Leading WA law firm Lavan Legal has become the first Australian legal industry customer for NetDocuments’ cloud-based platform for document and email management and collaboration.

The independent practice employs 180+ people and will deploy the cloud solution to replace a legacy on-premise document management solution

“As a firm focused on providing exceptional service to our clients, we view technology and innovation as an integral component to our operations and competitive advantage,” said Marco Marcello, manager of information systems at Lavan. 

“Early in the evaluation process it became apparent that NetDocuments was a standout option that fitted perfectly with our strategic direction.”

Lavan Legal was introduced to NetDocuments’ cloud-based document management service through Feynbrook, a NetDocuments Certified Partner and consulting firm. 

"We are a law firm, not a technology firm. The move to the cloud means we can reduce our infrastructure costs and spend less effort on DRP." said Marcello.

"NetDocuments has a nice modern easy to use interface and great mobile apps on iPad and iPhone so our lawyers can work anywhere they have a connection.

"NetDocuments has also configured a local document server that will keep a complete copy of all documents and related emails stored on low cost hardware in case something should happen to our links to the world.

"Also, they have a strong presence in the US and UK which have stricter Privacy Laws than the those due to come into force in Australia in 2014, so NetDocuments were very happy to insert the clauses in our agreement that we asked for."

Lavan Legal is exploring SharePoint use at the firm using Yammer for collaboration but all document and email management will be done through NetDocuments.

The firm has also recently deployed the rekoop  time capture system across desktop and mobile devices. This is comprised of rekoop Desktop, the primary time recording interface; rekoop Digital Footprint, which monitors user activity in the background and encourages more accurate, complete time capture through configurable prompts; and rekoop for mobile, extending functionality to iPhones, iPads and BlackBerry devices.

Marco Marcello said: “As a forward thinking firm, we’re always looking at ways of doing things better, faster, and more efficiently. We’ve had our own in-house time entry system for some years but felt that now was the moment to bring in a specialist solution, with its richer capabilities and dedicated development program.

"We liked the concept of time capture, the automatic finding of ‘missed’ time, but we were also mindful that our fee earners were used to the more traditional ‘clocks and timesheet’ approach. With rekoop, unlike some competitor products we looked at, we weren’t going to have to force them to choose, as the software supports both active and passive approaches equally well. So we felt confident that we had a system that gave us every chance of the positive adoption and buy-in that is so crucial to the success of law firm IT projects. A 4-week pilot of rekoop has subsequently confirmed that but interestingly, it has also highlighted just how easily users are transitioning to the time capture method and how valuable they find it in helping them recreate and record their day accurately.”