UK News
Shoosmiths, a major UK law firm, have successfully switched to a new document management system based on Microsoft SharePoint and MacroView DMF®. By enhancing the integration between Microsoft SharePoint and familiar applications such as Microsoft Office®, Adobe Reader® and Microsoft Windows®, MacroView DMF is providing the document management functionality and usability that Shoosmiths users require in order to work efficiently.
Shane Scott, Shoosmiths IS Director, says “MacroView have been a flexible and committed partner in our programme. The new platform provides us with the opportunity to exploit SharePoint’s capabilities within a legal context and our relationship with MacroView will enable us to do this.”
The switch to SharePoint-based DM was part of an ambitious strategic IT programme at Shoosmiths, which has seen the replacement of aging infrastructure with a new virtualized platform and the simplification of a complex applications architecture.
“MacroView DMF does not change in any way how documents and their metadata are stored in SharePoint, nor how SharePoint indexes and searches for documents. What MacroView DMF does provide is enhanced DM functionality and a great experience for legal and other users.” says Noel Williams, Managing Director, MacroView.
Enhancements to the out-of-the box DM capabilities of Office and SharePoint provided by MacroView DMF include:
“MacroView has delivered the functionality to bridge the gap between native SharePoint DMS functionality and what is required in a legal environment.” states Shane Scott, IS Director, Shoosmiths.
The implementation of the new SharePoint + MacroView DMF solution included the migration of approximately 3 million documents from the previous Hummingbird DM6 system. The migration retained existing versions and metadata and ensured that security of documents was consistent between DM6 and MacroView. The migration was performed using the SharePoint Migration Tool from Clockwork Software.
A notable aspect of the new DM solution is tight integration with the new SAP-based Practice Management System. As new clients and matters are created, standard document libraries are automatically provisioned in SharePoint and used to store all documents generated in SAP (conflict checks, AML documentation, invoices and statements). MacroView allows users to view and work with these client/matter libraries, which they also use to store transactional documentation. The result is a comprehensive and consistent content store containing every document and email associated with a client transaction. Shoosmiths views this as a strategic resource that they can exploit to optimise work practices and to provide new client services.
User satisfaction with the new solution is high, as exemplified by this comment by a senior partner in the firm – “Two days in and the transformation is nothing short of amazing! I am so impressed with the new systems. The response times are massively improved and the integration of the applications is brilliant. They are so intuitive!”
For a full Shoosmiths Case Study please click here.
MacroView provides the document management functionality and user experience that legal users require by enhancing the integration between Microsoft SharePoint and familiar applications such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader and Microsoft Windows. MacroView provides excellent support for legal DM where activity is arranged into cases/matters/projects with features such as versioning, numbering, metadata capture, searching by content and metadata, legal holds, in-place record declaration, etc.
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