In the interview with Andrea Trapp, Vice President Business International at Dropbox

Remote work is here to stay. No matter where we work, in the new work reality, we all spend the majority of our day in virtual offices—namely, behind our screens. But do the many new apps and tools, video conferences, and online platforms adequately address our new needs? The DFmag discusses this with Andrea Trapp. The conversation also covers new rules in the world of work and how work has evolved since the coronavirus pandemic, extended meetings, and the tools needed today to work quickly and efficiently.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Ms. Trapp, do you think that COVID-19 has definitively shattered all the rules of the working world and that we are currently experiencing a new era?

Andrea Trapp: Indeed, the terms “workplace” and “working hours” have taken on a new dimension. Knowledge work has—accelerated by the global COVID-19 outbreak—fully outgrown its physical office environment. Today, a workplace is anywhere work is being done, whether that’s a physical space or a digital environment. This presents managers with new challenges, because the more individuals in our teams work distributed according to their own rhythms, the better collaboration among them must be organized. Primarily, this is about standardizing and synchronizing workflows, seamless cooperation among colleagues who are not in the same room, often not even in the same country, as well as onboarding, knowledge transfer, company culture, transparent communication, and ultimately more efficient projects with better work results.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: That sounds like a full plate of tasks. What do you think of the current approaches to solutions; can they move us forward?

Andrea Trapp: Well, according to research, the number of video conferences has increased by 50% since 2020, and companies now use an average of 89 apps to get their daily work done. Unfortunately, however, many of these tools don’t support the management of workloads; instead, they overwhelm users and drown them in a sea of applications. Unnecessary and extended online meetings, searching for files to be edited collaboratively, or constantly switching between different applications prevent us from mending the pandemic-induced rift in the space-time continuum of work and working remotely with focus and fulfillment.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Understandable. So fundamentally, the right tools are needed to be able to pursue one's own tasks and activities in a meaningful way?

Yes, exactly. But unfortunately, many of the digital tools have not kept pace with the development of our digital workplaces. After all, modern technology should cleverly combine content and workflows, significantly help reduce recurring routine tasks, and always make people feel connected to each other. That's where our expertise comes into play, because Dropbox, as a pioneer of distributed digital work, focuses precisely on these core points. For this reason, to improve the new world of work, we have now significantly expanded some of our most important workflow and video communication tools.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: That sounds exciting. Can you tell us what's new and why?

Andrea Trapp: I'd be happy to! For many of us, remote work is synonymous with countless hours in video meetings, constant chatting, and typing endless emails. To move away from cumbersome and time-consuming communication, we have now launched our video recording tool Dropbox Capture in German. It enables asynchronous communication across different time zones through appealing video and audio messages with a personal touch.

Dropbox Capture allows users to record and edit messages as videos on their own screen or send video messages with screenshots or GIFs. This makes it easy and authentic to share ideas or feedback without having to schedule and hold an extra meeting for it. The interface of Dropbox Capture is simple and user-friendly. Users of the Dropbox Professional, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise subscription plans can record and edit videos of any length in 4K. With the Basic, Plus, and Family plans, users can record up to two hours in 1080p and edit video messages shorter than five minutes.

Nick Smith, Head of IT and Digital Operations at our customer 1000heads, recently summed up the collective internal benefits of such video messages very clearly: “When someone asks me how to do something, it's easiest to quickly record and send a video instead of starting a video call, sending an email, or creating a document. With a one-minute video explaining how to solve a problem, our employees can save the time they would have spent searching for errors. With Capture, we can simply make better use of our time.”

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: What additional innovative features do you offer for the new world of work?

Since the announcement of Capture last year, Dropbox has added a wide range of features: for example, video cropping, transcription, commenting, improved screenshot tagging, and the ability to track who has viewed a video as well as adding hyperlinks to recordings. It is now also possible to organize recordings into collections and create a large-scale knowledge database—such as materials for onboarding new employees or guides that can be easily accessed and shared with any number of team members. Dropbox Capture is now available in German, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Portuguese. Interested parties can find more information about Capture at https://www.dropbox.com/capture.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Wow, that’s quite a lot. Many thanks for the conversation and the insight into Dropbox Opportunities.