Imagine a phone conversation in a busy office: 

"Yes, it's finished. I'll email it across to you now. Oh, wait. It's a 2GB file. That's too big to email. I could mail you a USB stick; it should be there by Tuesday. Too late? Oh. How about one of those file-sharing sites? But they don't look trustworthy, with all those flashing ads and pop-ups. Hmm...Perhaps I could courier it to you?"

This type of conversation used to be common for anyone dealing with large amounts of data, such as creative agencies. The problem of getting large files to clients could be a major headache. 

But these days it's not just creative organisations that need to send or receive large files. Almost every business has to do it at one time or another, with partners, customers and suppliers. For example:

  • manufacturers share catalogues and brochures with their distributors
  • retailers send print-quality documents to printing firms for flyers and newspaper inserts
  • photographers send high quality images to their clients
  • people involved in video production regularly share multi-gigabyte files. 

Choosing the right solution

So what are the options when it comes to sharing large business files? Until recently there were three main choices, all with disadvantages:

  1. Email attachments. These work for some files, but not if they're larger than a few megabytes. And email is about as secure as sending a postcard, so it's no use for confidential files.
  2. Sending memory sticks through the post. But there's something archaic about doing that in 2015. Not to mention the risk of them getting lost.
  3. Consumer file-sharing services. These have been around for a while, but were often full of pirated material, pop-ups and malware. That's not really the type of site you'd want to direct your clients to.

Making it easy

Fortunately there's now a better solution, thanks to the cloud. Reliable, secure and professional online file-sharing services have become available. These allow people to safely and easily store and share large files.

So now it's easy to share and send large files online, even if the recipient doesn't have an account. Files of several gigabytes in size can easily be transferred.

This has led to new business opportunities. Companies can complete their work faster, so clients get their orders fulfilled faster. Business using large file-sharing services are more lean and efficient. What used to take a couple of days by mail now takes just a few minutes online.

Growing your business by sharing data

Now you can send and receive files of almost any size to anyone. Just click and share.

If you're not already making use of this new way of sharing data, you should be. Your competitors probably are, and they'll be reaping the benefits. So start thinking about how you can use this new freedom to better serve your clients:

  • Give them the data they need to make informed decisions.
  • Show them every detail of your products.
  • Share your knowledge with them, using documents, photos and videos.

When it comes to file-sharing, you're no longer restricted by the amount of data you can send. Now your business can grow without limits.

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