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A Sharp-Dressed Online Document Management Service
Why does design matter? Because good design improves our lives. A well-designed suit can make you look better. A well-designed car can save your life (and its well-designed stereo can make ZZ Top's guitar riffs sound like pure gold). Well-designed software can make you and your colleagues more productive. More than a decade ago, a company launched a Web-based document management service. Right off the bat, this design decision made its document management service accessible. Last week, this company took the wraps off its latest redesign, which incorporates Web 2.0 technologies and a modern user interface.
NetDocuments R1-2011 … in One Sentence
NetDocuments R1-2011 is a cloud-based document management service accessible from desktop and mobile Web browsers.
The Killer Feature
NetDocuments' new interface is designed to make its functions easier to understand and faster to access.
For example, you can design a "workspace" within a client/matter. You might create a folder for correspondence, a folder for depositions, etc. However, with one click, you can change from this view to list all documents associated with the matter in reverse chronological order. Also, you can search both the names of documents and their contents. All of these functions and more appear on an integrated screen so you never have to click more than once.
To further enhance the user experience, NetDocuments fine-tuned its back-end to make it disappear. In other words, as you search for, open, edit, and share documents, you won't notice a lag. Instead, the company claims that NetDocuments feels like desktop software.
If you use Internet Explorer, you're in luck. A new plugin integrates NetDocuments with Microsoft Outlook, Word, and the other Office programs. As a result, you can open and edit documents from within your browser with a single click. Even if you use a different Web browser, you can view documents instantly without having to download them.
Other Notable Features
Beneath NetDocuments' new user interface, you'll find a true document management service. In addition to organizing documents by client/matter and type and the automatic indexing and Boolean search, you can require that all newly-created documents reside in NetDocuments by setting up firm-wide rules. NetDocuments also supports document numbering and versioning. When you're editing a document, NetDocuments locks other users out.
Because documents represent the lifeblood of your firm, NetDocuments includes automatic backup and a free restore service if needed. The company uses multiple data centers, including one managed by LexisNexis, a company with decades of experience managing data. For added peace of mind, you can locally cache your documents on a server at your firm.
What about sharing documents? You can create everything from folder for clients to access to a large extranet for multi-party litigation.
What Else Should You Know?
Whether you migrate from document management software or just a simple Mac or Windows file and folder system, NetDocuments can import all your existing documents and preserve your existing directory structure. This flexibility explains why NetDocuments has achieved success both among small firms as well as some of the largest such as Foley & Lardner and Dorsey & Whitney. Pricing for NetDocuments starts at $20 per user per month. Learn more about NetDocuments R1-2011.
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