How RISS Uses Mailfence as the Perfect Sharepoint Alternative

In this Customer Success Story, we share the story of RISS, a non-profit organization in the telecommunications sector, who adopted Mailfence as the perfect Sharepoint alternative for document collaboration.

In our Customer Success series, we aim to highlight real-life stories of how our customers have tackled challenges and found success with Mailfence. You’ll get a true behind-the-scenes look at some of the challenges they were facing, as well as the tools and strategies they implemented to overcome them.

Meet RISS, a Data Management Non-Profit Organization

Founded in 2002, RISS is a non-profit organization that supports the implementation and use of a common database system of antenna sites for radiocommunication networks in Belgium.

Practically speaking, its mission is to prevent telecom companies in Belgium from building more antennas than necessary by allowing them to share the same sites. To do this, the organization manages, updates, and processes the data of these telecom companies.

By offering a collaborative suite of tools, most notably Mailfence Groups and Mailfence Documents, Mailfence was perfectly positioned to meet RISS’s needs. In particular, RISS needed a platform where documents could be easily shared across multiple organizations, and access rights could be granted based on the groups collaborators belong to.

Unfortunately, this was impossible with the previous tool they used, Sharepoint…

Why RISS Needed a Sharepoint Alternative

Prior to implementing Mailfence, RISS was using Sharepoint. However, as Pascal Veracchia, Business Group Digital Leader tells us, this was far from ideal.

“With Sharepoint, it was impossible for me to assume the role of an Administrator and manage the access of new users”, says Pascal. “On top of this, Sharepoint offered very little flexibility, the management of the app is cumbersome and the costs were high for a non-profit like us”.

The flexibility needed by Pascal is a common paint point with Big Tech. Products such as Microsoft’s Sharepoint offer little customization options. It’s a “one-size-fits-all” approach where you have the choice between two or three plans at most.

Working with Mailfence allowed RISS to truly lay out their business needs, and receive a custom-made solution.

In the end, it was the lack of autonomy that made RISS look for a Sharepoint alternative for document collaboration.

“It was impossible for me to be autonomous and manage the application myself”, adds Pascal. “Every time I needed to create a new user, I always had to go through our Sharepoint administrator, which was a problem when he was on holiday because there was no backup”.

Mailfence: the Perfect Sharepoint Alternative

Through one of his colleagues, Pascal had heard about Mailfence and the suite of secure collaboration tools it offered.

“When we started looking for a Sharepoint alternative, we had 3 criteria in mind: flexibility, autonomy, and costs. Mailfence ticked all those boxes”.

After a first demo of the product, Pascal was introduced to Mailfence Groups, which are collaboration spaces that allow for the sharing of data between users. Indeed, Mailfence allows for the creation of groups in order to share data, collaborate, and communicate. These groups can be used as intranets or extranets in order to manage projects, and collaborate with colleagues, partners or students.

“Mailfence gives me the capacity to define very precise access rights to documents, based on which Group a user belongs to”, adds Pascal. “Everyone can easily find all the information or documents relevant to them, because everything is centralised in one place. But the confidentiality of certain documents is always guaranteed, depending on the access rights I grant”.

Pascal also realized that the migration of data from Sharepoint to Mailfence would also be taken care of. This ended up being a major contributing factor toward the decision to move to Mailfence.

Indeed, according to a Gartner study, 83% of software migration projects exceed budget or timeline constraints or outright fail.

Replacing a tool that employees and collaborators have been using for years is a major challenge. That is why a proper data migration procedure is key. Pascal adds: “I really appreciated Mailfence’s support in the migration process. It was a real added value”.

What Mailfence Can Do For You

In the end, customization and self-management were the key factors that made RISS opt for Mailfence as a Sharepoint alternative. “I needed the autonomy to create and manage users myself” says Pascal. And that is exactly the pain point Mailfence was able to solve.

Since migrating to Mailfence, Pascal says that the collaboration has been “excellent”. “Mailfence is a great partner, and always finds solutions to my requests. They offer a range of tools that can be adapted to suit your needs and that you can manage yourself”.

Curious to know how Mailfence can help your business? Check out Mailfence for Business, and learn how Mailfence can help your organization leverage our secure communication and document collaboration tools:

• customized version of the Mailfence email solution (graphic presentation, available tools, user profiles, security requirements etc.);
• integration with different authentication or SSO providers;
• your own email domain names;
• control panel and API to create, upgrade and manage your accounts;
• storage and features based on your actual needs, not a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Is your organization also looking for a Sharepoint alternative? Feel free to get in touch with us to see how Mailfence can solve your document collaboration needs!