Case Study: German Development Institute achieves faster, more reliable global fieldwork collaboration with Dropbox Business

German Development Institute - Customer Case Study

The German Development Institute (DIE) is a leading think tank on global development whose researchers work across regions and often conduct fieldwork in developing countries. They previously relied on USB sticks—which caused sharing difficulties, version confusion and data loss—and an attempted open‑source iFolder setup proved complex, sync‑prone and costly to maintain, so the institute needed a reliable, easy way for dispersed teams and external partners to collaborate.

Since 2014 DIE has used Dropbox Business to give researchers secure, cross‑device access, generous storage and reliable sync even on very low bandwidth or offline. The move simplified sharing with partners, sped up collaboration and course delivery, and reduced IT workload because the service requires little onsite servicing and allows remote distribution of updates—resulting in faster workflows, fewer data losses and simpler IT control.

German Development Institute

Vitaliy Isaakov

IT