Microsoft Outlook, Atlassian and Autodesk headline new Dropbox integrations

Dropbox has launched a new platform to expand its integration functionality, unveiling a set of APIs and developer tools to allow developers to expand Dropbox's capability to other software packages and IT solutions.

Kicking off the launch of its DBX Platform, Dropbox also revealed it would add new integrations with Atlassian’s JIRA, Microsoft Outlook and Autodesk’s AutoCAD, developed in consultation with Dropbox and each respective vendor.

The company said it now had more than 500,000 developers building applications and services on the DBX Platform and had exceeding two billion daily API calls. 

“The rise of new productivity tools has changed how people collaborate, but at the cost of reduced transparency and lost time,” Ross Piper, head of ecosystem and developer platforms at Dropbox said.

“DBX Platform is the connective tissue for teams and businesses of all sizes. By giving developers greater capabilities to innovate, and strengthening our partner ecosystem, we are able to help teams collaborate in context with their work and the tools they love.”

Headline integrations with leading vendors begin today, with partner integration for Atlassian’s JIRA now generally available. Dropbox has launched sign-ups for early access to a new add-in for Microsoft Outlook, and also announced an upcoming integration with Autodesk that allows users to work directly between Dropbox and their AutoCAD desktop environment, building on the current AutoCAD and Autodesk cloud mobile applications.

Dropbox said the new integrations strengthened an already deep ecosystem of integrations from DBX partners including with Adobe, DocuSign, Facebook, Google, Salesforce and Slack.

With the expansion of the DBX Platform, Dropbox is releasing three new APIs for general availability at no cost. These include the Metadata API, enabling developers to “assign custom metadata labels and values to Dropbox files through their third-party applications, making information more easily searchable”; the File Requests API, enabling developers to automate the creation of file requests and embed requests into other workflows; and the Paper API, which enables developers to build Paper integrations directly into third-party applications, with create and edit functionality.

Dan Iversen, Asia Pacific head of solutions architecture at Dropbox, said the partner opportunities for APIs were great, as the company looked more at how it could solve software integration issues in businesses.

“There are different kinds of partners, there are the software vendors, building integration then there are our channel partners and ISVs that are expanding the Dropbox capabilities,” he said. 

“In software vendors, there are a lot of great Australian tech companies integrating with Dropbox, including Atlassian with JIRA, and there are companies like Aconex that have integrated with Dropbox, but also our implementation partners. We’re seeing a huge uptake there as well.

“For example, what we see quite a bit, is where our partner ecosystem is using the Dropbox APIs to automate and streamline workflows. In the construction industry we’ve got a few companies that use Dropbox as a file server on a construction site to manage the construction bid process and really everything around their business.

“What they found [in that industry] is that there is a certain level of commonality between projects, like the structure of some construction projects have similarities in terms of the bid process and project management, change requests and reporting, and so what they've done with the Dropbox APIs developed ways for businesses to very easily spin up a new construction project and have all of the folders and file structures automatically created behind the scenes. So that instantly everybody’s ready to work on the new project.”

Of the hero vendor integrations with Microsoft, Atlassian and AutoCAD, Iversen said not only were there key functionality improvements beneficial for users, but provided new opportunities for partners to latch onto in developing IT rollouts for customers.