In the Emmy Award-winning HGTV show Elbow Room, host Chip Wade and crew redesigns and remodels homes for families who have outgrown their space.
But the show's guests weren't the only ones who needed some infrastructure overhaul. The team itself needed a new home too, but for their work. Because the construction crew travels all over the country to film episodes, they found it difficult to stay in sync with the company headquarters in San Francisco, California — especially when it came to sending large files back and forth. They also needed a way to quickly share budget updates and talent releases with the main office, even from the road. Producers and managers first tried using email to send documents back and forth, but still had issues keeping everyone on the same page.
After evaluating a few other solutions, they decided to implement Dropbox for Business — and it transformed the way the Elbow Room team works. "With Dropbox, everyone knows exactly where the latest file versions are, and we can all pull up copies at the same time as the team," explained Producer Tyler Hall. "We don’t have to deal with email, flash drives, or printed documents anymore. It’s great.”
Today, the show's important production reports are organized in Dropbox, making it easier for the management team to monitor the show's progress. This comes in handy during shoots on the East Coast, thousands of miles from headquarters. "Dropbox lets us work simultaneously, despite the three-hour time difference," said Hall. "The San Francisco office can review files while we’re wrapping up for the day and ask questions before we shut down for the night."
Now the Elbow Room team is much more efficient with both their time and money — signed subcontractor invoices no longer need to be rush shipped from the set of the main production office, saving the team from costly overnight shipping fees. Instead, the team simply signs PDFs and puts them into a Dropbox shared folder for payment.
As Hall recalled, “Management just goes into Dropbox and pays everything immediately. Dropbox has made all of our lives so much easier — and probably makes our contractors happier, too!” To learn how Dropbox for Business can help your business run more smoothly, try it free!
