Our partners have played a key role in the rapid growth of ftopia. Their knowledge of – and relationships with – local customers are essential. That’s why we want to build a lasting partnership with them, based on a fair sharing of revenues.

The program offers our partners a strong potential for growth, in an economic climate that has not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the global financial crisis. This program is designed for SI, IT services companies (development and web agencies) and resellers of software or hardware (VARS…). ftopia meets the needs of their customers – SMEs and professionals – looking for a simple, effective and secure way to share their documents online. The solution is a replacement or valuable addition to collaborative tools such as an intranet / extranet solution, secure VPN connectivity, file servers and ftp sites.

Partners may either act as referrers or directly resell ftopia – in both cases, they can access an online dashboard for managing their customer accounts and commission fees in real time. The service can also be sold as white label.

These are the main advantages of partnering with ftopia:

No startup cost, no cost of software development, no technical infrastructure to manage, free technical support via email.

New portfolio offer, new selling opportunities, high commissions guaranteed as the subscription is renewed, ability to charge a value added to the customer.

Free access to an administrative interface to track subscriptions and client renewals, no revenue target imposed.

Discover the partnership detailed here

While Microsoft has recently unveiled the all-singing all-dancing arrival of Internet Explorer 9 at Las Vegas, we at ftopia have made the decision to support IE6. That’s right, Internet Explorer 6, circa 2001! You may have thought that it was dead by now, like some do and some others would like it to be! But bear with us, because there is method in our madness.

When we started the ftopia service we took the decision to support IE7 and onwards, mainly because IE6 lacks many of the advanced capabilities of more modern browsers, and it seemed at the time as though IE6’s share of the browser market was in decline.

Since our primary market is made up of SMB’s and independent professionals, we also assumed they would all be using modern browsers. In general it is only medium and large companies that still use IE6, as the cost of migrating can be prohibitive and they often utilise custom apps that have only been tested on IE6.

However, it seems that we now have a lot more medium-sized businesses than we expected, and even individual departments from large enterprises. For a number of these, Internet Explorer 6 support is a must. We’ve also realised that many smaller businesses share files with larger companies, and in order for them to fully reap the benefits of using ftopia, they must be able to offer account access to all their customers.

For these reasons we will soon be offering support for Internet Explorer 6, and while this perhaps appears to be an unusual move, it may actually give us an advantage, as we will be one of few comparable services to offer this feature.

If you have any views on this decision we would love to hear them. Do you agree that IE6 support will provide greater access, or do you feel that we should be investing more in support for newer browsers such as Android?

Up till now, signing into ftopia has been done through a username. This allowed users to pick their own personalised name, and to log into several different accounts independently of the others.

However, we eventually found that these abilities have become liabilities. Having to remember two or more usernames and two separate passwords can be a pain at the best of times. It also meant that you would have to sign out and then sign back in again every time you wanted to switch from one account to the other.

Users also had to type in the subdomain for their account before they could log in. For casual users who are not IT-minded this was not always something that came naturally, and could become a frustration that prevented them from signing in quickly. With a username-based login system, this was however a necessity.

We want ftopia to provide a simple user experience that is easy to use for even the least technically minded person, and that means chasing down and eliminating any redundant processes that get in the way. Less is more, and removing clutter from the user interface aids communication in the same way that deleting sentences can sharpen up a blog post.

Our new email-based login process means that users with multiple accounts can quickly switch from one to the other without the need to log out and in again. It also means that users can log in directly from the ftopia home page, without the need to first type in the subdomain. And finally, it removes the need to define at sign up and remember when signing in this unnecessary piece of information. We hope that this change will make your experience with ftopia simpler and easier.

Now it’s time to think about the next step with respect to authentication, like using OpenID. We’d love to hear your views on these changes.

Not very handy when it’s necessary to recover all contents from a folder or from a complete workspace…
Now, however you can recover multiple files in only one operation!

The multiple download feature makes it possible to select the files to be downloaded and to download them in a single zip file. You can thus download the whole file, or a whole workspace, in only one operation.

To download the whole workspace, just use the action menu at the top of the document list:

This option is particularly useful when a new member of a workspace must take note of all of the information in one go. Also, the structure of the files in your workspace is preserved in the zip file!

We are very happy to be supported by Microsoft through a global program like BizSpark. Being sponsored by Microsoft is recognition of the relevance of our offer and its potential in our market. Moreover, this partnership and the privileged access to the Microsoft sales and technological resources will enable us to accelerate our growth, still preserving our advance.

Whatever format they have, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or OpenOffice, images or videos, you can view and read all documents on line, and give others the possibility to do the same – even if they do not have on their PC the application used to create them.
Your files are automatically converted into a format which makes it possible to display them in your browser, to zoom in and to print them.
This service is also very useful when one wishes to check the contents of a document before downloading it.

This is also a way to limit the visitors’ rights within your workspaces, by letting them only visualize the on line documents without being able to download them on their PC. Your confidential information is thus better protected.
Lastly, users should they wish, can print documents/files within the preview window.

Coordination and control of information flows between many players involving important volumes of data

In order to carry out these complex operations involving many companies, TravelHorizon Group chose to use the secured workspaces of ftopia, that allow fast, dynamic, flexible and simple sharing of confidential files. The various project members exclusively communicated within these data-rooms – electronic equivalents of a private meeting room – centralizing all shared, viewed and analyzed information related to the procedures.

The various transactions were processed requiring the intervention of:

- Legal Councils

o for the company: Aklea and Morgan Lewis
o for the investors: Gide Loyrette
o for the seller: Orsay Law

- Due diligence

o for the company: Ernst & Young
o for the investors: Grant-Thornton
o for the seller: Mazars

In this operation, TravelHorizon Group was confronted with several difficulties: allowing many players to work in a coordinated way on very broad volumes of data related to several companies while controlling the flow of information.

Why ftopia was chosen

The use of e-mails was completely inappropriate. Traditional ftp servers ran up against many partners security policies – either concerning the installation of, or during the creation of new files (several days would have been necessary to establish multiple accesses after an extraordinarily long initial set-up period was completed) – not to mention the unfriendly client interface. Traditional data-room offers were considered to be too expensive and complex to be implemented given that plans and procedures would have required an important time investment from the users.

Emmanuel Champetier de Ribes, Chief Financial Officer, TravelHorizon Group: “The extremely user-friendly ftopia environment allowed us to communicate directly amongst ourselves, operational people, without having to involve the engineering services of our respective companies. This allowed us to efficiently perform the due diligence and negotiation stages in a calm fashion, saving us considerable time and improving our effectiveness during these time-consuming processes that require the ability to concentrate on the essential aspects. All of the players were happy and congratulated us for the organization of our data rooms.”

With ftopia, it was possible to know if different users had consulted a particular document, which in turn made it possible to quickly adapt the negotiations and certify information transfers.

Given the success of this project, TravelHorizon Group now uses ftopia to share information with all its partners:

- Projects involving contractors and integrators: analysis elements are uploaded on line into a data-room, which makes it possible to share documents between several project contributors and to ensure continuity in key information flows.
- Legal and tax permanent files with lawyers: the electronic file is automatically synchronized with the data-room that is in turn constantly updated without any specific TravelHorizon involvement. With each modification, the lawyers are automatically notified and can cover the subject if necessary. At any moment, they have access to records and information that are as complete as that of their customer.
- Accounting file: Auditors access on line spreadsheets and their associated supporting documents. Their work, based on classified and centralized documents makes it possible to measure document completeness and relevance. Given the added efficiencies of this process, TravelHorizon teams are now less solicited: the audit is done more quickly and more effectively.

Emmanuel Champetier de Ribes: “While using our data-rooms, we can also transmit specific access to given documents. In this manner, we almost never need to send a specific attachment by email to our various contacts. Therefore, we avoid bottlenecks in our individual e-mail inboxes as well as in our mail servers. ”

The ftopia Data-room is thus a shared workspace for all of these projects, whether they are of a local or global scale. Since the data-room is always accessible from any device, it represents an essential tool for communication within the context of raising funds or managing acquisition operations. It is about giving timely and secured access to all of the participants involved in the transaction. Legal, operational, accountable, tax, social… Information held by the company is placed at the center of the transaction including permanent files, as well as the preliminary negotiation related documents (letter of intent, term sheet, MoU) and in turn, the final transaction documents (draft-agreement, shareholders pact…).

Clyve Monfredo, Partner, Aklea: “With ftopia, we found a secured data-room offering all the necessary functions from provision, consultation and reporting which could be completely operational in just a few minutes. We were particularly surprised by its ease of use. ”

Jamespot.pro is available in SaaS mode and does not require any installation on the user’s workstation, exactly like ftopia which offers collaborative workspaces to professionals in order to store and share their files on the Internet in SaaS mode. Particularly useful to SME customers as well as to professional organizations, freelancers, and home-workers, the ftopia solution makes it possible to instantaneously exchange any document with distant third parties or colleagues, in a completely safe and secure fashion.

Alain Garnier, CEO of Jamespot: “Our customers are confronted with increased dematerialization, which is combined with strict security requirements as well as storage of critical files like contracts, invoices, board communications…. This is the specific need that our partnership with ftopia answers. To a customer, it is completely seamless. He just has to add the ftopia module to the Jamespot.pro solution. The ftopia module has been added to our catalog of existing modules for business management. ”

ftopia and Jamespot together offer simplicity, effectiveness and agility to their customers. In a few clicks, professionals can, because of the interaction between these two services, share all of the information which is of interest to their ecosystem instantaneously: in “spotting” (“Spot”: to publish on the Spot, in a click, using a web button) the best of the Web and by sharing their professional files in a secured and customised workspace with their professional and business community.

The alliance between our companies also allows professionals and firms to drastically reduce their costs of ownership for a complete collaborative solution. With ftopia and Jamespot.pro, all types of files and all pertinent information circulating on the Internet can be gathered and shared very simply and in real time with internal and external teams in order to gain effectiveness at an affordable cost.

Professionals today must be able to collaborate extensively and easily. They must ensure a better level of knowledge management in order to remain competitive in their respective markets. It is the concept of the effective Extended Enterprise to which ftopia and Jamespot.pro are attached.
We are delighted to partner with Jamespot. It seemed natural to us to set up this partnership as we pursue the same goal while offering our customers perfectly complementary added-value Internet services.

The news from these two past weeks allows us to closely follow the technical hiccup which has occurred on the Sidekick mobile phones associated with T-Mobile and Microsoft, resulting in the loss of several thousands of subscribers’ personal data due to a maintenance operation which turned out badly.

In summary, a problem occurred at the manufacturer (Danger, subsidiary of Microsoft) servers (hosted in the cloud) and as a result, the personal data stored on the phones – unfortunately delivered without any backup software – were purely and simply erased

This will result in a lot more fear than pain, since the companies involved will restore almost completely all of the data, but nonetheless these subscribers came close to a disaster!

Obviously traumatizing, this event immediately generated a lot of questions – quite legitimate – on the security front. Basically, what one can expect to find in the cloud and the danger that this technology potentially represents.

Consequently, after all of the legitimate enthusiasm surrounding the cloud shown in the press these last months, we heard just heard the worst about cloud-computing!

Then, what is it really? A few days ago (10/20/09), Gartner declared that Cloud Computing was to be placed first in IT investment priorities in terms of 2010 (http://bit.ly/3dNGom). Does Gartner show an unawareness of the security issues? Of course, not!

It is the same for the cloud-computing as it is for any company’s strategic application: it should be made safe and highly secure.

In conclusion, two precautions impossible to circumvent (our priority at ftopia, of course!) are to be taken in order to avoid the consequences of a technical failure: 1) your data must be automatically made redundant on geographically distant servers and 2) it must be synchronized with your PC, which represents an additional security measure that makes a great difference in the event of breakdown – even temporary – of one or more servers.

Most of the time, this content includes huge files which are impossible to send by e-mail. Ftp server management, used prior to the use of ftopia, remains complicated and tedious. Given that increasingly, more and more project members were being brought together in order to work on these files, the agency sought a simpler and more effective means to share these files quickly.

Emma Tanquerel, Executive producer, OverEasy: “ftopia is very useful to us. Sharing large files with distant coworkers is not a problem anymore, all the information exchanges are simplified and we gain in effectiveness,”

ftopia makes it possible from now on for those in charge of production to immediately share the film rushes in the course of assembly with distant teams or external partners. The service also facilitates the remote validation (and proofing) of films produced by international customers and film directors located abroad.

The creation of new members in ftopia workspaces is carried out in minutes, much more quickly than with ftp systems used before. The members can then connect themselves and access their workspaces in full safety without having any software to install on the computers. It is also possible to send a simple download link when the need is very specific.

The partitioned workspaces management is adapted to the agency activity which distributes the useful contents to each customer in their reserved workspaces organized by project, brand, etc. The ftopia service is also secured (SSL encryption of the communications 256-bit). Protected access to the workspace is guaranteed by the members’ user credentials and authentication of who can access it is only by invitation.

ftopia uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers. This massively distributed computer infrastructure has been tested for more than 13 years. Thus, ftopia customers benefit from among the most robust and surest Web hosting facilities in the world, serving million of customers and executing million of transactions each month.

We are happy to collaborate with such a prestigious agency like M&C Saatchi! We endeavor to provide a high quality service which meets a true need and facilitates professionals’ daily life. We are listening to them in order to be able to accompany them and the regular feedback we receive from our customers such as M&C Saatchi is encouraging us in this journey.