Workshare and the Cloud: an interview with Matt Brown (VP of Marketing)

29
Aug
2012

Workshare is about to announce new cloud-based offerings. Legal IT Professionals talked with Workshare’s VP of Marketing Matt Brown to know more about the company’s cloud strategy.

Workshare took a new approach when you started to focus on Document Management. Now the new focus is on the Cloud. Was it a big challenge make those strategic changes? What challenges did you encounter, both with respect to company culture and technical challenges?

"I would say Workshare has always focused on documents and how users manage them even when we have provided other types of solutions. Document Management has always been important to Workshare as it extends repositories to provide secure content collaboration whether it be Autonomy, OpenText or SharePoint. One of our earliest successes was with DeltaView which focused on document comparison, and from there we expanded into solutions that helped users share, comment and protect their information. Whether it’s document comparison, metadata solutions, or our more recent solutions for SharePoint, we are trying to help users not only manage their documents but collaborate and share information easier. Providing a Cloud solution is a natural progression that leverages our core technology. People are bringing their own mobile devices to the office and leveraging a variety of file sharing solutions in the Cloud with our without the organizations approval. Our customers are looking for a secure solution, and extending existing technology into the cloud is a natural extension that will allow users to use their iPads or mobile phones, our existing desktop solutions, and provide a level of security that has been unavailable in existing solutions.  So this isn’t a big change for Workshare the company or Workshare the technology, it is the next natural step."

What is the market you are focusing on with the cloud strategy? Is the focus on smaller law firms in particular or are you also aiming at the large global firms?
"As will all our existing solutions our primary focus is to provide solutions that meet the needs of the legal community no matter if they are a solo practitioner or a global firm."

In general, what is your perception about law firms and their view of going to the public cloud?
We are seeing an increasing trend to accept the public cloud but every firm is unique and has different requirements which is why in addition to a public cloud there will be an on-premise version.

Looking at your cloud strategy roadmap, will all Workshare products in the future be offered via the cloud next to the traditional versions?
"Our focus is to provide an extension of our existing desktop collaboration solutions, not to simply offer Cloud storage. So a user of Workshare Professional will benefit from an integrated solution that provides a host of new functionality, and the organization will now have a secure solution they can manage and control."

How does your cloud strategy and roadmap stand out from your direct competitors?
"There are point solutions that focus on elements of file sharing, file synchronization, collaboration, security or mobility but not that provide one platform. We focus on meeting our customer needs more than anything else, and customers have asked for a complete secure solution to compare and collaborate on documents no matter what device they are using. That is what we will provide."

Workshare Point is now on the market for some time now. Can you tell us how successful the product is? Are law firms ready for Document Management with SharePoint as solution? 
"We’re seeing a lot of interest with legal customers and a lot of success with Workshare Point. In fact we just published another case study last week highlighting the success at Flushing Bank. The product has a lot of interest outside of the legal market primarily because corporate organizations leverage SharePoint and do not have a DMS.  Within legal we are also seeing interest from firms that leverage a DMS and SharePoint, but we are not seeing a lot of firms looking to choose one or the other.  So firms are looking to improve adoption of SharePoint, or extend for file sharing and collaboration, but not necessarily looking to replace their DMS."

How does Workshare Point compare to other SharePoint based Document Management systems for the legal market?
"When customers compare our solutions to other products on the market they of course find some feature differences, but what really differentiates Workshare is the ability for a customer to get immediate help from a local team in the US, Europe or Asia Pacific offices, and the proven processes that are in place to quickly escalate and resolve issues.  We have helped thousands of law firms, each with their own unique technology infrastructure and requirements to install and utilize Workshare. It’s that experience that helps us quickly deliver new products or resolve issues for other customers.  At the end of the day it’s our experience and dedication to supporting every customer that sets us apart."