Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/50188
PRODUCTS IN PRACTICE: PEER REVIEWS OF NEW AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES InfoNgen provides several newsletter templates for distribution, or you can customize your own. Best of all, readers of an InfoNgen newsletter can contribute to the newsletter via an InfoNgen email message. SharePoint integration is also available via RSS. Like Manzama, InfoNgen boasts several clients in the legal industry, as well as many in the financial and other sectors. The product was not created specifically for the legal environment, so law firms using it can gain from broader industry best practices. 3. Attensa, or the Attensa StreamServer, was not created specifically for legal, but this company has committed to our environment by partnering with a major law firm client for development. The product is slick, offering not only SharePoint integration, but two different SharePoint parts. The user interface and administration portals are easy to use, flexible and nimble, requiring only minimal training. Content streams on an ongoing basis and allows for the push or pull of content. As is true with the competitor products, users can subscribe to content at will and manage their own subscriptions. As for pricing, Attensa bases fees on active (administrator) and passive (readers) users of the content. What aspects of the products could use further development? 1. Although the Manzama product is strong, there is some industry mumbling that the service does not always pick up on duplicate media, nor does it easily integrate with all third-party premium software. This product is a favorite among marketing and business development departments, and the cost is more in line with traditional marketing budgets than those of the library or information resources groups. 2. InfoNgen is one of the best products out there for pure news aggregation and has a robust tagging and archiving system in place, but the user interface is not as succinct as it could be. 3. Unlike competitor products, when you pay for the Attensa StreamServer, you are getting just that — a license for the software without any access to content (although suggested content can be made available). This allows for a certain amount of freedom but requires more administrative work upfront. ILTA Support from Your Peers We hope you found these reviews helpful. If you have questions about practical experiences with these products, we invite you to begin a conversation in an ILTA e-group or contact Mark Manoukian at mmanoukian@keglerbrown.com or Ayelette Robinson at ayrobinson@littler.com. www.iltanet.org Tech Potpourri 13