P2P

35 I L T A N E T . O R G abundantly clear why these award-winning partners are thriving: access to an industry-leading partner management program, NetDocuments' cloud-native infrastructure, and an app-friendly third-party ecosystem. Chris Dunsford, Document Solutions Manager with Element Technologies, has been in the ECM world for over 20 years, including 15 years in various product and engineering roles with OpenText. "To me, the number one differentiator for NetDocuments is the partner channel … it's robust, and it's fleshed out. The partner relationships that NetDocuments has established and continues to build and maintain are key to law firm customer success." Jeff Kaplan, DMS technical lead with Element, seconds Dunsford's point: "Their partner program is second to none and goes far beyond implementation and training assistance. The power of the platform is on full display with numerous technology partners working with NetDocuments to establish customer-focused integrations to add value to their cloud platform." Kaplan adds: "We are in the business of helping our customers succeed with their DMS implementation, no matter what it takes in terms of recommended integrations with third-party applications or working with NetDocuments engineers and support teams on establishing firm-specific best practices. The company runs an exceptional partner channel and provides access to any resources we need to help our mutual customer accomplish their technology goals. Anything that we can do as partners to help customers save time and effort and streamline workflows — the PACER and DocuSign eSignature integrations come to mind — is a definite win-win." Success Starts with a Strong, Mature Foundation Firms making a strategic transition to a cloud-based DMS want to do it one time ... and capitalize on the immediate and long-term benefits associated with a mature, cloud- native SaaS platform. Too often, lateral upgrades to an immature cloud, where multitenancy is still being developed, inevitably leave firms dissatisfied, and may require additional future upgrades. Before you commit to the future of something as foundational as your firm's DMS, consider whether it provides the value you desire, meets your users where they work, and drives better user experiences and business outcomes. ILTA Jobst Elster is InsideLegal's head of content and legal market strategy. He has ser ved as a legal market strategist for the last 23 years, advising companies entering the legal market, companies looking to expand brand awareness and legal thought leadership, and others expanding strategic operations stateside and overseas. Jobst currently works with several technology companies across various application areas including NetDocuments. He regularly writes and speaks on legal technology, cloud computing, industry research, technology innovations, and big data. He can be reached at elster@insidelegal.com.

• Cover