Situation and Challenges
Wacom Technology Services Corp creates interactive pen and touch input devices for companies engaged in everything from product development and graphic design to the media and entertainment sectors. A subsidiary of Japan’s Wacom Company, LTD., with offices around the world, Wacom Technology Services Corp. employs more than 100 at its Vancouver, Wash., headquarters and satellite locations in North and South America.
The company’s headquarters creative studio serves as an internal creative agency for Wacom, developing packaging, marketing materials, advertising, Web site content and graphics, photos, event signage, and customer-care videos. The creative unit also prepares content for social media ad campaigns and point-of-purchase displays.
Creative Studio Manager Elizabeth Crawford Gilmore and her staff need to share these files internally as well as globally with partners, such as graphic software developers, outside agencies, printers and other service providers.
Studio personnel had delivered this material in either of two ways. Sometimes they burned the files onto CDs and hired commercial couriers to transport the disks to local vendors. In other instances they used their own FTP server or accessed partner FTP servers around the world.
“CD’s are not environmentally friendly,” Gilmore observes, “and they required time. Then, arranging for a courier to ship the CD’s was yet another step we needed to go through.”
Furthermore, she and her staff were concerned about maintenance and potential security issues with their internal FTP server. Working with external FTP servers had proved to be awkward, and users often needed to be reinstructed in the setup for file transfers. “The publications where we were sending ads and marketing materials were huge, and it was a technological challenge to get to the right publication and the right issue,” Gilmore says.
Solution
Gilmore sought an easier way to deliver digital files and began conducting Web research to learn about the solutions that might be available. She examined the features of several managed file transfer methodologies and, after narrowing her choices to two, chose YouSendit for Business. “I had been locked into the FTP mentality,” Gilmore says, “but YouSendit for Business gave me a new perspective.”
Why YouSendit for Business
Gilmore appreciated the advantages that YouSendit for Business provided over the way her company had previously been transferring files: ease of use, heightened security, tracking and other features. Her primary reason for selecting YouSendit for Business, however, was one of trust. “I liked the founders of YouSendit for Business ,” she says. “Their base was with companies with whom Wacom actively partners. We were in similar industries, they understood their business and I felt confident in the strength of what they were creating.”
Rollout
After researching YouSendIt for Business, Gilmore presented its benefits to company officials. She then began trying out YouSendit for Business with five seats of the Corporate Suite edition for the creative studio. Subsequently she rolled the solution out to the sales and product development departments and to a vice president. Today, 10 Wacom staff members use YouSendit for Business as part of their daily workflow.
Results
Gilmore has discovered a number of YouSendit for Business features that help her manage file delivery more easily and that improve the company’s operations.
- “I love the desktop link, YouSendit for Business Express,” she says. “It’s right there and so easy. Having something right on my desktop where I can just drag a file over and put in a quick message is perfect.”
- Employing YouSendit for Business’s tracking capabilities, Gilmore now can determine if and when files have been downloaded by recipients. Automated delivery receipts allow her to respond substantively to people asking about files that are due for delivery.
- The company also likes the ability to brand messages sent via YouSendit for Business with the company’s own logo and to maintain a branded Dropbox. “This continues to be a really great attribute,” Gilmore notes. “The recipients immediately know that the messages they receive from us are legitimate, and it is a great way for us to reinforce our brand.”
- Gilmore appreciates the ability to determine how long to leave uploaded files available. “We were glad to be able to customize the number of days that a file could be downloaded,” she says, “and I liked that files can be assigned an expiration date so that current versions are always the ones available. This has been especially useful in dealing with our other global regions because their timelines can differ, and it is beneficial to be able to assign a longer expiration date to files shared globally to multiple recipients.”
- YouSendit for Business has streamlined the creative studio’s workflow. “It allows me to do everything I need to do from my desk,” Gilmore says. “It’s a huge improvement on the workflow, and it’s more secure and easier to access than FTP.”
“When businesses try a new service, they are not always sure it will work out,” Gilmore observes. “I’m really pleased that YouSendit for Business has worked so well for us, that it is has been embraced and adopted throughout different departments within the company.”
