At Box, fight for content collaboration market centers on partners and integration

Dive Brief:

Akin to a news feed for file management, Box unveiled an activity stream, which operates across software as a service applications, the company announced at BoxWorks 2018 Wednesday. Looking at the feed, users can see changes made to integrated SaaS applications like Slack, Salesforce and DocuSign.
Box boasts 1,400 application integrations, and through the stream users can see the latest file activity on a preview in-line with comments or updates, according the the announcement.
The company has worked to increase its customer base and now has more than 87,000 businesses paying for its services, Box announced Tuesday during its Q2 2019 earnings. Customers include Lionsgate, Nationwide and Canon U.S.A.

Dive Insight:

Smaller SaaS vendors have made names for themselves partnering with larger organizations, like Google and Microsoft. An activity stream highlights Box's drive to integrate with more applications.

What's striking is that top tier vendors, like Google, have similar capabilities to providers like Box or Slack, offering cloud-based content storage and chat. But even with Google's suite of collaboration offerings, the company has worked to improve its content management offerings.

Rather than rely solely on its capabilities, Google instead can tap Box to own content management. Announced in July, The Box for G Suite allows users to work with G Suite files without leaving Box. This also paves the way for employing Box admin controls when using content in G Suite, a boon for file access control and security.

Box's strategy is to carve a place for itself in a market dominated by big names. But DropBox went public earlier this year and is also vying for a larger place in a market crowded with content management and could come after some of Box's market share.

Competition aside, for now, Box will continue on its approach of offering a "single, neutral platform for cloud content management" to help leading enterprises digitize their workflows, according to Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, speaking during the earnings call Tuesday.