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Donna Seyle is an attorney and consultant who helps small firms and solo  lawyers with innovative law practice strategies. She has established herself as a thought leader in the field and was kind enough to discuss these topics this week for the NetDocuments blog.
Q: Thanks for joining me Donna. First off, can you tell me a little bit about what you do?
A: My business, Law Practice Strategy, is all about the evolution of the legal profession resulting from technology and the recession. Given the nature of the job market for lawyers, I developed a strategy that enables solos and small boutique firms build successful practices based on the principles of cost-containment and project management, and the integrated use of content marketing, technology and fixed pricing. I work with lawyers, individually and in groups, helping them to develop a proactive mindset, understand the principles of the strategy and use the tools to start or redesign their practice.
Q: You mentioned that you help lawyers with technology, so how are new technologies changing the way lawyers are working?
A: Technology is revolutionizing the profession. The use of virtual law practice platforms has significant advantages that enable lawyers to offer their services to consumers who otherwise could not afford to hire an attorney or take time off from work to meet with lawyers in person. Because they are so cost-effective, they also allow lawyers to be more comfortable offering fixed pricing, which essentially shifts the risk of cost from the client to the lawyer. Using technology creates efficiency and extends the reach of availability of legal services to so many people that would otherwise be unreachable. But it also creates security concerns and ethical considerations that need to be addressed. Currently, several state bars have issued opinions, and the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section is trying to deal with these issues, largely through the eLawyering Task Force. The use of technology is so significant that it has forced us to redefine what it means to practice law, perhaps creating divisions between what Jordan Furlong calls “legal services” and “lawyer services.”
Very insightful information. At NetDocuments, we have built integrations with other legal SaaS solutions such as AdvologixPM to offer lawyers an integrated, fully featured law practice platform.
Q: In talking about cloud computing and SaaS, how has it leveled the technology playing field between large and small law firms?
A: Saas/cloud platforms have been designed for solos and small firms to provide a cost-effective way to offer the capabilities and convenience of technology that previously could only be afforded by big law with large IT departments. For example, the recession has forced business, large and small, to contain their costs, and legal departments are no exception. To do so, in-house counsel has been demanding that outside counsel reduce their hourly rates or institute fixed pricing or other terms. If outside counsel refuses to do so, there have been instances where a few lawyers from those firms leave and open their own boutique firm, take the unhappy clients with them and agree to different billing arrangements. Because of the cloud platforms that now exist, they can offer the same level of service.
I have definitely worked with a number of lawyers who have broken off from large firms and use SaaS technology to efficiently manage their practice.
Q: What are the most critical technologies needed to start a new law firm?
A: The most critical technologies needed are communication, case management and document storage, although I personally prefer comprehensive packages that do it all in one place. But maybe a more important question is not what the technology does, but how it works. [Traditional] Software is a huge waste of time and money and, in my mind, raises more security issues than cloud applications. It also does not address the communication issue, since everyone communicates through email (or some version of it). And if you’re talking about Saas, then the most critical questions relate to security and privacy. No matter what kind of program or application you decide on, you must do vendor due diligence to be sure they provide the highest level security available, both technological and physical.
Q: You seem to be pretty active in the social media scene. What advice would you give to a lawyer debating the merits of social media?
A: I think it depends on your playing field. I live in a small California beach town where more than half the lawyers don’t use social media of any kind and they’re enormously successful. And that’s because they’ve established themselves in a very small community where they’ve been able to get their foot in the door before it slammed shut a few years ago, and they like playing in a small arena. For them, social media is unnecessary and probably not worth their time. On the other hand, if you’re just getting started, or if you like being on the cutting-edge of the profession, participating in social media is absolutely necessary. You just have to do it. It simply is the state of interaction of our times, it’s where everything’s happening and where you find out about it. But you need to use your head. Pretend you’re a little kid and your mom’s hearing or reading everything you say or write online. And not only you, but everything your friends say and do. Before I became professionally active in social media, I was on Facebook with the standard profile. Then I wanted to add a business page, and I realized you could not separate your business page from your profile. Since I didn’t want my professional connections to have access to my personal page, I closed that account and opened a brand new one with only professional connections. Some people were offended, but I did what I thought was necessary to insure against anything popping up that might not be appropriate or helpful.
Q: What is your favorite social network and why?
A: Twitter, hands down. But it’s a personal choice. Twitter is where I started interacting online, where I’ve met (online and off) some of the greatest people I know, where I do lots of research & get almost all of my information, where I get involved in terrific conversations (or arrange a time to take it offline). Sometimes I stay off Twitter because I need to get just focus on getting work done. After a few days, I feel totally deprived and need to jump back on just to catch up and participate.
I can personally vouch for that as I met Donna via Twitter where she can be found at @DonnaSeyle.
I’d like to thank Donna for the informative and valuable information. For more information on what she does or to continue the discussion, you can reach her on Twitter or visit her website at www.lawpracticestrategy.com.
If you’d like to be featured on a NetDocuments Q&A, send an email to myself at djohnson[@]NetDocuments.com or send a tweet to @NetDocuments.
Post written by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments marketing team.
September 8th, 2010 | Tags: ABA, Alternative Billing, elawyering, Legal SaaS, legal technology, SaaS, social media| Category: Advologix, Cloud Computing, SaaS, collaboration, document management, legal, legal technology | No Comments »
Do your friends call you a “techno nomad” or a “21st century minimalist”? If all you need to run your legal practice is any web enabled device, than you’ve probably been labeled by one of these terms.
You see, in the 90s, the prevailing trend was bigger is better: bigger cars, bigger hamburgers, bigger houses and bigger technology. But with a downturn in the economy, more fuel conscience consumers and the rise cloud computing, consumers and businesses alike are learning how to do more with less, including their technology needs.
20 years ago, ok, probably only 5 years ago, if I were to have gotten with a group of 5 lawyers to start a firm, I would have bought servers, PCs, network stuff, probably some IT people to manage it all and a large investment in some large software package. Now compare that with what new firm Lumpkins Spiers PLC did when two attorneys broke off from a large practice to start their own earlier this year. All they needed was a scanner, laptops and an internet connection.
[Read the entire case study on how Lumpkins Spiers PLC uses web based technology to manage and run their law practice]
John Lumpkins, one of the partners, had been overseeing and managing technology for over twenty years when he joined with Sarah Spiers to form a new firm, and he knew that there was a more efficient way to run a practice. He envisioned a “legal practice 2.0” or a “law firm in the cloud.”
“Cloud Computing is a way to allow us to focus on what we do best instead of having to invest in or maintain a whole server system ourselves,” John said after deciding to employ an integrated solution of NetDocuments and AdvologixPM.
Though they are still a relatively new firm, John and Sarah have enjoyed the simplicity and ease of implementation that moving to the cloud has provided them.
To learn more about how Lumpkins Spiers has created a cloud based legal practice, read the entire case study here.
To continue the legal SaaS discussion, send a tweet to @NetDocuments and we’ll be sure to keep the conversation going.
August 19th, 2010 | Tags: Advologix, Attorney, integration, law firm, legal technology, practice management| Category: Advologix, SaaS, Technology, business continuity, collaboration, document, document management, legal technology, paperless | No Comments »
The Applied ICT A2-level Project Management class at Haslingden High School, located in Manchester, England, needed a better way to collaborate on projects in order to fulfill a requirement to learn project management techniques and work together from school and from home.
Wise Systems and Solutions put them in contact with Matt Duncan of NetDocuments who granted the class a NetDocuments basic account to enable them to complete their project.
After completion of their semester, they sent us the following report:
Objective 1: To meet the requirements of the specification for students to use project management tools and techniques appropriate to team working.
- “We were able to utilise and report the use of standard ways of working.”
- “The majority of students worked really well with the principle of copying their team’s inbox folder in on all project related emails.”
Objective 2: To provide a practical solution for storing files to allow collaboration between team members at school and from home.
- The students entered their final year of ICT studies knowing that there are a number of issues associated with working on the school network that hamper productivity. Such as only having limited user rights; down time because of viruses; USB sticks banned; and no connection of own laptops.
- As a group we were very appreciative of a better solution than emailing attachments backwards and forwards between home and school.
- A few students were a bit alarmed when the files they uploaded to NetDocuments were “moved” not “copied”. They obviously didn’t read the dialogue box when it appeared! The higher achieving students quickly came to trust that the file in the NetDocuments repository was the only version required.
- I had initially informed students that we would not have full functionality because we were working on Office 2000, but in practice we did not seem to experience any restrictions.
- The following quote is from student KF at the end of the unit: “NetDocuments is a good system, as it has the vast amount of facilities that make it ideal for uploading work from anywhere. However, I think the downside is what we found in unit 8. Firstly the [confusion about] lack of compatibility with older versions of office namely 2000 and also the [delay surrounding] integration with networks such as the one at school. If this worked fine within school, it would be a big asset”
Conclusion: I am extremely pleased with my students’ development using NetDocuments. I am proud that they will go on to university or employment with this experience and understanding of the principles of online document management.
NetDocuments would like to thank Haslingden High School for their innovative approach to teaching and project building.
August 16th, 2010 | Tags: collaboration, England, High School, Manchester, Technology, UK| Category: SaaS, Technology, broadband, collaboration, document management, paperless | No Comments »
This week I had a good discussion about technology for financial advisors with Bill Winterberg, one of the most technology forward minds in the Financial services market. Before joining the finance world, Bill was a software engineer for Hewlett Packard and this background in technology has allowed him to become a thought leader in the industry.
Bill currently writes technology columns for Morningstar Advisor, Advisors4Advisors.com as well as on his own blog called FP Pad. You can also find him doing his thing on Twitter from @BillWinterberg.
Q: Hey Bill, thanks for joining us. First tell me a bit about what do you do?
A: Wealth management and financial advisory firms work with me to optimize and streamline their client service processes through the use of technology.
Q: Over the past 8-10 years, what technology innovations do you believe have been the most significant to the way financial advisers work?
A: In my opinion, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product model has been the most significant innovation to help financial advisors deliver superior service to clients. SaaS offerings in portfolio management, performance reporting, server backup, and document management allow advisors to outsource much of the infrastructure management and technical support, allowing advisors to focus on what they do best; serve clients.
Very cool. The number of SaaS options that advisors can choose from is increasing every day, which is a good thing for vendors and advisors alike.
Q: When the topic of cloud computing comes up in my conversations with advisors, security is the principle issue that keeps people up at night. What steps should advisors take to make sure their data is safe in the cloud?
A: Advisors must perform due diligence on a cloud computing provider and learn about the provider’s privacy policies, data encryption technology, and business continuity plans. I advise advisors to require a provider have an SAS 70 Certification from the AICPA at a minimum, indicating that the provider passed a third-party audit of its internal controls and safeguards.
Having that third-party audit has really become a must over the past year in order for a SaaS provider to prove reliable.
Q: What are the biggest advantages for advisors who move to the cloud?
A: The biggest advantage for advisors who move to the cloud is the ability to no longer be held hostage by one desktop computer in order to get work done. Instead, cloud computing is delivered through an Internet browser, so any computer including PC, Mac, or even iPad, can be used to access data and respond to client needs.
I would add to the hostage analogy that SaaS also frees advisors from lengthy product cycles, hardware maintenance and eliminates the high initial TCO that used to really limit advisor’s options.
Q: Other than security, what are some reasons that advisors avoid the cloud?
A: Advisors often avoid cloud computing because there is confusion over who owns the data entered into the cloud system. Most contracts for cloud services indicate that all data is owned by the advisor who can request data archives at any time, including at the termination of the contract. Also, advisors may select server-based programs over cloud computing due to speed requirements, as they want certain programs to run in real-time rather than wait for a slow Internet connection to respond.
At NetDocuments, connection speed was a HUGE concern for customers when we started in 1998, and though it still can be an issue, the proliferation of high-speed connections has really enabled SaaS apps to become more robust.
Q: How do SEC and FINRA compliance rules affect how you look at new technology?
A: Compliance with regulatory requirements, including those issued by FINRA and SEC, must be considered when exploring any new technology. Most regulatory requirements are put in place to protect investors and keep their confidential information secure. There are also business continuity requirements to ensure client service is not significantly interrupted during emergencies. New technologies must address these issues and allow advisors to enhance their client service while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Q: I believe that certain technologies can give advisors a competitive advantage. Do you agree with this statement?
A: Absolutely. I’m willing to bet that advisors who adopt paperless office, mobile device, and social media technologies are growing at a faster pace than those who do not.
Q: On lighter note, who do you have in the World Cup?
A: Germany. They’ve exhibited selfless, team-oriented play throughout the World Cup tournament.
I’d probably have to agree with the second half of that statement but my heart is with Da Dutch, which is where I spent three years of my life.
Q: And lastly, where will Lebron James play basketball next year?
A: Not Cleveland. As I’m not a big NBA fan, I’ll go with the reasonable choice of the New York Knicks, as their fan base and ticket prices can support a record-breaking contract.
We won’t tell our friends in Ohio…
I’d like to thank Bill Winterberg for his time and sharing with us the knowledge he has gained from his vast experience dealing with financial services technology.
If you’d like to be featured in a technology Q&A, send a tweet to either myself at @dannymjohnson, or to @NetDocuments.
Post written by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments sales and marketing team.
July 7th, 2010 | Tags: finance, FINRA, Holland, Investment Advisor, Lebron James, Morningstar, SEC| Category: Broker Dealer, Cloud Computing, Financial Services Technology, Registered Investment Advisors, SaaS, Technology, collaboration, technical support | No Comments »
Part I: SaaS for Lawyers; Part II: SaaS for Financial Advisors; Part III: SaaS for Accountants
JFK’s goal was to send a man to the moon; Bill Gates wanted to put ‘information at your fingertips’; and Sun Microsystems claimed that the computer was the network. JFK’s dream was realized by Neil Armstrong, Bill Gates’s dream has been realized by the iPhone and Blackberry, and Sun Microsystems dream is now truly being realized by anyone with a Facebook, Pandora, or Google account through cloud computing and SaaS.
Web hosted applications allow users to transform their computer into a global network. In the past, users were required to buy high performance powerful computers in order to efficiently run powerful software and store high volumes of data. Today, users can store can store 1000s of pictures, songs, or documents on the web and access them from anywhere on any browser enabled device. The enabling power of the internet exists; the responsibility to utilize that power now rests with us.
Though SaaS and cloud computing have gained significantly in popularity, many still get confused by how these two forms of computing differ.
Cloud Computing and SaaS
- Cloud computing is computing services delivered via the internet. SaaS is a form of cloud computing that allows users to access software through a web browser rather than install it locally on a PC. Facebook, Gmail, or any other Web 2.0 tool are common examples of consumer SaaS.
- There is a similarity in what cloud computing is doing for businesses today to what the national electricity grid did for businesses a century ago. Before a national energy grid, businesses had to produce their own power to run the company. Similarly, before cloud computing, businesses had to store all their data and manage their own hardware and software themselves.
- SaaS providers act similar to a landlord who rents out space in an apartment complex. The SaaS provider hosts the software at a data center and rents usage to its users. This is referred to as multi-tenancy. This allows the SaaS provider to leverage economies of scale which usually results in lower costs for the end user. It also means that the software provider can push out product upgrades and maintenance to all users automatically.
With cloud computing on the horizon, why do lawyers, advisors, accountants and other professionals still wring their hands over managing independent, locally installed applications on end-user PCs?
Today, desktop computing and applications are virtual, accessible from anywhere, and on any device. Furthermore, the SaaS market for industry specific tools has matured and developed into a viable option for firms of all sizes. In part I of this series, we’ll discuss Legal SaaS, in part II, we’ll discuss SaaS for financial advisors, and for part III, we’ll talk about SaaS for accountants.
Legal SaaS
SaaS has been available in the legal field for nearly a decade, but it took some time for mainstream lawyers to accept the SaaS model as a viable way to store confidential client data. As SaaS vendors have matured and established a proven track record, the legal SaaS market has grown in product diversity and usage at a rapidly increasing rate. There are reasons why lawyers are weary of SaaS, and these should be addressed on a case by case basis, but in most circumstances, the benefits of legal SaaS outweigh any concern that might be raised, especially for small and solo practices.
- Ease of Use – Technology is a necessity in today’s environment; however, it can cause many headaches for lawyers, especially those without a technical background. In the past, it may have been easier to manage a practice without the cost and burden of using legal specific software such as practice management, document management, etc. SaaS technology has changed this; today, all a lawyer needs is a computer and an internet connection and he or she can subscribe to a legal specific SaaS solution and be live within days or even hours.
- Reduced Costs – Furthermore, for lawyers that have left the big firm for the small firm, SaaS applications are able to provide you with the same technology as the big boys. Small firm…Big Technology. And it allows big firms to reallocate IT persons and reduce IT budgets by eliminating servers and hardware. Legal SaaS applications are leveling the playing field by bringing together centralized resources that are managed and serviced by the SaaS provider; thus, allowing lawyers to focus on solving cases, rather than solving IT problems.
- Anywhere Access – Access all of your data from anywhere without having to use numerous 3rd party solutions such as a file syncing tool, or remote access software. This allows access to data with a single login and from any computer or device.
- Collaboration – Web based solutions not only allow members of the firm to access documents and data but can also provide access to clients, co-counsel and third parties.
- Service – One attorney who recently left a large international law firm to start a solo practice found her technology solution through SaaS. She wanted to access the same technology she was using at her big firm but without the IT infrastructure and human support. She found a SaaS solution that met her needs, received free training and support, and with just a laptop and a printer is managing her practice in an efficient way.
- Number of Options – In the past, law firms were limited in the number of SaaS options available, today, there are numerous options for SaaS email, practice management, time and billing, document assembly, document management, etc.
To learn more about lawyers who have moved to the cloud, see these case studies: Solo Attorney James Linehan, Mid-Sized Firm Ward and Smith P.A., and Large Law Firm Kutak Rock.
The PC has evolved from a personal device into a global network where users can access powerful software and store high volumes of information directly from the clouds. This has allowed attorneys at small firms to operate virtual practices and easily manage a modern law practice without becoming an IT expert.
Post Written by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments Sales and Marketing Team
June 8th, 2010 | Category: Cloud Computing, Email Management, SaaS, Technology, collaboration, document management, legal, legal technology | No Comments »
OREM, UTAH – June 2, 2010 – NetDocuments, the leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) content management service provider, announced today that the company has extended its existing Email Management Service (EMS) for Microsoft Outlook with an intelligent predictive email filing and tagging/profiling, as well as a send & file feature to prompt users when sending emails.
The existing NetDocuments EMS offering has provided users the ability to drag and drop emails to Outlook folders that correspond to existing NetDocuments online client/matter or project-related folders. Emails are stored in NetDocuments as native Microsoft msg files, full-text searchable and accessible anywhere, anytime. Additional features such as the ability to stub email attachments, view and full-text search NetDocuments directly from within Outlook and de-duplication of emails have all been available and continue with NetDocuments EMS.
Recognizing that Outlook users have unique preferences as to how they work in Outlook, e.g., maintain a personalized folder structure or live within the Inbox, NetDocuments offers choices as well as to how users wish to interact with NetDocuments while working in Outlook. A user within a firm may desire to have NetDocuments auto-populate folders in Outlook to drag and drop into at anytime, the advantage being that the emails get synchronized and updated to NetDocuments and shared with others, all done behind the scenes and auto-profiled based on the corresponding folder in NetDocuments. Alternatively, a user may wish to use this newly released EMS Profiler capability and not use folders for filing at all. Instead, the user would highlight emails in their inbox folder, or any personal folder, and then have NetDocuments prompt them as to the client/matter or project that the email should be filed within in NetDocuments. This prompting is based on NetDocuments intelligently remembering previous emails from a sender, mindful that emails from one particular sender may send emails that need to be filed into multiple client/matters or folders.
Supporting Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010, EMS Profiler prompts the user with the metadata or Profile values by listing the most recent eight that were selected for the sender of that email, with the most recently selected as the default. If the highlighted email has not been previously selected, the user may pick from a pre-defined list of all clients or matters for the firm. EMS Profiler can be user configured to be auto-prompted when using the standard Outlook Send option, or select a unique File-to-ND button. Users can also stamp private or shared security on each email. Importantly, EMS Profiler will display all emails when viewing Outlook that have been filed to NetDocuments.
Alvin Tedjamulia, CTO at NetDocuments, stated “Law firms and corporations are driven with the prime directive to do more with less. Instead of having yet another system to manage emails, organizations today want to have a single service that can capture and profile email messages, and manage, secure, and search them under the same repository as the rest of the electronic and scanned documents. This allows a single powerful service for lower TCO and improved simplicity under a SaaS model.”
The NetDocuments SaaS model services organizations of all sizes providing a central point of collaboration, storage and management of their documents from the office, home or on the road. NetDocuments provides rich DMS services (such as version control, audit trails, ethical wall security, two-factor authentication, profiling, concurrency enforcement, searching, redlining and permissions enforcement), in the same way for externally shared and secured documents as with internal documents. Customers have a single user interface for all offices and for all users—for their internal DMS and for any collaboration, client sharing services—all with built-in disaster recovery services and 24×7x365 availability.
June 1st, 2010 | Tags: Email, Email Management, EMS, Predictions| Category: Email Management, Press Release, Technology, business continuity, collaboration | No Comments »
James Linehan uses NetDocuments to run a cloud based legal practice.
James Linehan runs a solo law firm in Oklahoma City. He is a pioneer in legal technology and has been running a virtual paperless firm for over 10 years. With the emergence of cloud technologies, James has eliminated his need for servers and software and now runs his practice from the cloud.
Problem
Although James Linehan had been running a virtual law firm for 10 years, he wanted to eliminate the stress caused by local servers and file backups, as well as the difficulties he was having in being able to work from anywhere.
“My biggest fear before was due to me storing all of my client files on my computer. I’d then have to separately back them up to a hard drive or portable drive and switch them out every week. And as you know, every now and then those would just quit so you don’t know if you are getting a good back up. Then there was always a risk of having a catastrophe or your computer burning out and I would have lost everything,” recalled James. “Also, to get to my files on the go, I had to make sure my computer was up and running the whole time while I was gone, and make sure I had a program like Gotomypc™ on the remote computer at the hotel or wherever I was working, which rarely had it, so I’d have to download and install it. I needed it to be much easier.”
Solution
When James heard about NetDocuments, he instantly recognized the benefits of moving to the cloud. “I saw the major advantage of it being SaaS. I did a free trial, liked what I saw, talked to my sales rep and was then completely up and running with all my documents within hours. I didn’t have to order a product from [NetDocuments] and wait for a CD to arrive or even download or install anything. Traditional software is always a pain to me,”
Not only was James up and running that same day, he was also able to leave his old life of backups and IT headaches behind. “Now that I’m with NetDocuments, I don’t have to worry about [servers and backups]. That is the best thing about it. You’ve got multiple redundant backups built in so I don’t have to worry about backing up, saving, backing up, saving and then keep worrying about if it is still working or not.”
Moving to the cloud also allowed James to work from anywhere. “Now I can access my client files from anywhere I’m at whenever I’m on the road from any computer. I was presenting in a seminar in downtown OKC the other day and while I was waiting to present I was able to work on client files from right there. It was great. I also like that I can now take my laptop and go work on my porch or in the backyard on nice days.”
Along with reducing IT hassles and becoming more mobile, James has seen a cost savings with NetDocuments. “There is big cost savings for me. Last year I tried using an online backup solution but it was very slow and took forever to upload documents. NetDocuments is much faster, better, more organized and the cost is right on.”
Results
One of the biggest benefits to Jim is the ability to easily organize his work by clients and matter. “I use workspaces which organize my emails, documents and faxes based on clients. And because there is a specific email address for each client’s workspace, when I have a client email me a document, I have him or her email it directly to his or her workspace. Now when a client calls to ask if we discussed something over email, I can instantly pull up their workspace and say yea or nay.”
He summarized the functional benefits of NetDocuments by saying, “The email management, scanning ability, unique email addresses and the simplicity of it are the main benefits for me with NetDocuments.”
After 10 years of running a virtual law firm, Jim has settled on a mix of powerful technology products that let him focus on serving his clients rather than his technology. “For my whole office, other than NetDocuments, I have a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner, a desktop and laptop computer, Oovoo for video conferencing, Gmail with Outlook for email, MS Office and a website with a live chat function so I can chat with current and prospective clients.”
“When I went virtual about 10 years ago, my fellow attorneys thought I was nuts when I was scanning and shredding all of my files. Nowadays, all the big firms have done the same thing and smaller firms are starting to go virtual but it would be even better if they understood how much better something like NetDocuments would be for them. Everyone knew me as the guy that ran the virtual office, now I tell everyone that I’m a cloud office and they like it.”
Website: http://www.linehanpc.com/
June 1st, 2010 | Tags: Attorney, file sharing, green IT, legal technology, Oklahoma City, paperless, Virtual Law Firm| Category: Cloud Computing, SaaS, collaboration, legal, legal technology | No Comments »
Tomorrow in New York, Microsoft is releasing its latest edition of Office 2010 Web Apps which, in my mind, will mark Microsoft’s full acceptance of the SaaS software delivery model. Furthermore, Microsoft’s development of web applications for the cash cow that is MS Office, officially shifts the standard from legacy software to SaaS.
In an interview with USA Today, Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com said, “We’re entering an entirely new paradigm.” This new paradigm is one where businesses and consumers alike are no longer bound to physical locations or forced to use complex technology to manage networks and files but freed to move about freely in the clouds. About this paradigm shift, ECM chief executive Joe Tucci said, “We’re now going through what I believe is pretty much going to be the biggest wave in the history of information technology.’’
The Shift
This technology shift, started by Salesforce (who commercialized SaaS), Google (who brought SaaS to the consumer), and Facebook (who made SaaS a way of life), among others, has been christened by the full fledged acceptance by Microsoft. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer said, “This is the bet for the company, [and] for the cloud, we’re all in.”
Though Microsoft has fallen behind in the SaaS and cloud market over the years, it will be interesting to see how their entrance into web applications will affect other products; will Office web apps mark the beginning of the end to the rise of Google Docs? Or will it go down as another Zune: a failed attempt to catch up to its competitor? Will businesses rapidly upgrade their Office Suite to 2010? Or will take this time to look at other alternatives? Though the answers to these questions remain to be seen, I personally believe that there is much excess capacity in this growth market and that a large number of companies will get their piece of the pie; however, the SaaS providers are not the true winner in this movement. The true winner is the consumer, the IT manager, small business owner, and the typical employee at a large company.
Who Benefits?
Consumer — The consumer is not only a winner, but the consumer is the one ignited the SaaS/Cloud movement by their adoption of web apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Skype that are not only nice and fun services, but have become ways of life for millions of people.
IT Manager – No longer do IT managers need to deal with the hassle of legacy software as the maintenance and upkeep will be done by the provider. The IT manager now can focus on servicing the people in the organization and make sure the software is being optimized within the organization.
Small Business Owner – Due to the scalability and pay as you go model followed by SaaS, a small business owner can level the playing field by using the very same technology that the large companies use. With NetDocuments for example, a 3 lawyer law firm uses the exact same product, from the exact same code as the lawyers at an international firm with thousands of lawyers use.
The Employee – Wouldn’t it be nice if the benefits that we as individuals get in our personal life from SaaS offerings were available in the workplace? That dream is now a reality for millions of workers who now interact with fellow employees, collaborate and share documents, and service clients not only from within the network or through some confusing remote connection, but from anywhere in the world using innovative web based applications like Salesforce, NetDocuments, Advologix, Google Apps, Office Web Apps, etc
The New Paradigm
The SaaS paradigm allows lawyers, investment advisors, accountants, etc, the freedom to not only work from anywhere, but allows them to collaborate on cases, reports and contracts seamlessly and efficiently without the need for FedEx, pin drives or a confusing mess of various email attachments. It also allows them to go to a marketplace like Google’s or Salesforce’s and find all the tools needed for their business in one place.
SaaS has matured, and the stage where IT people and business could sit back and observe the market develop has passed, those still in that mode are getting left behind, it is now time to accept a shift in paradigms and embrace the cloud as the standard.
Post authored by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments sales and marketing team
May 11th, 2010 | Tags: Google Marketplace, legal technology, Registered Investment Advisor, SaaS, Salesforce.com| Category: Apple, Cloud Computing, Financial Services Technology, Registered Investment Advisors, SaaS, Salesforce.com, Technology, collaboration, document management, legal technology | No Comments »
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