As a business woman who runs a successful consulting practice, I am often at a number of clients each and every day. Meetings can take place in their offices, in an executive suite of offices like Regus and in the myriad of coffee shops around Toronto and the environs. I also teach part-time at George Brown College in downtown Toronto and so have a classroom there.
What does all this mean? Well, my home office is connected to a network server (mirrored so I am doubly protected), I was feeling pretty smug and up on technology. I kept nothing but what I needed on a daily basis on my laptop and nothing ever on my desktop (everything was maintained on the server).
When I stepped out of my office, however, that was another story. I had to either remember to copy what I needed for that day onto my laptop or take it on a USB key. We all know how that turned out when I put a USB into a desktop in my classroom. How many times did I have to run back to the classroom because I left the USB key in the desktop? Working from different offices, how many times did I forget to take the USB key with me? Fortunately, I kept different client work on different keys (unfortunately for me they all looked alike and I had to try numerous ones before finding the one I wanted). But what if I didn’t use different keys and had sensitive information on them? Just today I got a mass-distribution e-mail from a fellow professor who left a USB key behind and was in search of it. Oops!
How many times did I have to call up my office to have someone e-mail me a file I needed when I was out of the office? Well, that problem was solved quickly and easily.
How, you ask? Dropbox I say! Now, many of you technologically savvy folks know about Dropbox. I did not. My son had to tell me about it and had to tell me and tell me and tell me until I finally tried it. I am now a die-hard fan.
The Dropbox icon sits on my desktop. I drag files I need into it and can then access them from wherever I am at any time (so long as there’s WIFI). That means I can access my files at every client I visit, every executive office I work from, every coffee shop I go to and my classroom at GBC. No more leaving a USB behind. No more not having the files I need when I need them and where I need them.
Next for me? Working from Dropbox exclusively. I still have to transfer the files back so that I am assured of having one updated version. If I worked from Dropbox exclusively, my files would be accessible by me from anyone (including my office) and there would only ever be one version. Why am I resisting that? Patience, my friends; that’s for another day.
What’s your experience with Dropbox? Would love to hear about it.
Dropbox is an amazing tool for sharing files both between computers as well as with clients.
Indeed it is. I didn’t realize just how many people use Dropbox. In the past, I e-mailed files to clients. Now, all I do is grant them access to their files and they can see them whenever they want….updated all the time. It’s a great too and certainly differentiates consultants using it from those who do not and are still e-mailing back and forth.
I like and use iDrive exclusively for all files and presentations I need anywhere, anytime with a simple internet connection!
Thanks Charles for the info on iDrive. I’ll have to check that out!