Collavate is proud to announce that it’s “Remote Drive User” feature, which had been released in a “beta” version with limited functionality, is now officially fully released and is no longer a “beta” product.
We are excited to announce the release of our latest feature, “Remote Drive User.” This feature allows an organization to invite outsider collaborators to work within the domain without giving such outside collaborators access to the domain. When outside collaborators create a document in the organization’s domain, the ownership of that document automatically transfer to the domain admin or other designated person within the domain. This allows the organization to protect documents created in and shared with the domain by outside collaborators without concerns about the copyright of the document and without worries about whether the collaborator will “disappear” with the document.
As with many of our features, Remote Drive User was conceived based on user demand. We have received many inquiries about how to protect documents and enjoy collaboration with parties outside of the domain, such as consultants and advisors. In many cases, organizations have had documents disappear after the conclusion of a collaborative project because the organization did not have ownership of documents created by the outside collaborator.
This is not a hypothetical issue; it is all too real. This is especially true for non-profit organizations and organizations working with a lot of outside collaborators. In such situations, where many volunteers and consultants use personal Gmail, ownership of documents is an extremely important and difficult issue. If a document is accidentally deleted or sharing settings are changed, the document will be hard to find. However, with Remote Drive User, documents are created in the domain with ownership transferring automatically to the domain. Therefore, the document will be saved in the organizations Drive.
Another use for Remote Drive User is when a user has multiple domains, such as a consultant or a freelancer that works for many clients. In that event, the consultant or freelancer may have to work in several domains. It would be very inconvenient to have to move all of the consultant’s Gmail contacts, documents, and Google Plus accounts. Transferring such files would take a lot of work and time. However, with Collavate’s Remote Drive User feature, the consultant can move easily from one domain to the other without having to transfer any data.
Now that the beta version has been thoroughly tested, we are happy to announce that the “beta” tag has been removed, and the full commercial version has now been released. Now our customers are able to use (1) Workflow Process, (2) Domain Shared Template, (3) 5 Tiered Security Level, (4) Domain Shared Tags, and even (5) Upload as a “Remote Drive User” in Collavate.
1. Workflow process
Remote Drive Users will be able to use Collavate’s workflow process feature just as a normal user would use. However, one difference is that the original owner of the document would already be the “Document Manager.” A remote drive user would originally have Edit/View permission for the document, but as soon as the remote drive user submits the document, the remote drive user will have View permission only.
2. Domain Shared Template
There will be more chances to use the Domain Shared Template feature with a remote drive user as frequency of working with outside partners increases. The ownership of the process document that is created from the Domain’s Shared Template will transfer to the document manager or admin of an organization’s domain.
3. Set Security Level
In remote drive mode, a remote drive user will be able to view list of documents that are owned by the Google Apps Document Manager and are shared with the remote drive user (not his own files). A remote drive user can set security levels to the document according to his own security level. After setting security levels both for users and the document, even if a user does not have “View” permission of the document, the user can see different pages through a preview of the user’s security level. Printing or downloading is strictly prohibited.
Please refer to our previous blog posting about “Collavate Remote Drive User” for more detailed usage and information.
Thank you so much.