Dive Brief:
- IBM and Box announced Wednesday a new workflow solution called Box Relay, the first joint project in their partnership.
- Box Relay combines IBM Cloud with Box’s content management platform to allow employees to "create, track and manage routine processes," according to an IBM press release.
- Box Relay is expected in beta during Q4 and will be available to Box business users for an additional fee.
Dive Insight:
In addition to announcing the new product, Box appears to be working to reinvent itself as well. According to IBM’s press release, Box Relay is "a part of the all new Box." Details were expected to be shared at BoxWorks 2016 Wednesday.
IBM and Box formed their partnership in June 2015, but this is the first joint solution they’ve released. The two companies have much to benefit from a partnership. IBM gets to work with a new, agile company, and Box gets access to IBM’s plethora of enterprise customers, many of whom are looking to update their processes and become nimbler.
Box and rival Dropbox have also struggled to monetize their businesses, and improving enterprise productivity is a hot area, particularly where it involves technologies that can create a more fluid cross-application search that could help save users’ time.
According to IDC Vice President Maureen Fleming, "enterprises are actively looking for workflow solutions that provide the right level of simplicity and capability at the right price so they can improve the productivity and efficiency inside their business and across their business networks."
"Workflow in the enterprise is broken – complex, fragmented software and manual processes are getting in the way of productivity," said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.
Box and IBM hope to change that with Box Relay.
Box competitor Dropbox announced several new productivity tools for the enterprise in June.
