Products and Services

Testimonial about Collaboration Networks from J.T. Hicks

CollaborationStudios.com® (CS) provides you with your own private, secure, customizable internet platform(s), each including a toolbox of software tools, used to facilitate electronic communications, project planning & scheduling, electronic file sharing, secure email, document exchange, document collaboration and the management of the workflow processes for your own workgroups.

Collaboration Networks®

Collaboration Networks® will provide the foundation for your CS system. Based on your workflow requirements our company will set up a Network or Networks for your business. The public internet is the platform you already use to send emails, exchange documents, find information and to work with everyone else in the world. In contrast, a Collaboration Network™ is your own private, secure network (within the public internet) that allows you or your designated administrator to decide who can participate and what they can do with your corporate information.

Collaboration Networks® are hosted for you on private, fully secure servers, in a secure data-center which you and your workgroup members can access through your public internet browsers with no special hardware or software required. Your browser communications and your uploads and downloads of files are all encrypted to the same level that on-line credit card transactions are protected - so security of your workgroup's data is maintained. Since only you decide who has access to the files and data, your workgroup privacy is also maintained.

Collaboration Networks® are inexpensive and easy to use. You can create them for any purpose (large or small) and delete them at any time if they are no longer needed. You control the the access security list and usage priviledges for your Network(s) members. If your workgroup members are clients, students, suppliers, workflow process partners or otherwise members of your own internet community, you may choose to supply them with access to your Network through your own existing website. Our company can help you achieve your workflow goals without requiring any changes by your current website provider.

Collaboration Cabinets®

Collaboration Cabinets® are software services and tools that work within a CS Network. A CS Cabinet works like an electronic file cabinet to store, organize, index, archive, and provide workgroup members with access to any type of electronic files used by the members of the network.  Since the networks are private and secure, many types of workflow processes which are simply not safe to run on the public internet can be done securely by using our software. For example:  Lawyers, Bankers and Accountants may work with clients, consultants and other experts, located anywhere in the world, as they develop the complex documents needed for confidential deals. Medical practitioners may exchange digital electronic media containing confidential patient information, such as charts, pictures, X-rays, MRI's, and CT scans with other medical specialists located in any global time-zone for remote diagnostics purposes. You may chooses certain groups of clients, using your own website, to be allowed access to private information which is meant for their eyes only.

Collaboration Messaging

Collaboration Messaging is the software component of CS which allows your workgroup members to send and receive secure, spam-free emails, special forms and email attachments between the other trusted workgroup members within your Network(s) and also to communicate with any non-trusted people, outside the networks, through a special standard email link which allows only a secure & trusted reply to be returned from these external parties.

Collaboration Messaging is much more secure than standard email because all of the required uploads and downloads of data are encrypted and all of the trusted messages, forms and attachments reside only on our private, secure servers in the secure data-center. CS Messages are stored on or servers and are not (like standard emails) routed through a maze of public email servers which may be located anywhere on the world-wide web.

Collaboration Messaging has an almost infinite number of secure information transmission uses.  For example: your workgroup members can securely send any type of messages and data between each other in real-time in an environment dedicated to a single purpose. A company may need to collect private data (like financial or medical information) from a client who has (non-secure) standard email. Our secure messaging system can be used to contact this client via standard email and then allow the client to reply only within a secure data form.  Or you may securely obtain any word documents or spreadsheets (which may be exchanged with any PC) from a non-trusted client, partner or person.

Collaboration Workflow Management and Tracking System

CS Workflow Management and Tracking System (CS-WTS™) gives workgroup members the ability to manage and track work flowing through the CS-Core™ System.

We think about work as a process or a series of steps. A typical job will flow through these processes until the work is complete. CS has generalized these steps in to a series of workflow “queues” in a simple yet powerful path that we refer to as the “CS-Standard WTS Model™”.

In a straightforward job, a work request comes into the Open Queue. An administrator or a “CS-Smartfolder™” can delegate the work so that it goes into the Assigned Queue. After completion, the job can be moved into the Complete or Archive Queue.

The overall process can proceed under full administrative control, or automatically through the use of our CS-Smartfolder™ technology, or a mixture of both controls. Online administrative and user specific reports track the status of jobs as they move through the various queues.

Based on our experience with hundreds of organizations, we believe that our CS-Standard WTS Model™ can be adjusted to meet the workflow management needs of nearly any business organization.

Collaboration Smartfolder Technology

Collaboration Smartfolder Technology (CS-Smartfolder™) consists of three unique and powerful functions that have been integrated into the system:

  1. FolderWatch
  2. FolderShare
  3. FolderAPI

1. CS-FolderWatch™ is the Smartfolder component that turns a normal file into a “trigger” that can initiate actions when certain conditions are met. These conditions can include nearly any file activity such as editing, opening, uploading, copying, etc.

Actions that can be taken upon “triggering” include the execution of either internal (to CS) or external programs (using the CS-Watch Gateway Process).

CS-FoldWatch™ works not only with normal CS files, but also with CS-Links or CS-Metafile™ data such as voice clips or images.

Administrators can easily set up a FolderWatch through a menu-driven panel. They simply check off the event they would like to watch and then associate that event with an appropriate action. They can specify a watch time and also view online activity reports.

2. CS-FolderShare™ allows information to be shared with members of external organizations who are NOT members of a CS-Network.

The use of FolderShare is best explained by an example:

An attorney is working on the sale of a building, but needs the latest survey. The attorney may not want to make the surveyor a full member of the workgroup if they are not going to need anything more in the future. Using the CS-FolderShare™ panel, the attorney can easily give the surveyor temporary guest access to a particular folder within CS.

The process couldn’t be easier. The attorney would be asked to specify the folder and would be given the opportunity to enter a short message. An encrypted link would be sent to the surveyor through normal email. Clicking on the link would enable the surveyor to upload material into the shared CS Cabinet/Folder or view material the attorney has placed in the shared area.

3. CS-FolderAPI™ is the “Application Interface” that can be used to communicate in a secure, structured manner from External Systems to CS and vice versa. This powerful facility is typically used to upload and download daily reports and batch transactions to and from CS.

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