I can still remember the first time I heard about this little startup called Box.net who decided to play David to Microsoft's SharePoint Goliath by providing a simple web based file sharing service. Fast forward a few years and not only has that startup renamed themselves to Box.com, but they have evolved far beyond their "file manager in the cloud" roots to become a powerful content centric platform that straddles (and blurs) the lines between file-sharing, enterprise content management, collaboration and more.
Today in front of approximately 3000 people at their 3rd annual BoxWorks conference in San Francisco, Box made several important announcements:
- The introduction of Box Preview - Based on the file-viewing technology from their acquisition of Crocodoc, this new user experience dramatically improves the way people can view and interact with files stored in Box. With Box Preview, when you click on a file stored in Box it will be displayed with full fidelity without having to open the application that was used to created it. You can zoom in on the contents, add comments, assign tasks, and more. Box demoed this capability with pictures, PDFs and even highly detailed architectural (CAD) drawings.
MyPOV: This is a very welcome improvement to the overall user experience which will not only save people time, it will also add a little element of fun to viewing or commenting on content. With respect to media files, Box Preview is like having your own Flickr, Youtube and Slideshare all rolled into one. I am not a fan of the name, as I think of "preview" as something you do before looking at the real thing. I'd rather see the name be Box Viewer or Box View.
- Dramatically improved Box for iOS - Based on the acquisition of the mobile application Folders, Box has given their iOS (especially iPad) a complete overhaul.
MyPOV: Box has always been aware of the importance of mobile access to content, not just for viewing, but for creating, commenting and sharing. This update shows their commitment to that, ensuring that the mobile experience is front and center in their thinking.
Special MyPOV: One of the things that impressed me the most about the two items above, is how quickly Box was able to integrate the people and technology from the two acquisitions. Often acquires technology take years to integrate, or worse it never actually makes it into the product. Here both Crocodoc and Folders are key parts of enhancing the Box experience.
- Introducing Box Notes for collaborative document creation. Box Notes is a web based document editor that allows people to work together in real time to co-author content.
MyPOV: Of course the comparisons to personal note taking applications like Evernote and OneNote, or collaborative editors like Google Documents are the first thing that pop to mind. That's ok, as those are all really powerful tools. It's important to note, Box's head of engineering Sam Schillace was the person behind Google Docs, so he knows a thing or two about creating collaboration tools. IMO Box Notes does two significant things: 1) Provides another touch point to keep people inside Box vs. using another tool. While it's never going to replace a full word processor, Box Notes will provide a majority of the functionality that most people need. The first release offers basic text based tools, but the roadmap does include the ability to embed rich media like videos, maps, etc. as well as tables and checkboxes. 2) It provides a huge opportunity for Business Partners to build additional functionality for Box. Just look at the hundreds of add-on products for Evernote, those partners should now be looking at Box as well. Finally, one of the best things going for Box Notes is that it is a core component of Box, meaning in addition to the note taking features, you also get all the security, scalability, compliance, auditing, administration, etc. that comes with Box.
- Add context to your content, Box introduces MetaData. Coming soon people will be able to click on a file stored in Box and rather than just add generic tags, they will instead be able to input specific data. For example, image if you upload a picture of a car accident, you could then be prompted for the date and time of the incident, your insurance number, the make of the car, the intersection the accident occurred, etc.
MyPOV: This was by far the most important announcement of the day. The addition of metadata will allow customers and business partners to now build applications in Box with far more functionality than just "storing files in the cloud." By providing forms for attaching data to objects stored in Box, Box can now compete against products like QuickBase, Filemaker, Podio, or custom application platforms like Force.com as way for businesses to create workflow applications around critical business processes. My hope is that Box will provide ways for people to choose from values using dropdown lists, radio buttons and checkboxes, not just free form text fields. For example, in a product catalogue application, if a picture is uploaded I'd like to be able to choose from a defined list of available colours and sizes, not just type them in myself. Also, I hope this metadata will be available to create custom views and reports. Today the views in Box are displayed and sorted based on key attributes of the file itself, like filename, date created, etc. With metadata I envision views that are not based on the file at all, but rather things like customer names, insurance number, product make and model, etc. I do think the term metadata is too technical, I wish they had named this something like Box Forms or Box Details.
- Create workflows with Box Policies and Automation. Now organizations can create rules to help control what content is in Box and what actions can be taken on it once it is there. For example, a company could now create rules that prevent people from uploading and sharing sensitive data.
MyPOV: Along with the introduction of metadata, this announcement is significant in elevating Box miles above being just a cloud based file storage provider and is key to enabling Box to be an application development platform. Policies and Automation is the core engine for workflow applications, allowing people to set triggers and actions. If you are familiar with personal workflow tools like IFTTT or Zapier you'll understand this, if not... think of being able to easily create a rule in Box that says "if this happens, then take this action". For example, "If a file is uploaded to the Account Receivable folder and has the metadata Due for Processing then post a link to the accounting group in our social network." In June of 2012 I posted on Twitter "I look forward to seeing who the first enterprise software vendor will be to add IFTTT like functionality into their platform.â, it looks like the answer is Box.
Despite all the new news, there were a few things I was disappointed I did not hear about:
- A more modern activity stream (like Facebook, Twitter, etc) or magazine (like Flickr, Pinterest, etc) looking UI. I think the main user experience is still too "file/folder" centric and could be a lot more engaging and beautiful.
- No filtering or the files being displayed. I'd like to be able to filter down the display based on things like title, tags, author, date, etc. One of my biggest challenges as a Box user is finding the content that I know is in there. I think the metadata announcement mentioned above will help with this, but I'm disappointed they did not hint at what could be possible here.
- Analytics or reporting that would help keep track of top content, most active users, etc.
- A recommendation engine that would suggest similar content and/or subject matter experts
- More focus on social networking features. Yes they introduced Box Notes for collaborate note taking, but if content is at the core of helping people work together in almost every business process, I would like to have seen the collaboration aspects get far more attention in the key, demos, sessions, etc.
In summary, while this may sound cliche to say about a tech conference, the truth is the atmosphere at BoxWorks was electric. The energy level in the keynotes, the halls, the partner expo, the breakouts, etc. was so positive. With 3000 people here on day 1, and supposably 1500 additional people coming today for Developer Day there is no denying the momentum Box currently has with their customers, prospects and partners. While it always hard for a company to break away from their original image, Box is taking all the right steps to evolve from a cloud-based file storage company to a collaborative application platform where people can create and share content within the context of the business processes they use to get their jobs done.
