Emailing documents back and forth prohibits collaboration, creates versioning issues, and is often cumbersome; as such, many companies look to document repositories to help conquer the clutter. Document repositories are storage locations that facilitate the capture, organization, and flow of knowledge. Companies have a few options available to them when they begin researching a document repository solution.
Option number one: Traditional file transfer services. Traditional file transfer services operate like a FTP server with some rudimentary compliance and privacy options. They are priced based upon their storage and transfer volumes and offer SSL-digital certificate connectivity.
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 certainly better than email, both of these systems have several drawbacks for companies looking to allow telecommuting, telework, or work-from-home scenarios. First, they have little to no technical support. Secondly, they have little to no audit capacities. Third, to access a file you must know its file name, and the systems do not provide robust word-for-word indexing of the files content. Fourth, they have limited security levels, at most consisting of the user being able to access a file or not even know it exists.
Option number three for a document repository solution is a virtual data room. A virtual data room provides a file and folder based storage and retrieval system that enables companies to store documents in an organized way. A virtual data room uses the same encryption technology as online banking so that mission critical documents are never insecure. A virtual data room also has numerous options for locating documents including searching, sorting, and filtering.
A virtual data room also provides granular report of file and employee activity, so that administrators can see who accessed a file, from what location, for how long, and any changes that they made. They allow multiple user-file access and security levels such as viewing but not saving, preventing printing and downloading, and watermarks displaying a user’s name, ip address, and date to discourage screen captures.
The moral of the story is that virtual data rooms are by far the best document repositories. FTP and Cloud based services offer an improvement over email, but virtual data rooms solve many of the security risks associated with document repositories.
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.
