What happens after you hit Send? It’s a question that most business professionals ask themselves once they distribute a document to a client, prospect, or important contact. If they don’t get a direct response, how do they know what impact their document had and what direction their relationship might take because of it? DocSend provides true document intelligence through powerful analytic tools that let users track, optimize and control their documents in order to ensure they hit their target.

Smart docs for smart pros

DocSend is ideal for business development, sales and marketing professionals who are using documents to generate leads or follow up with contacts. Not only does it tell them who is viewing their material, but also which pages resonated most, providing valuable insights for optimizing their content. Entrepreneurs and non-profits similarly use DocSend as part of their fundraising toolkit, helping them tailor compelling content for investors or donors. Confidential or proprietary materials can be presented live or sent securely, with granular access controls allowing users to limit or withdraw access per recipient. No more hitting “Send” and hoping for the best.

Choosing Heroku was a no-brainer for us based on our past experience with the platform. We find it just so easy to work with. Dave Koslow, Co-Founder & CPO, DocSend

Heroku from the get go

For the DocSend founders, choosing to run their business on the Heroku platform was a no-brainer. Two of them had previous experience with Heroku so they already understood the technology and the advantage of using a PaaS solution. As they were bringing a new product to market, they needed a solution that would easily scale up as demand grew without having to provision new servers. They also needed to support a lightning-fast development cycle, with an early adopter using the service to drive 6-figure deals prior to their full public launch at a major industry event. The technology needed to work flawlessly. So production availability and reliability were crucial.

As we were bringing a new product to market, we couldn’t predict our traffic patterns. Heroku lets us quickly scale up with demand without having to provision new servers. Dave Koslow, Co-Founder & CPO, DocSend

The DocSend team built their web app using Rails running on top of Heroku Postgres and connected to Sales Cloud. Significant processing power is needed to upload and render documents across desktop and mobile devices, so they use Heroku worker dynos to handle the traffic and ensure performance. The fact that they can easily get additional PX dynos up and running in anticipation of traffic spikes is essential to their business.

Several Heroku Add-ons were fundamental to designing and managing the DocSend app. Dataclips help the team keep tabs on the health of their business by using a Postgres follower database with queries that pull live stats on all key metrics and posting them to Google Sheets. PubNub synchronizes events and powers DocSend’s live presentations and notification features. The team also uses Heroku Scheduler to run jobs, New Relic APM to monitor their app, and Bugsnag to track exceptions.

Heroku Add-ons have been essential from Day One. They give us a suite of powerful tools that enhance our product and help us effectively manage our business. Dave Koslow, Co-Founder & CPO, DocSend

App experience

DocSend provides users with easy access to a range of invaluable metrics around the documents they distribute. Users can receive an instant notification telling them who opened and viewed their document and how much time was spent on each page. It tracks whether the document was forwarded and to whom, and allows recipients to easily provide feedback. Multiple links per document, each with customizable settings, allow users to control the document experience across a diverse group of recipients. Users can withdraw viewing rights, set password protection, or expiration dates for a particular document or recipient. Documents can be any file size and easily updated on the fly, with a versioning system that keeps internal teams in sync with the latest document. Users can even present a live walkthrough of their document on the web, mobile device, or in-person. With more insight and control, documents become even more powerful tools for the business professional.

With DocSend, hitting “Send” is just the beginning.