"Secure, trusted content collaboration tools are crucial for remote working,” according to Gartner
The need for technology to enable secure remote work is at an all-time high, and we're seeing waves of digital transformation taking place at a faster pace than ever before. For example, according to Gartner, 90% of CIOs see remote work and business continuity as their biggest hurdle right now, and 74% of employees plan to permanently transition to more remote work in the wake of COVID-19 (1).
This year, for the first time, Gartner has released its 2020 Market Guide for Content Collaboration Tools (CCT)(2). The report dives into the evaluation of the market, key vendors, and discusses how CCTs are critical in supporting remote work use cases -- an area of enormous importance today. At Box, we have a longstanding history in this market, and we're proud to have been recognized by Gartner as a leading vendor in this space.
What is a Content Collaboration Tool?
More and more each year, there's a growing need to seamlessly and securely connect with customers, partners, and suppliers across the extended enterprise. Content Collaboration Tools, such as Box, provide organizations with a modern replacement from the old school way of managing files, offer the ability to work together on content in real-time, and open opportunities to collaborate with external partners in a way that makes work more streamlined and user friendly.
Most importantly, Gartner states "secure, trusted content collaboration tools are crucial for remote working" (1). This mirrors exactly what we're hearing from customers, which is a growing need to be able to securely store and collaborate on files across the extended enterprise.
What common use cases do Content Collaboration Tools support?
- “Storage infrastructure modernization - The transformation of network file shares
- External collaboration - Collaboration with parties outside the organization, including suppliers and partners
- Team workspaces - The provision of an activity-focused collaboration environment based around a project or goal. Increasingly, these features are being provided through integration with workstream collaboration software
- Content routing and approval -- Utilizing lightweight workflow to route content for review, approval and sign-off
- Process integration - Integration of collaboration endpoints with wider business processes, such as those for insurance claims and citizen registration" (1)
How do Content Collaboration Tools work alongside other critical remote working apps?
We believe that organizations must be able to work seamlessly across all of their favorite best-of-breed apps and have made recent investments in supporting critical remote working applications in particular. In March of this year, we announced revamped integrations with Microsoft Teams and Slack, both of which focus on providing users with a streamlined way to share and access content where they work most. In addition, this May, we announced All New Box and a revamped integration with videoconferencing leader, Zoom. All New Box is a completely redesigned Box experience, with new features including improved UI, Annotations, Collections and more. The new Box for Zoom integration allows users to create, start or join a Zoom meeting directly from the file they are working in, eliminating the need to toggle between apps and making ad-hoc collaboration easier than ever before. These integrations, along with other recently announced features like All New Box, Collections, and Annotations, are some of the ways we’re working to help our customers succeed in today’s work from home environment and transition to a modern cloud stack.
Box for Remote Work
Gartner isn't the only analyst firm that's recognized the important role Content Collaboration Tools play in supporting remote work use cases. According to Nucleus Research analyst Barbara Peck, "COVID-19 has changed the way people work - and Box responded to accommodate the growing focus on secure collaboration and integrations with other best-of-breed remote working applications" (3).
Additionally, 451 Research analyst Conner Forrest outlined the following take on All New Box and the enhanced Zoom integration: "Box’s rollout of a new UI and features that support collaboration and productivity for remote workers following COVID-19 parallels tech investments being made by our survey respondents in response to the pandemic as well, which could bode well for Box in aligning its product to current market demand" (4).
Learn More
To dive deeper into Gartner's view of the Content Collaboration Tools market and the role these technologies play in supporting secure remote work use cases, you can download your own complimentary copy of the report here.
To learn more about how Box enables organizations to do their best work from anywhere, anytime, please see https://www.box.com/remote
Footnotes:
- Gartner Webinar, How COVID-19 is Shaping the Priorities for Digital Workplace Leaders, April 2020
- Gartner, Market Guide for Content Collaboration Tools, Michael Woodbridge, Marko Sillanpaa, Lane Severson, May 11, 2020
- Nucleus Research, 2020 Outlook Assessment -- Box, Barbara Peck, April 2020
- 451 Research, Box accelerates new UI beta to support remote workers in the wake of COVID-19, Conner Forrest, May 21, 2020
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.