Enhancing PDF collaboration for smarter content management

Nutrient’s leading-edge document processing technology accelerated our PDF previewing capabilities in the Box mobile app, helping us achieve our mobile UX goals months earlier than planned.

Box is the intelligent content cloud for more than 115,000 organizations, and it offers more than 1,500 integrations. With its secure collaboration, content management, and workflow options, Box offers one secure place for an organization’s content.

Box has been partnering with Nutrient since 2013 to deliver industry-leading document viewing and collaboration capabilities. Klaudyna Szpara, a product manager at Box, spoke about this partnership and how Nutrient has empowered the company to provide enhanced features and user experience improvements that are critical to its customers on an accelerated time frame.

Addressing feature and partnership needs

Content is the most valuable asset for the majority of Box’s customers, making accessing that content seamlessly a top priority. Box needed a partner ‌that was scalable, maintainable, and reliable to add advanced features to its platform and continue to address the security requirements of its customers. According to Szpara, “our competitive edge lies in offering an exceptional user experience that’s backed up with strong security foundations” — and Nutrient delivered PDF SDK components that enabled Box to implement customer-requested enhancements, such as editing and high-fidelity rendering, while also shortening development time.

Prior to partnering with Nutrient, the team at Box spent considerable time evaluating whether to build an in-house solution or work with an external partner. The company ultimately determined that partnering would result in faster time to market at a lower total cost, and decided that “Nutrient was the best offering on the market.” This decision proved instrumental, especially given that Box adopted Nutrient four years before Apple released PDFKit for iOS.

Seamless integration and enhanced user experience: The benefits of partnering with Nutrient

Szpara shared that Box trusts Nutrient, noting that “Nutrient not only helps us deliver a great experience to our customers when it comes to previewing files and performing various actions with their content, but the integration is also seamless. We don’t have any issues when it comes to connecting Box with Nutrient.” Because of this, Box is able to provide its customers with a smooth and reliable experience when previewing or collaborating on their documents.

Once Nutrient fulfilled the initial requirements, Box developers were invited to provide strategic direction on new features. The Box engineering team particularly appreciated the ability to work efficiently without spending excessive time on researching engineering and integration requirements; Nutrient’s solutions enabled Box to focus on its core platform, enhancing overall productivity. Bartosz, an engineer at Box, shared insights from their side of the business.

“It’s a great pleasure to both use the Nutrient library and cooperate with the Nutrient team. All our requests and issues are handled quickly by support and analyzed in depth, and any issues are resolved in a timely manner. Thanks to outstanding and detailed documentation, it’s easy to find information about any aspect of the library. Clear structure makes it easy to implement Nutrient in our mobile product.” - Bartosz, mobile iOS engineer

The continuous assistance and regular updates from Nutrient have been crucial to the successful collaboration. Throughout this partnership, [Box developers] found it easy to collaborate on requesting updates, new features, or support, which reinforced the company’s decision to invest in the relationship with Nutrient. The cost-effectiveness of implementing Nutrient SDKs was also a major consideration, with stakeholders highlighting the significant cost savings as a key factor in their decision-making.

Furthermore, the availability of test versions of Nutrient enabled the Box team to experiment with different features before fully integrating them. As a result, the company made informed decisions about leveraging new functionality for its platform. Comprehensive documentation further simplified the understanding and adoption of new features, which reduced the need for extensive research, minimizing disruptions to the development team and facilitating smoother brainstorming and solution proposals. Szpara emphasized how much time it saved the development team, saying that “it’s amazing how easy our developers can do work without being forced to research different aspects for hours.”

Nutrient’s solutions played a pivotal role in addressing the Box team’s challenges by providing a reliable and cost-effective environment. The seamless integration, robust support, ease of testing, and comprehensive documentation collectively contributed to an enhanced development workflow and an improved customer experience.

Box’s robust solutions built on foundational capabilities delivered by Nutrient

Nutrient’s SDKs enhance Box’s ability to address the advanced PDF capability needs of its customers. By providing secure document viewing and collaboration features, Nutrient guarantees users can securely interact with documents within the Box platform.

Additionally, Nutrient’s support for data residency requirements, with storage options in multiple regions, further enhances the security and compliance of the Box platform. This alignment with security objectives strengthens Box’s ability to meet the diverse needs of its customers, fostering trust and confidence in its platform.

Throughout the partnership, Box has consistently received exceptional customer service from Nutrient.

“Nutrient’s responsiveness and proactive approach in addressing inquiries and implementing feature requests have strengthened the collaboration between the two companies. Box developers appreciate how Nutrient values their input, evident in their inclusion in business reviews and roadmap presentations. This level of engagement underscores Nutrient’s commitment to aligning its product direction with Box’s needs and preferences.” -Klaudyna Szpara, product manager

One notable instance where Nutrient’s solution significantly contributed to Box’s success was during the development of Box for Apple Vision Pro. Leveraging Nutrient’s robust preview component, Box was able to streamline the development process and guarantee timely delivery of the product for the Apple Vision Pro release. Nutrient not only provided the necessary functionality, but also offered the flexibility and scalability required to address the project’s complexities. As a result, Box is able to navigate challenges with confidence and deliver a seamless user experience to its mobile users.

Future innovations and collaborations

Szpara expressed enthusiasm for numerous initiatives on Box’s roadmap, particularly those enhancing document management, editing, and on-the-go workflows. She looks forward to future collaborations with Nutrient to further innovate and meet customer needs effectively. The partnership underscores the role of Nutrient in addressing challenges facing Box’s Intelligent Content Cloud and fostering innovation that accelerates intelligent content management.