Secure Project Spaces: A Better Way to Work Together
Working with people outside your organisation is unavoidable. Auditors need access to documents, advisers need information to complete projects, suppliers need files and customers need somewhere to share sensitive data.
The problem is that traditional ways of working don’t always make this easy or secure. Email chains become difficult to manage, attachments are downloaded and saved in different places, and it can quickly become unclear who has access to what.
For projects involving sensitive information, a secure project space can provide a much more controlled way to work together.
Keep everything in one place
Rather than sending documents back and forth by email, a secure project space provides a central environment where authorised people can access, share and manage the information they need.
This can be particularly useful during audits, due diligence exercises, customer projects or work involving external advisers and suppliers. Everyone can work from the same set of information without creating multiple copies across different inboxes and systems.
Version control also helps users track changes and, where necessary, return to an earlier version of a document.
Decide who can do what
Giving someone access to a project doesn’t mean they should automatically have access to everything.
Permissions are therefore an important part of secure collaboration. Organisations should be able to control access at individual user and folder level, including whether someone can view, edit, share, delete or download particular information.
Documents can also be made view-only, while download rights can be restricted or removed. This gives project managers much greater control when sensitive information needs to be shared with people outside the business.
DOQEX Project Spaces, for example, allow project managers to manage members and permissions themselves rather than relying on IT administrators.
Know what’s happening to your information
Auditability becomes particularly important when several organisations are collaborating on the same project.
A secure project space should provide a clear record of activity, allowing project managers to understand how documents have been accessed and shared. Notifications can also alert relevant users to upload and download activity.
This visibility can be valuable during an audit, but it also supports everyday governance by providing a clearer picture of what is happening to sensitive information.
Think about the end of the project too
Security shouldn’t stop when a project finishes.
Documents that were required for a six-month project shouldn’t necessarily remain available indefinitely. Organisations need to consider how long information should be retained, when access should expire and what happens to project data afterwards.
DOQEX allows organisations to set document lifetimes, project expiry dates and individual membership expiry dates, as well as policies for post-project data migration. This helps prevent forgotten project folders becoming repositories of information that nobody is actively managing.
Make secure collaboration straightforward
Perhaps most importantly, security needs to work for the people using it. If external collaboration is complicated, employees and partners may resort to easier alternatives.
A secure project space should make it simple to invite the right people, share and request files, manage permissions and collaborate without creating unnecessary administration.
Whether you’re working with an auditor for a few weeks, sharing documents with a long-term supplier or managing a complex customer project, the principle is the same: make collaboration easy, but don’t lose control of the information being shared.
Secure Project Spaces: A Better Way to Work Together
Working with people outside your organisation is unavoidable. Auditors need access to documents, advisers need information to complete projects, suppliers need files and customers need somewhere to share sensitive data.
The problem is that traditional ways of working don’t always make this easy or secure. Email chains become difficult to manage, attachments are downloaded and saved in different places, and it can quickly become unclear who has access to what.
For projects involving sensitive information, a secure project space can provide a much more controlled way to work together.
Keep everything in one place
Rather than sending documents back and forth by email, a secure project space provides a central environment where authorised people can access, share and manage the information they need.
This can be particularly useful during audits, due diligence exercises, customer projects or work involving external advisers and suppliers. Everyone can work from the same set of information without creating multiple copies across different inboxes and systems.
Version control also helps users track changes and, where necessary, return to an earlier version of a document.
Decide who can do what
Giving someone access to a project doesn’t mean they should automatically have access to everything.
Permissions are therefore an important part of secure collaboration. Organisations should be able to control access at individual user and folder level, including whether someone can view, edit, share, delete or download particular information.
Documents can also be made view-only, while download rights can be restricted or removed. This gives project managers much greater control when sensitive information needs to be shared with people outside the business.
DOQEX Project Spaces, for example, allow project managers to manage members and permissions themselves rather than relying on IT administrators.
Know what’s happening to your information
Auditability becomes particularly important when several organisations are collaborating on the same project.
A secure project space should provide a clear record of activity, allowing project managers to understand how documents have been accessed and shared. Notifications can also alert relevant users to upload and download activity.
This visibility can be valuable during an audit, but it also supports everyday governance by providing a clearer picture of what is happening to sensitive information.
Think about the end of the project too
Security shouldn’t stop when a project finishes.
Documents that were required for a six-month project shouldn’t necessarily remain available indefinitely. Organisations need to consider how long information should be retained, when access should expire and what happens to project data afterwards.
DOQEX allows organisations to set document lifetimes, project expiry dates and individual membership expiry dates, as well as policies for post-project data migration. This helps prevent forgotten project folders becoming repositories of information that nobody is actively managing.
Make secure collaboration straightforward
Perhaps most importantly, security needs to work for the people using it. If external collaboration is complicated, employees and partners may resort to easier alternatives.
A secure project space should make it simple to invite the right people, share and request files, manage permissions and collaborate without creating unnecessary administration.
Whether you’re working with an auditor for a few weeks, sharing documents with a long-term supplier or managing a complex customer project, the principle is the same: make collaboration easy, but don’t lose control of the information being shared.
Find out more about Project Spaces with DOQEX.
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