Box debuted Relay, a business process automation tool designed to string together recruiting, budgeting, and sales activities across a range of systems, back in September 2016. The no-code, cloud-hosted workflow creator was designed in partnership with IBM and built on Box Workflow (its progenitor), and it enabled users to track real-time job progress and to collaborate with others internally and externally.
Box CEO Aaron Levie teased a new version of Relay at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco in February, and today, the company lifted the curtains on the redesign. The new Relay features a supercharged workflow engine, a streamlined dashboard, and menus of new triggers and conditions — and that’s just the start.
In addition to the revamped workflow designer and engine, both of which support sequential and parallel multistep processes, Relay can now route content based on metadata attributes like date, dropdown, multi-select, and open text fields. Its enhanced dashboard offers visibility into history, allowing process owners to see exportable lists of who created, updated, or deleted workflow or to elect users to create and manage their own workflows. And perhaps most importantly, Relay is now more tightly integrated with the rest of Box, letting it benefit not only from Box Platform APIs but from prebuilt integrations with Microsoft’s Office 365 and DocuSign, automatic push notifications, and collaboration features.
The new Relay is currently in private beta ahead of general availability in June. It’ll be available in both a free Lite version and paid version, Box says.
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Box also today announced updates to Box Tasks, its tool optimized for processes like one-step review and approvals, and File Request Links, a nifty feature aimed at simplifying content submission collection from coworkers, partners, and customers. An updated Task Center interface collates all tasks in a single view, with push notifications that enable users to approve tasks from their phones. Folks can now assign tasks to groups and get exportable reports on what’s been rejected or approved, or optionally trigger Tasks in a Box Relay workflow. And with File Request Links, users can generate shareable URLs, drag-and-drop files into a folder without having to sign up for a Box account, and enable uploaded content to automatically kick off a process in Relay.
The new Tasks is in public beta and will be generally available to all Box users for free when it debuts. Request File Link is available now.
“Workflow in the enterprise is broken, especially when it involves business content. Many of today’s solutions are disconnected from the apps teams already use, locked behind IT, and don’t support secure external collaboration, which is fundamental in today’s global, digital economy,” said chief product officer Jeetu Patel. “The all-new Box Relay brings powerful automation to our increasingly collaborative business processes. Enterprises now have one platform for secure content management, workflow, and collaboration that’s built for how we work today.”
The Relay, Box Tasks, and File Request Links launch alongside three new bundled Box Enterprise Suite offerings: Digital Business, Digital Workplace, and Digital Workplace Global. All three include built-in volume-discounted list prices, Box Governance for content lifecycle management, and Box Premier Services for enterprise-grade support.
