Collaborating efficiently first requires that all participants view the same documents. This is not so obvious in general after a few rounds of exchanging documents by multiple ways, once via a cloud, once by email, once on a usb key… Even by email alone. The multiplication of versions, the difficulty of sharing the precise versions of other contextual documents present as implicit or explicit references, progressively renders the task of knowing what we are working with a challenge when not a nightmare.
More aspects of collaboration amount to accountability (who did this), notifications (when) and formal approval/signature processes.
This white paper attempts to give a hint of how KeeeX addresses these issues in the most lightweight and seamless way ever.
Ensure file equality
Efficient collaboration first requires that all participants work on the same documents. This can never be ensured using conventional file sending/sharing workflows, where unwanted mistakes most often causes errors.
The current approach to this problem amounts to massive centralization, of apps and storage, through centralized servers (as e.g. Google for work), or at least via cloud sharing (box apps, apple iCloud).
KeeeX offers a simple alternative, whereby files can be verified as unmodified by all participants. Verification works locally, hence is immune to any kind of man in the middle attack, and does not expose potentially strategic data to the cloudLink references
Producing knowledge requires huge amounts of more input knowledge. As important as knowing what we are reading is to know what references we have and maybe share. Being able to access the exact same reference document as another participant is key to collaboration.
Current ECM solutions manage this at the expense of huge centralized databases, either deployed company wide or available via SAAS solutions.
KeeeX lets you embed references inside documents themselves.Then, these references can be navigated, exactly like you click and search on the internet. All participants in a collaboration gain the unique possibility of reading references when they are readily available, or searching or requesting an exact copy to a collaborator.Manage Versions
Collaborating requires a careful naming and managing of file versions. Standard user process names versions by using numbers, most often cluttered by project accidents
“This is v2b3-by laurent after meeting”
Again, current ECM solutions manage this at the expense of huge centralized databases, either deployed company wide or available via SAAS solutions.
KeeeX innovates by placing a link to the previous version in every document. There can be several previous, and of course several ‘next’ versions. KeeeX tracks this information to deliver instant navigation to the latest version. KeeeX also uses notifications to track versions before they are actually present on your machine. So should you decide to start upgrading what you think is the latest, you will be warned that it isn’t.Ensure Authorship and Accountability
Accountability is a key item in data governance. Being able to know who is the author of a given document’s alteration is essential.
KeeeX inserts in every keeexed document a reference to its author (most often the user who does the keeexing is indeed the author). The version history of a document make the picture perfectly clear. Should a difference finding program be required to pinpoint the precise differences, KeeeX makes it ultimately accurate, because there can be no doubt about which files must be compared.Be Notified
When a document is shared or sent for review, agreement, or upgrade to collaborators, it is essential that the author, or maybe every person in the sharing group, to be informed about relevant activity.
KeeeX will notify the author every time a user verifies his document, then will notify of any new version.Deal with standard processes
Standard document processes comprise collective agreement, digital signature round, peer reviewing etc.
Such processes are commonly offered through SaaS solutions, as e.g. Docusign, Contract Live…
KeeeX helps tracking the comments, agreements or rejects relative to documents by using the possibility to link notes to the original document, and dynamically listing these notes. Digital signatures can be inserted into any file format supporting picture embedding (as does pdf and most office formats), so as to create a chain or set of digitally signed versions.Conclusion
Efficient collaboration requires tools and services now offered through centralized solutions, whether they are corporate wide database systems, or web service enabled.
KeeeX invents the social, connected, trusted document. It does so by embedding trust, organization, authorship, links to references. Yes, inside every document.