REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX), the leading Content Cloud, today announced new capabilities and enhanced integrations that enable organizations to collaborate securely and seamlessly across any application. Later today at BoxWorks 2021, the company will reveal an all-new Box Notes and an updated Box Mobile app to help users easily collaborate from anywhere and on any device. Box will also showcase Box Sign, its e-signature capability, along with deepened integrations with Microsoft 365, Slack, and Zoom. Taken together, these announcements give customers one secure and intuitive platform to manage their content in the Box Content Cloud.
"Hybrid work is the new normal, and it's clear that businesses need one place to manage and secure their content,” said Diego Dugatkin, Chief Product Officer at Box. “Our vision for the Content Cloud is to integrate and power the complete content lifecycle, making it simple to collaborate from anywhere, automate workflows, and keep data secure and compliant. As we kick off our second virtual BoxWorks 2021, we’re introducing powerful new innovation for organizing your files and working together in real-time, as well as enhanced integrations that make it easy to bring content into the applications teams use every day.”
With approximately 70 percent of companies in the U.S. and UK planning to establish a hybrid work environment post-pandemic, the office of the future is being completely redefined. Work is taking on new formats and is constantly evolving to meet an organization’s needs, yet content today still reflects a static, paper-based foundation that doesn’t account for teams being in different places at different times.
All-New Box Notes
More than 100,000 businesses already leverage Box’s cloud-native platform to power digital-first experiences for employees, customers, and partners. To drive even more seamless internal and external collaboration, Box will reveal an all-new Box Notes designed to help teams collaborate no matter where they are. With this new innovation, marketing teams can create project plans to track progress and author launch announcements while collaborating in real-time across internal teams and external agency partners; sales teams can develop sales plays, call scripts, and email templates to stay in sync; and recruiting teams can use Box Notes to gather interview feedback across the hiring team to streamline the process.
The enhanced Box Notes capabilities include:
- The ability to include a table of contents, anchor links, and more to simplify content organization and navigation within a Box Note.
- Call out boxes so users can better highlight content.
- Code blocks to simplify the technical collaboration process.
- In-line cursors so users can keep track of collaborator edits in real-time.
- Enhanced table capabilities with an easy, intuitive interface so users can structure and format content more easily.
- Security and control capabilities, like granular permissions and access stats, since Notes is built within the Box Content Cloud.
The all-new Box Notes is expected to be generally available in January 2022 and will be included in the core Box offering at no additional cost.
New Box Mobile App Experience
To make it easier than ever to get work done from anywhere, Box will unveil an enhanced mobile app experience so customers can do more with Box from any device. Whether work is happening in the field, in an office or from home, with the all-new Box Mobile app users are connected to their content and have the flexibility to work on and protect files from anywhere.
The new mobile capabilities include:
- An updated Capture Mode, for iOS and Android, that turns mobile devices into intelligent tools for seamlessly capturing, scanning, and uploading photos, audio, or documents, making it even easier for field teams to add content directly into Box.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology that recognizes text automatically and turns scanned documents into searchable PDFs with multi-language support so organizations can easily organize and find content they have uploaded to the cloud.
- A redesigned iPad experience with a simplified layout and new drag and drop capabilities for increased productivity and improved navigation.
The all-new mobile experience is available for free today in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Box Sign
At BoxWorks 2021, Box will also showcase its new e-signature capability, Box Sign. Included in all Business and Enterprise plans, Box Sign delivers unlimited signatures from within the web application and a robust set of APIs to streamline and modernize the way agreements are managed and governed in the cloud. Since rolling out in July, Box Sign is already being used to power digital transactions such as employee onboarding, vendor agreements, and purchase orders.
Box Sign features include:
- Ability to send documents for e-signature directly from Box to anyone, including those without a Box account, with support for over 15 languages, making for a seamless sender and signer experience worldwide.
- New security functionality, including signer authentication via SMS and password-protection for documents sent out for signature.
- Compliant signatures since Box Sign inherits Box’s compliance profile, including HIPAA, SOC, ISO, FedRAMP, and more.
- Box Sign capabilities in the Box for Salesforce integration, which allow customers to generate and send NDAs, contracts, and more directly from within Salesforce.
- Access to a world-class developer experience, including a robust set of Box Sign APIs, rich documentation, and 'Get Started' guides.
Box Sign is expected to be available this month to all customers in the U.S. and Canada on Business and Enterprise plans at no additional cost. It will continue rolling out globally in the coming months. More information can be found here.
In addition to integrating with Salesforce, Box connects to more than 1,500 applications to make it even easier for teams to move between their favorite applications securely and seamlessly. With approximately 175 apps used in the average enterprise, businesses continue to rely on best-of-breed technologies to power the way they work but need a single source of truth to manage content. Later today, Box will preview deepened integrations with Microsoft 365 and Slack. Box will also showcase its newest integration with Zoom. More information on each can be found below.
Box for Microsoft
Later this morning, Box will announce the following enhancements to its Box for Microsoft Office and Teams integrations:
- An enhanced Box for Microsoft Office integration to enable real-time co-authoring on Office desktop and mobile apps – including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – with all edits automatically saved to Box. Complementing the existing web-based Office Online integration, users will now be able to simultaneously collaborate on documents across desktop, web, and mobile.
- An updated Box for Microsoft Teams integration that will allow customers to default to Box as a storage option in Teams, helping to minimize content fragmentation. Box and Microsoft have tens of thousands of joint customers, and this enhancement will extend the ability to unify content in Box under a consistent security, compliance, and governance policy.
- Additional control and choice for IT organizations, including granular options at the individual, team, and organizational levels, to streamline the deployment process and simplify user adoption.
“We know teams need flexibility and integrated experiences that power collaboration and productivity—especially now with hybrid work," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, Chief Operating Officer & Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices Group. "We are delivering more streamlined experiences across our applications to make sure that customers using both Box and Microsoft 365 can easily and securely use our products together.”
The enhanced Box for Microsoft Office integration is expected to be available in early 2022 and the Teams integration is expected to be available by the end of the year. More information can be found here.
Box for Slack
Box will also announce a deepened integration with Slack that will enable Box to be a content layer within the Slack environment.
The new enhancements will enable joint users to:
- Use Box as a content layer in Slack by uploading files directly to Box through the Slack interface.
- Maintain Box’s security and compliance over any content, even when files are uploaded through Slack.
- Streamline how they use Box within Slack by simplifying content processes and unifying content across Slack and other apps.
These new capabilities in the Box for Slack integration are expected to be available later this year and will be included in the core Box offering at no additional cost.
Box App for Zoom
To enable a more productive workforce regardless of location, Box will also demo the Box app for Zoom. Announced in September, this in-product integration makes it even easier for customers to work together, securely and effectively, across distributed teams.
The Box app for Zoom gives customers:
- Access to their Box content while never having to leave the Zoom platform, creating a more seamless experience between the two platforms.
- The ability to browse, preview, and share their Box files directly from Zoom, whether the meeting is active or not.
- The ability to select a Box file to present to all attendees with just one click.
The Box App for Zoom is available today in the Zoom App Marketplace.
Protect Content from Cybersecurity Threats
In order to bring work together in one secure Content Cloud, Box applies its enterprise-grade security, compliance, and governance features to all Box content even as it is accessed across various applications and devices. Advancing its industry-leading security posture, Box will also be announcing new capabilities for Box Shield that leverage deep learning technology, in addition to external threat intelligence, to analyze the data within files and contain sophisticated malware before it causes business disruption. More information can be found here.
Call For Box Impact Fund Proposals
Box is launching the Box Impact Fund and will award four $25,000 grants for a total $100,000 to nonprofits focused on child welfare and crisis response. Applications are accepted October 6th through November 5th with winners announced in early December. Eligible nonprofit organizations working on a digital transformation program or project are invited to apply and applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges based on alignment, impact, inclusion and scale. More information on the fund and application guidelines can be found here.
About Box
Box (NYSE:BOX) is the leading Content Cloud that enables organizations to accelerate business processes, power workplace collaboration, and protect their most valuable information, all while working with a best-of-breed enterprise IT stack. Founded in 2005, Box simplifies work for leading organizations globally, including AstraZeneca, JLL, and Morgan Stanley. Box is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, with offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. To learn more about Box, visit http://www.box.com. To learn more about how Box powers nonprofits to fulfill their missions, visit Box.org.
