Why Birch Leaf Global Chose Onehub for Online File Sharing
Once again it is time to visit another conversation with a customer at Onehub. This week I spent some time speaking with Bruce Ricciuti, managing member of Birch Leaf Global. Bruce gave us some insight as to why the customization and flexibility of Onehub created the right file sharing solution for their company. By using Onehub Birch Leaf Global is able to better provide their investors with information in a quick, secure, and professional manner.
Stephanie Chinn (Onehub): Please start by sharing with us a little bit about your company and what exactly it is you do there.
Bruce Ricciuti (Birch Leaf Global): Birch Leaf Global is a real estate investment company that funds commercial, university, hospital, and institutional projects across the US by finding foreign capital sources. Our company promotes projects with developers by marketing the projects to investors in China, Latin America, India, Brazil, and other foreign countries. My position at Birch Leaf Global is managing member.
Stephanie Chinn (Onehub): How did your company hear about Onehub?
Bruce Ricciuti (Birch Leaf Global): Previous to Onehub we were using a competitive product, which we were constantly having problems with. Eventually we decided that we needed to look into another file sharing product. I spent some time researching other solutions and software platforms in the file sharing market and I quickly came to the conclusion that the customization offered by Onehub made it the best option for our company.
Stephanie Chinn (Onehub): What were some of the problems that you ran into when you were using the other product?
Bruce Ricciuti (Birch Leaf Global): Well with the other product we ran into quite a few problems that sadly, we felt the company was unwilling to address. Our biggest issue was with the product’s notification system. When sending messages to our investors we often send the same message, but we don’t necessarily want those investors to have access to one another. With this particular product we were having problems with sending messages that only allowed the recipient to reply directly to us, and not to everyone who was receiving the email. Having a “reply to all” function that was unable to be turned off caused a couple embarrassing incidents for our company. Ultimately we were looking for a way to create a virtual data room where we could customize whom we sent our information to, the amount of access those individuals had to one another, and also customize the manner in which we received information back from those individuals. Another issue that we were facing with the previous product was that our investors were having difficulties with the basic usability of the product. We were constantly receiving phone calls about log in issues and questions regarding account set up. However since switching to Onehub we have eliminated all of those types of issues.
Stephanie Chinn (Onehub): And how would you say that your company is using Onehub today?
Bruce Ricciuti (Birch Leaf Global): Well as with any real estate project there is an extreme amount of data and property information being exchanged and reviewed. This is especially so when you have investors that are looking to invest five hundred thousand to one million dollars into a project, which is true for most of the investors that we are working with. Overall we use Onehub to automate the flow of information we send to our investors. Once we qualify an investor, we will send them an invitation to the hub that we have set up for that specific project. Onehub makes it simple for us to give our investors quick and easy access to videos, pictures, site plans, building plans, and legal documents pertaining to the project they are reviewing and considering. In this way, Onehub allows for a type of due diligence that is secure, but that we can also customize to whom we send the information. The best part is the amount of time we save by just having to upload the information once. After the information has been uploaded all we have to do is simply click a button and we can send that information to any interested investor.
Stephanie Chinn (Onehub): What are some of the major benefits you have found since switching to Onehub?
Bruce Ricciuti (Birch Leaf Global): One of the main benefits has been how easily our investors have adapted to using the product. We are constantly working with individuals from all over the world. In working with different countries the language barrier is of course always going to be a concern, however with Onehub we have yet to run into any problems with clients successfully logging in and accessing the information they wish to review. The way Onehub is set up allows for individuals to catch on quickly and understand how to navigate without any type of tutorial or explanation. Even the novice computer user can just go log in and immediately feel like they know their way around the product. Another thing that we appreciated about Onehub is that you make it so easy-to-use, while maintaining a very professional look and feel to the site at the same time. The professionalism allows us to share the hub directly with our investors without having to do any type of design work on our part. Overall using Onehub was not only a cost effective choice, but it also instantly increased our productivity.
Stephanie Chinn (Onehub): What do your colleagues, and investors say about Onehub?
Bruce Ricciuti (Birch Leaf Global): We have received nothing but positive feedback. The best thing that we have found since switching to Onehub is that we have received absolutely no phone calls regarding questions about the service. Again we understand that when working with investors from all over the world language barriers can be a problem, but with Onehub our overseas investors have been able to easily and quickly access all information. As a company we have no complaints, it is probably one of the best external products that we work with here, the one we are most happy with.