What Makes OneDrive for Business a Leader in Content Collaboration Platforms

Published on 22 December 2017

OneDrive for Business (ODFB), just like its name implies (and if you’re familiar with the basic OneDrive), is an online storage platform that is intended for businesses, corporations, and enterprises. It is a part of the Office 360 subscription package, and it provides optimum storage and collaboration services to businesses.

When your organization has a ODFB account, parts of the library that are accessible to workers as well as freedom of activity are usually controlled by collection administrators in the organization. However, workers can share work documents and partake in collaborative business projects with each other. Essentially, ODFB is a platform that brings teams together for sharing, storage, and collaborating on documents that are related to their organization and specific work descriptions (among other things), all with the use of a business account.

ODFB has an operational structure that is strikingly similar to OneDrive, its predecessor in that with ODFB, every member belonging to a team in an organization is entitled to his (or her) storage space; the same of which can be said with OneDrive. Differences exist, but the main distinction lies in the platform that is used in offering the unique services. In the case of ODFB, it’s SharePoint.

By using SharePoint, ODFB can provide a wider range of administration control options when working with specific documents. You can also install it on your company servers, and the document doesn’t have to be on the cloud before you access it.

One of the major selling points of ODFB comes from being listed as a leader in content collaboration platforms by the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

What exactly is the Gartner Magic Quadrant?

Gartner, Inc. is a research and advisory firm that provides IT-related insight for businesses all over the world. They make an annual assessment of various vendors who work within the IT market and they come up with a ranking of each of these vendors. This ranking is usually based on a number of metrics (such as security, usability, data protection and user productivity).

Basically, this annual assessment acts as a performance forecast that puts the strengths and weaknesses of each platform into consideration as well as the wholesomeness of their operations, the feasibility of their visions and how easy they will be to execute.

To be considered a leader, you have to be above your contemporaries as regards to the following metrics:

– Completeness of vision: covers market understanding, marketing strategy, sales strategy, offering (product) strategy, business model, vertical/industry strategy, innovation, geographic strategy

– Ability to execute: which includes product/service, overall viability, sales execution/pricing, market responsiveness and track record, marketing execution, customer experience, and operation

Gartner makes a thorough and exhaustive analysis of each platform, after which they make use of these assessments to place all of them (the platforms, that is) Magic Quadrant chart. The chart is completed and each platform is categorized into one of the following:

– Leader: A leader makes available mature offspring that are capable of meeting the demands that stem from its specific market

– Challenger: A challenger is in a strong position to execute visions. However, regardless of that, it still doesn’t maintain a strong value proposition to sway as many new customers as a leader.

– Visionary: From all indications, a visionary is in clear alignment with the market. However, it still hasn’t proven itself capable on delivering on its visions.

– Niche Player: A niche player has a strong performance in one area, but other vendors are still able to outperform it easily.

Microsoft is rated highly (as a leader, of course) by Gartner. Also, ODFB (an offspring of Microsoft) is also distinguished as the content collaboration platform that is poised to execute its visions. When it comes to content collaboration, Gartner sees ODFB as a leader.

What are the winning features of OneDrive for Business?

According to the Magic Quadrant report, ODFB is the leading content sharing and collaboration platform in the following criteria:

1. Support for a broad range of file types

The conventional OneDrive supports Files in the Office format. In addition to those, OneDrive has support for over 270 file formats ad types. Files created using apps like Adobe Photoshop (extension name .psd), Illustrator (extension name .AI), Acrobat (extension name .pdf), as well as 3D formats and DICOM images are al supported on ODFB and as such, business owners and team members can rest assured of seamless file sharing and manipulation.

2. Security and IT confidence

ODFB makes use of the various Microsoft security capabilities, including but not limited to eDiscovery, Bring Your Own Key (BYOK), and Data Retention controls in order to ensure that files shared and worked on by you and other members of your team or organization are secure and are kept safely away from the reach of malicious people and unwanted third parties. Essentially, only people have access to your company files can view them.

3. Deployment flexibility

With ODFB, customers have the freedom to choose their development model. Whether they’re more comfortable with working on cloud, hybrid or on-premises, all options are open. Customers can also leverage Microsoft’s FastTrack Development, incur no extra costs, and also make use of other migration and adoption services.

4. Cloud leadership and compliance

Customers who make use of ODFB can rest assured of trusted compliance and security, thanks to their access to over 100 global datacenters, Microsoft’s global network advantage as well as various compliance standards (including ISO 27001, FISMA, and EU Model Clauses)

What are you waiting for? Give your business the competitive edge today. Get the Office 365 subscription from AsiaPac and make use of ODFB to enjoy seamless file storage and collaboration services.

Email us at enquiries@asiapac.com.sg to make your first consultation with us. We will assess your needs and requirements and advise you accordingly.

Tags: Collaboration, Microsoft, Office 365, OneDrive,

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