I was talking with a prospect the other day and he was explaining why an FTP site with a folder structure of company photos, product shots and marketing collateral just ain’t cutting it anymore. Like so many of the organizations we talk to everyday, this is the current state of his digital assets. Partners, vendors, and geographically distributed teams access the FTP site to browse the folder structure, find what they need and download it. Sound familiar? I’m sure to many of you it does because we hear this EVERY-DAY! It never ceases to amaze me how many corporate giants are still operating in this way. I could go on for hours explaining why this is a colossal waste of time – no search capabilities, lack of security controls, no way to preview before download, no track-ability, lack of accountability, no way to monitor or communicate usage rights, etc, etc, etc.
But the prospect said it best with this analogy…
“You know when you go to a friend’s house, and you need silverware, and have to open every single drawer to find a fork… and your friend is like, ‘Isn’t it obvious which drawer the fork would be in?!’ But, if it were your house, you would put the silverware in a completely difference place, so no it is not obvious! That’s what browsing a folder structure setup by our US headquarters is like for our partners in Asia.”
Awesome.
