Like most businesses, manufacturing firms also need to innovate. Previously, firms relied only on their own employees for new ideas, but today’s manufacturers are more open to external collaboration for out-of-the-box and unexpected thinking.
The benefits of collaborating with external parties are plentiful, but the risks are also significant. Issues on privacy, efficiency, and convenience need to be addressed first. If misunderstanding and conflict can arise from within a single company, what more when dealing with outsiders?
Thus the need for enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS), or enterprise file sync software.
What is file syncing or EFSS?
EFSS is a software service that allows organizations to synchronize and share documents, photos, videos, and other digital files internally with their members and externally with their partners and customers. If you used Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud, or Hightail (formerly YouSendIt) before, then you are familiar with a simpler form of EFSS. That service has been expanded to accommodate an entire company or business, which is how the term “enterprise” was added to its name.
You can do more with EFSS than just share large files to others. With EFSS you can also:
- Use it to store corporate files (whether in the cloud, on premises, or a hybrid of the two)
- Sync files to user desktops and devices
- Send links to large files
- Use it for file creation, editing, and previewing
- Give users permission to access files and folders
- Make files secure using encryption, antivirus scanning, and data loss prevention
- Schedule file transfers
- Audit and report file and system activities
The benefits of using EFSS for manufacturers
Collaborating with suppliers and other external partners can yield reduced costs, process improvements, and innovation in products and services. But extending the collaborative process beyond corporate boundaries needs transparency, adaptability, accountability, and commitment.
Therefore, it is essential to have efficient and effective communication, both internally and externally. By using EFSS services and tools, manufacturers can share documents and communicate their ideas quickly and efficiently among their staff and with their collaborators.
Here’s how EFSS provides a secure, structured, and cost-effective environment for collaboration to thrive.
#1 Better security
Cybersecurity remains a primary concern for businesses today. That’s why most EFSS providers offer enterprise-level protection for your data, including encryption of data in storage and during transit, antimalware and antivirus programs, backup solutions, and more.
For added security, many EFSS systems allow users to create accounts for their external partners, for which permission is required. Users can also impose a time period for external partners to work on a document. Access can be disabled beyond the expiration limit.
#2 Provides structure for more efficiency, control, and convenience
It’s difficult to collaborate if partners cannot agree on how and where they can store all their information, agreements, and learnings. Manufacturers, in particular, rely on certain documents like SOPs, protocols, and reports to help put a structure in place.
EFSS provides a digital structure where collaborators can share documents, give inputs, communicate with one another in fora or chat rooms, and store documents. There’s no need for memory sticks and external hard drives to share files among collaborators. Documents are updated in real time. And for EFSS systems that are cloud-based, partners can access files and collaborate anytime, anywhere — even on their mobile devices.
This “one-stop shop” efficiency of EFSS leads to its third benefit.
#3 Easy sharing for more cost-effective collaboration
Manufacturers are always looking for ways to be cost-effective while maintaining their standards of quality. EFSS allows for faster collaboration, saving them time and money.
Utilizing the cloud also saves money, because companies do not need to spend on physical servers and hefty license fees that go with on-premise systems. Instead, businesses engage with a third-party vendor or a managed IT services provider like Zeta Sky for their cloud computing needs. Such services are usually priced under a monthly or annual subscription, with lower upfront costs.
If your manufacturing firm is committed to innovation, then you need an EFSS system to provide a secure, structured, and cost-effective platform for collaboration with internal and external partners. Call our experts at Zeta Sky today, so we can help you take your business sky high.
