If you’re heading out to Orlando next week for the ALA Conference, make sure to come swing by and say hi to the NetDocuments folks at booth #311 . Aside from the normal booth stuff, we’ll be giving away an iPad.
A number of our partners and customers will be speaking at the conference including Rajiv Mukerji, of Smart Solutions, who is speaking on cloud computing for law firms on Tuesday, May 24th at 12:15 PM. For those of you not attending the conference, you can follow the #ALAConf hashtag and the @NetDocuments Twitter stream for real time updates. Other notable Twitteratti to be sure to follow include @RL_Wood, @MonnicaWofford and @Vic_Maurer.
THE ALA Conference is taking place May 22-25 in Orlando, Florida.
Post Written by @DannymJohnson of the NetDocuments Marketing Team
Investment banking is complex enough, anyone alive in 2008 can attest to that. Now couple that with the difficulty of sharing information in a secure and compliant way across offices and firewalls. That’s the situation THiNKGREEN! Global Advisors was looking at before it made its move to the cloud.
“We used to have our own server but that was pretty dicey. It was usually reliable until it wasn’t. If that went down, everything went to a standstill…Now we know that all of our documents are always available and safe in NetDocuments. Our whole idea was to be entirely in the cloud to eliminate wasted resources which bodes well with our green tech push.” – Asmaa Parker, banking associate.
THiNKGREEN! Global Advisors is paving the way for the next generation of green and sustainable energy companies and found a technology solution that helped it grow its business without sacrificing its clean technology values.
Read more about THiNKGREEN! and how document management in the cloud changed the way it does business here.
In the past year, NetDocuments’ Partner Program has exploded from a small group of consulting firms to a global network of over 90 Partners worldwide.
Our Partners range in size from single consultants, offering a best-of-breed document management solution, to full-scale firms with multiple offices and hundreds of employees offering the end to end solution of selling, consulting, implementing and deploying the service.
So whether it’s a simple lead referral, or the complete solution, the Program has proven effective for driving two-way business via value-adding consulting firms.
Here is what some of our partners have had to say:
“We are very excited to add the NetDocuments Document Management in the cloud solution to our product offering base. The benefits of a feature rich document management, available anywhere, anytime, combined with built-in business continuity services and backup will be of great benefit to many of our law firm clients.” - Steven J. Best, Esq., Partner, Affinity Consulting Group LLC
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“This past year we’ve seen increased interest and demand for Cloud-based systems solutions from both small and large companies. NetDocuments has been offering online document management for over a decade and we are excited to see that the market for this and other Cloud-based services has matured. Many companies have plans to migrate existing systems to this feature rich platform. In the document management space, NetDocuments is the only competition for traditional systems. We expect our certified status will be win-win-win for our clients, NetDocuments and TechZen.” – Ed Arovas, President & CTO, TechZen
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“The move to the cloud many times means limiting your functionality. Not so with NetDocuments; this is why our team of experts at 7 Second System chose to partner with them.” – Kelly Jones, Co-Founder, 7 Second System, Inc.
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“Knowledge Partners had been looking for a solution for small to medium sized organisations where a great ROI still applies to a smaller number of uses. The NetDocuments ECM solution delivered as a SaaS (Software as as Service) or Cloud model fits this market requirement perfectly. Not only does NetDocuments have all features you would expect from an ECM, the lower total cost of ownership (TOC) makes it a compelling business proposition! Practically any organisation large or small looking to better manage, store, organise and share its electronic content can do so more cost effectively now than any time in the past.
Knowledge Partners has found dealing with NetDocuments to be easy, professional and helpful. Other vendors would do well if they managed to reach the standards delivered by NetDocuments. Knowledge Partners is excited about delivering NetDocuments to the Australian market with a strengthening sales pipeline.” – Carl Lindemann, CEO, Knowledge Partners
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“Eastern Legal Systems believes that the large-scale deployment of broadband internet access in smaller law firms we are seeing today will, over time, introduce fundamental changes in the way information is managed by attorneys. While ‘apps in the cloud’ are slowly starting to gain traction, we believe that “data in the cloud” managed via familiar desktop apps, is a much more viable approach to sharing – and securing -information within a legal practice. NetDocuments is spot-on in embracing this approach with their document management service. Developing a reseller channel from among legal technology consultants should accelerate adoption rates among those smaller law practices most in need of this approach. Eastern Legal Systems is proud to be part of the campaign to deliver this versatile technology to the small law firm.” – Jack Schaller, Director of Sales, Eastern Legal Systems
For more information regarding the partner program, send an an email or a tweet (@MarriottMurdock) to Marriott Murdock, NetDocuments Partner Program Manager.
Quite literally, #ABATECHSHOW is held in the beautiful basement of the Chicago Hilton. I was debating between the words ‘basement’ and ‘bunker’, because of the unique marble architecture surrounding the building – giving quite the bunker-feel at times. While feeling very safe from anything in the outside world, the downside, was a near total disconnection and isolation as my AT&T iPhone continued to read “searching…” for most of the event. I had to connect to the “outside” world so I could participate in the silent conversations happening in the room I was sitting in. Yes, Twitter was ABLAZE the entire show, and in all of the sessions. It created a type of unseen energy and current in the session, as the speaker would say something, it was instantly voted on through Twitter, giving the sentiment of the crowd, or at least those of us online.
Aside from the widespread activity of social media, and the frequent comments about spotty wi-fi, there were some common and important themes in terms of where the legal technology market is headed. The common threads that began to emerge begin to build a valuable picture of where a legal technology vendor, consultant, or firm should focus as they shape their strategy moving forward.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Terms of Service (TOS) – This topic came up in several sessions on cloud computing, as a way for savvy shoppers to differentiate between the good and bad providers of web services – asking critical questions like: Who owns the data? Who has access to the data? Where is the information stored? Is it secure, encrypted and redundant? How about the datacenters? What types of other programs does it play nicely with? How about what happens to the data if you want to leave?
Having a potential provider of web services answer these questions (and more) will take the covers off who may be cutting corners when it comes to security and privacy. SLAs and TOS will also open a potentially dark closet of the freemium model – Catherine Sanders-Reach stated, “If you’re not paying for it, YOU are the product”, highlighting the way consumer-services providers gleam personal info, or use widespread market presence to drive company valuation in the market. Many of these freemium-based companies are backed by venture capital firms which can’t guarantee the company will be around long enough for them to transition those free users to paying customers.
Web-based and Cloud Computing – Even though it was the first year the show had a full Cloud Computing tract, I’d say it was a success. Nearly all sessions we’re full, and based on the show of hands in the room, most attorneys have at least one web-based solution implemented in their firm. The takeaway – The industry is moving away from clunky, on-premise, hardware-intensive solutions.
People are sick of hardware, software, and the expensive upgrades that come with them. The strengths of cloud computing highlighted through the various session related to the plug-and-play aspect of the service, no upfront investment, no maintenance costs, lower internal IT costs, quick time to value, automatic and incremental upgrades, and the list goes on.
Mobility – I know mobility is such an over trodden word lately, but the real challenge and theme of these discussions are around which mobile applications should be adopted to maximize productivity?
And what services will help maintain consistency across devices, platforms, browsers and offices. It was about bringing the love of mobility in our personal lives, into the workplace. The consumerization of technology and IT is pushing the market to increase the level of user-friendliness and integration with business applications in order to drive productivity and ease of use. I loved the visual, as Erik Mazzone said in a session, “you can’t swing a dead cat around this room without hitting at least two dozen iPads”.
So I’m convinced. The ABA TECHSHOW is managed, organized presented and attended by a group of thought-leading, gadget-toting, forward-thinking, legal technologists and was well worth the trip to attend. I look forward to reading all of various blog posts that will undoubtedly come, but you could get a great summary of the show by looking at and following the tweets from…
(Disclaimer: this list does not intend to be comprehensive,… I may have missed some obvious names)
Post written by Marriott Murdock, NetDocuments Global Partner Program Manager. Contact him at @MarriottMurdock and let him know what you thought of the show.
The integration between Nuance PDF Converter Enterprise 7.1 and NetDocuments has just been revamped and I’m here to tell you about it.
Nuance PDF Converter Enterprise 7.1 lets legal firms convert, edit, share, and create PDF files, including the ability to redact, bates stamp, and quickly combine documents of any type with simple drag-and-drop into a single PDF. The NetDocuments connector provides an out-of-the box configuration to display a NetDocuments Save toolbar option. This allows a user to intuitively save a PDF file directly into NetDocuments, then select the desired matter-centric location to store the document. The connector is included in PDF Converter Enterprise 7.1, and works for all NetDocuments users without any additional installation of software or fee.
“We’ve been enjoying Nuance’s PDF Converter for eighteen months now,” said Robert J. Checca, Chief Information Officer at the law firm of Jackson Lewis. “Having a one-click button to easily save a PDF document directly into our NetDocuments document management will greatly increase the productivity of our users. Additionally, not having to install any additional software on the workstation reinforces the value of a cloud-based application such as NetDocuments.”
Thousands of lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and more use NetDocuments everyday to securely manage and share their content from the cloud. Salesforce CRM users are another fast growing constituency among NetDocuments users.
In fact, NetDocuments is the most popular all-time document management system among Salesforce users.
Since 2006, when NetDocuments first released its AppExchange integration, the rich customizable platform of Salesforce and NetDocuments has allowed the applications to be tightly integrated for all types of customers, including enterprise-level organizations such as Extra Space® Storage, as well as hundreds of financial service advisory, consulting and legal firms.
After four and half years, Salesforce’s AppExchange currently lists NetDocuments in its rankings:
#1 Most Popular – (All-Time), paid document or content management, (4th overall when including free apps. All of which are feature add-ons and not true document mgmt).
2nd Highest-Rated App for document or content management service (2nd to a fax- only service).
Check out our AppExchange listing to read the comments and ratings by typical customers, such as the customer who stated, “[NetDocuments] provides our organization with the capabilities we need, with the security we require, at a price we are able to afford.”
Another customer commented on AppExchange that “I was looking for a SaaS service that would integrate with Salesforce. NetDocs was the only one I could find that would work properly for our needs. It’s also HIPAA compliant.”
Extra Space Storage’s business revolves around earth-based self storage units, but that doesn’t keep it from using the cloud to make its business go.
With 2,200 employees spread out at self-storage locations around the country it uses NetDocuments to manage and share all of its documents within Salesforce.com in a simple and user-friendly way.
It adds over 5,000 documents a week that are instantly made available to the corporate office in Salt Lake City as well as the majority of employees that are working in their local communities.
NetDocuments has long been integrated with Salesforce.com and thousands of our joint users have leveraged this tight integration to manage all of their client data from one secure place in the cloud.
This video tells the story of Reggie, a small business owner, who sees the light when he sends he sends his documents to the cloud and manages them in Salesforce.
Let us know how you are using cloud. Find us on Twitter at @NetDocuments or drop us a line in the comments section.
Post Written by @DannymJohnson of the NetDocuments Marketing Team
NetDocuments gets around – LegalTech NY and LegalTech India, 2011
With the announcement of prestigious law firm, Foley & Lardner, switching from iManage to NetDocuments, our new user interface, and the growing Partner Program, the road was paved for a great Legal Tech conference in both New York and New Delhi.
Happening at virtually the same time, Smart Solutions, one of NetDocuments’ Global Channel Partners, represented us at LegalTech India while we managed in New York; the result? Two amazing shows, with lots of exposure, highlighting our recent developments, high-profile clients, and international reach. Here are the thoughts from those who were there…
New York, New York
“LegalTech NY was buzzing with activity this year, thanks in no small part to recent news that the 1,000 lawyer law firm Foley & Lardner is switching from iManage to NetDocuments. Most of those we spoke with agreed that this is the biggest development in the legal content management space in years. Firms of all sizes wanted to see firsthand what is compelling one of the most competent and reputable law firm technology teams (Foley & Lardner’s IT team) to embrace NetDocuments.” - Matt Duncan, Senior Account Manager, NetDocuments
“Each year we get more interest and requests for demonstrations because speakers and panelist mention NetDocuments as ‘the leader in SaaS/Cloud content management’. We surprise many first-time viewers of NetDocuments with our rich feature set and end-user simplicity. People are always surprised that we have been providing SaaS content management for over 12 years; reminding people, we were SaaS before SaaS was cool.” - Keith Schneider, Senior Account Manager, NetDocuments
Keith also enjoyed interacting with our current customers: “It was great to have several current customers come to the booth excited to see the soon-to-be-released new user interface. After a quick demo, all walked away with smiles on their face and statements of ‘can’t wait for the release’ and ‘thanks for never standing still’. Additionally, increased partner enthusiasm and completed service integrations and affiliate sales partnerships have solidified our Partner Program presence. I can’t wait for next year’s event!”
View from New Delhi
Around the globe, Monish Madden and Kuldeep Singh of Collaborative Technology Solutions, a division of Smart Solutions, were gearing up for LegalTech India 2011 held in New Delhi. The Director of Collaborative Technology Solutions, Rajiv Mukerji, had this to say:
“The Collaborative Technology Solutions division of Smart Solutions, Inc. will consolidate its position as the leading solutions specialist in the Indian and Asian legal cloud computing space by its presence at “Legal Tech India 2011″ The objective of the conference is to emphasize growing the vast avenues prevalent for technology in the legal arena and how legal systems can evolve to a simpler, systematic and a cost effective modus operandi. The conference aims to bring together expertise, competence and technology in managing all the components of legal affairs.”
The success of NetDocuments in all parts of the world is further demonstrating our belief that the cloud is the most powerful and efficient way to share and collaborate and will continue to change the way people work. Tell us your thoughts on the cloud at @NetDocuments.
Post written by @MarriottMurdock, NetDocuments Partner Program Manager
Nothing in life is certain, except death, taxes, and the T3 Technology Conference being the the go-to spot for financial services technology.
David Drucker and Joel Bruckenstein are the brainchildren behind the T3 conference and will be taking their talents to Weston, FL for the 2011 event being held February 16-19. This is the sixth year that the duo has been running the conference and they are extremely excited to see what new innovations will be discussed during this year’s show.
“We are introducing several new and exciting sessions that reflect changes in the marketplace,” Drucker said in an interview on MSNBC. T3 recently announced the topics that will be covered which include social document management, cloud computing and mobile technology.
“T3 is one of the most valuable practice management focused conferences I’ve attended. The conference schedule allows ample time to network with colleagues and vendors in order to share experiences and best practices, while providing a diverse range of technology focused educational sessions. I highly recommend that any advisor who is considering integrating new technology into his or her business attend T3. Not only will it spark new ideas, but it will save you hours of research required to obtain this same information otherwise.”
Socialicious
Sharing and connecting on social media has become an integral part of any large gathering, and it will be no different at T3. The first place to go for all T3 related news is the conference blog. There are also numerous Twitter handles that are must follows including Joel Bruckenstein, David Drucker and T3Fan. The Twitter hashtag for the event is #T32011.
Tools for Today
Attending T3 is like grabbing a chip from your friend’s nachos and three other chips are stuck to it. No, you’re not abusing your friends kindness, just getting an unexpected freebie. With so much knowledge being shared at T3, attendees will surely get more than they bargained for. Here are a few of the can’t miss sessions:
What’s New in Document Management Software – We’re obviously interested in this panel discussion on Friday at 12:45pm.
Cloud Computing – Another very close to home topic. This session will be lead by Joel Bruckenstein on Saturday at 2:15pm.
Cloud Lounge
NetDocuments is a sponsor of the show and once again we will be bringing the Cloud Lounge to T3. The Cloud Lounge can be found at booth #213 where Marc Duncan, Marriott Murdock and the NetDocuments team will be posted up.
“I love the T3 show as it gives me a great opportunity to interact face to face with all of our wonderful customers and partners.” Marc said. “I also love to introduce the incredible power of NetDocuments to a whole new set of financial services professionals…..can’t wait!”
You may not attend technology conferences very often, but when you do, I’d suggest T3.
Post written by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments marketing team
