Latest Release Offers REST API to Simplify Creation of Third-Party Integrations with NetDocuments’ Content Management and Collaboration Platform and Includes Enhanced Email Search

LEHI, Utah (May 7, 2013) – NetDocuments today announced the immediate availability of NetDocuments’ Apps Marketplace, a centralized location for third-party software developers to create apps that integrate with the company’s existing cloud-computing content management and collaboration services. The marketplace showcases apps that users can implement to streamline workflows and improve performance in managing their repository of documents and emails.

“The marketplace is a great way to bring together our community of end users and outside developers to produce programs that improve collaboration surrounding document and email management,” said Leonard Johnson, vice president of marketing and product management at NetDocuments. “The creation of this marketplace is a reflection of our commitment to ensure our software is continually improving to provide both our customers and technology partners with all the tools they need to succeed.”

In conjunction with the launch of the marketplace, NetDocuments also unveiled the 13.2 release of its content management and collaboration service. The latest version offers a REST API to simplify the creation of programs made available in the marketplace. With the new REST option, which joins the SOAP as approved APIs, developers have added flexibility and a more robust way to integrate apps with NetDocuments. The marketplace currently includes developments by Clio, SocialText, Omtool, Salesforce, IntApp, and iDocID.

As part of the 13.2 update, NetDocuments also improved NDSearch, an enterprise-class search platform embedded in NetDocuments and available to all users. To enable easier access and retrieval of emails, the update includes quick links that present a comprehensive list of emails sent and received by the user, regardless of where the emails are stored in the account. A new streamlined “My Email” section displayed in the header allows users to:

*Conduct full text, phrase and proximity search with the help of Boolean operators, lemmatization and spell checkin

*Narrow search results to only emails that contain attachments

*Search by recipient, sender, subject or CC field

*Set a default sort order by sent date or subject

“As the number of emails stored within our system surpassed the number of documents, we identified the need to bolster our search capabilities to meet customer needs,” said Johnson. “NetDocuments users will be able to better manage their high volumes of email correspondence with this new search feature, enabling them to immediately be more productive.”

For more than a decade, NetDocuments has been solving the document management security concerns for some of the world’s largest and most prestigious enterprises, law firms and financial services organizations. By reducing costs and increasing accessibility to documents and emails from anywhere and on any device, NetDocuments’ cloud-based service enables firms of all sizes to increase productivity, improve the client experience and securely scale. NetDocuments’ fully redundant datacenters in the USA and the U.K. ensure professional organizations remain SEC, FINRA and HIPAA compliant.

NetDocuments’ Apps Marketplace can be found here.

Clio and NetDocuments Partner to Offer Secure Cloud-based Document Management and Collaboration for Small and Mid-Sized Law Firms

Themis Solutions Inc., creator of cloud-based practice management solution Clio, is pleased to announce an integration with cloud-based document and email management solution, NetDocuments, streamlining the creation and sharing of documents among staff, co-counsel and clients.

Small and mid-sized law firms get the benefits of practice management through Clio, managing their practices from intake to invoicing, and the power of NetDocuments for storing, organizing and searching documents.

Law firms can take full advantage of NetDocuments directly with Clio to:

1. Upload documents to NetDocuments and associate them with Matters in Clio

2. Use their favorite programs to create, open and save documents directly to NetDocuments / Clio from within Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook;

3. Powerful full-text searching of documents;

4. Optional on-premise document backup with NetDocument’s Local Document Service

“Clio and NetDocuments are the respective leaders in cloud-based practice management and document management, and this tight integration delivers a best-of-breed solution to our shared customers.” Clio co-founder and CEO Jack Newton said

“By combining the best cloud-based practice and document management tools together, this integration creates a new level of productivity for law firms,”  said Leonard Johnson, VP of marketing at NetDocuments. “This partnership is also extremely appealing to our many legal technology consultants and channel partners, who are now able to offer a tightly wrapped solution to their client firms.”

NetDocuments’ integration with Clio will undergo beta testing prior to an official launch in May 2013. We’re incredibly excited about this integration, and want to give a big thanks and shout out to our partners (Lawtopia, LegalTypist) and others as well as many customers who continued to advocate the value of having document management integrated directly inside your Practice Management software.

For more information about the  beta and release contact support@goclio.com. To learn more about how NetDocuments will improve your practice, schedule a demo.

April 3-6 is coming up fast and you still haven’t registered?! Andrea with the LegalTypist has you covered. Just go here for step by step instructions on how to get a discounted rate, as she’s been putting together Super Pass groups for years now.

Also, don’t forget to register for the Clio, NetDocuments, LegalTypist sponsored meetup, Wednesday night at the South Loop Club.

Original Release

Washington, D.C. Law Firm Upgrades from Consumer-focused Solution to a Full Enterprise Content Management Service

NetDocuments today announced Fluet Huber + Hoang (FH+H), a fast-growing law firm in the Washington, D.C. region, has chosen NetDocuments’ cloud-based enterprise solution as its document management system (DMS). NetDocuments provides the firm with more advanced document security, searching, and collaboration features for its high-level global client base.

Having quadrupled in size since its inception four years ago, FH+H sought an enterprise solution that would enable it to scale securely across its three offices. After the firm conducted extensive research on the DMS market that included a weighted, multi-point evaluation, NetDocuments emerged as the choice for its content management capabilities, enterprise search functionality, and security rights provisioning.

“Sharing folders of files online is not a substitute for a full-fledged document collaboration tool, especially as we began growing quickly,” said Francis Hoang, partner at Fluet Huber + Hoang. “With NetDocuments, we not only have the full functionality of a document and email management service, but also improved search, security, disaster recovery, and compliance capabilities along with a way to organize important case documents with matter-centric workspaces.”

FH+H’s entire staff has seen increased productivity and operational efficiency from NetDocuments’ solution after only two months of implementation. Two features have proven especially useful to the attorneys and other personnel: Workspaces, which enables teams to collaborate on documents within a client or matter-centric structure and set permissions; and NDSearch, NetDocuments’ robust searching tool that uses full text and metadata tagging to provide quick analysis and filtering.

Since 1999, NetDocuments’ web-based service has given firms of all sizes the ability to reduce costs and increase security, mobility, collaboration, and accessibility to documents and emails from anywhere in the world and on any device. With fully redundant datacenters in the USA and the U.K., NetDocuments services some of the largest and most prestigious global law firms and financial services organizations. NetDocuments allows anytime, anywhere access, enabling firms to increase productivity and improve the client experience through a comprehensive cloud-based document and email management service.

About Fluet Huber + Hoang PLLC

Fluet Huber + Hoang was started by former big firm lawyers with the vision of a full service law firm that focused on (1) improving lives; and (2) helping businesses grow. From 1 lawyer in 1 office with 1 client, FH+H has rapidly grown to 25 lawyers and staff with 146 years of legal experience in 3 offices serving 250+ individuals and 100+ businesses, from startups to multinational corporations. For more information, visit http://www.fluetlaw.com.

Schedule a live demo to learn how NetDocuments will reduce costs and increase productivity at your firm.

Switch to Power. Switch to Simplicity.

Legal Support Network is based in the UK and one of the many associations we’re involved with. They recently published a Q&A Industry Voice session with NetDocuments’ marketing manager about what law firms will be doing in the future, what they could learn from other sectors, and how they could become much more efficient and profitable.

See the original post

What’s the biggest or most important thing that law firms will be doing in five years’ time that they’re not doing now?

Today many firms still don’t prioritize their technology investment, as historically IT has been a necessary evil to run a legal practice. What we’re seeing now is a shift, placing technology at the core of the overall firm’s strategy to engage clients, improve the client experience, and increase productivity. Mobility and social tools will be a must-have, as communication inside and outside of the firm is increasingly going social. The speed of information and consumerization of IT trends show no sign of slowing – this means the law practice and IT departments must adapt, along with their technology.

What law firm client win are you most proud of, and why?

The recent win that stands out the most is Foley & Lardner. We switched them from the server-based document management product, iManage, to NetDocuments cloud-based document and email management service. The firm has been a technology leader and advocate for the cloud, and many firms are now following their lead by joining the growing group of firms who are moving away from traditional server-based systems, to the anytime, anywhere cloud technology NetDocuments has been offering since 1999.

What could law firms learn from businesses in other sectors, such as yours?

There is certainly value in looking at different industry’s best practices when it comes to business. A law firm is a business with clients, so as in any other business, the client experience should be the top priority. Tools, tech, training, and people should all be focused on answering and solving the client equation of “how do I improve the service to my clients?” and “what are we doing that limits the ability to better serve our clients?” The firm should then tell those stories in the market. Many firms I talk to don’t think they need to have a voice in the market, but what some don’t realize, is that the conversations about their firm are already happening on the web, with or without their participation.

What are the top things firms could do to be more efficient/profitable?

IT has moved out of the back room and on to the main stage of the organization. Efficiency starts with knowing what technology you are already paying for and understanding if it works, how well it works, and if there is something better out there. Often, firms don’t know that a streamlined, integrated solution is out there, so they continue to use dated technology. Many firms also believe they know what’s best for their firm, so they don’t bring in experts or consultants – this is not always the case. No company or law practice can be experts in every field, so let those that specialize do what they do best (e.g. assessing and implementing technology decisions) and allow the law firm to do what it does best – practice law.

Interested in learning more about how NetDocuments will reduce costs and increase productivity at your firm?

Schedule a live web demo

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) isn’t just plaguing 7^th graders on their first day of school. The FUD about moving critical applications to the cloud has been gripping the minds of business professionals, paralyzing with the “what ifs” “buts” and the “did-you-hears” … but for many, that was years ago. If you’re still one of the individuals who believe a server locked in a back room of your office is safer, more efficient, or less costly than the cloud, you could consider this a wakeup call.

Yes, it’s time to modernize your practice and leave the previous generation’s way of doing things behind. Clean out that back room and put it to better use, like an employee break room – a foosball table would be a nice addition (Charlie and Janice in accounting bribed me to say that).

The cloud is simply a service provider that makes resources available to the public consumer or private organization – either free or on a pay-per-usage model (think Gmail). Simple, right? You bet, but the public cloud space isn’t for everyone, and certainly not all types of businesses and industries – I’m talking about those of you in legal, financial, healthcare, education, real estate, or any business that has some type of compliance, regulation, security, data location restrictions, data ownership and accessibility, redundancy, disaster recovery, or auditing responsibilities.

To be able to get the benefits of a non-public cloud that meets compliance requirements in highly regulated markets, AND avoids the ridiculous amounts of money required to deploy your own private cloud, you need an enterprise-grade Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application.

There are a lot of new players on the block, but we’re not new to the game: NetDocuments, Salesforce.com, and likely a handful of others have been up and running as a true multi-tenant cloud service since 1999. Do you remember what the internet looked like in 1999? Neither do I, but building and improving on the cloud model for over a decade means you could consider the team at NetDocuments cloud experts. We know what we’re doing; having built the service from the ground up as a web application – unlike many of our competitors, whose expertise is founded on the server-based (on-premise) model and who are just now trying to incorporate cloud-like features (like internet access to server-based systems).

Another critically important feature about true SaaS companies is that the service evolves through multiple updates per year. This means that as the internet has evolved, so has the service, functionality, and the underlying technology that’s driving the service. All of this translates to lower costs (remember, no server in your back room), built-in disaster recovery, true mobility, and a compliant service that is managed by experts and delivered over the internet.

Leave security and compliance to the experts: Are you willing to go through the grueling process to be SEC, FINRA, and HIPAA compliant? Complete a SSAE-16 (SOC 2) certification audit? Replicate data across geographically disperse, federally regulated datacenters? Implement AES-256 encryption when data is in transit AND at rest? What about data obfuscating (word of the day) of data over 1.5 million directory nodes? Perform regular penetration tests and deploying a staff for 24X7 monitoring? This is exactly what NetDocuments security and compliance teams focus on every single day.

Take a look at this whitepaper for all the details, or schedule a live web demo with one of our experts to learn how NetDocuments’ proven cloud technology will eliminate your FUD surrounding the cloud and increase your firm’s ability to get more done with less.

Charlie and Janice will thank you.

Organizations with 20 to 2,000 Users Can Upgrade From On-Premise Legacy DMS Software to NetDocuments at No Cost until June 30, 2013

LEHI, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NetDocuments, a leading cloud-computing content management and collaboration service, today announced a free “Upgrade to the Cloud” promotional offer for organizations of 20 to 2,000 users currently using iManage, Worldox or OpenText for enterprise document management.

“The recent switch offers from Worldox and OpenText didn’t acknowledge the shortcomings of simply swapping one on-premise, server-based system for another”

Available to all on-premise licensees who upgrade by June 30, 2013, the free “Upgrade to the Cloud” implementation package includes data migration, account configuration and administrative training. NetDocuments’ offer is unique compared to competing offers because it enables organizations to transition to the cloud, as opposed to moving laterally to another on-premise solution.

“The recent switch offers from Worldox and OpenText didn’t acknowledge the shortcomings of simply swapping one on-premise, server-based system for another,” said Leonard Johnson, NetDocuments vice president of marketing and product management. “While our on-premise competitors claim to alleviate iManage customer struggles, we give organizations the opportunity to leave behind the costly, hardware-intensive systems and upgrade to our superior cloud-based service. By deploying to the cloud, organizations not only eliminate hardware, but benefit from increased disaster recovery, security, mobility, improved collaboration and infinite scalability.”

SCHEDULE YOUR DEMO

For more information or to take advantage of the NetDocuments “Upgrade to the Cloud” offer, visit: http://www.netdocuments.com/switch

An ever increasing number of users are benefiting from the anywhere access to their documents using NetDocuments’  iPad or iPhone app, available for free on the Apple App Store for all NetDocuments customers.  Here are some tips and ideas that will enhance your experience when using your iPad.

Saving email attachments to NetDocuments

When you receive an email, the attachment is at the bottom of the email message. When you click on the attachment, you can view it using the iPad HTML viewer built into the iPad.  It supports most popular file formats, and after you open the document, you will see at the top right an “Open In” button (arrow coming out of a square). When selected, this button will show all apps on your device that accepts the document file type you’ve opened, e.g. PDF or DOCX.  Assuming you’ve already installed the ND app, you will see the NetDocuments app as “Open in NetDocuments”, which also means saving to NetDocuments.  What a great way to save attachments while you’re on the go!

Saving photos and creating subfolders

When you navigate to a folder (not filters or saved searches), select the Options button to not only sort your document list, but to also add a subfolder or add photos you’ve taken from your device.  Select “Add existing photos” and you will be taken to your photo library to select a photo to upload to a NetDocuments folder.  Give it a try!

Saving documents offline when wifi is not available

It’s great to have access to your documents wherever you are and whenever your iPad is in your hands.  What if you are in an old courthouse or on a train and the wifi is very slow or unusable? Or maybe you simply want to make sure key documents are quickly accessible when visiting a client and you don’t want to rely on the Internet?   The answer is to save these key documents in offline mode, yet still protected under the NetDocuments app.

Select your document and in the top right corner is a down arrow button.  Select it to put that document in the offline list which you can access at any time, as these items are stored locally on your device.  We recommend you enable Passcode by going to the NetDocuments settings to turn it on.  You can also create a passcode for your entire iPad which will encrypt any documents stored locally.  While in NetDocuments settings you can see the total storage you have filed locally.  Now, how do you access these documents when the wifi is off and you have login to NetDocuments app to even see them?  Go to settings again, and turn on “automatically login.”  This will allow you to login and only see the offline documents while your device is offline.  That is why having the NetDocuments passcode turned on is important to prevent others from accessing these documents.

Editing and checking in documents as new versions

We are often asked “Can I edit a document with the NetDocuments iPad app?” Just like the main NetDocuments app, you can only edit a document if you have an application that allows editing such as MS Word or Excel.  This holds true for the iPad as well.  Assuming you are using DocsToGo or Pages, you cannot edit within the NetDocuments app as you view the document in HTML.  However, you can send it using the Open-in dialog (top right button –displaying an arrow within a square) and assuming you have one of these editors on your device, you can copy the document to DocsToGo or other editor.   You can then edit or create a new document, then using DocsToGo’s Open-In dialog you can send it back to NetDocuments.   When you send it back, it will be a new document or copy.  How do you save it back as a new version to the original?  Here is the key… before you send it from NetDocuments to DocsToGo using the Open-In button, first touch the envelope button and select “Copy Link – Email New Version”.  This option saves the email address to this document in the device’s clipboard.  After you edit the document in DocsToGo, go to its send email option, and “paste” the email address into the “to” field.  This will send the edited document to NetDocuments using email and save the document as a new version to the original.

By Leonard Johnson

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