As many in the legal industry are aware, Dropbox has had it’s share of security concerns and issues. The concerns stretch from security breaches to iOS app flaws to an FTC complaint alleging outright deception about its security and privacy policies. And to a law firm, they should be reason alone to stop using the service – failure on the part of an attorney to use adequate security measures to protect client confidences may be committing malpractice. However, there are many attorneys out there that will still use it, because Dropbox provides a solution to a very common need — sending large files to external clients. Besides Dropbox, there are several other utilities out there that cater to this need: YouSendIt, Microsoft SkyDrive, and the just-announced Google Drive.
It is up to the Firm to set policies for the use (or lack of use!) of these tools. Firewall rules can be configured to prevent access to these services. But wouldn’t it be great if there was a similar service that can be hosted within your environment? This is the market that OpenText is going after with their new product Tempo.
I recently sat in on a webinar that reviewed the features and benefits of the new platform. Tempo comes in two flavors, Express Edition and Content Server 2010 Edition. The Express Edition should probably do the trick for most enterprises out there. It’s basically a self-contained, preconfigured Content Server that can be hosted on your private network or cloud. There are clients for Windows, Blackberry, iOS, and Android devices. A Mac client is expected soon. In addition, files can be accessed without a client, simply by browsing to the web portal. On a Windows system with the client, Tempo appears as a location along the same lines as your Desktop or My Documents. Folders can be created and shared via the client. Files can then be shared simply be dragging and dropping into the Tempo area.
Since Tempo is an extension of the Windows Explorer, it can integrate with whatever DMS you may have. Whether you have eDOCS, iManage, Worldox, or another system, simply check-out the document to the Tempo location folder, and your file is shared appropriately.
There isn’t much functionality beyond that, and I think that’s a good thing. It’s simply a way to share and collaborate on files securely. There is a free trial available on the Tempo website. It’ll be interesting to see if this takes off as one of those “right product at the right time” moments.