February 2021 Summaries

Following the invalidation of the Privacy Shield by the CJEU in the "Schrems II" case and the implications of Brexit, Box has detailed its ongoing commitment to data protection and privacy for its customers. Since July 2020, Box has adapted to new regulatory changes by implementing updated Standard Contract Clauses (SCCs) and maintaining its Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) to facilitate lawful data transfers from the EEA and the UK. The company emphasizes its dedication to transparency, security, and compliance with various international standards, including ISO certifications and the GDPR, while continuing to offer a cloud-based content management platform that meets or exceeds industry standards. Box also outlines its rigorous security measures, including advanced encryption strategies, to protect customer data and describes its approach to handling law enforcement requests, prioritizing customer notification and compliance with legal frameworks. As regulatory landscapes evolve, Box reassures customers of its proactive measures to ensure best-in-class data protection and security.

Box's employee spotlight series highlights Sally Hamdan, a Senior Customer Success Manager based in Paris, who shares her journey and experiences at the company. With a background in HR and training, Sally joined Box to broaden her expertise in customer success, attracted by the company's market maturity and strong culture. Embracing the Box value of "Take risks, fail fast, and GSD," she quickly made an impact, earning a "GSD" award. Sally emphasizes the importance of building strategic relationships and understanding clients' organizational structures, which she couldn't fully explore in her previous roles. She advises aspiring customer success professionals to engage with industry communities and align with companies that share their vision of customer success. Despite facing challenges from major competitors like Microsoft and Google, she finds joy in creating authentic client relationships and serving as a Chief Fun Officer, where she organizes team-building events across EMEA, fostering a sense of global community within Box.

The Work Unleashed series highlights insights from Box executives and customers navigating modern work challenges, featuring Sierra Oncology's strategic use of Box's platform to manage critical content securely and efficiently. Mike Engels, Executive Director of Information Services at Sierra Oncology, emphasizes the importance of choosing the right IT solutions to protect intellectual property and manage costs, especially in life sciences where every dollar impacts patient care. Initially partnering with Box for a specific need, Sierra Oncology has integrated Box as their primary content management system, benefiting from its enterprise security features like Box Shield, which provides robust content classification and monitoring. The transition to Box has enabled Sierra Oncology to support remote work effectively during the pandemic, ensuring content security and compliance. Engels plans to further leverage Box’s capabilities, such as Box Relay, to automate workflows, maximizing their cloud-based tools' potential in securing vital life sciences content.

Box has introduced Box Shuttle, a cost-effective and comprehensive content migration solution aimed at facilitating the transition to Intelligent Content Management for its customers. This initiative, part of Box Consulting, addresses the challenges organizations face in migrating content to the cloud, such as high costs and complexity, by offering tools to migrate data from over 15 source systems, modify permissions during migration, and preserve essential metadata and version history. Box Shuttle enhances migration efficiency, allowing the transfer of hundreds of terabytes daily while providing real-time monitoring and reporting to ensure transparency and control. The tool empowers organizations like the USDA Forest Service, Intuit, and Coalfire to modernize their processes and leverage centralized content for enhanced collaboration and operational success. As digital transformation becomes essential for businesses, Box Shuttle aims to democratize content migration, making it accessible and seamless for organizations seeking to centralize their content on Box's platform.

In the Work Unleashed series, Box executives and customers explore adapting to modern work environments, with a focus on Associated Bank's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Associated Bank, a long-time partner of the Green Bay Packers and a leading mortgage lender in Wisconsin, successfully transitioned to remote banking thanks to its existing cloud-based platforms, facilitating business continuity and customer service agility. CIO Mike Meinolf emphasizes the importance of technology strategies that support business success and flexibility, as demonstrated by the bank's quick adaptation of an internal tool for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) using Box's robust platform. This adaptability underscores the need for versatile technology solutions that allow organizations to pivot quickly in response to changing environments, moving away from proprietary systems towards integrated ecosystems. Meinolf foresees the continued relevance of bank branches and a return to in-office work, but stresses the importance of maintaining flexible and interconnected systems to navigate future challenges.

Box is enhancing its platform to support the increasingly mobile work environment by introducing new features such as Annotations and document scanning capabilities, allowing users to collaborate and maintain productivity from anywhere. The updated Annotations feature streamlines the review process, enabling users to provide feedback through free-form drawings and supporting Apple Pencil on iPad for intuitive note-taking, which can be converted to typed text using Apple Scribble. Additionally, Box's enhanced document scanning capabilities on the iOS app allow users to capture and edit images, convert them to PDFs, and utilize OCR for text recognition, ensuring seamless content sharing and organization. These advancements, along with a refreshed iPad user experience set for release in February 2021, aim to support flexibility and efficiency in a mobile work landscape.

Box has announced its plan to acquire SignRequest, a leading e-signature provider, with the intention of launching Box Sign, which will offer natively integrated electronic signatures within Box's Intelligent Content Management platform. This strategic move aims to address the increasing demand for streamlined digital transactions as businesses continue to digitize processes in the age of hybrid work. By incorporating SignRequest's technology, Box seeks to enhance the content lifecycle management for its customers, offering secure and compliant e-signature capabilities within its platform, while ensuring integration with advanced data governance, compliance, and security features. This development is part of Box's broader strategy to adapt to the evolving needs of distributed teams and the complex security landscape, positioning content as a central element of organizational value. The Box Content Cloud is presented as a comprehensive solution for managing an organization's content securely and collaboratively, from creation to retention, thereby enabling companies to maximize the value of their content.

Box has implemented LearnFest, a global learning initiative designed to invest in the personal and professional development of its employees, known as Boxers, by offering tailored educational opportunities three times a year. This program, which began in 2019, emphasizes democratizing learning to ensure equal opportunities for leadership development and has expanded to international offices, such as in Japan, with localized content. LearnFest covers a range of skills including emotional intelligence, leadership, and bias training, and aligns with Box's core values and Career Framework model, which integrates business processes with employee development paths. The program is structured around four key leader mindsets—business, teams, self, and community—to guide Boxers in their career progression, and it reflects Box's commitment to fostering a culture of growth and engagement.

The Life Sciences industry experienced significant changes over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which fostered collaboration and highlighted organizational gaps while putting pressure on R&D capacities and drug prices. This shift encouraged joint ventures and the repurposing of resources toward pandemic responses, such as testing, treatment, and vaccine research. As the industry aims to return to normal, companies are investing in digital technologies to facilitate global collaboration and maintain critical data integrity. The pandemic accelerated the digitization of clinical trials and inspections, allowing for remote site selection, monitoring, and virtual inspections, which are now seen as essential for maintaining efficiency. Organizations are cautiously optimistic as they transition into 2021, with some wary of the future due to short-term technological solutions, while others feel confident in their investments in cloud infrastructures and content platforms. As operations normalize, the industry may see a reshaping of R&D and manufacturing capacities, potentially leading to increased mergers and acquisitions, with intelligent content management playing a crucial role in stabilizing these transitions.