Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/37773
SHAREPOINT AS A DMS: NEW REQUIREMENTS, NEW RISKS (AND NEW REWARDS) SharePoint or external search tools. Confidentiality software also provides the added benefit of addressing other information risk management requirements including notification, logging, audit trails and abnormal activity alerts. KEEPING WHAT MATTERS IN “SITE” While technical challenges exist, industry excitement over the potential of SharePoint continues to grow. In consortium sessions, several CIOs remarked that the ultimate aim of IT is to make lawyers more productive by making technology more transparent. Said Matt Kesner, CTO of Fenwick & West: “Document management takes up too much time and energy for the lawyers. It needs to fit into a matrix of other familiar interfaces, like SharePoint and the browser, rather than be its own distinct application.” And in the context of information risk management, SharePoint offers net benefits to law firms. For one, • Infrastructure. Assessing SharePoint hosted and cloud models (SharePoint Online/Office 365) and analyzing each approach for law firm environments. Identifying other infrastructure parameters such as storage, access and latency requirements. • Integration. Law firms commonly pursue a “best of breed” application strategy. Business process efficiency depends on the ability to communicate data with external applications and interface with automated provisioning solutions. This group focuses on data access, API and integration requirements. • Business Considerations. Identification and exploration of non-technical issues related to the adoption and success by centralizing information, it provides a path to simplified information management and governance. As Jan Durant, head of IT at Lewis Silkin remarked, a move to SharePoint offers “a good opportunity to re-look at policies and document profiles put in place five years ago. In today’s world, five years is really a long time.” Another CIO echoed similar thinking in that document management should just happen in the background; compliance should be built into the fabric of what we already do. By taking the right approach to organizing and securing content in SharePoint, collaborating with peers to accelerate the development of best practices, and leveraging external technology designed to assist, law firms can make document management, knowledge management and compliance much more transparent to end users while keeping risk in check. ILTA of SharePoint as an enterprise content management solution. Topics of focus include: Economics (migration and ongoing TCO), user adoption experience and strategies, process and change management, and Microsoft and third-party vendor ecosystem support. Some of these areas can be managed by configuration choices, others by the use of third-party software, and some will require continued product enhancement by Microsoft. However, all firms looking to SharePoint will benefit from considering these issues, understanding the specific priorities and requirements they face in their environment, and developing a plan that leverages the knowledge and experience of their peers. ILTA www.iltanet.org Portal Platforms 39