Dropbox plans to unveil several new ties between popular document formats and enterprise-software applications later on Tuesday, part of an overall product design trend that acknowledges how software-as-a-service customers want flexibility from their work tools.
Dropbox Extensions will allow Dropbox users to tap into other formats and services from within the Dropbox console, such as editing a PDF or sending a document out for an e-signature. Initial partners include Adobe, Autodesk, DocuSign, and Vimeo, and others will follow in due course, Dropbox plans to announce in a post.
A new generation of office workers expects to use the tools that make the most sense for themselves and their co-workers, after a decade of poorly designed enterprise software packages forced down their throats. The SaaS revolution, which made it possible to access a well-designed and performant application on a subscription basis, allowed dozens of specialized tools to flourish, and we’re not going back.
However, while this flexibility is nice, there’s still a need to collaboration across tools without logging into several different services to complete a task. That has led to projects like Dropbox Extensions, which will join similar efforts unveiled earlier this year from Google, Box, and Seattle’s Azuqua to give customers a way to access other popular apps while staying within the workflow that works best for their situation.
The new extensions will become available on November 27th.
