[April 17, 2012]

NHS Applies SkyDox Free Guest User Policy to Enhance Organizational Collaboration

SkyDox, a leading provider of cloud-enabled file sharing, file synchronization, file storage and collaboration tools, is being deployed by the National Health Service's Institute for Innovation and Improvement to ease email inefficiencies and reduce costs associated with its legacy project collaboration system. By using SkyDox's easy-to-use and secure file sharing platform, the Institute has been able to optimize inter-and-intra organizational file sharing and collaboration, while lowering overall costs through the application of SkyDox's free guest user policy.

The Institute supports the transformation of NHS by leveraging industry advancements and adopting best practices for the UK's health services system at large. The Institute frequently collaborates across NHS teams and departments to develop guides and publications, in addition to soliciting advice on various projects in order to develop and share best practices in the form of document guides and manuals. Like many large-scale, multi-site organizations, the NHS has suffered from over-engineered collaboration and project management solutions that have proved too complex for staff. This has resulted in a return to email to share files, amend documents and manage meetings - ultimately increasing costs and reducing efficiency.

"Supporting one of the UK's largest government entities, we are frequently called upon to work with large, collaborative teams distributed nationally, regionally and locally. nitially, we used a project management application to facilitate this, but that quickly became a nightmare to manage," commented Nick Gaunt, Chief Information and Knowledge Officer at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.

With SkyDox's file-centric approach to collaboration, the NHS Institute can now ensure that all team members are accessing the most updated version of a document, eliminating problems inherent with email collaboration methods, including duplicated work, version control, storage capacity and document auditability. Because SkyDox's technology has been designed from the ground up as an enterprise-grade platform, it provides users with enhanced security features, administration-rights and compatibility with a range of popular Enterprise Content Management and productivity applications, including Microsoft (News - Alert) Office, SharePoint, Adobe Acrobat, FileNet, Documentum and Lotus Notes.

"The transition to SkyDox was painless," recalled Gaunt. "The platform required very little training and on the few occasions that we have contacted SkyDox's support line, we were very pleased with their quick and helpful responses. Also, because SkyDox provides all the functionality we need in a single platform, integrates with our existing applications, requires very little training and has a full-featured free guest user policy, it's helped our IT department manage collaboration costs. All in all, we are very satisfied with the benefits SkyDox has brought to NHS."

SkyDox's security features ensure that administrators are able to assign access rights at the file and folder level to prevent confidential files from being downloaded, modified, or passed on to another party without authorization. With its page-level analytics feature, SkyDox allows users to determine if and when a file was opened, with whom it was shared, and which pages attracted the most interest. SkyDox also encrypts personal information and digital content with 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology before it leaves a user's computer. Data stored in the SkyDox cloud also remains encrypted at rest. In addition, SkyDox offers a wide range of social business tools, including activity feeds, presence indicators, email alerts and IM-style messaging. The platform includes several additional interactive features, such as online meetings and conference call functionality.

"Collaboration technology is - and will continue to be - the big technology story across the enterprise. The public sector, in particular, is facing tremendous pressure to increase efficiencies and knowledge sharing both in the US and the UK," commented Ali Moinuddin, CMO SkyDox. "The NHS is a big coup for SkyDox - it is one of the largest employers in the world, making its collaboration challenges some of the most significant of any organization, public or private, on the planet."

About SkyDox

Founded in 2009, SkyDox is a cloud-enabled file sharing, file synchronization, file storage and collaboration platform. It delivers a suite of online, mobile and desktop-based tools to enable real-time, simultaneous document-centric collaboration. SkyDox allows users to review, comment on, search, store, deliver, manage and collaborate on over 200 file formats on a single cloud-based platform that is intuitive and easy to use. With SkyDox, users can collaborate on content with company team members, customers, suppliers and business partners using any browser-enabled PC, laptop or mobile device. SkyDox provides a scalable, highly secure, enterprise-grade platform that can be configured as a private, hybrid or public cloud to meet customer and compliance requirements.

About the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement

The purpose of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement is to support the transformation of the NHS, through innovation, improvement and the adoption of best practices. Its vision is to be an innovative and pioneering center for healthcare improvement, building energy and enthusiasm for evidence-based change in England. Its mission is to enable and support the NHS system to transform health and healthcare for patients through a strategy of creating inventive, clinically-led and tested practical ideas which will build skills and capability for continuous improvement and support for leaders to drive real and lasting change. The NHS Institute plays a central role in supporting the national approach to the NHS cost and quality challenge. The NHS Institute is currently in the process of transforming into a new organization that will no longer be an Arms Length Body (ALB). The new organization will have a stronger commercial edge and will continue to support the quality and efficiency challenges facing the NHS.

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