Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/9825
From co-authoring in Word to enhanced e-mail management in Outlook and anytime access with SharePoint Workspace, Microsoft Office 2010 delivers new capabilities that can help bring ideas to life from the courtroom to the boardroom. Since Microsoft Office 2010 is such a comprehensive product suite, we called upon valued partners and customers for their feedback. Mark Boggis, Director of Enterprise Architecture at Clifford Chance, one of the world’s leading law firms, was among the contributors to help us narrow our focus for the legal field. As a member of Microsoft’s Technology Adoption Program (TAP), Clifford Chance has been involved in the testing and evaluation of SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 within their environment since January 2009. Boggis and his colleagues have been providing Microsoft with feedback that has helped its product development teams to shape the final products. Based on input from Clifford Chance, Microsoft product teams and other members of the legal community, the following presents the Top 10 capabilities in Microsoft Office 2010 destined to deliver the greatest value to law firms. 1. CONNECT, COLLABORATE AND ACCOMPLISH MORE WHEN WORKING TOGETHER IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. Now members of your firm can get more done when working in groups. Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Excel Web App and OneNote 2010 allow multiple people to work on a matter simultaneously from different locations. Team members can edit a document, presentation, spreadsheet or notebook at the same time, allowing everyone to connect, share and accomplish more when working together. Your firm’s teams can work on a file from different locations, brainstorm ideas, control versions better and meet deadlines faster. According to Boggis, these new co-authoring features are very exciting and can open up opportunities to support team collaboration. Clifford Chance has previously looked at collaborative editing tools, but struggled with the preference of many lawyers to work serially on their documents. However, Boggis said that “the ability to work collaboratively while locking down certain sections of a document ‘out of the box’ is a major step forward and will allow us to cost-effectively deliver this feature as required going forward.” He adds that the collaborative co-authoring capabilities in Office 2010 “look very powerful and will provide users with greater control to ensure that certain portions of their work won’t change while collaborating on other sections.” 2. GAIN FAST, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE ACCESS TO YOUR MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT TEAM SITES. Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010, the new name for Microsoft Office Groove 2007, ushers in an entirely new way for your firm to work with your Microsoft SharePoint team sites. Now your mobile workforce can take SharePoint Workspace with them. SharePoint Server 2010 libraries and lists can be synchronized to an individual computer with just a few clicks so you can access, view and edit files anytime and anywhere. Documents and lists can be easily updated while offline and will automatically synchronize to the server when you’re back online. www.iltanet.org Microsoft 7