As a leading consulting engineering firm, MG Engineering knows the importance of risk management. “We operate within a risk-averse industry,” explains Demetrios Gianniris, Associate Principal, Head of Ops and Technology at MG Engineering. “There are codes and best practices, and we strive to be nimble and innovative while keeping those in mind.”

With Egnyte, they proved that large engineering firms with large data volumes can build productive file management workflows in the cloud – while still adhering to the codes and practices their highly regulated industry demands.

Challenge: A Mixed Workflow Leads to Inefficient File Management

MG Engineering often works on over 300 simultaneous projects encompassing over 20 terabytes worth of related files, with individual files ranging up to 5.5 gigabytes in size. Initially, they were using Egnyte’s Storage Sync technology to sync this data from the cloud to their own on-premises servers.

However, they soon discovered that once all the data had been sent to their servers, managing such a large volume of files locally was highly time- and resource-intensive. “Storage Sync is perfect for teams that manage small or mid-sized volumes of data,” explains Gianniris. “But with volumes as enormous as ours, we realized we would work faster if we kept those workflows in the cloud instead of syncing to on-premises servers.”

Particularly challenging areas included:

• File backups: “Our original plan was to have a complete copy of all our data in each office, and only use the cloud to access files remotely,” says Gianniris. Given the size and volume of the files involved, creating these backups would require a tremendous expenditure of time, staffing power, storage space, and budget.
• Collaboration: The team was using a virtual private network (VPN) for much of their remote file sharing. But VPN proved ineffective at facilitating collaboration on large files – and with most workers dispersed across three offices and many others working from home, sharing files this way proved to be a slog.
• File management: For each project, the team built a digital folder structure for managing files related to that project. But storing, sharing, co-editing, and archiving files with their part-cloud, part-on-premises hybrid workflow was highly inefficient. “We had a team of people who had to scour the whole network to find specific files and move them to the right location,” says Gianniris.

Facing delays and budget shortfalls, Gianniris started exploring ways to rely more heavily on the cloud. But his primary technology partner, Autodesk, didn’t work well with the numerous cloud platforms Gianniris tried out. “Autodesk doesn’t play nice in the cloud unless you’re using their cloud offering, which, at the time, hadn’t been developed,” Gianniris explains. “So we were stuck.”

Solution: A Cloud-First File Management System in Egnyte

Gianniris knew he needed to reduce his reliance on on-premises servers. He decided to take his use of Egnyte to the next level and use the platform to build a more cloud-centric file management workflow. Though the team was reluctant at first, their reservations disappeared when they saw the results. “Once we transitioned to enterprise cloud for our document storage, we were able to work much faster and more productively, largely because Egnyte handles uploads and transfers of large files really well,” explains Gianniris. “It’s also the rare cloud platform that works well with Autodesk. All of a sudden, these massive Autodesk CAD files worked a lot better.”

The team was also impressed with Egnyte’s integration capabilities. In particular, by integrating with mxHERO, they were able to replicate their shared Microsoft Outlook inboxes in Egnyte, allowing them to remove large, storage-consuming file attachments from their local server and store those files in the cloud instead. “We rely on our Outlook inboxes every day, but we were almost completely out of storage space because of these huge attachments,” explains Anjelica Orsini, Office Manager at MG Engineering, who plays an instrumental role in managing the firm’s IT. “Storing files in Egnyte instead of Outlook, and sharing them via links rather than attachments, frees up critical space and keeps things more secure.”

Working with Egnyte’s professional services, the team also accelerated the creation of complex folder structures to house files for internal and external collaboration. “It used to take us fifteen minutes to create a folder structure, but in Egnyte, we can do it in thirty seconds or less,” says Gianniris. “All it takes is the click of a button. Considering we often do this twenty or thirty times a day, those time savings really add up.” Once the folders were built, the team was able to quickly upload and migrate files of any size into Egnyte. From there, the cloud-based system allowed them to locate files from anywhere with a quick search, rapidly share files among dispersed stakeholders, and automate file archiving. “Egnyte serves as a great hub where all of our data lives, and where all our stakeholders can communicate.”

Benefits: Faster Workflows, Reduced Spend, and Happier Clients

Since implementing Egnyte, MG Engineering has made their workflows significantly faster and more cost-effective, yielding savings from project initiation to closeout. “Being all-in on the cloud has eliminated the need to create copies of all of our files or hire a full team to take on the laborious process of locating, moving, and archiving large files on a local server,” says Gianniris. “This has allowed us to save over $50,000 every year, as well as thousands of hours that we can reinvest in more high-value activities.”

These efficiencies have also enabled MG Engineering to ensure top-notch client services. “When our clients ask us for a file, they expect to get it immediately,” Orsini explains. “With local servers and manual processes, this would take ages. But Egnyte makes it easy for us to find, access, and send documents to clients in seconds. That’s a huge benefit.”

Egnyte hasn’t only enabled MG Engineering to save digital storage space – they’re freeing up physical space as well. “Now that we’ve seen how well Egnyte handles large volumes of large files, we plan to scan all of our files, dating back years, and store them in Egnyte,” says Orsini. “We’re currently working through what were originally about 900 boxes of files, which, historically, our team would spend hours or days wading through when we needed to find something. Once it’s all in Egnyte, all those documents will be at our fingertips.”

Summing up the ways Egnyte has benefited the team, Gianniris offers an anecdote: “Since we leaned more into the cloud, I’ve had people come up to my desk and ask me, ‘Did we do something with the network? Things are suddenly running much faster.’”

At Revolution Medicines, a clinical-stage precision oncology company, collaboration is key. As a medium-sized biotech organization whose internal workflows are augmented by a large virtual support system, they rely on a host of external partners to keep highly time-sensitive workflows running smoothly. If Revolution Medicines and their partners in both research and development are unable to communicate and share data effectively, operations can grind to a halt in a flash.

“With nearly 250 employees at the end of 2022, we are considered a medium-sized business” notes Wally Reiher, Chief Information Officer at Revolution Medicines. “Like many businesses our size in our space, our business model relies heavily on outsourcing. Collaboration is central to being able to do that effectively.”

Armed with Egnyte’s powerful content management system, Reiher and his team have accelerated and streamlined their collaboration both internally and externally, paving the way for smoother and faster workflows.

Challenge: Facilitate Collaboration Among a Complex Network

Revolution Medicines’ roster of external partners is broad in both number and variety. The company works closely with organizations specializing in critical functions across all aspects of research and development, including synthesis and screening, pre-clinical studies, and manufacturing.

“Orchestration of these many partnerships depends on efficient collaboration tools so our scientists can focus on their projects without distraction,” explains Reiher.

To facilitate this level of collaboration, Revolution Medicines needed a system that could:

• Store and organize copious amounts of data produced from a large-scale multifaceted collaborative platform
• Empower internal and external stakeholders to easily access data and collaborate in real time
• Ensure security by controlling access to the data at a highly granular level

“In a previous company, I implemented another solution for file storage and access,” says Reiher. “But my team ran into limitations with permissions management. To achieve the level of collaboration that we practice at Revolution Medicines, we would need something much more flexible.”

Solution: A Cloud File System That Breaks Down Collaboration Barriers

At the time Reiher joined Revolution Medicines, the company had just completed a meticulous vendor evaluation process leading to their selection of Egnyte for file management and sharing. Reiher oversaw the implementation process and was immediately impressed with how quickly the team was able to build an environment within Egnyte for their collaboration materials supporting a variety of research workflows, both internal and external, such as research plans, protocols, and reports. As the company matured, Egnyte was also used for a variety of other external collaboration workflows, including business development; supporting advisory boards; and academic collaborations.

“We entered partnerships with large companies where the alliance required a place to store all the files we’d be working on together, and it was agreed that we would do the hosting because we could implement the collaboration space more rapidly,” says Reiher. “Using Egnyte, we were able to build the necessary file infrastructure within a day. Dozens of individuals collaborating on an enormous volume of materials with controlled access rights – all set up in a matter of hours.”

Once setup was complete, these teams were able to manage their operations within Egnyte easily, efficiently, and securely. Highlights included:

• Permissions controls: Egnyte has provided the team with the ability to provision access to files based on user role and to control whether a user can modify a file, delete a file, or be limited to read-only access. “Access control is crucial when working with multiple external partners,” Reiher notes. “We can make sure a CRO can manage their own files and have access to the files they need to perform their tasks—and nothing more.”
• Simple and fast data migration: It was easy to import data from other systems into Egnyte and ensure data quality in transit. “Egnyte makes it really easy to import files from another repository such as an eTMF with fidelity,” says Reiher.
• File co-editing: Various stakeholders were able to collaborate on the same file simultaneously, with their edits registering in real time. “There was a lot of demand from our user base for concurrent editing,” says Reiher. “They absolutely had to have it.”

Benefits: Faster and Easier Workflows That Streamline Operations

Since their initial implementation, Revolution Medicines has significantly expanded their use of Egnyte, making the platform a fundamental vehicle for collaboration internally and with myriad partners. “We have over 200 controlled folders in Egnyte permissioned specifically for external collaborators and can govern access rights with the click of a button,” explains Reiher. “This has allowed us to provide needed access while maintaining the required control over our content. The end result is that everyone, both internally and externally, can collaborate effectively and securely.”

The team has also enjoyed downstream benefits from their rapid setup, easy data migration, and real-time collaboration. These time savers have put them in a strong position to maintain aggressive timelines while keeping collaboration secure and data quality high.

Throughout their experience, the team has been impressed with Egnyte’s customer support. “With a lot of companies, you’ll open a support ticket or send in a feature request, and never hear back about it, but we’ve always been able to count on Egnyte to quickly resolve any support needs we may have,” says Reiher. “I also appreciate that Egnyte continues to enhance their products.”

“It was a natural fit for us to go with Egnyte,” he adds “Folks have been really happy with this platform. We look forward to continuing this partnership.”

BW: Workplace Experts was founded in 2000 by a couple of innovation-minded individuals determined to shake up the fit out sector. Over two decades later, the company's unwavering commitment to challenging the status quo remains its guiding principle. They pride themselves on their ability to deliver flawlessly executed fit out and refurbishment projects, ensuring Defect Free practical completion (DF@PC) for all their clients. Their laser focus on customer feedback, automation, and employee training has led to referrals, repeat business, and a stellar reputation.

The Challenge: Sourcing Information in a Timely Manner

As BW’s business flourished and employee numbers grew, their workplace experts spent an immense amount of time chasing after relevant information. "This growth led us into unfamiliar territory where domain knowledge was severely dispersed," described Tomas Hollingsworth, Head of Technology. For Hollingsworth and the team, that meant building a technology foundation that could apply automation to their existing content in order to more efficiently process contracts, locate project information, and upload photos.

The Solution: Egnyte Plays Critical Role in BW’s Technology Foundation

BW: Workplace Experts has been using Egnyte as its cloud file server since 2020. But it wasn't until recently that the BW team realised how instrumental Egnyte could be in providing a content backbone. Egnyte’s embedded search engine, along with a rich integration with Microsoft Power Automate and Procore, has ensured users can always find critical project files.

"A project manager might be looking for information on how to build a custom helix staircase or get information about a particular type of glass we installed ten years ago. With Egnyte's advanced search capability, those users are presented with photos from past projects, suppliers, and unit rates," said Tomas. "It unlocks the domain knowledge from a single project manager to the rest of the company."

That same search capability propagated across the rest of the organisation. For contract managers, contract terms and past contracts become accessible through a simple search. "It enables us to use the commercial manager on more projects, which is great for us as a business but also for the employee's development and the client, as they pay less in preliminary fees. It is a win all around."

Estimators can search for keywords within a thousand-page tender pack in seconds instead of hours. This has ultimately resulted in more informed and accurate estimates along with happier teams. "Our estimators have a better work-life balance, and they are more productive. The clients reap the benefits of that too."

"We have an oracle — Egnyte makes all of our information available in one place," Hollingsworth said.

Benefits: Supercharged Productivity While Bolstering Work-Life Balance

With Egnyte as the single repository for vendor documents, commercial managers can be more effective in their role by quickly and securely signing contracts. Traditionally bulky documents can be uploaded into Egnyte, automatically routed for signature via DocuSign, then filed back into Egnyte’s repository – reducing order time from an afternoon to just a few minutes. Administrative time spent for each contract has gone from 2½ hours to ½ an hour. With 50 contracts per project and 50 projects per year, BW is now saving upwards of 5,000 hours per year.

Recently, the estimating team was evaluating different software solutions to enable them to quickly search tender packs for specific keywords without realising they already had that capability with Egnyte. “I ran a keyword search on a bid package in Egnyte and it brought back the exact same data as the estimating software,” said Hollingsworth. “The estimating team now uses Egnyte, and the company saved over £10,000.”

What’s Next? Automating-Away Manual Processes

The BW team continues to find new value from their investment in Egnyte instead of purchasing costly point solutions. Features like Egnytes’ BIM Search tool allow users to search for data within historical project models, unlocking a treasure trove of information. “We view innovation as a currency, and Egnyte buys us increments of time which we then pass back to our clients and staff,” said Hollingsworth. “They are more productive, and they have a better work-life balance. That helps us attract and retain top talent, resulting in building faster and better. It is not just about attracting clients through innovation, and it is the whole way that we will move forward as a business.”

In the view of global regulatory bodies, digital transformation in clinical trials has placed increasing significance on the link between audit trails and data integrity. The Food And Drug Administration highlighted audit trails in their 1999 guidance on the use of computerized systems in clinical trials. Seventeen years later, amid increased regulatory scrutiny regarding data integrity and computerized systems in clinical trials, the International Council for Harmonization released an addendum to ICH E6 (R2) to help the industry implement “improved and more efficient approaches to clinical trial design, conduct, oversight, recording, and reporting while continuing to ensure… reliability of trial results.”

The addendum focused prominently on the need to verify data integrity through audit trail review in trials that use computerized systems – and as digital transformation has brought these systems to every corner of the clinical trial process, researchers are increasingly cognizant of the role of technology vendors in the secure submission of audit data. Against this backdrop, Endpoint Clinical, an Interactive Response Technology (IRT) provider, joined forces with Egnyte to streamline the provisioning of audit trail data to investigators and regulators in an increasingly computerized clinical trial landscape, leading to more effective and accurate compliance for all stakeholders.

Challenge: Reduce Risks to Data Integrity at Trial Closeout

Audit trail review is no longer solely the domain of electronic data capture platforms. Today’s clinical trials are supported by a network of eClinical technologies including eSource, Patient Reported Outcomes, Clinical Trial Management Systems, and IRTs – all of which are now recognized to host the authoritative source of a variety of clinical trial data points that may be digitally copied into an EDC system and thus subject to audit trail review. As this shift has played out, regulators have emphasized that investigators should own the clinical data and have access to, and be able to review, audit trails.

This presented a challenge for Endpoint Clinical. At trial closeout, IRT vendors typically provide audit data to investigators through the trial sponsor, who acts as an intermediary. However, the involvement of sponsors in the transmission of audit data has raised regulatory concerns around data integrity. Sponsors’ vested interest in gaining market approval of the products being studied conflicts with regulators’ demands that audit log data be presented without bias. Given the importance of audit logs for maintaining data integrity, regulatory bodies would prefer to restrict audit log data to more neutral parties and avoid any possibility, however remote, of data being modified to better support approval.

But cutting sponsors out of the process was not a viable solution. “While data integrity concerns all but preclude sponsors from acting as intermediaries in the delivery of audit log data to regulators, they still need to have oversight of the overall process,” explains Cat Hall, Vice President of Data and Quality at Endpoint Clinical. “Our job was to find a way to strike that balance, to give them the oversight they need without having to be so involved in the process that regulators feel uncomfortable.”

Solution: Streamlined Audit Data Submission Eases Regulators’ Concerns

To strike this balance and maintain compliance, Endpoint Clinical partnered with Egnyte to build a platform that would enable them to provide audit trail data directly to investigators – without hands-on involvement from the sponsor. “Our goal is for the platform to enable sponsors to fulfill their obligation to provide oversight of the audit data delivery process without having to act as a hands-on intermediary,” explains Hall.

Endpoint’s Audit Data Management platform, powered by Egnyte’s cloud file solution, delivers three key benefits:

1. GxP compliance: Data captured is traceable, accountable, and complete, and the platform provides full visibility into how the data has been altered and who has accessed it. As Hall puts it: “We’re able to deliver an audit log that provides everything investigators and regulators need to be able to see, with no blind spots.”
2. Controlled access: Investigators have access to site-specific data, with granular permissions controls ensuring that the data is only accessible to the proper stakeholders and in the proper manner. “Partnering with Egnyte allows us to give one stakeholder edit access to a file while making sure another only has view access,” Hall explains.
3. Peace of mind: Sponsors have documented proof that the audit log was distributed to the investigator. “This documentation provides sponsors visibility into the process, and confirmation that everything was handled properly, without having to be directly involved,” says Hall.

Benefits: A Powerful, Compliant Offering for Endpoint Clinical’s Clients

The Audit Data Management solution, powered by Egnyte, enables Endpoint Clinical to streamline operations for their clients at a critical juncture in the clinical trial process, with benefits extending to a wide variety of stakeholders including sponsors, investigators, and regulators. “Sponsors can now fulfill their obligation to provide oversight without being an intermediary,” says Hall. “They can receive assurances of ALCOA-plus principles while keeping a safe enough distance from the delivery of audit data to ameliorate any concerns about data integrity.”

This has made Endpoint Clinical uniquely capable of overcoming a particularly vexing compliance challenge in the current digital era of clinical research. The impact to their business is hard to overstate: “We’ve had contact with sponsors and investigators alike who are now eager to work with us,” Hall says. “By combining our IRT with Egnyte’s powerful cloud file system functionality, we’re able to help these organizations solve a puzzle they’ve struggled with for a long time.”

A typical construction project involves myriad stakeholders sharing and modifying large volumes of documents and files. That’s why Torcon, a construction management services company with offices in New Jersey and Philadelphia, places a premium on tools that facilitate reliable and secure digital collaboration.

“Document control is the foundation of any construction project,” says Lisa Brennan, Document Control Coordinator at Torcon. “Because of the large number of collaborative documents we work with, we needed to optimize our time.”

Challenge: Citrix ShareFile Keeps a Time-Sensitive Team Waiting

Torcon’s incumbent solution, Citrix ShareFile, was initially implemented to manage internal project documentation. However, it didn’t take long for the team to realize that ShareFile wasn’t well-equipped to handle the sheer volume of files and exponential growth in collaboration with project team members outside Torcon. “We have lots and lots of project files, many of which exceed 20 MB in size,” commented Shawn Winters, Torcon’s Director of Information Technology. “When we tried to manage the high volumes of large files with the old system, it was slow and clunky. It was also unreliable, with a lot of unnecessary complexity and downtime.”

These issues led to significant delays in file access. “It often took an hour just to upload a single document to the system,” says Lindsay Martorana, Document Control Manager at Torcon. “That was a huge issue.”

“Sometimes we could sit overnight before our documents finally finished uploading,” Brennan adds. “And even then, a few would be missing, forcing us to start all over again.”

Often, when file uploads were finally complete, the team encountered even more issues. Martorana says: “When I would try to move a large volume of files from one folder to another, the system would tell me it had completed the transfer. But when I checked to confirm, I found as many as a quarter of the files didn’t go through.” In these all-too-often instances, Martorana’s team was forced to go back and transfer the missing files manually – a tedious and highly time-consuming process.

Solution: Reliable Document Management with Egnyte

Torcon set out to find a new file sharing technology partner, assembling a well-rounded vendor selection team consisting of document control personnel, engineering groups, and team members in the field. “All had input into the trial process and the requirements,” says Winters.

The team evaluated Egnyte and several other cloud file-sharing solutions, including Box, Dropbox, and SharePoint. To ensure their findings were precise and reliable, they assessed each vendor in a virtually identical environment, using the same hardware and network.

The advantages of Egnyte were immediately apparent. “Egnyte was easily the best-equipped to meet our specific needs,” says Winters. “We could work three to five times faster than the other solutions. It was also the most conducive to common construction management workflows, like sharing different file types and sizes with distributed teams in the field, so I knew the change would be easy for our employees.”

After making the decision to move to Egnyte, the team found the implementation process quick and painless. Leveraging Egnyte’s professional services team and their simple to use migration tool, they began transferring files from ShareFile into the new system. “It was one of the easiest migrations I’ve ever done in my IT career,” says Winters.

Benefits: Flexibility, Reliability, and Major Time Savings

Since implementing Egnyte, Torcon has greatly improved their ability to manage large volumes of documents with unprecedented efficiency. “We’ve been able to save five to ten hours per employee every month,” says Winters.

Time savings came from multiple sources. For one, their project teams are no longer left hanging while a missing file is found, or a system outage is resolved. Uploading and migrating documents was significantly faster in Egnyte compared to Citrix ShareFile. There’s also virtually no time spent waiting on uploads or document migration tasks.

The team was also impressed with Egnyte’s integration capabilities. So far, they have integrated Egnyte with Microsoft Office 365 and Autodesk BIM 360, with plans to implement more industry-specific integrations in the future.

Egnyte also provides a level of control over project documents never seen before at Torcon. Managing several million files and thousands of sharing permissions used to take a toll on project teams. Now, the system alerts project teams to anomalies, such as a file placed in the wrong folder location, empowering team members to quickly fix issues before they cause downstream complexities and delays. “If an employee says their document is missing, we can use Egnyte’s reporting feature to retrace the employee’s steps and find the document quickly,” says Martorana.

For Torcon, flexibility is critical. “We’ve had a lot of hybrid and remote teams since the pandemic,” says Winters. “As a construction company, most of our staff work from project sites, often in temporary trailers. Fortunately, Egnyte allows for secure file access away from the office and offers the flexibility to work on desktop or mobile devices. These combined capabilities make collaboration and document co-editing faster and easier for the teams.” As Winters says, “Teams don’t generally like change, but in this case, our team embraced it.”

The team at SouthStar Bank, a mid-sized financial services firm, keeps pretty busy, collaborating on countless files and sharing them externally and internally. But their technology – an on-premises file server with VPN access – was creating collaboration bottlenecks and data security risks.

“We were dealing with what I call a legacy shared drive,” says Bryan Buck, Chief Technology Officer at SouthStar. “As we grew and our operations became more complex, that started showing some real challenges.”

Buck knew his team would need to upgrade to a system that could facilitate their level of activity while keeping their processes smooth and their files secure. After a robust vendor selection process, he implemented Egnyte, gaining valuable benefits in content security, user experience, and overall performance.

Challenges: On-Premises Technology Created Security Risks and Slowed Workflows

The files SouthStar deals with every day are highly sensitive. Many of them contain customers’ financial data or the bank’s proprietary information. “We run a tight ship with our files,” explains Buck. “We need to know where they’re stored and who has access, and we need to be able to collaborate on them efficiently.”

Prior to Egnyte, the on-premises system the team was using fell short of this goal in several areas:

• Efficiency. Only one person at a time could edit a file, which slowed collaboration to a crawl. The team also had to rely on third-party solutions to exchange files with customers and scan for sensitive data, which made those processes more costly and time-consuming.
• Visibility. It was difficult to see where sensitive information was stored and to view and manage access permissions. That created serious security and privacy risks.
• Capacity. After years of using their on-premises system, the team was running out of backup space. "The shared drive grew and grew until I couldn’t keep as many backups as I needed," Buck says.

As Buck set out to find a new system, end-user experience was top-of-mind. “I wanted something that was new, different, better, and would offer a seamless transition for users,” Buck says. “I wanted users to be able to do things the way they always have, with the benefits of improved security, efficiency, and control.” To address the capacity issue, it was also important that whatever system they implemented be cloud-hosted. As Buck explains, “We really wanted to solve the local storage piece and not have to worry about backups.”

Solution: Full Control in an Easy-to-Use Platform

Buck kicked off a search for a solution that would meet his team’s criteria. When he started evaluating Egnyte, he was immediately impressed. “Initially, I attended a webinar that Egnyte hosted,” Buck says. “By the end, it was clear that Egnyte could solve many of our challenges.”

Buck made the decision to implement Egnyte, and to utilize its integrations with Microsoft Office and Azure Active Directory. Three features that most impressed Buck were:

• Unified view of risk. Egnyte provided a dashboard that gave Buck a clear picture of the risk level that SouthStar faced at any given time, and quickly flagged potential security issues. “I like the way Egnyte alerts me to unusual behavior,” Buck says. “Say somebody deletes an unusually large number of files. I get alerted to that instantly. I can then log in, get full visibility into what happened, and follow up with that person.” The platform also made it easy to change access permissions in just a few clicks, and for multiple stakeholders to edit a file simultaneously.
• Ease of use. Buck was able to implement the Egnyte system with virtually no disruption to his team. “The lightbulb moment was learning that, with Egnyte, the user doesn’t even know that something has changed,” Buck explains. Egnyte enabled users to store files in a centralized repository that appeared as a mapped file drive, making it easy to locate, access, and share files. They could also quickly and easily access files from any device through the cloud. Buck offers a personal example: “One week, I had COVID and was stuck working from home. I hadn’t installed Egnyte on my personal laptop, but I was still able to log in via the cloud and access whatever files I needed.”
• Native integrations with Microsoft. Buck and his team were impressed with the ways Egnyte’s integration with Microsoft Office has streamlined collaboration. “Our ability to co-edit documents using the Office integration is huge for us,” explains Buck. “Previously, a user would have to wait up to an hour for someone to be out of a document before they could edit it. Now, they can collaborate in real time.”

Along the way, Buck had a great experience working with the Egnyte team. As he puts it: “From sales to implementation to post-implementation, the Egnyte team was willing to listen and respond quickly. They’re always available for regular check-ins to help us get the most value out of the solution.” 

Benefits: Better Security, Reduced Costs, and Happy Users

Since implementing Egnyte, SouthStar has gained a holistic view of their data and better control over it, leading to significant improvements in content security and the user experience. “Detecting sensitive data is a key feature for us, and we’ve made tremendous progress there,” explains Buck. “I can see where my content is, ensure we have the right permissions set up for every file, and get alerts to any unusual behavior that could pose a security risk. All of that is so quick and easy now.”

This has empowered him to manage risk at a more granular level and on a continuous basis, resulting in concrete benefits for SouthStar: “When we implemented Egnyte, there were 20,000 sensitive files stored in unpermitted locations,” Buck says. “The visibility and control I’ve gotten from Egnyte has allowed me to bring that number down to zero.”

Egnyte has gotten an enthusiastically positive response from the company’s users. As Buck puts it: “Our basic users are happy that implementing Egnyte didn’t disrupt their workflows. And more advanced users love that they can access files from any location using either the web-based or mobile version of the platform.” Users also enjoy the ability to share files as links rather than attachments. “Rather than email files back and forth, our users can simply share a direct link,” Buck says. “That has made us a lot more efficient.” 

The cloud-based solution has also alleviated limitations on backup space – and even created cost savings for SouthStar. “We’re able to reduce annual spend by $10,000 by eliminating redundant software, because Egnyte allows us to roll file-sharing, content scanning, and so many other things into one simple solution.” 

Buck adds, “That’s really the essence of what Egnyte has done for us. With our previous solution, there were all these steps and tools we had to use to do what we needed to do. But with Egnyte, it’s all-in-one.” 

Virtua Consulting, an IT consulting firm and member of the Egnyte Partner Program with clients across the United States, had a good thing going. They had set up their largely Mac-based clientele with a file-sharing system that was perfectly suited to on-site workflows, and were able to make quick adjustments, without any disruption, when Apple changed their product offering.

Enter COVID, and on-site workflows suddenly felt like a thing of the past. “When the pandemic forced us to switch everyone to a work-from-home model, we knew we would need a cloud-based solution to keep things running smoothly,” explains Justin Esgar, Chief Executive Officer of Virtua Consulting.

That cloud-based solution arrived in the form of Egnyte. With Egnyte as their partner, Virtua was able to switch their clients to remote workflows without losing any of the speed, security, or file-sharing capabilities they relied upon. Along the way, Egnyte allowed them to strengthen their relationships with their clients and grow their revenue.

Challenges: VPN Hinders Universal Work-from-Home

When Virtua’s clients switched to remote workflows after the pandemic began, Virtua initially kept their existing VPN in place – and for a time, it worked. “The system had its own built-in operating system, and our clients were able to keep working after they switched to work-from-home with no major disruption, at least at first,” Esgar explains.

Soon enough, however, the solution began to show signs of strain. “We started hearing complaints about the system not being fast enough,” Esgar says. “Our clients were dealing with a lot of lag time – and to be honest, this wasn’t much of a surprise. The VPN had a pipeline that was built for maybe three or four users to work from home at the same time. But our clients didn’t have just three or four remote users. They had up to a hundred, or even more.”

It was clear that VPN access could not meet the demand for remote functionality that the pandemic had produced. Esgar knew he would need a cloud solution that could enable remote collaboration at a large scale – while simultaneously ensuring security and access governance.

Solution: Faster, More Secure Workflows Through the Cloud

When Esgar considered Egnyte as an alternative to their VPN, he immediately recognized it as the ideal solution. “Egnyte was the only solution we pitched to our clients,” he explains. “For one thing, it’s cloud-based, which we knew would help with the remote-work issue. It also has so many great features built in that I knew would make productivity and security top-notch for my clients.”

For Esgar, the most valuable features of the Egnyte system are:

• Speed. Using Egnyte, entire companies can access their network remotely, without lag time. Esgar comments: “Our clients don’t have to VPN into the office and worry about how fast the internet is there. Everyone can work from home, or from anywhere, and easily connect to Egnyte in the cloud.”
• Security and Governance. Egnyte alerts admins to any usual behavior that may pose a security or compliance risk. “With Egnyte, our clients can make sure nothing is happening from an issues standpoint,” Esgar says. “For example, no one wants to find out the person who quit yesterday deleted a bunch of files on the way out. This helps our clients strengthen their security, as well as their regulatory compliance.”

Esgar also points to the ease of sharing and requesting files, the flexibility to access the system via web or mobile app, and the many available integrations as features that made Egnyte the best solution for Virtua’s clients. “All of these bundled together made Egnyte the clear choice,” he explains. “It was really easy for us to tell our clients: ‘Egnyte is the best solution for you moving forward, whether you stay remote, go back to the office full-time, or adopt a hybrid model.’”

When Virtua set up their clients with Egnyte, the ease of implementation enabled them to get up and running quickly. As Esgar says: “Switching to a new system involves renaming and uploading a plethora of files stored in the previous system. This is normally very time-consuming. But with Egnyte, we were typically able to get our clients set up in about two and a half weeks.”

Benefits: Happy Clients, Repeat Business, and Great Support

Since Virtua standardized on Egnyte, clients have reported myriad benefits spanning security, compliance, productivity, and ease of use. “With Egnyte, our clients don’t have to worry about their data. It’s secure and protected,” says Esgar. “The security and governance functionality allows our clients to scan for sensitive data and make sure nobody is doing something they shouldn’t be. And they love being able to access all their data from one central, secure location. It’s super easy.”

Esgar also speaks to the benefits of Egnyte’s Partner Program. “Being an Egnyte Partner gives me next-level access to Egnyte’s outstanding support team,” he explains. “It also allows me to resell the product to my clients.”

All of this has strengthened Virtua’s relationships with their clients, leading to repeat business and increased revenue. “Egnyte makes us look good to our clients, so they keep coming back,” Esgar says. “We’re giving them a tool that empowers them to work from anywhere while still maintaining top-notch security. That’s an amazing combination of power. And for us, providing them with that power means longer client relationships and more money for our business.”

How would Esgar sum up the impact Egnyte has had on his clients in one sentence? “Egnyte allows us to standardize security and productivity for our clients. What more could you possibly ask for?”