ISG Provider Lens™ Social Business and Collaboration 2018: Content-Centric Collaboration
Content-Centric Collaboration
Content-centric collaboration solutions provide collaboration driven by and around enterprise content. These are the new-age enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) solutions that store business content in a cloud and allow teams to collaborate on it. These solutions support digital asset management and cloud-based enterprise content management. Other key features include file uploading and downloading, tagging, version control, co-authoring, workflow creation and management, sync and share, irrespective of device or platform and social collaboration about content, security and compliance. Integration with office productivity suites and other business applications is a value-added component of these solutions. Content-centric collaboration solutions are best suited for enterprises that want to reap collaborative knowledge benefits but do not already have a supporting culture.
The cloud content management space is shaping up rapidly through the continuous evolution of traditional players and entry of new players. Traditional office productivity solution vendors are improving their cloud storage solutions to make them more collaboration-focused. Experienced players in this space are focusing on integrations and workflows. Entrants from the consumer technology market are gaining market share by leveraging integrations and the popularity of their solutions. Many solution providers are improving their products with investments in machine learning and analytics to provide differentiation.
Observations
- Microsoft leads this space with its solutions’ tight integration with its widely used productivity suite, Office365. Microsoft’s OneDrive provides secure and compliant functionality required by large enterprises.
- Google’s Drive is a widely used solution among many medium and large enterprises. Google provides smart protection and features based on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
- Dropbox is also a market leader with its rapid popularity growth, strong financial position, integrations and continuous product improvement. It recently added some key features for supporting API development and team collaboration. Box is a traditional market player that appeals to enterprises focused on security and integration.
- Citrix, with its ShareFile product, is another early entrant in the market and leads with its customer base and integration with rest of the Citrix family.
- Egnyte, the Rising Star in this category, is rapidly gaining popularity and adoption among enterprises. Its strength lies in its grip on financial stability, deployment and content intelligence.