Box Capture – Quick Review
One of the things announced this week at BoxWorks was Box Capture. Box Capture is a little iOS app that lets users upload pictures and videos from their phones and iPads directly to a specified folder in Box.
So what? I can already do that.
Yes, you can. However, there is a subtle difference between just loading photos and videos from your device’s storage into a Box folder via the Box iOS app and using Box Capture. That difference is that with Box Capture the photos and videos are never stored on the device itself. It’s a minor thing, but for certain use cases could prove to be very beneficial.
Any use case in which content security and privacy are important would benefit. If the device is lost or otherwise compromised, there’s no longer the risk of someone getting access to content they shouldn’t (assuming you don’t leave yourself logged in to Box via the main app). It’s also handy for those that have limited capacity on their devices.
From an ease-of-use perspective it’s as easy to use as you’d expect of anything from Box. If your use case requires removing the photo or video from your device, Box Capture saves you a step or two. It’s not a big deal for one off’s or occasional use, but if it’s something that you do a lot, it could turn out to be significant.
UPDATE: As I was on the first of my two flights home today, I thought about how cool it would be if the new app had some sort of offline capability wherein I could take a picture and it would plunk it into the selected folder once I was online again. So I took a couple of pics to see what would happen. Initially, nothing. Once I was back on the ground and had a reliable signal, well, to my delight those pics I took on the plane suddenly appeared where I had wanted them to. Pretty slick. Keep in mind that my phone was in airplane mode the entire time; I don’t know what the result would be if I’d turned my phone off (does anyone actually do that?).
UPDATE TOO: If you set review to “on” (see the image), Box Capture allows you to change the file name and add a comment before the picture or video is saved to the selected folder. It also presents a list of recently selected folders. And in keeping with keeping things slick and fast, the picture files are saved in .png format.
Cloudy With a Chance of Success – the Update
I originally posted this back in November 2011. A lot has changed since then, but there’s also a lot that hasn’t. One of the biggest things that’s changed is that Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) has gained a ton of legitimacy over the last little while.
I’m reposting this for a couple of reasons: 1) There’s much in the post that is still relevant; 2) I’ll be posting something in early January that’s related and want to use this post as a kind of introduction.
I debated whether or not I should edit the original post but decided against it. I’ve simply added some comments where I felt they were necessary to clarify things, likely as much for me as for you.
This post was inspired by this article on CMSWire by @billycripe and by the Cloud themed tweet jam hosted by CMSWire on November 17, 2011. As usual this is just my opinion.
I’m not an expert on cloud computing, I’m just some guy that likes to be able to access the content I need to do my work, from wherever I happen to be, using whatever device I feel like using at the moment. Take this post, for example; it was written on a laptop and a tablet, in a dining room and a swimming pool (not really in the pool since my tablet isn’t waterproof though that would be mega-cool).
I agree with Billy Cripe’s thoughts that Agile can (ought to) be applied in the development of cloud based ECM solutions. However, as Billy correctly states, “Managing content is not the goal of most businesses.” Most businesses exist to make money by providing products and/or services that consumers want. Businesses rely on information in order to get their stuff done, whatever their stuff is. In order to fully exploit information, the tools (i.e.: information stores) that the businesses rely on need to be connected to each other (so do the people – the tools need to facilitate this). Content / information management tools (cloud or not) need to be part of bigger picture business solutions. We need to build solutions that deliver “I need to share this” in the context of why it needs to be shared (answer why you need to share and you’ll likely figure out who and what).
Re-reading this now it seems as of the above is meant to imply that the topic is legacy ECM systems. That may have been true originally, but it’s not now. I’m really looking at this in terms of anywhere that content can be stored.
No sane person can argue the value and validity of the cloud. Except me. I’m not daft enough to think that cloud computing doesn’t have value or is not a valid approach to take. However, I do think that we’re not going to realize the full potential of the cloud (and by extension, content) if we simply limit its scope to content management. Yeah, I know that there are other things that are done in the cloud, such as CRM, payroll, and accounting.
We’ve gotten to the point where there really is no need to keep much on premises anymore.
When I refer to “cloud” I am referring to more than just the data centre, if that’s not obvious.
Content Wherever I Am
One of the cool things about content in the cloud is that my content is wherever I am. (Okay, so it’s not really my content, it’s my organization’s content.) That’s not the point, though. The point is that I can work with content wherever I happen to be, using whatever device I choose. This does assume that the chosen content repository is able to be synched appropriately. Wouldn’t it be cool, though, that if in addition to being able to work with the content and share it with collaborators (the work variety, not the WWII Nazi variety) the content could also be appropriately tagged, filed, and placed under retention at the point that I plunk it into the repository? I.e.: Cloud repositories need to become extensions of ECM and ERM systems, probably through federation.
So the whole thing about federation is a little off. This really should be thought of as centralized policy administration and enforcement.
Correctly Connecting Corporate Content
Content is spread throughout an organization; cloudification just increases the spread. When I say content, I mean anything that is stored on digital media that serves any legitimate business activity. (For obvious reasons I am excluding physical content.) A key to widespread cloud acceptance is to be to able access / leverage content in order to execute a business activity, regardless of where the various pieces of content reside. An agent in a social services organization should not have to know or care that a citizen’s information is spread over a number of repositories that could be on-premises, in a private cloud, and in a public cloud. The agent is there to service the needs of the citizen, not to figure out some (likely) convoluted architecture just to try and find stuff.
CMIS is a step in the right direction, but where CMIS falls short is that it doesn’t address non-CMS (think ECM) repositories. What we need is something that allows connecting everything that we need, when we need it. Device and location should not be factors. In fact, the only thing that a user should worry about is whether or not they have the right content to do the job. Governance, classification, and security ought to be just taken care of.
If the scope opens up to include non-ECM tools, how much of a factor is CMIS? Look at what’s happening in the broader EFSS space with open standards and open API’s.
Speaking of Governance…
Until the governance issues get sorted, I doubt very much that we’ll see widespread adoption of public cloud services. Smaller organizations, organizations with lax regulatory / privacy regulations, and organizations that can bully providers into rock-solid SLA’s may be able to go full public cloud, but I doubt they will. I think the reality is that organizations will end up having hybrid environments of cloud and on-premises.
When I say governance I am not only referring to the poo that legislators, regulators and litigators throw in our way. Governance needs to address issues such as:
- what can / should be stored in the cloud
- service level agreements
- disaster recovery / business continuity
- security
- classification / categorization
- retention & disposition (thanks to @JamesLappin & @AlanPelzSharpe for bringing this up)
Governance of cloud content has to deal with all of the things that we need to deal with for on-premises stored content, with the added complication that we also have to deal with where the damn box is and if some foreign government can get at it whenever they bloody well feel like it. Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act and the United States’ PATRIOT Act are not going to be very helpful in encouraging organizations to move to the cloud in a big way.
With so many employees using consumer devices and consumer services it’s better to accept the potential peek from the government than it is to continue to deny things and have content out in the wild.
Parting Shots
- Hybrid (cloud / on-premises) will be in the majority
- Governance (internally & externally imposed) has to be figured out
- Integration / interoperability are critical
- Privacy concerns and government snooping are major inhibitors (@ron_miller wrote a pretty good piece about this)
- If we’re not careful we’ll just move the mess from our hard drives to someone else’s
- Some Systems of Record will end up in the cloud, if they’re not already there
- Services are where it’s at
Bonus Material
I couldn’t decide which song I wanted to use for this post, so you’re getting three:
- CCR – Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
- CCR – Who’ll Stop the Rain?
- SRV – Couldn’t Stand the Weather
A couple definitions for those that think it should be “on-premise”
BoxWorks2014 – Quick Thoughts
I attended BoxWorks2014 in San Francisco, from September 2nd to 4th. It was fun. It was great to reconnect with some folks I hadn’t seen in a while, and to meet some people face-to-face for the first time. This paragraph feels like one of those “what I did during summer vacation” essays.
Before I get too deep down any rabbit hole … this is quite possibly my favourite thing that I saw at the conference last week …
Two Guys and a Messenger Bag
As I’m wandering around the floor late Wednesday afternoon I got accosted by some guy who overheard me say I am an analyst and consultant. To be honest, I though he and his partner were just two guys and a messenger bag waiting for happy hour. It turns out that they weren’t. They were the founders/creators/geniussesses behind Collected. What’s Collected? It’s this cool little service that hooks into your existing content (Word and PPT for now) and throws up snippets of stuff based on what you’re currently writing. The premise is that it will save you time when you’re creating content because you’ll be able to reference and reuse on the fly. If it works in the real world like it did at the show, it’s gonna be pretty cool. I can definitely see the applicability in a few things I am currently working on. Anyways, check it out.
It’s Inevitable
One of the things that struck me as I wandered around the trade show area was the number of vendors competing against each other. There were multiple variations of security, analytics, collaboration and a couple other functions present. So what? Well, there’s a fairly major “what”.
As Box grows and more enterprises adopt it, there is going to be consolidation. Enterprises are going to want assurances that partner apps work with Box. They’re going to want assurances that when Box changes, anything attached to it changes with it. In short, they’re going to want a Box “stack”. Whether that stack is based on an industry (see the Box for Industries announcement) or on a function (see the Box Workflow announcement) enterprises are going to want assurances that their investment is not going to be jeopardized by changes to the core pillar. If moving to the cloud were just some fantasy this wouldn’t be an issue. However, the viability of cloud and SaaS is real. More and more organizations are heading there; maybe not going all in, but enough to be doing more than just testing the waters. There are some major organizations putting big chunks of key processes into the cloud and relying on Box and other services.
I can envision the day that Box finds itself in the same position as Microsoft vis-à-vis their partner ecosystem. As much as this will be a good thing in terms of creativity, innovation, and choice, there is going to be the inevitable requirement to “certify” partner add-ons. We can talk about innovation, cloud, disruption, etc. all we want, but the reality is that enterprise CIO’s and CTO’s want assurances that the tools they’ve chosen will work. At some point Box is going to find itself having to figure out which of its app partners they’re going to be tight with, and which they won’t. As someone who makes technology decisions for your organization do you want to sort through the haystack that is currently available, or would you rather choose from a “best of” selection?
The trick for Box is going to be in selecting the lucky few app / add-on developers that will eventually get certified. It’s going to be like a Bay Area / Silly Cone Valley edition of The Bachelor. I suspect Box may be aided in this by some of their larger enterprise customers (playing the role of meddling, future mother-in-law).
The trick for IT shops is in turning into, or ramping up, app stores. IT shops can, if they really, really need to, start developing apps to work with Box. My advice, however, is that they forget about it and curate.
Workflow WTF?
You should probably read this before tearing a strip off me …
Unsurprisingly one of Box’s announcements last week was that there will be workflow. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?!?!?
Yes, we all know that content without workflow is a shared drive and incessant emails. That said, I would have much rather seen Box partner with someone like K2 to provide workflow. Now, I am thinking about workflow beyond simple check-in/check-out and content approval. I’m thinking about workflow that makes a significant difference in how business runs. In order for that to happen, businesses are pulling in content and people from multiple departments and repositories. The reality is that enterprises support and use multiple content repositories, some in the cloud and some on premises. In order for Box Workflow to succeed, either the content gets consolidated into the Box repository, or Box develops full blown BPM (please don’t).
Lastly, for now, workflow is really, really hard to implement in way that truly makes things easier for the users. In order for workflow to succeed, it must impose a certain amount of rigour, discipline, and rigidity. Metadata needs to be rock-solid and applied consistently – something users really aren’t very good at.
I’m really looking forward to trying out the workflow beta once it’s released, and to seeing how workflow matures.
Odds n Ends
- Box announced Retention Management – Will legal hold processing be supported? How tightly will retention policies and classification be coupled? How much work will be involved for companies that have hybrid environments? Can Box RM grow to become the central policy manager?
- Box for industries – which specific processes and use cases will be supported?
- Will there come a time when Box succumbs to the inevitable and, in addition to being what it is today, makes a play for being the view into on premises repositories as well? I.e.: will there come a time when I can use Box to view all my content, regardless of where it is?
- Why oh why does Box’s Windows 8.1 app suck so bad when the iOS version is so good?
- There wasn’t nearly as much Kool Aid at Aaron Levie’s keynote as I expected.
What’s New is Old, or Legacy 2.0 (thanks John Mancini)
Sometime in the future we’ll be referring to Box as “legacy”, until then I’m enjoying using Box and seeing what develops. Once we get to the point where Box is deemed a legacy tool, I can’t wait to see what we’ll have available to us.
Final Thoughts
I don’t often get excited about tools / software, but when I do I get really excited. This year I’ve gotten excited about two things (I think that’s my 5-year quota).
I’m excited about Box on a couple of levels:
- As a user I love how easy it is for me to manage stuff and get my work done, including collaborating with partners (I have an enterprise account, BTW);
- As someone that’s interested in information management and governance, I’m excited to see Box growing and maturing into what could, in time, be a viable alternative to the current incumbents in the ECM space.
The other thing I’m excited about is Jostle; they say they’re an intranet, but they are so much more.
The Paper Case
Some of you will remember the movie The Paper Chase, from which I unashamedly stole the inspiration for the title of this post.
Happy Canada Day
This photo is from this CBC News article.
This post was inspired by a broadcast on CBC Radio last Sunday (July 1st). At least, I think it was Sunday. I was at the cabin for the long weekend (Canada Day) and kinda lost track of what day it was. The show was the usual fare about how book sellers, publishers, & authors have to adapt or die because everything’s going digital and there’s no room or need for anything physical or analog. I tuned out because I was enjoying my digital semi-isolation (no network at the cabin). Plus, I was reading A Dance with Dragons on my tablet (yes, I see the irony). Anyways, this is my post, not yours, so I’m okay with any irony or hypocrisy contained herein.
Many years ago, before I first held my son in my arms, I bought him a book. I wrote a note to him on the inside of the front cover. The note simply expressed how much my wife and I loved him, even though we hadn’t yet met. With ereaders and tablets being so popular and inexpensive today, would we (parents in general) do that sort of thing? I’m not so certain.
One of the great joys I got out of being a parent was reading to my children. I could do that with e-books, but then I’d miss the laughs of having my kids try to turn the pages with their toes, chewing on the books, and seeing the wear and tear on the books as they transitioned from infant to toddler and still read/played with the books I’d read to them in the very early parts of their lives.
As my kids got older, they received books as gifts. Many of the books, given by friends & family, had notes written inside the front covers. My kids still have most of the books, and, being the sentimental souls they are, like to look at them and read those notes. They’ll also, probably, pass those books on to their kids and point out the notes that Gramma & Grampa or Uncle This or Aunty That wrote way back when it seemed that dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
Going to a bookstore with the kids is something that my wife & I have always enjoyed. There’s just something very satisfying about seeing your children sitting on the floor at Chapters, poring over what books they’ll buy (with Dad’s money, usually) and treasure for ages. That experience can’t be replicated by scrolling & clicking through an electronic bookstore.
Real books are better than ebooks because you can share them. I received The Art of Racing in the Rain as a Christmas gift. I really enjoyed it and knew my daughter would as well. Sharing the book with her was a simple matter of just passing to her when I was done. What’s the electronic equivalent of that?
There’s a 2nd hand bookstore that I frequent near my house. It’s a great place to buy inexpensive books and to dispose of books we don’t want any more. There’s an added bonus; when I drop off used books, I give back to the community. You see, the bookstore is run by the Sturgeon Hospital Auxiliary Volunteer Association (SHAVA). I donate books, they sell them, and profits go to SHAVA. Try that with electronic books.
When I fly I am instructed to turn off all my electronic gizmos and gadgets during taxi, take off, and landing. How the hell am I supposed to read? I know, I’ll read a paperback or hardcover book.
Don’t get me wrong; I love the convenience and weight savings of electronic content on my tablet. I really do. But I’m not willing to sacrifice some of the joys of real, hold-in-your-hand stuff that the electro-gods are trying to pry out of my fingers. Think about music – digital is great, but it doesn’t sound as good as putting vinyl on a turntable (Justin Bieber excepted because he sounds like crap regardless of format).
From a business perspective, elimination of paper is a laudable, if unrealistic, goal. Assuming all the various pieces are available, any business that still insists on clogging up processes with paper ought to be forced to listen to Justin Bieber until their ears bleed and/or their willies fall off (just like Justin’s).
With all the talk about portability and mobility I figured I’d just point out that just because you can go digital doesn’t mean you have to or that it’s the best way. Of course, not all of you are in the same situation as I am, nor do you approach life the same way. That’s cool; to each her own. But, to those of you out there who have never listened to a vinyl LP or held a real book in your hands, I feel bad for you, you don’t know what you’re missing.
PHIGs IMC Inc. 