Thinkso Saves 80 Hours Per Month by Replacing Local Server with Egnyte

“Egnyte is extremely fast. With our old setup, our designers couldn’t work directly off our server; it was so slow that they had to copy everything over to their desktops. Switching to Egnyte has made a monumental difference in our ability to work quickly and efficiently.”

Elizabeth Amorose

Senior Partner

Thinkso is a content-driven design and marketing agency based in New York City. From brand strategy and identity design to content creation to website design, Thinkso provides its clients with a one-stop shop for all their marketing needs. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Thinkso to give up its New York City office space, the management team faced a big challenge—shifting their employees to a remote setup without having an efficient way to access their work files.

Challenge: An Aging Local Server and Fragmented File Location

A local server had been the lifeblood of Thinkso for 14 years, housing all its intellectual property and data. But it had long passed its life expectancy and the company’s designers and project managers were frustrated by the painfully slow transfer times. As Elizabeth Amorose, one of Thinkso’s founders and senior partners, explains, “Our files are the core of our business. They are our work product, so the slow transfer speed was a really big issue.”

Complicating things further were fragmented file locations across the company, with certain file types stored on Google Drive and others on the local server. This made collaboration difficult and inefficient—a major problem for a company where multiple people in different roles work together on one project simultaneously.

Security was also on Amorose’s mind, as she noticed that the vetting process from potential clients was getting tougher. Clients were increasingly concerned about the security of their data, and Thinkso needed a solution that could alleviate those concerns. “We didn’t have an easy way for our internal team to monitor the activity of our local server, and we had heard horror stories about other companies having their servers hacked,” she says. “It was critical that we transition to a secure cloud-based system before getting into a situation where we would lose out on a client project because our server didn’t meet their new security requirements.”

After dealing with these issues and concerns for years, Thinkso’s need for a better file management system finally reached the tipping point. With the company shifting to a fully remote model, logging into the lagging server via VPN would no longer cut it. The Thinkso team needed a solution to their data storage woes, and they needed it fast—a hard deadline loomed for moving out of their office and giving up their server.

After viewing demos of potential cloud-based file management platforms such as Canto and pCloud, Amorose was left feeling defeated, noting that they all seemed both overly complicated and unable to meet Thinkso’s needs. Then a trusted agency partner sent Thinkso the name of a file management software provider they highly recommended: Egnyte.

Solution: A Cloud-Based Platform Built for Speed

With its robust and secure content collaboration features, Egnyte’s Enterprise plan met all of Thinkso’s requirements. Egnyte’s Professional Services Team got to work transferring the company’s more than 910,000 assets to the new system and completed the job in a matter of weeks—well ahead of the deadline they’d been given.

Amorose recalls that her team was blown away by how smooth and quick the transition process was. “It was amazing. The entire implementation took less than a month,” she says. “We didn’t even need formal training, because Egnyte’s platform is so intuitive.”

After Thinkso’s file management system received this much-needed reboot, the reviews from the company’s staff came pouring in—and they were overwhelmingly positive.

“Egnyte is so fast,” Amorose says. “With our old setup, our designers couldn’t work off our server. It was so slow that they had to copy everything over to their desktops. Switching to Egnyte has made a monumental difference in our ability to work quickly and efficiently.”

Egnyte has also addressed Thinkso’s long-standing issue of file fragmentation, providing a centralized solution with seamless integrations. “Before the switch, we had some files on Google Drive and others on our local server,” Amorose explains. “Now with Egnyte, we’ve married the two systems, and it’s made our project managers’ lives so much easier. All the files for a project can be stored together, in one place, providing a comprehensive view and enabling the creative team to easily find what they need.”

Amorose is also relieved that their work and confidential client files are now secure. “Previously, we didn’t have an easy way of monitoring the behind-the-scenes activity of our local server. We had to rely on our external IT team for that,” she says. “We love that Egnyte gives our operations team a bird's-eye view into user activity and file access across our environment.”

“We’re a professional services firm, so time is money. With Egnyte, we’re no longer spending hours each day downloading giant files—and we're saving a ton of money as a result.”

Elizabeth Amorose

Senior Partner

Results: Increased Productivity, Profitability, and Company Morale

Switching to Egnyte’s cloud-based system has significantly eased the burden of what could have been a difficult transition—moving from an in-person office environment to fully remote. With its new ability to work within a platform that is fast and simple to use, Thinkso is reaping the benefits.

Thinkso’s designers estimate a 10-fold increase in speed since implementing Egnyte, resulting in 80 hours of time saved each month. “We’re a professional services firm, so time is money,” notes Amorose. “With Egnyte, we’re no longer spending hours each day just downloading or uploading giant files—and we're saving a ton of money as a result.”

She is now confident that Thinkso’s file management system will pass inspection by prospective clients’ cybersecurity teams, increasing the likelihood of landing big-ticket business.

But the biggest reward has been the decreased frustration and increased morale among the agency’s employees who continually rave about their experience using Egnyte. “We had our designers and project managers literally thank us for choosing Egnyte’s platform because their jobs have gotten easier. The speed and ease of use has added significant efficiency to our workflow, and our team is very happy,” says Amorose.

As for future plans, Amorose notes that they’ve barely scratched the surface of Egnyte’s many features, as Thinkso continues to settle into their new virtual setup. The team is eager to explore Egnyte’s other capabilities, including ensuring that everyone’s laptops are backed up to a secure, central location—a necessity now that staff are dispersed across the country.

“Egnyte has exceeded our expectations, and we’ve just gotten started,” Amorose explains.