The software situation in enterprises is an unholy mess. From the top level management to employees, everyone has to be at the mercy of the feudal lords also known as system admins. Your productivity is dependant on whatever version of software they choose to impose on you. And if the software isn’t a bloatware, there is a very good chance it won’t be bought and used in production.
Document management and Intranet are two domains that receive hardly any attention at all. If you are really lucky and the company has deep pockets, you might get to use Microsoft Sharepoint – which is just about alright. But, for everyone else, it’s so good to see that web based alternatives like Papyrs are hard at work helping businesses manage information painlessly.
If you are interested in knowing how to set up and put Papyrs to use in your organization, do read on.
Overview
A drag & drop intranet is the easiest way to collaborate with colleagues and clients, and Papyrs offers just that. The web app lets you easily share and collect documents, notes, online forms, and all the stuff you need in your office.
Intranet pages can be created with rich text with images, attachments, checklists and more. And every single aspect of the design is done with drag & drop. Once done, you can share the pages with your team and control who can only view and who can make changes to the pages.
Overview
Papyrs is currently in public beta and is free. In the near future there will be tiered pricing plans, but the developers do promise discounts for are all beta testers.
Getting Started
Papyrs Homepage
A sign up form with just three fields assists you to create a secure URL for your intranet. Instead of a dashboard, you will land on a homepage populated with sample data giving you a brief idea what you can do. You can start by editing this page or go ahead by creating a new page like I did.
Creating a Page
Creating a New Page
Hit the New Page button on the top right corner to create a new page. After naming the page, choose who else should be invited to access the page. By default, you and your team are added and click on the mail icon to send them all a message about the new page you have created. Use the drop down menu to set the level of access permissions to the people you plan to invite. If you organized pages by various categories, you can assign one to this page and note that any page can be set to be the homepage in a single click. And, finally select if you want to make this page open to public (searchable by Google) and with that done, you have created a brand new page.
Adding Documents and Images
Page Options
Wondering were all that hyped about drag and drop elements are? To access them use the Edit option from the Page drop down menu. I was blown away by the ease with which I was able create various elements without having to hardly anything.
Edit Options & Drag and Drop Elements
From image galleries to checkboxes and forms, all you have to do is drag the appropriate module and drop it in its place in the page.
Checkboxes and Form Created by Me
In the same manner, you can add a document upload section too. It’s this ability of Papyrs to allows admins to decide where all the data and data collection tools go that appeals to me.
Access Control and Customization Options
Access control settings for you own team has to be set from the People section of the Settings page. All users you add here will have full admin rights and the permissions you set here will be automatically inherited across the board. So exercise caution before adding people to your team. I suggest you to invite everyone from your team who shouldn’t be given editing privileges, just like the way you invite other users. With such granular sharing and permission controls, you can rest assured that only the right people are accessing materials that they’re supposed to.
Customization Options
If you are not a fan of the white background, go to the Themes section of the Settings page. From here, you can change the color and font of every inch of the page.
Final Thoughts
You’ve gotta admire the courage of the developers who have chosen to fight with giants with massive war chests in the enterprise software space. Even for those willing to break away from the clutches of a firewall and overpriced software that run behind it, free alternatives like Google Sites and Alfresco are available. It’s in this scenario Papyrs looks like an interesting startup to watch out.
Without doubt Papyrs offers a rich, intuitive intranet solution to streamline and organize your company’s work flow. Clever usage of drag and drop and customizable themes help you hit the ground running instantly. If I had a company, I would gladly choose Papyrs over the current native app alternatives.
Share Your Thoughts!
Which app or package do you use in your business to manage documents and the Intranet? What in your opinion would be the ideal price point for an app like Papyrs?