It's Time to Think Outside the Box When You Share Files

FTP Hassles: What your clients want you to know

For sending specs, renderings, animations, submittals and the like, FTP is difficult, time consuming and unreliable. Expect delays if your client lacks the right logins, passwords or software. Also, errors can occur during the slow transfer that will force you to start all over again.

With reputable online file-sharing services, you can share files and folders up to 100 GB in size anywhere 24/7 with just a few clicks. You don’t have to worry about failures, and you’ll know when your files have been delivered. Compared to FTP, online file sharing is quicker, simpler and maintenance free — most have no software, usernames, passwords or complicated downloads required.

File-compression software: Can’t zip away those headaches
Zipping files is a process that lives up to its name in sending large files speedily via email. But online file-sharing services do it even better without having to break up files within compressed folders when sending and opening them up separately as well. File compression is tedious to perform compared to just a few clicks for uploading and downloading with online file sharing. And there are no security or notification features with compression software, leaving you with a black hole of tracking information once the files are sent that you don’t have using online file sharing.

Courier services: An endless game of waste and waiting
True, burning CDs will allow you to place most proposals, RFIs, specs and other large files in one place. But even if you have them delivered overnight, won’t the lag in time slow down your busy workflow and cause possible delays in meeting deadlines? And what if you review and find some errors have appeared in what you sent? How can you correct such costly mistakes quickly or can you even fix them at all in time?

The time and expenses involved in burning CDs, addressing them and getting proper postage are a huge waste when you can send a secured link to such files with online file sharing in a minute or less — and save adding CDs to the waste stream.

Freemium file-sharing services: You get what you pay for
The fact of the matter is freemium options aren’t actually free. Forget sharing files up to 100 GB — most can’t handle even 1 GB. Some features promised require you to pay. If you have problems and need customer service, there’s probably no one to help, particularly after work hours. You also risk data breaches due to less-than-professional security. Last year, one single hack of a freemium cloud service compromised 7 million accounts alone. Professional online file sharing provides features that avoid all these pitfalls, in a professional, built-for-business solution.