Dropbox for Business is Not Right for Your Business
Yesterday we hosted the webinar Beating the Competition: Selling Against Dropbox with longtime Axcient partner, Ed Bensinger, President of Bensinger Consulting. Ed shared how he has totally displaced and sold against Dropbox with his clients using Axcient Anchor. One of the many things that Ed touched on during the webinar was how Dropbox was not designed or secure enough for business to use. This comment, which Ed reiterated multiple times, prompted the question from one attendee: “But what about Dropbox for Business – isn’t this solution appropriate for businesses?”
While we addressed this question on the webinar, here are a few reasons why Dropbox for Business is not right for your clients’ businesses or your business:
1. Missing Key Features
The Axcient Product Management and Product Marketing team has spent hours assessing both Dropbox Basic and Dropbox for Business. Besides Dropbox for Business having a host of feature gaps when compared with a business-grade solution, there were at least two examples of major feature gaps:
File Server Enablement: Ed explained how his company has used Anchor’s File Server Enablement to give his clients’ real-time access to their legacy file server. Users no longer have to depend on cumbersome VPN and FTP protocols, and can access the most up-to-date files from any device or location. Dropbox does not have this feature and suggests that businesses abandon their legacy file server and move everything into the cloud. This has been Ed’s primary selling point against Dropbox.
Mass Revision Rollback: Cryptolocker is still a major threat facing businesses. Ed explained how he has used Anchor’s Mass Revision Rollback feature and backup functionality to restore data to a point in time (up to the minute) on laptops, desktops, workstations, and servers. Dropbox does not have robust backup and restore functionality – a huge problem if any mass data loss event occurs.
2. Lack of Multi-tenancy and Management Features
Solutions that are designed specifically for the IT channel usually include a multi-tenant interface or portal that allows them to manage multiple clients. Anchor’s multi-tenant interface, where partners can manage organizations, sub-organizations, users, devices, policies, integrations, and configurations for all of their clients, makes it easy for partners to support their clients and scale their business. Dropbox – since it was designed for consumers first and foremost – does not offer any sort of multi-tenant interface, is missing channel-specific features/integrations, and lacks robust management features. The result is a frustrated partner with multiple logins; that has to support clients’ separately; with very limited management features. No one wins in this scenario.
3. Slim Margins and Profitability
When companies publish their pricing and sell direct to your clients, they jeopardize the profitability of their partners. The pricing that partners give to their clients’ will inevitably come against, “But I could buy it from Dropbox for X.” In this situation, partners have limited leverage. In the case of Anchor, clients do not know what the wholesale pricing is (because it is not published), and partners are in a position to sell at their discretion. Moreover, because Anchor is so customizable and feature-rich, partners can charge their client’s a premium price for a premium service. This is not the case with Dropbox. Unfortunately, it would seem that Dropbox’s channel program seems to be an after-thought and a basic ploy to capture more market share.