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Document Management Systems (DMS) for law firms and legal departments have been around for a while. Different eras had their own market leaders, but the recent rapid developments in technology - specifically cloud and mobility - make the DMS vendor landscape more agile.
Recently, Hyperion Research published a MarketView™ report on this topic. The report is a good read, but the price tag ($3.750) is heavy when you're an individual interested in DMS. However, if you are in the process of selecting a new DMS for your firm, it's well worth the money.
Luckily enough, a copy of the report was sent to me by Hyperion Research (thanks guys!). In summary, the report is a good read and provides valuable information. There are however some questions that can be raised, not about the numbers but about the discussions.
The report refers to SharePoint as DMS vendor, which I don't agree with. Just having SharePoint available does not give you a full-fledged DMS. SharePoint is the platform, but you need a lot more to make it a functioning DMS. Actually, I would be interested in another MarketView™ report about the different DMS for legal solutions based on the SharePoint platform. A good comparison between the different vendors (Epona, MacroView, Workshare, Sword and Handshake) would be a very interesting read.
One research result really surprised me. Hyperion states that over “80% of law firms and corporate law departments look to upgrade or replace their [DMS] systems in the next 12-24 months”. If this is really going to happen, I think we will see a noticeable shift in the current market penetrations of the different vendors. There is a huge opportunity here for the different players on the market to increase their market share over the next two years.
Hyperion states that mobility is playing an increasingly important role in the legal world. I think we can all agree with that. They identify the new Windows 8 family of operating systems as a potential winner regarding mobile phones and tablets. Currently Blackberry and iOS still dominate the law firm industry. Windows Phone still has a small percentage of penetration but according to Hyperion's researchers, “Legal IT managers seek consistency in their infrastructure”, thereby giving Windows 8 a good chance to increase their law firm share. Good points and I tend to agree, but Clifford Chance, in spite of their Windows-based architecture and DMS based on SharePoint recently choose to re-invest in Blackberry.
A total of five vendors where thoroughly compared in the report:
Each of the products where compared using the same criteria, eventually leading to a final score. The maximum score possible was 80: 8 different categories with a maximum of 10 points per category. Working with scores however brings in another dimension. Vendors want to be "first" and "the best".
Adding up the numbers, there is one vendor with a highest score. But don't let that mislead you. There are many factors involved in making the right choice for your firm. Just looking at the total score and base your decision on that is not the best strategy.
Maybe that's why Hyperion includes one hour of consultancy time with the report, to make sure you make the best choice possible!
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