The Evolution of Worldox Enterprise

A_Critique_of_Traditional_Remote_Solutions

Worldox Enterprise takes the core Worldox software and feature set to a new level, at the same time addressing key mobility issues affecting remote offices and remote workers.

With an increasingly mobile workforce and satellite offices more prevalent now than in past years, traditional IT solutions may no longer be good enough. Remote workers expect the same tool set and user experience on the road as they have back in the home office. They also expect speed, virtually instant access and transparent operation.

To some extent, Citrix and the Microsoft remote desktops serve these needs well, offering solutions that allow users to gain access to their full desktops while working from out-of-office locations.

A Critique of Traditional Remote Solutions

Many firms take advantage of these traditional remote solutions. They do work, but are not always ideal:

The Citrix solution is costly to purchase and maintain.

All necessary applications must work in the Citrix or MS remote desktop environment, as the published desktop does not allow interaction with locally installed applications.

Another option is web browser-based products which remotely access your documents with Internet interfaces. In fact, our own Worldox Web/Mobile is one such product.

However, browser-based solutions typically offer limited feature sets in comparison to the full desktop products. Also, as a consequence of web and HTML limitations, the interface (front-end user experience) is inherently different and less user-friendly than what users experience in the best desktop applications. All of these factors mean that additional training is required to use the web system, and that business done from remote locations must be done differently than when in the office.

If data access alone is the key requirement, these traditional solutions are more than adequate. However, if workflow efficiency, speed and ease-of-use are priorities, these choices are not good enough. In effect, your remote work force pays significant penalties to use the available tools. Given the heavy use a DMS receives, these shortcomings are unacceptable.

A New Approach

The new idea is quite simple. Citrix and Microsoft utilize the ability to publish single applications over a remote connection. How would Worldox work as a published app? As it turns out very well, but for that same “firewalled-off” interaction mentioned above in regards to Citrix and Microsoft operations. Local applications – your local copy of Microsoft Word for example – can neither see nor communicate with this “published” Worldox application. As a result, Worldox would not know about File/Open, Save or Save As actions in Office applications, which means it would no longer function as a core DMS system.

The Enterprise (and Cloud) solution

The solution to local application integration is both simple and revolutionary– our patent-pending communication architecture called “WDSAAS” (also known as Cloud). It features a client-server communication application which allows all locally installed applications to have full communication with the published version of Worldox hosted on a remote server.

The result is that Worldox looks and feels the same, whether used locally or via remote hosting, either in your data center or off-site. To remote workers, it means transparency – one Worldox that always works as expected at the office, in the home office, satellite office or anywhere on the road.

The added bonus is that there is no new Worldox version to learn for remote access. It’s the same Worldox interface users experience in the home office. That means no learning curve.

Worldox Deployment Options

With this remote-hosting model, Worldox is now one product with three different deployment options. Here's a look at how the three versions compare:

Worldox Professional. Our desktop version - the familiar client/server approach, with Worldox installed on the users' local computers. All Worldox-managed documents are located on one or more networked servers. This is the traditional Worldox deployment method.

Worldox Enterprise. Enterprise is for larger firms, with multiple locations or high demand for remote access. Enterprise takes advantage of Microsoft's Published App technology and extends it to a new level. The Worldox Enterprise Server architecture allows the Worldox published application to have full communication with their local applications, including MS Office, Outlook and third-party integrations such as case management software.

Worldox Cloud. The SaaS-hosted cloud: in this model, documents are hosted and managed in our data center. Users have the same rich Worldox experience, regardless of where they are located, for a modest monthly fee.