On Monday, Dropbox announced that it is transforming the future of teamwork through a series of new products and business solutions. In addition to revamping Smart Sync, Dropbox is launching Paper, adding new features to better facilitate collaboration, redesigning its website with a team-first focus, and offering new business plans starting at $12.50 per user per month with a minimum of five users.
“We’re redesigning Dropbox to be fundamentally designed for teams,” said Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, in a statement. “We’re reinventing sync, bringing a modern collaboration experience to all your files, and launching Paper, a new way to work together that goes beyond the document. And we’re building this all on top of a strong business foundation-we’ve reached $1 billion in revenue run rate faster than any other SaaS company in history.”
According to a study by IDC, of the five SaaS companies that have hit a $1 billion revenue run rate, Dropbox hit it in 8.3 years, faster than Salesforce (9 years), Workday (9.2 years), ServiceNow (10.7 years) and Athena Health (15.6 years).
Working with both Windows and Mac computers, Smart Sync, previously called Project Infinite, is a Dropbox feature that makes syncing seamless without taking up local disk storage space. Users can access files from their desktop or from or within Dropbox or their mobile devices, and files and folders are automatically synced. For Dropbox business accounts, Smart Sync works on all files and folders, creating a secure hub for teams to store, access and share files.
As part of the rollout, Dropbox launched Dropbox Paper, a new, flexible workspace that helps teams connect, collaborate and work on projects together, wherever they are. Paper helps people collaborate in a variety of media, including text, code, pictures or motion. Users can review and revise work in a single, shared space online. Offline access is not yet available.
“It’s about people working together in a more human and connected way, because that’s how people grow the best ideas,” says the Dropbox Paper introductory video.
Source: Dropbox
Dropbox says that users like InVision, Ben & Jerry’s and Shopify in more than 200 countries and territories created millions of documents in Paper while it was in beta testing. It is now available in 21 languages. New features include the ability to add due dates, assign users to tasks, and get access to greater project management capabilities. Paper is free for all Dropbox users.
In addition, Dropbox has redesigned its website with a team-first focus. The new interface more clearly separates personal and work accounts, and it creates a feed of updates for a team’s files and Paper documents. Dropbox has also added three new Business plans:
- Standard – $12.50 per user per month, beginning with 5 users, 2 TB of space
- Advanced – $20 per user per month, beginning with 5 users, unlimited space
- Enterprise – Dropbox will provide a quote based on a company’s needs, customizable
Which plan a company selects will be based on the size of its team and its needs. Users with simple needs or smaller teams might benefit from a Standard plan, where a company with teams needing sophisticated admin, audit and integration features might prefer the Advanced plan. Enterprise solutions are for larger businesses that require scalable, custom solutions. Dropbox is offering a 30-day free trial for these new plans.
Dropbox also offers a stripped-down version with basic storage for free, and a Pro account for individuals priced at $8.25 per month which includes sharing features and 1 TB of space. The key differences between the business plans and the pro plan is that the business plan has more security and collaboration features suitable for teams. Note: Prices shown are billed annually. Plans billed monthly are slightly higher.
Insider Take:
As Dropbox users, we think these changes are exciting and will help the company compete far beyond just offering cloud storage. These new features and flexible plan options will help Dropbox compete with other cloud storage options as well as online collaboration tools. As SaaS continues to grow in popularity, Dropbox and its competitors must constantly change and evolve to address their customers’ needs. We can’t wait to see what’s next.
