Is working remotely working for your documents?
The push to move away from paper and into a digital workspace has never been more vital than now, as organizations need to work remotely for the safety of their teams without disrupting their day-to-day operations. FileHold has been a leader in helping these companies with a centralized, organized repository to replace paper documents with easy-to-use software that can control, locate, and secure documents. FileHold recently announced its newest offering, FileHold Cloud, which offers document management hosted in the Azure environment. Ray Barrett, Director of Customer Services at FileHold, has been working on FileHold Cloud and getting it optimized for our customer experience.
What differences might users who have FileHold on their local server experience with FileHold Cloud?
If our job is done right, users should not experience any difference in feature functionality!
Any differences that might appear come in improvements in accessibility, performance, and system maintenance. Whereas previously you may have needed to access your documents only in the office, circumstances may now dictate you need accessibility remotely. FileHold Cloud brings freedom to access your documents from anywhere using interfaces you’re familiar with, either the FileHold Desktop Application or the Web Client. Security comes by default with in-transit encryption for all connections via SSL/HTTPS, or for those who are extra security conscious, a private VPN.
If an organization has always stored their documents in-house, they might be used to fast data transfers. With so many more people working remotely, will a cloud solution suffer in comparison?
Regarding performance, it’s hard to beat LAN speeds unless your on-premise network is quite bogged down. But we’ll geo-locate your documents in a data centre inside your country to minimize latency. And if you’re working from home, you might even find your performance is faster than before, especially if you have one of those consumer high-speed internet connections. Our data centres are hosted by Microsoft in their Azure environment and they’re capable of gigabit speeds.
But to top it off, for those companies worried about server IT administration, this is where FileHold Cloud shines. You’ll no longer need to perform monthly OS updates, security patches, service packs, install FileHold upgrades, anti-malware, tune SQL, fear running out of disk space or worry about performing backups or testing backups. It’s all included.
What about storage for their documents? How will that change for users?
For Cloud solutions disk space is billable but the price is very reasonable. We use the super-fast solid-state disks (SSDs) so that you get the fastest search performance. The starting system comes with 32 GB of disk space included and when you need more you can buy further 32 GB increments. We set aside 15% of the disk for optimal SSD performance but the rest you can fill with your documents, search indexes, metadata, markup, and workflow attachments. You can manage your own warning alert for when your repository is approaching disk capacity and choose whether to purge content or to increase your disk size.
How difficult is it to add users or features? If an organization wants to start small and expand later, how difficult will it be technically to increase their FileHold Cloud install?
We can still add users and turn on extra features just like the on-premise model. Send an email to our responsive FileCare support team and we’ll modify your system immediately and adjust your bill. If you need a quote, we’ll get your account manager on it right away. If you need training, we’ll be in touch. Start small and grow your repository and your business with us! As everyone gets used to using FileHold you’ll want to increase your users and add Courier and Workflow to optimize your business processes.
If an organization is already using FileHold and wants to move to the Cloud, how difficult is that to do?
The process is straight forward. First, we’ll upgrade you to the latest version if necessary, then we’ll help you migrate your data across to the Cloud. Our latest version is 16.1.1. If your on-premise version is prior to that then you’ll be upgraded by our FileCare support team at no-cost. Then for a few hours of Professional Services, we’ll help you move across your SQL Databases and Repository securely into FileHold Cloud. We’ll then provide you a new URL fully encrypted using SSL and you can start using the system right away. The whole effort should take no more than 4 hours.
What can an organization do to help prepare moving from an in-house install of FileHold to FileHold Cloud?
There isn’t much to prep work to do, we’ll take you through the entire process. If your users are going to be remote, start thinking about installing the FileHold Desktop Application on their laptops. If you use the Web Client then only bookmarks need to be modified or added. On the day of upgrade and migration, you’ll just need to be available to monitor as we’ll need remote access to the on-premise servers.
To learn how you can get started with your FileHold Cloud install, or move your on-premises FileHold install to the Cloud, contact us at [email protected] or speak to your sales representative today!
Ray Barrett is the Director of Customer Services at FileHold. He is an experienced business analyst and project manager. For over 20 years he has been consulting, implementing and supporting distributed data collection systems to make businesses more efficient. Contact Ray at [email protected].
Chris Oliver brings his twenty years of experience in management in the entertainment industry to FileHold Systems as the Client Training and Retention Advocate. To learn more about how FileHold DMS can work for you, contact him at [email protected].