Yet another internet file-sharing service is making a big push into big businesses.
On Tuesday, YouSendIt unveiled Workstream, a tool that gives businesses a means of not only transferring files among employees but sharing them with partners, vendors and customers outside the company. The tool plugs into SharePoint, Microsoft's widely used collaboration platform.
Workstream is designed for moving large files unsuited to email. "[Businesses] can't do a lot of the email payloads that we allow to happen," says Brian Curry, YouSendIt's chief product officer. Integrating with Microsoft Active Directory, the tool also lets you control who has access to files and who doesn't, encrypt and password-protect data on mobile devices, and remotely remove data from devices.
Like Box.net and Dropbox, YouSendIt began life as a way for the Average Joe to send and store files via the net. And like those two much discussed startups, it has repackaged its technology for businesses. In addition to Workstream, the company sells for-pay versions of its free consumer service.
This is a common story. Today, many startups are finding their way into businesses through the back door. Then they turn around and offer these businesses a means of overseeing the software their employees are already using.
YouSendIt says its service has 28 million registered users in 193 countries. About 550,000 are paid subscribers, but the company says its tools already span 98 percent of the Fortune 500.
