quite a bit.
Terminated employees can have their access to files rescinded quickly and remotely, saving me time and the potential hassle of losing files or having to restore deleted files.

Alternatives Considered

SmartVault

SmartVault was much clunkier and didn't have the precise user permissions I needed. It also did not do much for us when a former employee downloaded a bunch of files, quit, and attempted to use those files to start a competitor. The report gave us an idea of what they had done, but we needed a forensic IT specialist to truly understand the extent of the damage. Dropbox logs everything a user does and where they log in from each time they do it.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, SharpSpring, Bento for Business, RUN Powered by ADP

Performance

Everything I have ever needed to do on Dropbox, within reason, has been simple. Adding or removing users, adding or removing files, etc. has all been very straightforward. Files upload quickly, the web portal is easy to navigate and the mobile app is convenient. The reports I've downloaded on usage have been fairly easy to read as well.

Usability

None of my employees have any issue install Dropbox or using it. During training, I issue a username and password and instruct the employees on how to install and navigate Dropbox. The system is so intuitive that almost no one has had any follow-up questions or issues after onboarding is complete.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you need to store a large number of files that need to be backed up and inaccessible to some employees, but not others, Dropbox Business is great. If you don't have a lot of files and your organization is small, you probably don't need to pay for this service with its per-user pricing. If you are using very large media files, the storage space might fill up too fast compared to text files and PDFs.

Dropbox Business Saves Everything, Including Time

Overall Satisfaction with Dropbox Business