It’s hard to believe that it’s already been almost a year since ILTACON 2015 in Las Vegas. After that conference, I wrote an article with my three main takeaways. These were: Matter Center is Not Dead, the Cloud DMS Wars, and the New iManage. How have these panned out over the course of the past 12 months? I think it is safe to say that “Matter Center” as it was announced originally at ILTA in 2014 is in fact dead, but its spirit lives on through GitHub and the ISVs that have taken the source code and improved upon it. The Cloud DMS Wars are still alive and well. NetDocuments continues to grow their market share at a breakneck pace, recently announcing that they’ve caught a big fish with Orrick choosing to migrate to their platform. Firing back, iManage recently announced record-high cloud adoption and previewed what’s to come in their next major release — iManage 10.
So with all that happening so far in 2016, August arrives and the time has come to see what announcements are made this year at ILTA. Here are a few things I am looking forward to learning more about:
NetDocuments and Microsoft: What’s next?
The big strategic partnership between NetDocuments and Microsoft Office 365 was announced last year, and we are now finally starting to see some of the fruits of this partnership. I’m excited to hear about what is to come. Single-sign on with Office 365 credentials directly? Possible integration with Azure RMS? Integration with OneNote 365 and the Calendar/Tasks that come with SharePoint 365? There is a NetDocuments Solution Spotlight session (#SS19) on Wednesday, August 31st at 11am.
iManage 10 and the Next Generation of Work Product Management
At the ConnectLive 2016 summit, iManage previewed the latest iteration of the White Rabbit interface and new features coming with iManage 10 — scheduled for release this Winter. They also produced a neat video showing how the New Professional can work on-the-go with iManage 10 in the future. It shows much improved Windows integration, which seemed to suggest the ability to save OneNote files into iManage, and also allow for document co-authoring. These are things I hope to see and learn more about at ILTACON. There is an iManage roadmap session (#ILTA120) on Wednesday, August 31st at 1:30pm.
Matter Center: The Next Generation
Within the realm of the legal technology world, I think the most interest about Microsoft over the past couple of years has centered around Matter Center. This year, while Microsoft still appears to be pushing Matter Center as a concept, it is not Microsoft that is pushing Matter Center as a product. That task will be reserved for ISVs who have taken the code and ran with it. Epona appears to be leading the charge with their DMSforLegal product, fully compatible with Office 365, which incorporates some of the Matter Center web interfaces with Epona’s proven Office client add-ins. I’ll be looking to see if any other vendors out there have something ready for market. I don’t see any ILTA sessions posted, but I hope to see what is out there in the exhibit hall.
Information Rights Management: For Real This Time?
I thought 2015 was going to be the year of Information Rights Management in legal. I had a whole post about it. I guess I was slightly ahead of the times. Silly me. This year, we’ve seen some promising advances. Citrix ShareFile now offers IRM (provided by Seclore) as part of it’s standard platform. Litera is also working on an IRM product that integrates with Azure RMS. I look forward to talking to firms about whether or not they see the need for this technology (I personally think there is a serious need for it), and how these products can provide a safe and easy way to always keep control over the firm’s content when it leaves the walls of the organization. There is a session discussing IRM and DMS systems (#ILTA165) on Thursday, September 1st at 2:45pm. I will also be co-leading a Solution Spotlight session with Seclore (#SS21) on Wednesday, August 31st at 1:30pm.
I hope to see you at ILTACON in Washington, DC! I will be at the Kraft Kennedy booths (500 and 502). Come and find me, and I’ll be glad to talk about these topics or any other ECM technology that you may be interested in.