Comparing Software Solutions

A variety of collaboration applications are available, each with particular strengths and areas of focus.  Trying to find the best solution can be confusing and difficult.  Use the following table to examine the various types of collaboration systems and compare the feature sets.  This is not a complete list for either the products or the features; however, most products will fall into one of these categories.  The features are also difficult to capture as a simple yes/no option as the way that a product provides a certain function may differ in implementation from a competing product that claims the same functionality.

Turn-key implementation

A turn-key implementation means the ability to quickly provision and use the system with minimal configuration or technical expertise.  SaaS (Software as a Solution) products generally provide turn-key implementation, though some configuration is required.  Products such as SharePoint require major technical expertise and implementation time as well as ongoing maintenance and support of a hosting environment and content management; additionally there is usually a substantantial initial investment required both for infrastructure and licensing fees.

Secure file transmission

For any collaboration system that is used outside the local network, security for the transmission of the data is critical.  This includes not only the actual files, but any data.  Every product listed has this capability to some degree.  However, it is worth mentioning that some products, such as SharePoint, will require special configuration and additional cost to set this up.

Secure data location

Transmitting data securely is only one part of over-all data security.  Knowing where the data is located and how it is secured is also critical.  A self-hosted solution such as SharePoint provides an organization with the ability to choose the location for the data; usually stored in-house in an auditable and secure location.  However, since most security breaches occur from within, usually by an employee of the company, this solution requires some careful consideration.

A SaaS solution on the other hand removes the concern for employee access.  However, it increases the concern for having the data under the control of a third-party organization.  Some providers are under scrutiny for privacy concerns.  Others do not provide an auditable data location (auditable means that an audit can provide the exact physical location of the data).  The concerns with cloud-based providers that do not provide an auditable location is that your data could be anywhere in the world—including servers located overseas in countries that may not have the same security requirements as the United States.

User Management

While feature sets are important, one of the most critical is the ability to manage the users with access to the secure files and data.  In a self-hosted solution such as SharePoint, user management is provided through integration with Active Directory.  This provides a significant benefit in that internal users can be easily added to content in SharePoint.  The drawback to this approach is with providing access to users outside Active Directory—clients and outside partners.  The most recent versions of SharePoint provide the ability to authenticate users apart from Active Directory.  Unfortunately this does not work out of the box, but requires custom development or third-party plugins.

A SaaS system, on the other hand, has built-in user management.  Since these solutions are hosted outside the company network, all user accounts must be set up independently.  Some solutions, such as Dropbox, are designed for a single user.  To share files, an additional user would need to be created, and the content specifically shared.

CUBoards is designed with extensive user management capabilities.  In addition to a full-featured Member Management area, it supports importing and exporting user accounts, extensive password security requirements, and even provides an API which can be used to integrate with a company’s Active Directory system.

Role based security

Role-based security means that individual users can be assigned a role or permission template that determines the rights that user has within the system or specific sections of the system.  SharePoint and CUBoards both provide roles, including such rights as the ability to view content, author content, delete content, and perform management.  CUBoards, however, provides much more granular options including over-riding role settings in specific situations (e.g. permitting a member to add content to a specific folder).  File sharing systems such as Dropbox are much more limited; usually permitting only read/write access to files.

Additional features

While file sharing is a key component of collaboration, additional capabilities, such as discussions, calendaring, tasks, and other data management enhance collaboration.  Dropbox and other similar services provide simple file sharing and nothing more.  Google Drive can be integrated with Google Docs to provide additional collaboration features.  But for a full-featured set of capabilities, SharePoint or CUBoards each provides a complete suite of features.  SharePoint, when installed on a local network, also provides deep integration with Microsoft Office 2007 or later.  However, this deeper integration will not be available to users outside the local network.

CUBoards provides some capability for deeper integration using ActiveX plugins for the Internet Explorer browser (other browsers do not support ActiveX).  These integrations include importing and exporting Outlook events and tasks, and integration with the most common Document Management Systems.

Web-based branding and customization

For a corporation or firm that requires secure communication with clients, the ability to brand and customize the collaboration tool allows the organization to make it part of their own identity.  Many third-party systems, including Dropbox and Google Drive do not provide customization options, or have very limited offerings.  SharePoint provides a high degree of customization, but requires development expertise and IT-level access to the back-end server to make these changes.  CUBoards is designed for customization from within the application.  Style sheets, layouts, and content can be managed by end-users with the appropriate rights from right within the application.  Furthermore, specific areas of CUBoards may be customized to provide a distinct layout, banner, and color scheme for specific users or clients.