Share Smarter, Not Harder: How Prodify Simplifies Product File Sharing

Let’s be honest—sending the same file one person at a time feels like something straight out of the dial-up era. It’s time to say goodbye to copy-paste chaos and embrace a better, more intuitive way to share your product content.

In this post, we’ll show you how Prodify’s Group Sharing feature makes it easy to share files with everyone who matters, from your internal teams to distributors, resellers, and AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) professionals searching for products to specify.  

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why file sharing still feels stuck in the past
• Why Prodify should be your go-to for file sharing
• What Group Sharing is  
• 3 key benefits of Group Sharing
• Group Sharing best practices

Why File Sharing Feels Stuck in the Past

When it comes to sharing files, manufacturing hasn’t fully caught up. According to Aras,  about 52% of manufacturers still use email or basic tools to distribute key product files, and 49% are still relying on face-to-face meetings.

Why Old-School File Sharing Doesn’t Work Anymore:

1. It slows down collaboration: Waiting for in-person events, hunting through email threads, and resending attachments eats up valuable time. ‍
2. It risks data exposure: One wrong email address or forward can send sensitive files to the wrong person, while basic file-sharing tools often lack the permission controls needed to keep your content secure. ‍
3. It’s not scalable: As teams grow and projects expand, manually managing who has what quickly becomes unmanageable. ‍
4. It lacks visibility: You can’t see who’s accessed or edited a file, leaving you in the dark about engagement and accountability. ‍
5. It’s easy to lose track of versions: When files are shared via email or basic tools, it becomes static. Every edit creates a new version floating around on someone’s computer.

All these challenges make one thing clear: building product manufacturers need a better way to share their CAD, BIM, and 3D files, as well as key marketing and sales materials.

Why Prodify Should be Your Go-To for File Sharing

Sharing files shouldn’t be a chore, and with Prodify, it isn’t. Whether you’re collaborating with your team, partners, or AEC prospects, Prodify makes it quick, easy, and secure to share anything from individual assets to entire folders.

Just pick what you want to share, add your recipients’ emails, include an optional message, and hit send. Prefer a link instead? No problem—copy a shareable link and send it wherever it works best for you.  

And that’s just the start. One of the most powerful features in Prodify is Group Sharing, so let’s take a closer look at that now!

What Is Group Sharing?

Group Sharing lets you create custom groups of people and share your content with all of them at once—no more sending files one person at a time. Here are some examples of custom groups you can create:

Internal Groups

• Marketing team
• Sales team
• Product team
• Design team

External Groups

• Distributors
• Resellers
• AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) firm contacts

Once your groups are set up, simply share your file with the group of your choice and every member will get access. It really is that easy!

3 Key Benefits of Group Sharing

1. Share Smarter

Why send the same file over and over again when you can do it once? Set up custom groups that fit the way your team actually works, and watch your productivity take off.  

Let’s look at an example: your design team has just uploaded a new 3D model that marketing can use in upcoming product brochures, and sales reps can send out to prospects. Instead of sending it to each member individually, they can share it with the entire marketing and sales teams at once.

Sidenote: You might be thinking, “Wait — my marketing and sales teams don’t have access to 3D software like SketchUp, so they can’t open 3D models.” That’s another challenge Prodify solves. With our Visualizer tool, anyone can instantly preview design files—no special software needed. Learn more about Visualizer here.

2. Share Faster

Let’s do the math. If it takes you a minute to send a file and you’ve got 10 recipients, that’s 10 minutes gone. Now imagine all 10 people are part of custom groups in Prodify. You share the file once, and everyone gets it within a minute. That’s 10x faster!

Here’s another scenario: if you need to share multiple files with a specific group (such as Regional Distributors), you can simply share an entire folder instead of individual files. The group will automatically have access to the most up-to-date versions, along with any new files added to the folder—no re-sharing needed.

3. Share Safer

Only share what matters and keep everything else secure.  

Did you know that 69% of companies don’t even realize their employees are using unapproved file-sharing tools? That’s a huge security risk. With Group Sharing, you can take back control. Decide exactly how people can interact with your files and adjust permissions as your teams and partners grow.

Group Sharing Best Practices

• Need to share the same asset with multiple teams? No need to go one by one—you can send it to several groups at once!
• If you have multiple assets to share with a specific group, create a dedicated folder that matches your custom group’s name. Add all related files to that folder to make sharing easy.
• Teams and partners change over time. Update your groups whenever you need—you can add or remove members in just a few clicks.
• Before sharing, take a moment to set your user permissions. Decide who can view or edit your files, so every user has just the right amount of access and your content stays protected.
• Take advantage of Prodify’s auto-updating links. Any time you update an asset, everyone you’ve shared it with automatically sees the most recent version—no need to send a new link!

The Future of File Sharing

With Prodify, you can share product content with all the right people, all at once. Ready to experience a faster, simpler, and trusted way to share files?

Book a demo today!