How do we do it:
mobilizing documents
from your file server
Mobco BVBAwww.mobco.be 2015
Table of contents
1 We have a file server 3
2 We ‘are’ the users and we ‘want’ it to be easy 3
3 Must have and Want to have documents “on the go” 4
4 All documents when “online” 5
5 Just a quick edit and we’re good 5
6 The best apps to edit documents and show presentations 6
7 1,2,3 for mobile presentations 7
8 1,2,3 to create a text document 8
9 What does it take to mobilize my information? 9
10 About us: 10
Mobco contact details:
[email protected] or +32 2 6699500 website www.mobco.be
Mobco BVBA
Kerkberg 5, 1700 Dilbeek, Belgium
This document is written by Ulrik Van Schepdael, Managing Director of Mobco.
This whitepaper describes how we at Mobco use mobile documents.
How to gain access on any device, how to edit and save back, how
to make sure every team member has the latest version of shared
documents and easy access to its own home directory.
1
We have a file server
Yes, we know, the entire planet is shifting to a cloud storage model – but we’re still looking at virtually unlimited internal storage. Why? Well, security and privacy would be one element, but speed is the real reason – at the office we want lightning speed for our servers – there’s no reason why we shouldn’t use that capacity for our documents as well.
We’re not going to enter the debate if yes or no this strategy is the right one, we primarily use on premise file servers and a SharePoint server. On top of that, we don’t believe we
need to copy our documents to a cloud service in order to make these mobile.
We don’t want copies of the same document on different servers!
2
We ‘are’ the users and we ‘want’ it to be easy
When we’re using laptops we understand there’s a whole process to connect over VPN to our internal network – but not when we’re using mobile devices!
We want the connection to be easy, quick, safe and basically ‘pleasant’ to use. That’s quite a challenge to translate that into a ‘requirement’: “one-click-access”.
Steps to follow: 1
This means that every action on the mobile device should result in a concrete and valued result. Think about it how many times you need to repeat the very same sequence of actions to get the desired result, how many times you need to enter your password, …
3
Must have and Want to have
documents “
on the go
”
Our employees are mobile, they visit customers, service equipment and software. We want them to have the latest documents on their mobile devices.
The must-have: we want them to have information with them, even when they’re offline !
è we use Acronis Access with the pushed synchronization feature.
This works for Mac, iOS, Android and Windows – a must have if you think about ‘document distribution’ in your organization.
The manager decides what information each employee must have with him or her at any given time. This is ‘push synchronization’ of documents such as presentations, manuals, …
Our employees want their ‘home folder’ from the network share on every device, including their mobile and tablet!
è Acronis Access is just perfect to ‘mobilize’ the home folders. Important in this set-up is that we don’t copy the information to the cloud or to another server, we truly mobilize the information from the network share right onto the mobile device of the user.
Our employees select the folders, drives or documents to make ‘offline available’ in function of their activities. When ‘online’ they can access all folders and documents.
The result is that our employees no longer worry on what device the document might be stored, it’s always there where they want it to be.
4
All documents when “online”
“Online” means that we have some sort of connection available, like 3G or wifi.
At this moment we want to be able to browse ALL servers, ALL folders and all documents!
In the same app we can do just that!
Our sales people have direct access to all customer contracts, engineers have access to all technical documentation !
5
Just a quick edit and we’re good
An underestimated feature of the Acronis Acces app we’re using is the fact we’re able to do a quick edit of just any office document and save it back to the server.
6
The best apps to edit documents and show presentations
Who says this whitepaper was written on a traditional computer? We’ve written another whitepaper where we describe the
difference between Document Providers and Document Editors. The conclusion is that the Document Provider, in our case Acronis Access, is selected and managed by the Corporate IT team.
This is basically the secure access to your internal storage. The Document Editor on the other hand is a personal choice of the employee. Although Corporate IT will still control the information flow, the actual used editor as such is not relevant in terms of security. (note this app is ‘managed’ = secured)
What do we use?
We want high quality editors, easy to use (and preferably free). We made a deliberate choice for Apple Keynote, Pages and Numbers.
It’s easy to open documents from Acronis Access to these apps and back.
How about Office 365?
The Office offering of Microsoft is very strong and provides the most familiar interface in terms of document handling ‘ever’. It’s probably the best ‘suite’ out there, but we can’t save our document back to our file share – and we want to be able to do that.
That’s an unfortunate gap that for some users might not be an issue when a local SharePoint can be used.
If you are using Office365 and OneDrive, you should go for the Microsoft office apps since these provide the best integration with the Microsoft Cloud.
7
1,2,3 for mobile presentations
Ok, we meet lots of prospects and customers. Some presentations are ready-made, others require customization and honestly, that’s very time consuming.
By the way, we don’t email presentations to ourselves …
In the office
1. Make the presentation! We use a MAC and save the work to our home folder.
On the go
2. We open the Access app on our iPad and select the presentation
3. We can edit or just start the presentation
8
1,2,3 to create a text document
Using Pages to create rich text documents is perfect, but how do we save the information back to our home folder?
On the go
1. Open Pages and create your document
2. Send your document to the Access app and select the folder where you want to save it
In the office
9
What does it take to mobilize my information?
One decision and one service on a windows server in your DMZ. It’s really not that a big deal.
Remember, “we mobilize your business” – we don’t re-invent your IT infrastructure. The budget for such a project can be seen in the same ‘range’ as a new macbook. To be clear, that’s the cost of ONE macbook to set-up the entire project!
The security of your documents, even when mobile, remains intact! When you are using our technology the document will never escape your control. And when an employee leaves the organization or looses his or her mobile device, you can remotely wipe the company information.
Mobilizing information using Acronis Access brings the perfect balance between operational excellence, security and the user experience.
Contact us to learn how we can simplify your mobile life by providing you the right tools. Check our website for more detailed technical information. In short, we need to install a new
10
About us:
Mobco bvba is an expert and market leading company with a unique focus on mobile in business, specializing in Business to Employee services.
Mobile is part of our DNA, it’s what we know best, and it’s what we do.
The mission of Mobco is to help you to do better business by using mobile devices. Our portfolio includes consultancy services, technical services and technology to drive ‘mobile’ efficiency and to better execute the business strategy. A successful combination because we know what we put on a slide can work in a real business environment.
Contact mobco for:
§ Consultancy on your mobile strategy, policies, profiles and mobile IT architecture.
§ Migration of your existing Blackberry fleet to the next generation platforms.
§ Technical implementation and integration services by certified engineers of Mobileiron, Acronis Access, Samsung KNOX.
§ B2E Android and iOS app development taking into account enterprise distribution and security.
Mobco contact details:
[email protected] or +32 2 6699500 website www.mobco.be
Mobco BVBA
