Companies are facing a wide range of issues as they strive to accommodate flexible work arrangements, distributed teams, and new ways of collaborating while confronting increasing security risks. Technology is both contributing to these issues and an integral part of the solution. Given that organizations use an average of 80 applications, streamlining their data across all of them can be challenging.
"Too many apps can cause more problems than they solve"
With business processes constantly evolving, organizations are looking for ways to reduce complexity by re-evaluating the tools they use and finding opportunities to simplify their tech stacks.
A single platform for your content management needs
A platform is a hub where different products connect. It enables disparate apps to work together. The productivity or usefulness of a platform can be measured based on its ability to connect external tools, teams, content, and knowledge. With a platform as the foundation of your tech stack, you don't have to limit yourself to one suite of products.
At WorkDrive, we strive to reduce the number of apps you need to use, minimize context switching, and simplify the way you manage your business data. We help you consolidate file storage, sharing, collaboration, and workflows into a single, secure, easy-to-use platform.
One of our first steps towards making WorkDrive a platform was introducing APIs. With our APIs, you can connect WorkDrive to other applications, streamline the flow of data across your company, and centralize your enterprise content. Whether you want to build apps on top of your document management system or integrate with other tools, the WorkDrive API platform is your go-to solution. Our developer tools, SDKs, and APIs let you quickly build and deploy content-related applications (Please note that you need a developer to configure the workflows; it is not a ready-to-use solution).
We launched the first phase of WorkDrive 4.0 to boost team efficiency and connectivity in the hybrid work environment. Now, we’re back with phase two updates that enable companies to build apps, automate workflows, enrich user experiences, maintain compliance, and enhance overall productivity.
Productivity
Experience hassle-free file uploads
Common challenges when uploading a document include low upload speeds, network failures, and timeout issues. To address these issues, we've enhanced our upload capability to ensure a smoother file-uploading experience.
Introducing chunk uploads
Now you can upload large files to your WorkDrive account in chunks. WorkDrive breaks files into smaller segments or chunks and uploads them individually. This enables you to upload large files efficiently, pause and resume uploads, and prevent failures caused by intermittent network availability.
If an upload is paused, it resumes from the point where it was interrupted, allowing you to save time and data.
Upload large files seamlessly
We have increased the file upload limit up by 10x across our plans! We've set the file upload limit to a whopping 250GB, enabling users to upload large project files seamlessly. The upload limit varies based on your plan; check here for more information.
Accelerate creativity with generative AI
Do you spend hours brainstorming content ideas or struggling to come up with the perfect tagline for a campaign? WorkDrive now integrates with OpenAI's robust capabilities to facilitate these tasks via our AI assistant, Zia.
We want to transform the way businesses create and distribute content. As part of our effort to establish WorkDrive as a leading content automation platform, we've implemented the following capabilities.
Create compelling content
Whether you're working on a blog, documenting corporate policies, or crafting an email to clients, you can generate the required content in seconds. Just provide a detailed description of your requirements, and Zia AI will quickly analyze your input using built-in algorithms and available online resources to generate customized content and images. This is a game-changing capability for companies that don't have large teams of content writers and marketers.
Refine comments while collaborating
With employees working from various time zones, collaborating on business content through comments on documents is an increasingly important mode of communication. Effective feedback and discussion enables teams to create thoughtful long-form content.
Collaborating within documents gives your team the ability to work together smoothly, regardless of each contributor's location. Zia AI offers real-time suggestions to refine your comments, allowing you to rephrase, shorten, and punctuate for clarity and professionalism.
Generate cover images for audio and video files
Not a fan of the default system-generated cover images of your media files? Not a problem! You can describe your ideal cover image in a few simple words, and Zia will generate visually appealing cover images for your audio and video files based on your descriptions.
Increase productivity with code snippets
We have introduced code snippets in WorkDrive to save you time and effort when coding. Now you can copy and paste code snippets from an external source or upload and store them directly within the WorkDrive platform.
You can then share your stored code snippets with your team members or collaborators. Code snippets help developers with learning and skill development, rapid prototyping and development, increasing coding productivity, and strengthening collaboration.
Leverage the Zoho Mail + WorkDrive integration
Certain organizations frequently need to share documents and files externally. For example, a law firm deals with multiple types of files, including agreements, contracts, claims, wills, and invoices. These documents must be sent securely to clients or third parties. To support this need, we've introduced the "attach as a copy" option for Zoho-native files from Writer, Sheet, and Show. This enables recipients to view, download, and securely store the shared files.
Compliance
As part of our commitment to providing reliable service to our users, we're happy to inform you that we've added to our security certifications.
ISO 9001 - Quality management system (QMS): This international standard validates our ability to consistently deliver quality products and services that adhere to customer and regulatory requirements.
ISO 22301 - Business continuity management system (BCMS): This international standard is designed to help organizations prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from unexpected and disruptive incidents.
Stay compliant with data retention
The data retention feature is now enabled for all paid plans. Previously, this feature was only available in the WorkDrive Business plan.
User experience
Use WorkDrive in your preferred language
At WorkDrive, we strive to cater to the needs of all our users. We believe in localization and enabling customers to access and interact with WorkDrive in their preferred language. As part of this effort, we've expanded our language support to include all 22 official Indian languages. This is just the beginning; we will continue to add support for more languages and increase accessibility for users worldwide!
Speed up data discovery
We recently introduced a few enhancements to our search capability to help you locate files quickly.
Save your searches
You now have the option to save your frequently used searches and filters, allowing you to effortlessly generate additional search results using the same criteria.
Discover multiple search options
We've introduced a dedicated search bar in the embedded folder view and external share view, allowing users to quickly find and access files from these views. Additionally, we have enabled quick search options for users to find files inside their My Folders, Team Folders, Org Folders, and other specific subfolders.
Highlight keywords for instant visibility
Search terms are now highlighted in the search suggestion UI and on the search results page, ensuring improved visibility and ease of use.
Access your recent searches
Your recent searches are now at your fingertips within the search UI. Quickly access them to find the information you need.
Narrow your search using filters
Multiple filter options have been added in the mobile app for quicker discovery of files and folders. We've also improved the data discovery experience by introducing search options at both the parent folder and the subfolder levels.
Navigate audio and video content with ease
We have enhanced video and audio previews by adding sneak-forward and sneak-backward options. We have also introduced keyboard shortcuts for muting and unmuting (M), entering and exiting full screen mode (F), and playing and pausing (space bar). Additionally, we have introduced picture-in-picture (PIP) support for video files.
Add files instantly
We've added the [+ NEW] button in the Recent Files and Favorites tabs, allowing you to effortlessly create, upload, or import files directly from these tabs.
Enjoy a more detailed thumbnail view
We have enhanced the thumbnail view, making it easier to identify images, videos, and documents through the use of thumbnail images.
Improvements based on user feedback
We value your feedback and strive to develop relevant feature enhancements based on our customers' requirements. Here are a few of the improvements we've made after listening to your input.
Enhanced functionalities in WorkDrive Snap
We've redesigned the user interface and improved the screen and video recording functions to enrich your recording experience.
Choose your mode: Now you can mute and unmute the microphone and set the camera on or off while recording your screen or capturing videos. This gives you complete control over the recording, so you can capture just the right content.
Experience PIP: Picture-in-picture (PIP) lets the user see what they're recording in a small window pinned to a corner of the screen to enhance visibility while navigating between apps or browsing content on the main screen. You can easily maximize and minimize the recording window.
Set the resolution: While recording a video, you can adjust the resolution based on your needs or preferences, choosing from 1080p, 720p (default), and 480p.
Use pagination for easy navigation
Pagination makes it easy to view and access all of your folders and subfolders within the tree navigation UI, ensuring you have total visibility and making it easy to find, access, and organize your work.
Experience the power of WorkDrive as a platform
Build bridges between your apps
As a step towards building WorkDrive into an integrated platform, we bring you custom apps: the new way to connect WorkDrive with any other application using webhooks. You can create a custom app from the admin console and configure corresponding webhooks within it.
Custom apps allow you to simplify communication between your applications. For example, you can set up a trigger action and automatically send data from one app to another in response to a specific event based on the file, folder, or team. Webhooks facilitate the exchange of real-time information by automatically delivering notifications between applications, eliminating the need to request or wait for information.
Here's a video of how a webhook is configured to automatically notify users through the Cliq app whenever a file is deleted from a Team Folder in WorkDrive.
For instance, you can configure a webhook to deliver swift notifications whenever a file is uploaded, modified, or deleted from a specific location in WorkDrive. This way, you don't need to toggle between multiple apps. Just create a custom app and receive all the required information in one place.
Likewise, if you are a coder or work with developers, you can use our APIs to automate file uploads. If you use an ecosystem of apps, connecting all of them could help streamline your business data across all of your tools.
Our goal is to unify apps and automate business workflows, eliminating the need for manual file uploads and data entry. For example, when a prospect is created in the CRM, documents related to that particular lead can be automatically uploaded to designated folders in WorkDrive. Our goal is to make WorkDrive the most effective platform to connect your business apps and maximize your workforce's productivity.
Embrace the technology of the future
The future of content collaboration will be shaped by automation and AI. According to a recent report by PWC, introducing automation and AI in the tech stack can save a "Global 2000" company in the range of $20 million to $40 million annually, and for many organizations, simply applying standard automation techniques can reduce the amount of time spent on relevant processes by up to 40%.
That being said, companies need to choose the right content automation technology to implement advanced AI capabilities, integrate with other apps, and enable seamless automation with uncompromised security.
That's why we are continuously enhancing our technology to meet the needs of modern teams. Zoho WorkDrive aims to help companies streamline collaboration on their business content by providing a unified platform. With WorkDrive, you can establish a virtual workspace, work smart using the built-in AI, and automate business processes using thousands of integrations.
Your feedback helps us drive continuous improvement of the platform, so please write to us at support@zohoworkdrive.com with any questions, comments, or ideas.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Quora for the latest WorkDrive news and product updates.
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