In addition to all of the benefits listed above, recent studies have revealed that workshifting can also greatly improve your health, especially for those with long commutes, which leave no room for vital exercise time. According to CNN Health, “long commutes are associated with higher weight, lower fitness levels, and higher blood pressure, all of which are strong predictors of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.”  Another discovery of the study revealed that the daily hassles of traffic lead to chronic stress and higher blood pressure.

With Citrix products such as ShareFile, GoToMeeting, and Podio, it’s no longer necessary to be in a physical workplace to send important documents, meet with clients, or collaborate with teammates.  Workshifters can spend more time at the gym, in the park, or preparing healthy meals for their families.  If your office is considering workshifting, feel free to try out some of the Citrix products.  In doing so, your employees can spend less time on stressful commutes, and more time on leading healthy lifestyles.

The costs associated with shipping documents can be quite expensive and very time consuming.  Due to the USPS announcement to close more than 200 processing centers, you will likely (if not already) experience rising costs, making it cumbersome if your firm relies specifically on shipping as a method of document delivery.

Not only are costs of courier services a concern, but time is as well. In today’s fast-paced economy, it’s more important than ever to have documents and important information sent as quickly as possible. Sending through methods like snail mail can be time sucking.

Wouldn’t it be convenient to be able to deliver documents (even the large and sensitive ones) to your clients and colleagues instantly? You can. With ShareFile, you can quickly and easily send documents securely. You can set up a web portal with your own branding that can be accessed through any web browser.

Forget about spending time and money with courier services. Sign up for a ShareFile trial.

1. Customer centric. Being customer centric is one of our core values. We make decisions based on what’s in the best interest of our customers. We plan to raise the bar for service in the field of technology.

2. Data driven. We are data driven. Every aspect of our company is driven by metrics, not someone’s opinion. We let the data make the decisions.

3. Team. We are building an awesome team here at ShareFile. We support each other’s professional goals and the goals of the company. Everyone wants ShareFile to be successful, so we work hard to meet deadlines and achieve goals.

4. Citrix family. As you are probably already aware, ShareFile was acquired by Citrix last fall. As a result, we are a part of a bigger family so we are able to tap into even more resources that will allow us to continue providing the easiest to use, most professional business file sharing service on the market.

5. Free snacks. And free coffee, free soda, and free Nerf supplies. That’s right, all the food you can eat in one of our three kitchens.

Check out this sneak peek at some of the open positions:

Associate Corporate Sales Representative

Inside Sales Executive

Project Manager

Associate Marketing Specialist

Production Support Engineer

and more!

Are you convinced? Find current ShareFile job openings with descriptions here.

When composing email messages using the Outlook Plug-in, you will be given three new buttons: Send a File, Request a File and Send from ShareFile.  You can also select to send files using your Outlook Plug-in by simply right-clicking on them in your Windows Explorer screen or Desktop. Additionally, if you have files attached to your email through the regular Outlook attachment option, ShareFile has a button Convert to ShareFile that will change the attachment to a ShareFile link.

Click on the screen shots below:

Want an easier way to send large files today? Sign up for a free 30-day trial.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Today I had the opportunity to interview Account Manager, Kelley Figg.  Kelley engages with customers on a daily basis. Take a look below at our interview.

Kelley, tell me about your role here at ShareFile.  I started with ShareFile in early October 2011, right before the Citrix acquisition. My main role is to provide our clients with exceptional customer service throughout the life of their account. We reach out to our clients and train them on how to use our service in their office. As an Account Manager, we dedicate ourselves to making a client’s experience with ShareFile as easy and seamless as possible. We build lasting relationships with our clients and provide them with support if they should ever run into any issues.

Tell me about your day-to-day activities.  Our daily work varies depending on the time of the month. Typically, when an account is sold and created, we will reach out to the new customer and introduce ourselves as their point of contact. We answer any questions they may have at the time and schedule a meeting to go through the portal together. We conduct 2 to 3 trainings a day and this will consist of walking clients through basic functions and features on their account. During the trainings, we try and offer various best practice methods or ideas of ways to use the service that we have seen from others in their industry. When we are not giving trainings, our day consists of following up on client emails and phone calls. Because we are the clients first line of defense, we receive a wide array of support requests, plan/billing changes and account questions.

What does customer centricity mean to you?  Customer centricity means doing what’s right for the client and taking the time to go beyond just meeting a client’s expectation. Our clients expect a certain level of support and guidance but we want to provide that and more. As much as we value new accounts, we value accounts that have built a relationship with us even more. Our existing accounts have put trust in us as a company and we want to maintain that trust and loyalty.

What is the best part of your job?  There are many parts of my job that I love. As an Account Manager, I love making my clients happy. Within our department, we are constantly in competition to see who has the best story about how we made a client’s day. When your job is to make your clients happy, you can’t help but to love what you do. As a ShareFile employee, I love the people I work with and the culture that has been established.

Is there anything you would like to share with our customers?  ShareFile strives to be different from any typical technology company. We want to show you that you don’t need to have a degree in computers or to work in IT in order to use our service. We want to make this as easy as possible for you and we want to communicate with you like normal human beings and not robots. We truly intend on raising the bar for service in the field of technology.

Interested in trying ShareFile? Call Bill O’Boyle, Director of ShareFile for Legal Sales, for a personal demo and 50% off of your first quarter of billing. Offer ends May 30th.

Call today: 1-800-441-3453 ext: 731

For our Global Day of Impact, we headed to Carolina Tiger Rescue, a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary whose mission is saving and protecting wild cats in captivity and in the wild. Housing 14 tigers, 3 lions, and an assortment of other wildcats from ocelots to binturongs, the Rescue takes in animals from bad situations and cares for them for life. Many of the animals were used irresponsibly by their previous owners. A lion named Sebastian was part of a Haunted House in Texas, while another lion named Tarzan was used as an attraction at a hotel in Mexico. Two of the tigers, Rajah and Kaela, were found wandering a highway near Charlotte, NC.

Each of these examples highlights a big problem that Carolina Tiger Rescue is working to educate the public on, namely that many states (including ShareFile’s home state, North Carolina) have little to no regulation around the ownership of exotic wildlife as pets. Naturally most private owners are not equipped to properly care for and feed large wildcats, and as a result wildcats kept as pets often suffer from neglect and abuse. The Rescue is opposed to the use of wild animals for purposes other than education or breeding in accordance with Species Survival and Population Management Plans, and they are working towards the day when wildcats are not owned as pets or used for entertainment purposes.

As you’d imagine, it takes a lot of work to care for so many big cats, and Carolina Tiger Rescue volunteers help with things like construction, maintenance, tour guiding, and animal care. For our volunteer day, we helped lay down a road through the woods to open up vehicle access to new tiger cages that were being built at the Rescue. It was hard work shoveling clay and laying down old telephone poles, but we were happy to help the Rescue expand their facilities.

After our work was over, we enjoyed a guided tour of the Rescue, and were able to get to know some of the cats. We were usually within 4 to 5 feet of the animals, and so, unlike at most zoos, we could actually see them! It was awesome to be able to view these powerful animals up close and funny to see how friendly they were – we were usually greeted with Chewbacca-like grunts by the more sociable ones. All in all, it was a great day and I’d highly recommend volunteering or visiting Carolina Tiger Rescue if you’re ever in the area. They also accept donations of cash or needed supplies, and you can even help support their mission by adopting a tiger or other animal!

They are also the ones you go to for help when you need to get envelopes, stamps, or mail a document. Stamps, envelopes, printer ink, and printer paper can add up to be quite expensive (just check out the budget for these items) but a new concern was added recently—the instability of the U.S. Postal Service. In February, they announced the expected closure of nearly half (more than 200) of their mail processing facilities in an effort to consolidate and save money. In addition, they are considering the end of Saturday mail delivery, the elimination of door-to-door delivery, and a slowing in first-class mail service.

But what does that mean for you and your company? Well, it likely means an increase in cost and a lot more time spent waiting! If a processing facility is shut down, mail is forced to be rerouted to the next closest processing center, which could be more than 100 miles away, adding more time before it is processed to be delivered. Mail that would typically be delivered in one day may not arrive until two or three day, even through first-class mail.

So what can we do to help our Administrative Professionals from dealing with the wrath of an angry client who hasn’t received their reports or from a frustrated employee who is working with a deadline for that customer contract?

It’s been well-known that you should never send security-sensitive information via email and most email servers have a limit on file size that pops up whenever you try to send that file. But with the growth of “cloud” services, a new way of sending and receiving files has been introduced and is taking off quickly. We recommend you try out a secure file transfer service, like ShareFile, as an alternative to email and “snail mail.” With ShareFile you are able to easily send your clients, partners, or colleagues files, up to 10GB in size, in a matter of minutes. It’s quick, intuitive, secure, and designed just for businesses!

Sign up for a free trial of ShareFile to see how you can save your Administrative staff from headaches and increase productivity for the whole office with quicker turnarounds!

In the video below, we’ll introduce you to the ‘Help’ tab of your account which is home to all of your customer support needs including training tutorials and the contact information for your Dedicated Account Manager.

ShareFile customer support is available seven days a week! Support team members now provide real-time assistance by phone and chat on Saturdays and Sundays. Feel free to call, email or chat with us throughout the weekend for help with any questions or problems.

Watch for more updates to our Support hours in the coming months as we work to make support more convenient for all ShareFile users.

Did you enjoy your last experience with a ShareFile Customer Service Representative? Share your feedback with us on our Facebook page.

Manage your inbox. It’s easy to get caught up in your overwhelming inbox. If you’re like me, you may have a habit of keeping your Outlook (or other email service) open all day long. Sometimes it’s hard not to, right? Here’s something new to try- set a defined number of times per day that you will check your email. A good starting point would be to check your email 3-4 times throughout the day. Use those times to dedicate solely to answering emails. Set a specific time frame for how long you will read and return emails. Once complete, refocus on the other to-do tasks.

Take advantage of a calendar.   If not using a calendar, it’s easy to let a commitment or meeting of some sort slip your mind. It’s helpful to rank your tasks based on priority to ensure your deadlines are met. Once ranked, input into your calendar. Whether you are using a paper calendar or an electronic calendar like Microsoft Outlook, be sure to schedule time for completing those miscellaneous tasks that will add up over time if you keep procrastinating.

Stop printing and shipping. How much time is spent printing documents, prepping for shipping, using courier services, etc. in your office? My guess is if your office isn’t currently using a web-based software, like ShareFile For Legal, for document transfer that your firm is probably wasting valuable time. According to an article in the ABA Journal, “People often say that one terabyte equals 50,000 trees, and 10 terabytes would be the equivalent of all the printed collections of the Library of Congress.” Consider the amount of information you are printing on a daily basis. Not only could you be saving time, but your firm could be setting a green standard.

Interested in getting rid of your courier service and saving time? Try ShareFile for free for 30 days.

Image source: Time.com

Recycle.  How many times have you seen a coworker throwing away a recyclable item such as a water bottle in the trash?  Make sure recycling bins are available and clearly marked throughout your office so that there is no confusion between the trash and recycling bin.  Most people will recycle when given an option, but if they don’t know the option is there, they may take the more convenient route.

Adjust the thermostat.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as much as half of the energy used in your office or home is spent on heating and cooling.  Even minor adjustments in temperature control systems can significantly reduce your carbon footprint, not to mention save you hundreds on energy bills.

Donate old electronics.  We live in a tech age where new and improved products are constantly outdating older electronics, forcing us to replace and toss out mobile devices and computers on a yearly basis.  Many electronic stores such as Best Buy are taking the initiative to accept these products for recycling, despite where they were purchased.  There are also a number of charities that will accept old cell phones and computers to give away to the less fortunate.

Pass on gas.  Citrix places a huge emphasis on our workshifting products – which allow you to work from anywhere, anytime, from any device.  Many office employees now workshift weekly from home.  With fossil fuel resources at an all-time low, think of the potential gasoline you could save by working 1-2 days a week from home.  If you have a career where you physically need to be in your office to work, you can always consider carpooling, biking, or utilizing public transportation to get to work.

Every green routine adds up.  By using ShareFile and practicing these four easy tips, you can make a huge difference not only on Earth Day, but throughout the entire year in helping to save our environment. Is your business going green? Share your green practices with us.

Image source: PC World

With support of our executive team, an awesome part of this program is our Global Day of Impact. This is a day that employees can use to volunteer at an organization of their choice.  Last year more than 3,500 Citrix employees, across 5 continents, volunteered to serve the community and change the world. Here at ShareFile, we are gearing up to serve our local community. There are various projects taking place and we are excited to work together as a team to impact our local community.

Stay tuned for follow-ups from the volunteer days. Be sure to check our Facebook page for pictures from the events in the coming weeks! 

Image source: Citrix Simply Serve

So what are the best apps for businesses? I’m recommending five categories of apps that everyone should have on their tablet. Take a look:

Social Media Apps: You can’t forget to keep up with your company’s social presence. Use these apps to keep your company’s name buzzing:

-Twitter: Find and follow friends, Tweet, Retweet, Favorite, exchange Direct messages with your followers, share photos, etc.

-LinkedIn: Get on-the-go access to your professional network with this app.

-WordPress: Write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your mobile device.

Word Processor Apps:  A computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material. Examples include:

-QuickOffice Pro: Create, edit, access, and share your Microsoft® Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations-anytime, anywhere

-iWorks: Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations the Mac way. And it’s compatible with Microsoft Office®

CRM Apps: Manage your business and keep your customer database at your fingertips with these CRM apps:

-Salesforce.com: Get instance access to your Salesforce information on your device so you can sell on the go. Log calls, respond to leads, and access account information wherever you are.

-Contacts Journal: Keep track of your past conversations and future follow-ups to make managing your contacts a breeze.

-SugarCRM: Designed to help your business communicate with prospects, share sales information, close deals, and keep customers happy.

Business Communication Apps: It’s important to be able to stay in communication with your colleagues even outside of the office. Here’s a few great apps that will help facilitate that:

-Chatter: Get auto updates on the people, projects, and files that you care about most. Brought to you by Salesforce.com.

-Podio: An online work platform for collaboration and project management in one central place (recently acquired by Citrix).

Business Collaboration Apps: Use these apps to make sure your workflow doesn’t suffer away from the office:

-ShareFile: Get easy and secure access to all of your files and folders, anytime. We definitely recommend this app!

-GoToMeeting: Easy and effective web conferencing and online meetings. Work with anyone, anywhere!

-GoToMyPC: Remote access for your computer. Login and access your work computer from your mobile device.

Do you have any of these apps on your tablet? What other business apps are you using?

You may be wondering what it means to be “in the cloud.”  Cloud computing offers your firm all of the same benefits as traditional legal services do, with the convenience of being able to send or receive your files from virtually anywhere.  It also offers you piece of mind knowing that the confidential case information you are storing is locked away safe online in a password-protected portal.

ShareFile may be the cloud solution you never knew existed – allowing you to store, send, and receive your legal clients’ important documents seamlessly.  By simply logging on to your personal ShareFile account, you can organize your clients by name and create subfolders for each specific set of documents.  You can also send and request files to and from your clients directly through ShareFile, without ever having to pick up the phone or close your browser window to notify the client by email.  Sign your law firm up for a free ShareFile trial today – the only drawback you’ll experience is wondering what took you so long to manage your clients in the cloud.

According to Workshifting.com, the number of U.S. telecommuters ranges from between 2.8 million people (consider home their primary place of work, not including the self-employed) and 44.4 million (includes anyone works at home at least once a year). Before you and your employees take on the idea of workshifting, first make sure you have the right hardware and software. Laptops, tablets and mobile devices enable employees to be freed from their traditional desk space and gives them the ability to work from virtually anywhere (with the right apps of course). Workshifting employees will need the ability to access their office documents, collaborate with coworkers just like they do in office.  Tools like GoToMeeting with HD Faces, GoToMyPC and ShareFile, all make workshifting a seamless process for employees.

With the proper hardware and software in place, your employees can enjoy workshifting. Statistics show that a mobile work style increases employee productivity by 27% and increases employee engagement by 55%. I thought these stats were very intriguing and decided to ask one of our managers his feedback on workshifting. Here’s what Shawn Miller, Web Development Manager had to say, “Several of my employees have started workshifting 1-2 times per week and I’ve noticed an increase in productivity and overall engagement. They have communicated with me that they really enjoy reducing their weekly commute to work- it’s a win-win for us.”

Will you start workshifting? Tell us below if you are already workshifting or if it is something you are considering for your company

Interested in eliminating this headache for your firm and finding a FTP alternative? ShareFile removes the burden of FTP by providing an easy and secure way to transfer documents to your clients. ShareFile is a web-based file transfer solution that requires no additional hardware or software installation and no additional IT resources. Forget about the basic file repository of an FTP site where any user could access any file at any time.  With ShareFile, you can easily create individual case folders and enjoy granular folder-level permissions. Additionally, your ShareFile portal will seamlessly match your company logo and website to maintain professionalism.

Want to learn more about how to eliminate your FTP problems? See why hundred of law firms choose ShareFile for secure file exchange and large file transfer.

Define your goals. What is your purpose in joining social networks? A few of the common social media goals of business are to increase brand awareness, to provide customer support, to educate your audience, to increase sales or to protect your reputation.  Decide what works for you. Clearly define your business’ goals before joining multiple networks.

Find your customers. Once you have your goals established it’s easy to just jump on the bandwagon with many social networks. But first, determine where your customers and prospects are. Which social networks are they participating in? Twitter allows you to use hashtags and keywords to help locate your prospects through its Advanced Search tool.

Develop a plan of action. How will you execute your goals? You may find it helpful to create a schedule for posting. You will also want to consider the frequency of your posts. Don’t overload your followers’ feeds with irrelevant info. However, also be aware to not become silent because you will quickly be forgotten. In developing your plan of action, make the commitment to manage your network(s). A common mistake some businesses make is to join social networks without any goals and then abandon due to lack of resources and time.

Measure your effectiveness. How will you know how your social media efforts are doing? Simple, measure them. You will want to know if your content is resonating with your audience. Also look at various times to post to see when your audience is active.

Want to get social with ShareFile?  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.

The “cloud” can provide the solution to your file exchange troubles. Software-as-service (SaaS) is a common way in which attorneys enter the cloud. Using a web-based secure file transfer solution, like ShareFile by Citrix, , law firms can enjoy file sharing, tracking capabilities and storage. With ShareFile, you can be confident that your data is sent securely and in compliance with legal regulations regarding the privacy and security of confidential information. All files are transmitted with SSL encryption- so forget about risking confidential information by transferring files with your flash drive. ShareFile also offers a full suite of mobile apps for file sharing on the go, so your data can follow you wherever you go.

Want to explore more? Sign up for your free trial today and learn why 99% of Fortune 500 companies are ShareFile users.

Tell me about your firm.

William Hezmalhalch Architects (WHA) is a global comprehensive land planning and design firm that specializes in the shaping of new communities, and reshaping of urban of urban and existing in-town neighborhoods. WHA was established in 1981 and we currently have offices in Santa Ana and Santa Ramon, CA.

What were some of the business challenges prior to ShareFile?

We experienced the challenge of sending large files, through a variety of methods, to consultants and clients. In order to exchange documents with the intended parties, we burned files to CDs and sent directly through the mail. We also attempted to send important documents as email attachments, if the files were under the specified size limit. For larger files, we experimented with FTP; however the result was a significant amount of inbound calls from clients regarding FTP problems. We needed a FTP alternative to reduce day-to-day administrative problems related to FTP and overall file transfer issues.

What were the results of choosing ShareFile?

We use ShareFile daily to transfer CAD documents, PDFs and other documents to clients, engineers and consultants. The biggest impact ShareFile has had on our firm is the ability it gives us to streamline operations. We are able to provide documents to our clients and consultants in much less time, without any of the hassles we experienced earlier with email and FTP. The ease of use of the ShareFile service has led to an extremely high adoption rate of ShareFile over FTP and we see it as clearly offering the most logical and easy way to share files. It was the solution we had been looking for.  We intend to use ShareFile as a centralized plan room to facilitate collaboration and communication throughout the planning, design, and implementation phases of projects going forward.

Interested in learning how firms in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries send large files? Visit YouTube to see more ShareFile videos.

Our support and account management teams frequently work with account administrators who want to learn more about best practices for maintaining security. Here are a few of the features that many administrators have found helpful:

Always require passwords for download – ShareFile offers flexible settings for upload and download links that you send from your account. You can require recipients to login when sending confidential files, but you can also send links without requiring users to log in if extra security is not necessary.

If you find that you really always want the links that you send from your ShareFile account to require log in, your account settings can be changed so that any links will require a user name and password for download. To make this change, please contact your account manager or ShareFile Support for assistance.

Limit how many times a download link will work- When you send a link to a file, you can make sure that the link will only allow a single download. This prevents your recipient from sharing the file that you sent by forwarding the link to another person.

When you click ‘Send’ or ‘Send a File’, there is a drop down menu to specify the ‘Downloads per user’ right on the Send screen. If you do plan to limit the number of times that the link will work, we recommend using the ‘Message’ field to enter a custom note to the recipient letting them know about the limitation. This will prevent any need to send the link to them again if they close the file without saving it.

Require strong passwords- ShareFile can enforce custom password requirements for your account. If you would prefer to have stricter policies in place for the length or content of passwords, or to enforce regular password updates, you can make these changes in the ‘Admin’ section. To the right of the Admin page click ‘Password Policy’ to see all of the available options and change your current settings to reflect the policy that you would like to have in place.

Display a non-disclosure agreement on your login page – To discourage users from distributing information stored on your account, you can place a non-disclosure agreement directly on the login page. You can use any text that you would like so that your confidentiality agreement will be completely relevant to your company and data.

In order to add login page text, you can log in to your account and click on the ‘Admin’ link in the top navigation bar. On the Admin screen, click ‘Edit Custom Branding’ to the right of the screen. If you expand the ‘Miscellaneous’ section, you can paste all of your non-disclosure text into the ‘Login Page Text’ field. This text will display right on your login page.

Do you have any questions about which features are the best fit for your account? Feel free to contact your account manager or support for help. If you don’t have an account and would like to see how ShareFile can help you transfer files securely, sign up for a 30 day free trial!

Email notifications make getting the answers to these questions much easier. Check out the different ways you can set up and use email notifications:

Upload/Download Notifications

Users can be set up within your ShareFile account to be automatically emailed when files are uploaded and/or downloaded. This eliminates the need to reach out and let them know each time you add something to their folder or send them a file. You can easily turn on these notifications when creating new users but to give this permission to existing users, click on the folder you’d like them to receive notifications for and choose ‘View/Edit Folder Access,’ then select the notifications you’d like those users to have.

Proactive Notifications

If you have users uploading to folders on your ShareFile account, they are able to use Proactive Notifications to alert other users in the folder that a new file has been uploaded. These Proactive Notifications go to all users in the folder even if they do not have the Upload/Download Notifications turned on. Admin users are able to turn these notifications on for your account by clicking on the Admin link on the navigation bar and choosing Advanced Preferences. Once enabled, users uploading will see a check box on the upload form allowing them to send the notifications when necessary.

Consolidated Notifications

All of our notifications are defaulted to be sent in real-time, which for some may be too frequent. To change the frequency of email notifications, users can click on the ‘My Settings’ link on the navigation bar, which will allow them to change their alerts to every 15 minutes, every hour, twice a day, or once a day. This options is available to both Employee users and Client users that have the ability to see the ‘My Settings’ link on the top navigation bar (this permission is given when the user is set up and can be modified under ‘Manage Users’).

Upload Receipts

After following the three tips listed above, you should have your notifications set up to best fit your needs. You also have a good start on notifying your users of any activity that they do. But what about when they upload a file to you using the ‘Request a File‘ feature? Since they do not get upload notifications for that feature, we’ve created an easy way for anyone responding to your ‘Request a File’ link to get a receipt. To turn on these receipts for your users, click on the ‘Admin’ tab, navigate to ‘Advanced Preferences,’ and click Yes for ‘Send upload receipts for Request a File.’

Now that you have customized your email notifications, you’ll never worry about your document delivery again. If you’d like any additional information on the email notifications options, contact your personal account manager for assistance.

Not yet a ShareFile customer? We would love to help you out—sign up for a free trial to test out for yourself.

Dan is the veteran on the team. He has been at ShareFile for over three years. He is responsible for many of the marketing channels at ShareFile including display, radio, CRM, social media and lead generation. Prior to joining ShareFile, he spent time at a few other Raleigh area start-ups.  Dan says, “I’m very lucky to have a strong team working with me to make these channels successful.”

Al has been with ShareFile since June 2011. With over 15 years of marketing experience he is responsible for paid search, SEO, web analytics, site testing, and content.  Before joining ShareFile, Al has worked in ecommerce and lead generation marketing for small start ups up to Fortune 100 companies.  Prior to his marketing career, he was an air traffic controller in the U.S. Air Force where he obtained his degree in Aeronautics from Embry-Riddle.

Carolyn is still in her rookie year at ShareFile, just joining the team in January. She is managing all of marketing’s email efforts, and helping with the transition into bigger, better, smarter, and faster email capabilities. She is new to the team and to the area. Until recently, she was working in marketing in the education field in Baltimore, MD. Carolyn says, “I’m excited to work for a company with such a strong product. I’m still new so I learn new features about ShareFile on a daily basis. I’m continually impressed. That makes my job a whole lot easier.”

Kevin just joined the team in January and is working on the management and optimization of ShareFile’s Paid Search and SEO efforts. He is native to the Raleigh area and worked at local start-ups in the eCommerce and Publishing fields before joining ShareFile.

Janna joined the team about two months ago as a recent Communications graduate of East Carolina University.  She helps us plan and execute tradeshow booths, as well as coordinates travel arrangements for external events.  She assists the team in materials handling and planning of all marketing related events.

Jennifer (that’s me). I started at ShareFile in August 2010 and loved the company culture from day one. After starting out in sales operations, I received the opportunity to transition to the marketing side of things, which I thoroughly enjoy. I currently manage social media for ShareFile, so if you’ve tweeted @ us or commented on our Facebook page, I probably responded to you (nice to meet you, unofficially). I would love for you to connect with us (if you haven’t already) via social.

You can find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @sharefile, add us to your circles on Google+, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Linkedin.

As Jennifer recently wrote, an important part of ShareFile company culture comes from our values and a clear mission. Shared values can help everyone stay grounded, positive, and consistent.

If you don’t work for a company that has a clarified mission, it may seem a little abstract. For an example of how our values come into play at ShareFile, we can take a look at our new phone support hours, which have expanded to include weekend support:

Monday: 8am-8pm EST

Tuesday-Friday: 7am-8pm

Saturday: 7am-4pm

Sunday: 11am-8pm

When making decisions about how to improve support, the connection to our mission, to raise the bar for service in the technology sector, is pretty clear. Making support more readily available and convenient just makes sense. The strategy for expanding support was formed directly from ShareFile’s core values:

Customer Centric- Expanding our hours increases our availability to our clients so that you can receive support through the method that you prefer (email, phone, or chat).

Data Driven- We started 2011 by expanding our email support for urgent issues into the weekend. Our experience with offering some support on the weekends allowed us to observe that Saturdays and Sundays have become increasingly important work days for ShareFile users. We were also able to identify the most popular times for weekend support to make sure that changes to our support hours would benefit as many people as possible.

Responsible Growth- We can’t wait to be able to offer support all day, every day! However, we recognize that when you call ShareFile Support, you want to speak to a skilled and experienced representative. We are dedicated to maintaining a high standard of training for all of our support staff and to make sure that we can continue to increase our hours while maintaining the quality of our support.

Our goal is to continue increasing support hours until we can be available whenever ShareFile users may need help, and our values ensure that we can make this transition in a way that is consistent with the service that our clients have come to expect.

If you’d like to learn more about how the ShareFile service can help your business, please feel free to call us or sign up for a 30 day free trial.

Fortunately, there is a solution sending large files to your clients and colleagues which allows you to avoid these problems and make sure your files get to your destination safely and securely. The ShareFile Outlook Plug-in allows you to insert links to your files, upload and send new files, and request files directly from Microsoft Outlook.  Once downloaded, this tool can be linked directly to your account by entering your user name, password, and account subdomain in the set up window.  Forget about the hassle of trying to send large files through email attachments. Additionally, you can choose for all attachments to be sent via ShareFile rather than your internal e-mail server. This way you can eliminate the worry of exceeded email quotas. If you have files attached to your email through the regular Outlook attachment option, ShareFile has a button (Convert to ShareFile) that will change the attachment to a ShareFile link.

We also have features to help non-Outlook users send large files via email. For more information, contact our support team at 1-800-441-3453 x2 or support@sharefile.com. Our team is happy to help you lessen the burden of sending your large files via email.

Favorite Folders: With ShareFile, you have access to an infinite number of folders and subfolders but you are bound to have a few big projects you are working on or a couple of your largest clients who you’d like to have quick and easy access to. With our Favorite Folders feature you can select certain folders within your account to be shown on the right navigation pane of your Home page which saves you from searching through your entire folder directory.

Folder Sorting: By default, files and folders are displayed so that the most recent items are listed first but we understand that sometimes you want your files in alphabetical order or sorted by creator. Within your account, you have the ability to sort your files and folders by Title, Size, Date Uploaded, or by Creator. You can change your sort order for an individual folder by clicking into that folder and choosing ‘Edit Folder Options.’ Or, if you’d prefer to make an account-wide sort order then you can visit the ‘Admin’ tab and choose ‘Advanced Preferences’—Sort Order is towards the bottom and can be set there, but don’t forget to save!

File Retention Policy: Is your folder growing out of control? Do you no longer need those older files in your folder? You can set a retention policy so that files are automatically deleted after a certain period of time. Once the files are deleted, they aren’t gone for good so need to worry; all files deleted can be restored from your Recycle Bin for up to 7 days. Now you can clear up your afternoon and leave the deleting to us!

Thumbnail View: Are you sharing images or prefer viewing thumbnails of your files? You can easily switch from ‘List View’ to ‘Thumb View’ on the Home page under ‘Add Folder.’ Certain types of files can be previewed within your ShareFile account without having to be downloaded; to see a full list of supported file types, click on ‘Thumbnail View.’

Consolidated Folder Notifications: Are you getting too many notification alerts from your users uploading and downloading? Don’t turn Folder Notifications off—they can be extremely useful! Instead, try consolidating them to only once or twice a day. Users can set how frequently they receive email notifications from ShareFile under the ‘My Settings’ link on the navigation bar.

Have more questions about folders? Contact your personal account manager for assistance relating specifically to your account. Not yet a ShareFile customer? Sign up for a free trial to test out for yourself.

This past Saturday the ShareFile team had the opportunity to support a great cause, the Special Olympics of North Carolina. We raised money for the cause by participating in a 5K. Proceeds from this event went directly to the Special Olympics of NC in an effort to support the 38,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities that participate in the year-round sports programming. Together, the ShareFile participants raised over $600 for the Special Olympics of NC.

Check out a couple of group shots before and after the race. For more pictures of the event, visit our Facebook page.

According to the Clean Air Council, the average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper per year.  That’s four million tons of copy paper used annually, equating to one 100-foot tall Douglas fir tree for every American!  Not only does this cost your office a lot of money and time spent waiting for multiple documents to print, but it also damages the environment.

ShareFile offers the perfect solution to this environmental issue by allowing you to easily send and receive documents, while reducing printing costs.  Forget about keeping up with those 50 printed documents or losing them in the ever growing pile on your desk. Instead, access your important business documents from anywhere- even your mobile device. If you’re interested in doing more to help the environment, try starting out small by using ShareFile to send, receive and store your important business documents.

The Earth Day Network has set a goal for “1 billion acts of Green,” asking everyone to pledge an eco-friendly routine that they will practice this year to help our planet.  Make a pledge today to use ShareFile instead of printing and shipping your documents.

By the way, green is cool- check out our new logo!

Cavignac & Associates is an independent commercial insurance broker that manages risk and negotiates insurance on behalf of its clients. The firm’s group of risk management and insurance professionals is committed to working with its clients to effectively manage risk, negotiate insurance, and provide the highest level of service.

Prior to ShareFile, the firm experienced several business challenges:

-It needed an easy to manage system

-Other products proved to be non-user friendly

-The costs of shipping were high

The firm, currently with 40 employees, is a paperless agency and has been since 2003.  Since its clients, carriers and vendors were not paperless, the firm had to mail everything; including correspondents, endorsements and other necessary documents. Dahlia told me that during its search for a secure file transfer solution, the firm considered other products but they “were not user friendly and easy to manage like ShareFile.”

Once the firm signed up for ShareFIle, it stopped mailing everything to clients, carriers and vendors. Instead, employees at the firm simply upload the files to ShareFile to interact with the appropriate parties. As a result, Dahlia reports that the firm has significantly reduced the amount of money spent on stamps, envelopes and paper. “All policies, endorsements, audits, and certificates of insurance that we would have to previously mail to our clients are now being distributed to our clients through ShareFile. The service has allowed us to streamline our communications,” says Dahlia.

Want to hear what other ShareFile customers have to say? Check out our YouTube Channel.

If you walked into the ShareFile office today, you would be greeted by a receptionist and chances are, in the process of checking in, you would hear someone yelling and look over to see a competitive game of ping pong taking place in our game room. As you make your way to our kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, one of our developers would probably fly past you on a scooter or skateboard- watch your toes! If you were visiting our office for a meeting, you would be guided to one of our conference rooms (where you will be safe from Nerf bullets flying through the air). After your meeting, you would probably be invited by our Sales team to play a game of cornhole. That is just a daily snapshot of the culture we have here at ShareFile.

In my opinion, our company culture is such a positive aspect of ShareFile because of who we are and how our Executive team has defined our company in the following ways:

-Our mission is clear

-We have a high integrity workplace

-We have an emphasis on recruiting awesome employees

-Our employees are committed to the organization

-We have highly effective leadership

-We are customer centric

-Our employees feel valued

-We are committed to responsible growth

-We are data driven

In gathering feedback about the culture here at ShareFile, I randomly asked a few employees what their perception of ShareFile is and what makes this the best place to work.  Here are some of the answers I received:

“I’ve worked in a number of business environments including non-profit, sales, project management and even massage therapy. I have never experienced a company culture like that of ShareFile. A few of my friends, who I’d love to see work here, joke that I’m trying to “sell” them on it.  I don’t need to sell it. ShareFile’s company culture speaks for itself. We are laid back and have a lot of fun, but we are also very serious about meeting our company goals.  Everyone wants ShareFile to be successful. So, when the time comes to meet deadlines, push hard to achieve a goal or make tough business decisions, it doesn’t faze us. I count myself fortunate to work for such a fantastic company and am so excited about ShareFile’s future!” 
-Nicole Collins, Associate Project Manager

“I like that we are still in start-up mode. Everyone multi-tasks and goes above and beyond to get the job done. At the same time, we get along with each other and keep our company mission ‘To raise the bar for service in the field of technology,’ the highest priority.”
-Al Scillitani, Senior Manager, Online Marketing

“Working at ShareFile is awesome! I imagined my first job out of college to be with a company where everyone is just there to do the job and the job itself would be repetitive day in and day out. At ShareFile, it’s completely different—we are dedicated to being customer centric in everything we do and each day brings something new. I enjoy building relationships with my clients and sharing experiences with my team, all while having fun. Every person is focused on providing the best service to our customers. We are a tightly knit group here and we support each other’s professional goals and the goals of the company.
-Sarah Rowe, Corporate Sales Representative

So, what is your company culture like? We would love to hear from you.