Peer to Peer Magazine

36 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SPRING 2017 Our DMS in the Cloud: In Support of IT Standards and Simplicity Our DMS in the Cloud: In Support of IT Standards and Simplicity CASE STUDIES If the firm is fortunate to have people who are good at this, the purchased technology can work well. But factor in employee turnover, continuous rounds of technology refreshes, change management (or lack thereof ), delayed soware upgrades, self-inflicted wounds, mystery issues and years like 2009, and the value picture gets very muddy. Meanwhile, while we have different practices and clients, the core requirements of most firms are very similar, i.e., good performance, quality mechanisms for authentication and access control, higher quality of service for video and telephone, reliable internet access, email, document management, Microso Office, private and public Wi-Fi access, and appropriate security controls and auditing. For the items we all need (upwards of 95 percent of the total), is it necessary to come up with our own ways of providing these services? Do we all need to reinvent the wheel? Why can't we buy these services based on standards? Frost Brown Todd's (FBT's) perspective on technology and modern law firm operations has recently been put on display as part of the firm's transition to the cloud, from an on-premises document management system (DMS) to the cloud- based NetDocuments. This switch has given me new insights regarding firm IT strategy and best practices. Proof of Concept Our firm has been working to implement technology that gets the firm out of the business of creating and maintaining complex technology initiatives. Six services we leverage that are on the right track include security monitoring, help desk, Office 365 with Exchange Online, litigation services, facilities management services, and our native cloud DMS. The question of value of a new technology is always a somewhat muddy proposition. Many factors, beyond dollars and cents, come into play — tenure and skills of the staff, overall strategic outlook, point in the upgrade continuum, and so on are all significant. I try to look at value over the long run. Factor in cost avoidance (future upgrades and refreshes, staff savings, redundancy and disaster recovery savings, ongoing maintenance costs), and then look at the value of additional benefits provided by the new solution. DMS Value Proposition Aer extensive due diligence, we selected NetDocuments for our firm's transition to a cloud- based DMS. Here's why: » It fit FBT's model and modern approach to technology. » We had a substantial on-premises DMS consolidation and upgrade in front of us (eight million documents and 25 servers), so we required an "industrial strength" solution. » We had 20 percent penetration in the use of maer workspaces, but we wanted 100 percent. Law firms are here to provide legal services to clients and make an acceptable profit for their owners. IT services are purchased and provided as a necessary support mechanism. In many firms, decisions on how technology is implemented and configured are based on internal knowledge and opinions or on outside consultants who bring their particular knowledge and opinions. by Paul Bromwell

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