Startup Idea: File Sharing Software for Enhanced Data Management
I work in data management for a small production company with multiple locations across the US. My department's general process involves sending large video and audio files to other branches, often through common file sharing hosts.
Because we share large packages between branches on a daily basis, not everything makes it through 100% of the time. When this happens, it's not always easy to locate the exact files that didn't make it through without going through the lists and cross checking, so we usually end up re-sending an entire package. Due to this, we end up sending duplicate files, which takes up time, storage, and creates a lot of headache. Unfortunately, we haven't found a quick way to manage whether files have been sent over already, so it ends up being quite a mess when we are trying to consolidate sent/received lists.
Our current system involves a very archaic process of pulling the file names into a text program, and comparing them with the lists of files received in our other branch's database. However, sometimes filepaths are not consistent within branches, so the naming conventions are incorrect, or a file will slip by without someone noticing.
It would be great if we could have a file sharing software that separates our packages, and somehow keeps track of the files that have been sent and received in a fashion that would avoid us sending duplicates all the time. It seems easy enough, but we haven't found a direct solution yet. I assume this problem would help many company databases in their data management processes as well. We've tried using a few different databases, but so far nothing has specifically helped this problem. Currently, we cross check our lists by hand, with text programs, etc.