History matters- not just in real life but also in digital life. In today’s environment with multiple devices to access and share, we find it hard to track and remember various actions on a file. Moreover, in a collaborative work environment with multiple people working on same set of files, we find even more harder […]
History matters- not just in real life but also in digital life. In today's environment with multiple devices to access and share, we find it hard to track and remember various actions on a file. Moreover, in a collaborative work environment with multiple people working on same set of files, we find even more harder to keep track of various actions. As part of its 8.0 release, FileCloud has introduced 'Activity Stream', a feature that provides a quick snapshot history of various actions taken in folders and files.
Starting in FileCloud 8.0, when you select a file, the details panel appears with two tabs 1) Details 2) Activity. The activity tab shows various activities organized by time. Here is an example
In this example, the activity stream shows download event as one of the activities. The activity card shows who (Karen), when (Jan 4th) ,what (downloaded file) and how (using a web browser) of various actions on the file that you are interested.
Here is a simple use case. For instance, you have shared an important document to five different stakeholders via an email, and after couple of days, you want to make sure if they have actually downloaded the file before you follow up. You might have to either send a follow-up email or continue to wait. If you have used FileCloud to share, activity stream will not only give details on who downloaded but also when. You can follow up accordingly, saving time and effort.
Activity Stream captures following types of activities. Additionally, it neatly organizes the events by daily, weekly, monthly for easy browsing.
Not only Activity stream improves productivity, it helps to triage certain problems. For example, if one of your teammates makes an error while editing a file, and you have shared with multiple customers. Using activity stream, you can trace back who has edited and when. Importantly, activity helps evaluate the degree of the damage caused by the issue and helps to limit the damage. In case of erroneous edit, you can identify all the customers who downloaded the erroneous file and reach out only to those customers to fix the issue.
Here is a comment from a customer who previewed 8.0 activity stream. "Perfect for our team. This would avoid a whole slew of emails back and forth to get status or find who edited when. We can't wait to deploy 8.0."
In addition to the events, 8.0 release supports feature to add comments to a file. Most of the times, not only we lose track of what exactly changed in the file but also why it was modified. When multiple people are collaborating, we keep track of changes by emailing the details back and forth. To trace any details behind edits, it is tedious to search for the information in emails. FileCloud provides a simple solution - an ability to add comments that are tracked along the file. At any given time, you can scroll through the activity stream and comments to recollect exact events, and rationale behind the changes.
Following example shows how workflow of setting, editing and approving goals is simplified using FileCloud comments feature. In traditional workflow, if a monthly goal or target needs to be changed, first, someone initiates and submits for approval and likely will send a broad email marked 'important', notifying upcoming changes. Secondly, after manager approves the changes, manager has to send a broader email notifying change. Furthermore, after a couple of months, if someone wants to trace the changes, they have to dig through the emails. On the other hand, using FileCloud 8.0, employee adds a comment "Edited goals for Jan 2015", sends an email to manager. Anyone using the file will see the comment and be informed of the upcoming changes without any need for 'important' marked emails. Similarly, once manager approves, employees can see her comments. If someone wants to trace the interactions, they have to just look through the comments in the details pane, almost effortless.
Learn more at www.filecloud.com
