In the lead up to the May 25 GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) effective date, organizations doing business with European Union citizens have been exploring what it takes to remain compliant with the new regulations. And tech vendors have been falling over each other to develop products that help them do exactly that.
This week, Redwood City, Calif.-based-based Box was the latest.
However, this release is not a tech release in the true sense of the term, it's a document called the Data Processing Addendum (DPA). The DPA, which is available for all current Box business customers, is a self-serve document that only requires an electronic signature from customers. Once signed, customers can provide the DPA to auditors to show their use of Box meets their GDPR compliance obligation.
GDPR is the most significant data protection development in years, and was created to give European citizens more control over their personal data — ranging from mailing addresses to IP information. The GDPR covers the personal data for every EU citizen and provides comprehensive rights to data subjects.
The document, in effect, is about reassuring existing customers that their Box deployment meets the rigorous standards set out in the regulations. It covers both Box and its customers and is designed to install confidence in the company and its storage and file sharing offerings.
It will also make it easier for Box to continue to develop its European presence. Only last month, Box announced the expansion of its London headquarters which will serve all of Europe. The company said at the time that it employs 200 people across Europe and will be adding more over the year.
The company also announced the creation of a new consulting service geared towards helping clients understand and adhere to data protection requirements.
“Customer expectations have never been higher, and there is immense pressure to move faster, work across the extended enterprise, and deliver new experiences,” Stephanie Carullo, COO of Box, said in a statement. “In this landscape, traditional approaches to data protection are obsolete.”
OpenText Acquires Hightail
Waterloo, Ontario-based OpenText is the latest to get in on the acquisition activity in the digital workplace space with its purchase of Campbell, Calif.-based file sharing company Hightail, formerly known as YouSendIt. Hightail has approximately 5.5 million customers globally, spanning enterprise accounts, paid subscribers and individual consumers. Since its founding in 2004, Hightail has raised more than $90 million in financing.
It's not entirely clear why OpenText bought Hightail. OpenText has file, sync and sharing capabilities already which it claims give customers the ability to share content whenever and wherever they want.
Hightail provided a way to transfer large files from one place to another before the cloud and cloud technologies made it look so easy. However, OpenText, it seems believes there is still a need for these kind of apps.
“The acquisition of Hightail underscores our commitment to delivering differentiated content solutions in the cloud that enable marketers and creative professionals to share, produce, and securely collaborate on digital content,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText vice chairman, CEO and CTO in a statement. “We are pleased to welcome Hightail customers and employees to OpenText today.”
Barrenechea explained it plans to add to existing Hightail capabilities and integrate it with the OpenText Content Suite, Documentum, Core and Media Management. The idea, he said, is to enable its customers to seamlessly and securely collaborate with external trading partners and vendors.
Thoma Bravo Buys Invests In Nintex
Bellevue, Wash.-based Nintex, an intelligent process automation (IPA) product vendor, has announced that private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo has bought a majority holding in the company.
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Nintex has been at the cutting edge of process administration since its founding in Melbourne, Australia in 2006. It has partnered with a number of players in the digital workplace space. Last year, for example, it launched Nintex for Box and Nintex for Salesforce, which added to previous partnerships with DocuSign and ServiceMax. It is also known for automating processes for SharePoint and Office 365, the latter of which recently surpassed 50 million workflow executions.
So what’s Thoma Bravo’s interest in Nintex? Hudson Smith, a partner with Thoma explained: "For several years, we've watched Nintex pioneer the workflow and content automation category by delivering best-in-class technology and evolving to the cloud, all while producing impressive growth and financial results. We firmly believe that process automation is highly achievable for many more thousands of enterprises through the Nintex Workflow Cloud.”
Both companies want to expand the reach of Nintex’s technology in the enterprise. "Nintex will continue to drive its aggressive strategy to the benefit of its customers and partners and will extend its market leadership for the long term," said Nintex CEO John Burton. When the transaction closes, Burton will hand over the CEO role to Eric Johnson, who has served as Nintex CFO for the last four years.
Johnson is a SaaS executive with more than two decades of financial and operational experience at mid- and large-sized software companies. At Nintex, he has been instrumental in driving the company's move to the cloud and subscription pricing. Prior to Nintex, he served as VP of Finance for Jive Software, where he helped lead the company through its IPO process.
Xerox Adds to Productivity Portfolio
Also this week Norwalk, Conn.-based Xerox continues to move ahead after a turbulent 2016. The company announced a new offering that it promised will drive increased productivity for small- and medium-size businesses through a suite of managed print services applications that reside on the cloud.
The new MPS Essentials Suite from Xerox combines Xerox’s extensive lineup of managed print, mobility, scanning and productivity solutions into one package that maximizes flexibility, profitability and efficiency for customers. The suite includes solutions like Xerox’s Scan to Cloud Email App, Xerox’s Print Management and Mobility Service, the CapturePoint Transformer App and more.
Reflektive Raises $60M
Finally this week, San Francisco-based Reflektive, which offers real-time employee performance management capabilities, announced it has raised $60 million in Series C funding. The round was led by TPG Growth. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners also participated in the round.
In a statement, Reflektive said it would use the money to invest in R&D to grow its cloud-based platform To do that, the company plans to double its engineering team and expand go-to-market strategies worldwide across customer segments and industry verticals.
Reflektive currently integrates with popular workplace tools such as Slack, Gmail and Outlook, enabling people to seamlessly incorporate feedback and goal alignment into their day-to-day workflows.
