Document management systems have been embraced especially by law practices and other professional services firms to gather, share and secure their work product and precedential documents.
Since the mid 1990’s, led major projects devoted to the selection, design, configuration, implementation, training, maintenance and troubleshooting of document management systems. At TechLaw, led projects devoted to the implementation or transformation of document management systems at law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies, using the then leading programs, Soft Solutions (no longer in use) and DOCS Open (now OpenText). While working at TechLaw, led the project to convert Drinker Biddle’s document management system from SoftSolutions to DOCS Open.
At Drinker Biddle, responsible for program leadership and project management for the conversion of the heritage DOCS Open and DM5 systems to Autonomy iManage’s FileSite program. The effort began in 2006, with a detailed comparison and demonstration of the competing systems, including NetDocuments and iManage. The project expanded significantly in 2007 with the merger of Gardner Carton & Douglas and Drinker Biddle.
The project unified the document management systems in a firm-wide iManage system. It featured a matter centered filing system. The project took on the challenge of filing of e-mail messages with documents, with the use of the document management system incorporated into the Microsoft Outlook e-mail interface. The task of filing shifted from completing a profile to selecting folders from a set planned to imitate the organization of physical files. This design sought to promote a high level of precision in filing, improving on the frequent use of miscellaneous or other uninformative categories assigned to documents in the earlier systems, and to associate every document to its matter.
Project leadership responsibilities included project management, coordination with outside consultants, the design and configuration of the iManage system, the organization and deployment of the training program, quality control testing, ongoing troubleshooting, and analysis of usage.
In a large law firm such as Drinker Biddle, the perceptions of success of a project of this magnitude and extent can vary significantly. Comfort with the procedures and use depend significantly on personal work habits. “Filers”, whose offices tend to be clean and highly organized, often embrace the tools that mirror their habits. “Pilers” whose offices can be recognized by the seemingly chaotic growths of paper arising from desk and floor, may resist the new organization and methods.
E-mail message filing presents challenges that were not yet solved at Drinker Biddle. The sheer number of e-mail messages, fragmenting communication that in earlier times could be found in a few letters or memoranda, and high volumes of material of no lasting import, makes the e-mail filing task daunting for many users. These issues will continue to be a key factor in the success of document management systems.