Most companies strive towards productivity; Asana has made it the foundation of its business. The task management software company not only aims to make its customers more productive, but it’s also invested in doing the same for employees. Doing so, however, has required some trial and error.
In an effort to simplify workflows, Asana decided to use a file sharing and storage strategy instead of building and maintaining their own IT infrastructure. While this approach worked well in the early days, as the team accumulated spreadsheets, marketing designs, financial documents, and presentations, things got more complicated. Employees started turning to USB devices and personal Dropbox accounts to store their files, which meant that Asana didn’t have a central repository for its data and some files were not backed up securely.
Kenny Van Zant, Head of Business Operations at Asana, remembers their old file sharing practices: “Files were everywhere. It was a nightmare.”
To keep the team’s files organized in one central place, Asana moved to Dropbox for Business. As Van Zant recalls, “We set up Dropbox, trained everyone in one email, migrated our biggest shared folders, and never looked back.”
Dropbox for Business has since become an essential part of Asana’s daily workflow, making it faster and easier for employees to collaborate both within and outside the company. The team now uses Dropbox to store and share slide decks, financials, and company forecasts. Asana’s consultants — especially their external legal and finance partners — all use Dropbox to share files. And since they made the move, the Asana team no longer needs to search through dozens of emails to find the current version of their critical files. “I believe that email is where files go to die,” Van Zant jokes.
Now, with the team using both Dropbox for Business and Asana’s own product, employee productivity has skyrocketed — allowing the company to stay lean and focus more resources on growing the business. As Van Zant explains, “The ultimate benefits manifest in terms of profitability and efficiency per employee. And those are really key metrics for us.”
To learn how Dropbox for Business can make your business more productive, sign up for a free trial!
