SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at BoxWorks 2016, Box (NYSE:BOX), a leading enterprise content platform, announced several enhancements to its Box Platform offering, including new tools for developers, and showcased new partners and customers who are leveraging Box Platform in building next generation enterprise applications. Introduced October 2015, Box Platform is the leading platform for developers and enterprises building secure, collaborative, engaging applications around content assets like documents, audio and video files, 3D objects, and other rich media.
“Technology today is transforming every aspect of how businesses operate and successful companies will be defined by the quality of the digital experiences and software they create to engage customers, partners and employees,” said Jeetu Patel, Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of Box Platform. “Content and collaboration are fundamental to every industry and Box Platform makes it easy to build on Box’s innovative security, content management and collaboration. Box is where all your work comes together, and Box Platform enables developers to extend the power of Box to transform and accelerate their business.”
Powerful new services and capabilities for Box Platform
Businesses of all sizes leverage Box Platform to power the content layer in their applications. Box announced several enhancements to its Box Platform offering today, including:
- Support for new content types: building on Box’s existing preview capabilities, which allows developers to embed interactive viewers of files in their web and mobile applications, Box announced support for several new file types including HD video, 360 images and videos, 3D models, and VR files. These new file types are available today for web applications using a JavaScript SDK and will be available for mobile in the coming months.
- Annotations and watermarking: new capabilities in the embedded preview of a file that allow end users to add annotations and developers to display a watermark on files that contain sensitive information. Annotations, available today in JavaScript and in the coming months for iOS and Android, allow end users to add point comments and highlight text directly on an embedded file preview. Watermarking, available via the Box API today, will display the user’s email address and access time on the file preview.
New programs and expanded support for the Box developer ecosystem
Developers leverage Box Platform to build all new experiences that reimagine legacy business workflows and processes and take advantage of new technology trends. Today there are now more than 80,000 developers building applications and integrations with Box Platform, making more seven billion API calls per month.
Box announced expanded support for its developer ecosystem, including new and improved developer tools and a new incubator program in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
New Box Platform developer tools and technologies include:
- Redesigned Developer Console: a major overhaul to the user experience and functionality of the Box Developer Console. New features include a new UI, guided walkthroughs for configuring applications, easy access to support, documentation, and notifications.
- Web UI Kit: pre-built and customizable user interface elements, derived from the Box web and mobile applications, that enable developers to modularly build user interfaces in their applications. Available throughout the rest of the year, the new UI Kit includes a file picker, content navigator, file upload, activity feed, open-with and file preview. The new UI Kit will be open sourced, allowing for complete customization.
Box Platform Incubator
In collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Box is announcing the launch of the Box Platform Incubator to foster the next generation of companies building apps for the enterprise powered by Box Platform and AWS.
The next great enterprise apps will be cloud-based and massively scalable, have user experiences that rival leading consumer applications, and meet the security and compliance requirements of the enterprise. To support the development of these apps, the Box Platform Incubator offers free services from Box, and AWS will offer free usage credits that can be applied to select AWS services, along with Box-led marketing opportunities and mentorship from Box and AWS experts. Companies interested in applying for the program will be able to apply beginning on October 1, 2016.
Applicants selected to the Box Platform Incubator will receive benefits including:
- Box Platform credits
- Discretionary AWS Promotional Credits furnished by Amazon Web Services, Inc.
- Mentions in Box Platform digital marketing, including blog posts, social media and email marketing
- Speaking and branding opportunities at Box Platform events and webinars
Box Platform customer momentum
Leading customers from a number of industries have selected Box Platform to power new levels of productivity and drive transformational growth in their businesses. Today at BoxWorks, several companies showcased how Box Platform is transforming their businesses:
- LegalZoom: The LegalZoom Estate Plan mobile app provides a convenient way for customers to access legal documents and collaborate with their attorneys. Box Platform is essential to creating an effortless and secure experience. Beyond cloud storage of documents, deep engagement is driven by enabling families to chronicle and share life’s milestones.
- Ipreo: Ipreo chose Box Platform to serve as the content layer in its Ipreo Prism application, which launched last month and provides secure communication and shareholder management for private companies.
- Perkins+Will: Built on Box Platform, Perkins+Will’s BluePrint application will enable our teams to share and collaborate on projects with our clients and stakeholders. Using BluePrint, clients will be able to seamlessly access and interact with project information, including design documents, images, photos, and other critical content generated during the design process.
- Team Rubicon: In partnership with NetHope, Team Rubicon and other nonprofits, Box.org has joined ImpactCloud, a coalition of cloud vendors (DocuSign, Okta, Salesforce.org, Splunk, Tableau, and Twilio) to support crisis response organizations. The coalition and its innovation framework enable nonprofits to research, affordably acquire, build, and fund more integrated cloud solutions built on Box Platform for crisis response.
All of these customers are driving innovation in their industries, leveraging technology to connect with customers and partners in new, digital formats that remove friction and make it easier to get work done.
“Building our Estate Plan app on Box Platform enables a seamless and engaging customer experience,” said John Suh, CEO of LegalZoom.” “Customers can securely access, edit and store their legal documents with the option of connecting with their attorney for advice. A mobile app provides an intuitively easier way to schedule calls, communicate with your lawyer and sign/execute documents. We intend to remove the unnecessary friction of printing, signing, mailing, notarizing, and storing physical documents so you can effortlessly take care of your loved ones.”
“As companies remain private longer and large banks are becoming more interested in investing in private companies, we sought to leverage technology to help make it easier for those two audiences to communicate at scale,” said Charlie Young, EVP of Private Company Solutions at Ipreo. “The Prism app allows private companies to communicate, share and collaborate with large banks. Building on Box Platform allowed us to get the application to market faster, transforming the way our clients work with shareholders and banks.”
“Building BluePrint on the Box Platform will be a digital enabler for our business. In the architecture and design field, digital applications have historically focused more on project management and construction process optimization, and less on stakeholder engagement. With this experience-driven application, we can help our clients visualize design and project information in a simple and beautiful manner,” said Murali Selvaraj, Chief Information Officer at Perkins+Will. “Since Box Platform powers the content, we can focus on building a truly immersive client-centered digital experience, without having to build content management functionality ourselves.”
“Box Platform supports all phases of our disaster response operations by providing timely and secure information management for Team Rubicon leadership that deploy our volunteers to disaster zones. This communication to our volunteers makes it possible to a have much greater impact on the communities we help," said Team Rubicon's Chief Information Officer, Steve Hunt.
About Box
Founded in 2005, Box (NYSE:BOX) is transforming the way people and organizations work so they can achieve their greatest ambitions. As a leading enterprise content management platform, Box helps more than 66,000 businesses, including General Electric, KKR & Co., P&G and The GAP securely access and manage their critical information in the cloud. Box is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Box, visit www.box.com.
