Quote:
Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
For your size firm, just go with industry standards, which means iManage for document management (clear standard) and probably CMS for billing (less clear standard) and outlook for emails. If nothing else, this means fewer laterals will need to learn something new.
Do you have professional IT staff? If so, they should put all the proposals together. But a consultant also takes the political risk off.
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The other two document managment systems I've seen are WorldDocs and Hummingbird. WorldDocs, from a user perspective, is about the same as iManage, although each has its quirks. I think iManage is a little smoother, but then it's what I learned first. Hummingbird I've only seen demo-ed, so I'm less certain how close it is.
Both iManage and WorldDocs, once installed and configured, are pretty easy to use. Instead of the standard "Save" dialog box, the DMS box pops up when you choose "Save" and it requires that you enter client number, matter number, document type, person drafting, person typing and a more lengthy name. Each will also track versions. You have to make an effort to override the system and save locally: enough effort to make it not worth while to buck the system, but not so much that it is impossible to save locally when necessary. Everyone will bitch for about 3 days, then accept the new system, except two secretaries who will never get it and who will have to leave. 6 months later no one will be able to conceive how you got along without it.
I've worked with iManage configured for an 8 attorney firm and a 250 attorney firm. It worked well in both places, but there was a pretty serious server for the bigger firm and searches could still be a little slow if not well defined (search: File text contains "Motion" AND "Dismiss") and run in the middle of the day.
One other thing - properly configured, iManage will allow secure access to documents via a web browser.
