IMPLEMENTING DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT FOR A LAW FIRM. Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

Plan, Plan, Plan
Once you have a list, how exactly do you want the system to work? Do different practice areas/departments require different settings or levels of security? Generally speaking from one to three profiles (containing basic information about the document) suffice to meet the needs of most firms. This is an area where most often "less is more." You will likely want a different level of security for the Firm’s Management Committee and/or administrative, human resources or financial personnel so that only authorized personnel have access to whole categories of documents. In specific cases very sensitive areas of a practice (trusts & estates; mergers & acquisitions) might need a "walled-off" area. There is a trade-off between security and convenience. If you lock a system down too much, it can have a serious effect on usability. You need to establish your comfort level here.

Involve End Users; Set Expectations
If end users are taken by surprise when a system is rolled out, you could be in for a rocky implementation. In addition, Partners who are used to certain work habits (and don’t want to "share" their documents) may have to modify them, so it is critical for Partners to "buy in" to document management. Users will have questions such as "what about my personal documents?" "I keep the partner’s personal correspondence on my local hard drive, what will happen to that?" "I keep drafts on the hard drive and only put the final copy on the network." If these issues are not addressed before hand, you could have a revolt on your hands. The actual answer you give is less important than addressing the issue – and you may also be led to modify the structure of your system to accommodate certain concerns or requirements.

Designing the System
Document management systems create "profiles" to facilitate organization and faster searching. These typically include Client, Matter, Document Type, Author and sometimes Secretary in addition to the document description. You need to decide whether this is adequate or whether you have special needs.

Old ("Legacy") Documents
A major issue when implementing a document management system is what to do with your old documents. It is a safe bet most firms will never access up to 75-80% of the documents created before the document management system is implemented. I recommend setting up a "legacy" category for your old documents. Force users to move old files into the new system the first time they access them. This will be far less time-consuming (and hence less expensive) than trying to convert your old documents. However, if you are switching from one document management program to another, there may be conversion utilities available to convert your old information.

Integration with Other Products ... (to be continued)

Julius Macaulay is the Principal Consultant at TECRES Consult (www.tecres.com.ng) providing document management consultancy services for organizations. He holds a Masters degree in Information Technology with special interest in "the paperless office" and a decade experience in Information Technology.