Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a Microsoft Outlook add-in that predicts where to file your email and even lets you know when a colleague has beat you to it and already filed the same message (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of a cloud practice management system that has added financial and trust accounting to complement its billing features, obviating third-party software such as QuickBooks, an online video tutorial service to help lawyers prepare clients for depositions, mediations, and trials, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.
Over the years, document management systems have adapted to include email. The companies behind these products have developed all sorts of tools for saving email messages and attachments so that everyone working on a matter can access them. However, solutions to date require too much manual labor, and don't take into account multiple recipients of the same message to prevent duplicates.
ndMail … in One Sentence
Recently launched, NetDocuments' ndMail is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that uses artificial intelligence to make saving client-related email in the correct location faster and more accurate.
The Killer Feature
NetDocuments pioneered cloud document management nearly 20 years ago. In recent years, the company modernized NetDocuments to pave the way for companion products like ndMail.
Once installed, ndMail monitors your inbox to identify where in NetDocuments you likely want to file each new message. Select a message to view these recommended locations. Check a box if you agree with a prediction and the message is stored in that NetDocuments folder, inheriting the corresponding client, matter, and other associated metadata. You can file email in multiple folders. If you're unsure about a recommendation, right-click to open that location in NetDocuments for more context.
ndMail uses the sender, recipients, subject line, attachments, etc. to make its predictions. A Signal Strength Indicator to the left of each recommendation indicates the confidence level of ndMail's Predictive Email Filing technology. If none of the recommendations is a good fit, you can search or browse NetDocuments to find the correct folder, or create a new folder (e.g., new matter). ndMail learns from your behavior to improve its future recommendations.
"ndMail is unlike other email management solutions," says NetDocuments Sr. Product Manager of ndMail Bradlee Duncan. "It comes pre-loaded with accurate filing predictions, leveraging AI technology based on existing matter content and filing behaviors. This eliminates the need for complex deployment or pre-trained models to generate its predictions. The value is immediate in time saved, helping new employees get up to speed, and preventing errors."
Other Notable Features
NetDocuments realizes you're part of a law firm, and that colleagues often receive the same email messages. Therefore, ndMail includes a Global Filing Indicator in the form of a NetDocuments column in Outlook. If a colleague has already filed a message, the Global Filing Indicator in this column lets you know before you open the message. This prevents the storage of duplicate email messages in the same NetDocuments folder.
When composing an email message, ndMail works similarly, predicting where you likely want to file the message after sending it. If a recipient works in your law firm, they will see the Global Filing Indicator in Outlook to let them know you have already filed the message in NetDocuments.
If you communicate frequently on one matter, you can use ndMail's Folder Mapping as an alternative way to save messages in NetDocuments. Folder Mapping enables you to list NetDocuments folders within Outlook's navigation panel. Drag and drop multiple messages into a mapped folder to store them in NetDocuments.
What Else Should You Know?
You can deploy ndMail centrally. Some firms create a rule in Microsoft Exchange to remove filed messages from user inboxes after a specified period of time. Alternatively, you can give users the ability to keep or delete email in Outlook after filing it in NetDocuments. Learn more about ndMail.
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