publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/306297
ILTA WHITE PAPER: APRIL 2014 WWW.ILTANET.ORG 9 extremely useful, which drove the adoption of other mobile solutions that access content." Cellphones and tablets are designed for the creation of short messages rather than long legal documents, so it's hard to imagine anyone doing much typing on them. However, these devices are ideal for digital dictation. Attorneys who are away from the office can record dictation and send the files to their secretaries via a wireless or cell network. Once the files are transcribed and saved into the DMS, it is only logical that attorneys would want to retrieve and review those documents on their mobile devices. Trend Tracker: The ability to retrieve and review documents saved in the DMS on a mobile device will be a standard part of legal technology offerings. 4) SECURITY CAN'T BE IGNORED. Not a day goes by without news of a security breach. The only thing worse than having data compromised is being the company or individual who allowed it to happen. Now that documents routinely travel outside a law firm's network, security has never been more important. Even access within the firewall is changing; firms that previously allowed open access to documents are re-evaluating their policies. Recent changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have extended its reach to data stored and transmitted by "business associates" — a category that includes law firms. The new regulations introduce breach disclosure deadlines and steep financial penalties for non-compliance. Security is not just a technology issue, it impacts firms trying to attract new business. "We have RFPs coming in from clients that ask what we are doing with their data," says Sean Luman, Director of Knowledge Management for Bracewell & Giuliani LLP. "That makes the attorneys sit up and listen." Trend Tracker: Every document in the DMS will have some level of explicit security on it. Information governance professionals will spend a lot of time with colleagues in the business development group as they work together pitching the firm's services and capabilities to new and existing clients. 5) IN-HOUSE SYSTEMS MOVE TO THE CLOUD. Once documents are highly secure and available outside the corporate firewall, the next logical step might be to host the entire document management system in the cloud. Vendors are already including this as part of the services they offer. With the cloud, technical complexities and maintenance tasks can be outsourced, storage can be expanded as needed on the fly and IT staff can focus on areas where they add more value. While a DMS is critical to a law firm, it can be argued there is no significant competitive advantage of one DMS over another. In fact, the DMS can be thought of as a utility like electricity or plumbing. Once the system is in place and working, incremental improvements do not add to the firm's bottom line. Outsourcing the whole system allows it to run as a service, and firms are already consumers of plenty of outsourced services. It is only a matter of time before the economics around a cloud-based DMS force firms to re-evaluate whether it is worth keeping in-house. Trend Tracker: Cloud providers will continue to improve their reliability and capabilities to meet and exceed what even large firms are able to provide internally. As cloud costs find their equilibrium and internal staff costs continue to rise, firms will begin to plan their final DMS migration — a move to outsource the entire system. BEYOND FIVE YEARS As we see the sophisticated use of DMSs increase over the next five years, we'll also witness new developments in how these systems help us manage our enterprise content. Take advantage of the opportunities the DMS offers, and stay aware of future possibilities. FIVE DMS CHANGES FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS