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F or those of us who have been in legal tech for over 20 years, we've seen lots of technologies come and go, while others have stuck around (sometimes to the chagrin of legal pundits who predicted, for example, the "death" of the billable hour and associated time and billing software 15+ years ago). With Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, and others offering affordable cloud storage, could this be the end of the document management system (DMS) as we know it? Of course not. Recently, an Am Law 200 Chief Technology Officer told me, "Document management is not optional. It's life as we know it, so everybody's on board." Building on that sense of purpose and driven by transformational innovation over the past two decades, NetDocuments has expanded the definition of document management to address an array of legal productivity, governance, and knowledge management needs. No need to take my word for it. I've connected with top technology and integration partners, law firm tech leaders, and product experts for their insights and best practices on what defines a modern DMS and sets NetDocuments apart. Rethinking Document Management Having led the evaluation, selection, and implementation of various document management systems over the last 30+ years, eSentio's Chief Innovation Officer, Marty Metz, views DMS selection as the perfect opportunity to reimagine the value that this foundational technology should offer your firm. "The decision to select a more mature DMS cloud platform is the perfect opportunity to bring about truly transformational change – not just a technology replacement. Rather than recreating designs and processes that have been patched together over time, the move to a cloud DMS provides the opportunity to re-engineer workflows, implement mature information governance policies and processes, and focus on user adoption. With the right vendor, and strategic vision, firms can use their DMS as a platform to modernize their entire cloud strategy and mature their business processes." According to Marty, NetDocuments offers the best combination of information governance capabilities, end- user functionality, and security – all underpinned by a powerful cloud-native open platform, which enables rapid innovation. "NetDocuments partners closely with other leading technology companies to optimize the flow of information throughout the firm. This allows customers to select the best-of-breed product that meets their needs, all integrated with the NetDocuments cloud-native platform." One Platform to Build On "Platforms" and "platformization" are technology terms that have been used in legal tech for a few years now. But what defines a true technology platform? And why should this matter to firms that are evaluating the move to the cloud? In a recent legal technology webinar, Caroline Hill, editor in chief at Legal IT Insider, asked Alvin Tedjamulia, NetDocuments' co-founder and CTO, about the pace of modern legal tech innovation, including platformization. Alvin said: "I'm thrilled by what's been happening in the last five years; the cloud is now the norm, while platformization is the next evolution. Our industry should be conscientious of this evolving technology, demand it from solution partners, and build everything to leverage our cloud platform as opposed to aggregating separate technologies and trying to simply connect them. Alvin's vision of platformization ensures a cloud service can provide innovation, reliability, performance, uptime, and defensibility of security, translating into 31 I L T A N E T . O R G

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