An important business philosophy that we have here at OfficeDrop is the concept of “Frenemies” – we will work with other services that would historically have been considered competition if it makes sense for our customers. It means that we value our customers’ workflow and actively look to integrate our cloud filing system with other online, cloud and SaaS services that our customers are using. Our customers are small businesses who want to move to a “digital office” and away from having their different work processes silo’ed into particular, proprietary applications.
What’s a Frenemy (or Frienemy, depending on how you spell it)?
We believe that the cloud has changed the way software will be used. Old, desktop software that wrote special, unique and proprietary files and that trapped your data are out. Remember when a file could only be opened by the program that created it? Well, in the cloud all the smart providers have open APIs, which means your data can now be pushed (securely, of course!) from one application to another – making it easier for you to get your work done. This means that our service may have to work with other online storage companies, or companies that have overlapping features. Should we be competing with these companies and avoid integrating with them?
No.
We can only survive if our clients WANT to use our service. They can get their data out at any time, so we need to offer the best paper-focused, searchable storage service we can – and let customers use other best in class services in conjunction with ours – like our FreshBooks document management integration. We’ve got an open API, and if someone who might be close in features wants to connect with our service they are very much able to create a tight integration with the OfficeDrop service.
Our fearless CEO, Prasad Thammineni, has another great post on tech tools to help you manage your business from home on SmallBizTrends. Why does this matter? Well, he’s recently had a child and has been managing the office from his home office recently!
I don’t think that keeping things going from home would have even been possible a few years ago before the recent technology revolution. Communication tools and collaboration tools are a lot more powerful and affordable than they’ve ever been. Prasad touches on some of the ones we use aggressively here at OfficeDrop to keep things going smoothly.
He bought a nifty little case/keyboard for his iPad2 and is trying to make it work for him today. The keyboard is quite nice, and with the large number of apps that he’s got I think there is a real chance it could replace his real computer – eventually. (Of course, he’s got the OfficeDrop iPad app installed!)
“According to a new report by Forrester Research, in partnership with Bizrate Insights, the number of Americans owning tablet devices is forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 51% between 2010 and 2015, while tablet commerce is expected to grow rapidly over the same period. 9% of surveyed online shoppers say they own a tablet device; among them, 78% own a smartphone as well, while 22% of tablet owners (2% of online shoppers) own a tablet only.”
We think that the tablet craze is really a fundamental shift in computing for businesses, and we are excited about the new applications and features that Prasad will dream up while he tries to go without his laptop for a few days.
The article starts out by saying, “Fortunately for business-minded users, Android has many third-party options offering similar collections of fully compatible office apps, optical character readers, scanners and converters, all ready to let you use your phone for something a little more useful than moaning on Twitter all day.”
And then, specifically about OfficeDrop’s Android Scanner App, the article says:
OfficeDrop is another doc scanner and reader, only it comes with its own “web-based document portal” allowing users to access and manage their scanned receipts and docs via desktop as well. Files scanned in via your Android phone’s camera are converted to PDF format, with the app letting you search through, label and organise the results.
Check out the article! Or get the app in the app store by scanning the QR code below.
We are very happy that some great technology reporters and blogs are writing positive reviews of our new iPhone app! You can get the OfficeDrop iPhone app here.
Here are a couple of the places that have written about the app so far:
July 20, 2011
Free App Turns Your Phone into a Scanner
There are times when you desperately need to scan, search, and edit a document. And wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply use your iPhone to take care of those tasks instead of having to rush into your office? Now you can. All you need to do is grab a free app called OfficeDrop from the Apple App Store and suddenly your dear iPhone will have the capabilities of a basic scanner and its corresponding software — and then some. Read How MSNBC Uses OfficeDrop’s iPhone App for Scanning and Store Documents
July 20, 2011
OfficeDrop Now Available on iOS
OfficeDrop by Pixily has been updated as a universal application for iPhone and iPad. OfficeDrop is an app to scan, search, organize and store your paper files, PDFs and other documents… The OfficeDrop digital filing system is a simple, cost-effective way to scan your paper and manage it online in our searchable web-based document portal. Check out the Cult of iPhone Review of OfficeDrop’s iPhone App
July 20, 2011
It’s in Italian – but it sounds pretty cool
OfficeDrop, l’applicazione per la scansione e la gestione dei propri documenti
OfficeDrop è una delle migliori applicazioni per scannerizzare, organizzare e archiviare PDF, documenti cartacei e non, ricavati dalla cattura di un’immagine dalla fotocamera o da file presenti sul device o su computer. Read the Italian Review of the OfficeDrop iPhone App
OfficeDrop is very pleased to announce that we have an iPhone app! The new app brings you the power that you would have if you were using your computer’s web browser – but now you can access at any time and anywhere. Best of all, the app turns your iPhone into a multi-page PDF scanner, so you can capture paper documents and convert them into text-searchable PDFs on the go. Create PDFs, search PDFs, view and organise PDFs – all on your iPhone. We know that users of the OfficeDrop Andriod app are really into OfficeDrop on their phone – and we hope that iPhone users will be too!
Scan Paper, Text-Search, Browse, Share Documents and More from your iPhone
With the iPhone app, users can snap a photo of a paper document and scan it directly to the cloud. Once an item is scanned, users can browse the document, apply labels, search text using OfficeDrop’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, share and access documents from anywhere with OfficeDrop’s cloud filing cabinet.
OfficeDrop iPhone App Video
Using the App
When you first log in using the iPhone app, you’ll see your OfficeDrop folders. You can browse to specific files just as you would if you were looking for files on your computer’s hard drive. Simply touch the folder and navigate to the document you want.
You can also navigate by labels; simple hit the funnel icon in the top left and select the labels (or folders if you want) and only look at items with those particular labels.
The funnel also allows you to find your favorite or recent documents.
Search
Search is, of course, the best way to find your documents. At the bottom of the app’s screen you’ll see the search button. Touch that to text search within your documents. Since OfficeDrop makes the documents you upload into the system totally text searchable, you know that finding your files is only a quick keyword search away.
Scan from the iPhone
The newest iPhones have pretty decent cameras, which means they can be used as a scanner replacement when you are on the go. Using the OfficeDrop app you can scan multipage PDFs quickly and easily from anywhere.
Push the upload button at the center bottom of the app to start scanning. You can either use images already in your phone’s photo gallery or snap a new photo using the app. If you take a picture with the camera using the app you’ll have the option to crop the image, rotate it, add a second (or third, etc) page. At the time of upload you can select a destination folder and add labels. You can also store the item locally, but it will only get OCR when uploaded. If you are in an area without cell phone coverage the app will store the scan on your phone and upload it when you get back into good reception.
“We’re changing the way people collect and share information on the go,” explained OfficeDrop CEO Prasad Thammineni. “By using the iPhone as a powerful scanning device, our users can share documents with teams in seconds, and search all of their items in the cloud, regardless of their location. OfficeDrop is making remote working easier than ever.”
The OfficeDrop iPhone app is free to download, and connects with OfficeDrop’s cloud filing cabinet. The free version of OfficeDrop cloud filing system gives users 1 GB of storage, 50 pages of text-searchable scans per month and will produce the top three search results.
This app compliments our Android Scanner app; and iPad users should expect a refresh of the existing iPad app in the near future.
Prasad Thammineni, OfficeDrop CEO, has just posted a tip on Bloomberg Businessweek about “How to Manage Teams Outside Your Office.” Of course, we recommend technology tools like OfficeDrop to manage your teams, but other technologies and tactics can really help keep everyone moving in the same direction and productive – even when you aren’t always in the same office. Check out the article!
Despite the supposed oncoming death of the printed newspaper, there is something really thrilling about actually seeing your company’s name in print. Today we are very excited to say that our new Android Paper-To-Go App was in the App Smart section of the New York Times!
OfficeDrop Android App NYTimes
Of course, we are also in the online version – read about OfficeDrop’s Android App in the Times. To see the online version, scroll down to the end of the article.
Thanks to everyone who attended last week’s webinar on Getting Organized and Boosting Productivity through better office and paper management/organization! We had a large number of attendees and there were some great questions at the end of the web class.
Get Organized and Boost Productivity
This webinar was led by certified Professional Organizer and Productivity Consultant Joshua Zerkel. Josh tackled the tricky problem of dealing with documents in a busy office environment, and made it clear that there are substantial benefits to greater organization. He went over everything from setting up the office for optimized productivity to organizing the flow of paper into and out of the office.
Here is a video of the Get Organized webinar:
Other Webinars on Productivity and Organized Offices
Check out the video on Mastering the Paperless Office, using slides from Josh Zerkel! Learn the best steps to begin on the path to reducing your office’s use of paper and hear about some great technologies you can use to make your quest to go paperless easier!
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OfficeDrop’s Document Management and Document Scanning Service Blog
OfficeDrop, formerly Pixily, helps small businesses and home offices go paperless and manage their paper and digital documents online. OfficeDrop provides an award-winning online digital filing system & scanner software. In this blog, we’ll discuss cool ways customers are using our service to tame their paper problem and get organized. We hope to share tips and tricks we are learning as we help our clients scan, sync, search and share documents. We’ll also highlight new features in our digital filing system, let you know what the press is saying about us and keep you up to speed with the goings-on at OfficeDrop! Paper. Digital. Anywhere.
