Diversified Fall Protection case study | CloudFiles for Salesforce

Overview

Diversified Fall Protection, one of the leaders in engineered fall protection solutions, sought to improve its document management system to expedite design and report approvals. By integrating CloudFiles with SharePoint and Salesforce Experience Cloud, the company achieved a 50% reduction in document approval times, enhancing collaboration between internal Salesforce teams and external clients.

Business challenges

SharePoint document silos – design and report documents created by non-Salesforce teams were stored in SharePoint, making access cumbersome for Salesforce users.
Limited Salesforce access – teams in Salesforce need access to these documents as a downloadable file or in preview.
Secure external sharing – customers required access to specific files through Experience Cloud as part of the approval process, necessitating secure and selective sharing.

Solution

Automated subfolder creation – create a subfolder inside the existing project folder in SharePoint with a single button click on the Salesforce record. Non-Salesforce teams can upload and organize files using the same structure, keeping everything in sync.
Seamless file access – folder contents appear in an LWC, allowing internal Salesforce users to preview, download, and update documents directly from records.
Controlled external sharing – internal Salesforce users can selectively share files with Experience Cloud users, who can access them via the CloudFiles LWC.

Business challenges, in depth

Diversified Fall Protection manages a large volume of design documents, compliance reports, and engineering files as part of its manufacturing and installation processes. These documents are mostly created by non-Salesforce teams and stored in SharePoint, while Salesforce users and external stakeholders need timely access for review and approval. Ensuring seamless access while maintaining compliance and security was a key requirement.

Internal collaboration & access

Salesforce users needed an efficient way to preview, download, and update these SharePoint documents directly from records without switching platforms. A lack of direct integration made it harder to retrieve files quickly, leading to inefficiencies.

Customer & regulatory approvals

Customers and regulatory bodies required controlled access to specific documents through Salesforce Experience Cloud. A streamlined file-sharing mechanism was necessary to ensure faster approvals without relying on email-based exchanges or manual transfers.

Compliance & version control

In a regulated industry, maintaining accurate records is critical for meeting OSHA standards and reducing liability risks. The ability to track updates, manage document versions, and restrict access to authorized personnel was essential.

How CloudFiles solved it

CloudFiles provided a solution tailored to the client's requirements, ensuring seamless document accessibility, efficient organization, and streamlined collaboration.

Automated folder creation & document management

A button on Salesforce records lets users locate the relevant project folder in SharePoint and create a sub-folder for uploads, ensuring organized storage; non-Salesforce teams can upload and organize files using the same sub-folder structure. The contents of the created sub-folder automatically appear in Salesforce through a Lightning Web Component, making document access seamless. Internal users can preview, download, and update SharePoint documents directly from the Salesforce record, eliminating the need to switch platforms.

Controlled external sharing via Experience Cloud

Internal Salesforce users can select specific files to share with Experience Cloud users, ensuring only authorized stakeholders access relevant documents. Document access logs, version history, and sharing permissions are automatically recorded, supporting OSHA compliance and internal audits. Experience Cloud users can securely view shared files via CloudFiles' LWC, reducing delays in compliance approvals and project documentation sign-offs.

Rollout & secondary impact

The deployment of CloudFiles at Diversified Fall Protection was designed for minimal disruption and quick adoption across teams.

Rapid deployment

The integration was completed within 3 weeks, with automated folder creation and file-sharing features fully functional from day one.

Seamless migration

Over 10,000+ documents were mapped to Salesforce records, ensuring a 100% data retention rate and eliminating the need for manual reorganization.

Minimal training required

A single 2-hour training session enabled 100% adoption across teams, as CloudFiles' intuitive UI required little to no learning curve.

Instant compliance readiness

With built-in access logs and version control, the system was audit-ready from deployment, ensuring compliance with OSHA and internal safety regulations.

Impact & results

The integration of CloudFiles led to significant improvements.

50% reduction in document approval times

Before CloudFiles, each approval took 10 days, leading to 500 approval-days per month across 50 projects. After CloudFiles, approval times dropped to 5 days, cutting total approval-days to 250 per month – a savings of 250 approval-days per month.

30% increase in collaboration efficiency

Employees previously spent 2 hours per day retrieving and sharing documents; after CloudFiles that time dropped by 30% (0.6 hours saved per day per employee). Across 20 employees working 20 days a month, that's 240 hours saved per month, or 2,880 hours annually.

25% reduction in administrative overhead

Admins and managers previously spent 10 hours per month on manual document approvals and access management; after CloudFiles that time dropped by 25% (2.5 hours saved per month per admin) across 5 admins, saving 150 hours annually. An additional 50 employees involved in approvals saved 1 hour per month each, adding 600 hours annually – a total of 750 hours saved per year.

Diversified Fall Protection enhances document approval efficiency by 50% with CloudFiles integration