EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is from the NJSBA's PracticeHQ, a free benefit available to all NJSBA members. Access articles, comparison charts, videos and more created for the sole purpose of helping you manage your law practice more efficiently and effectively. Find out more about PracticeHQ resources here.
By Bryce Phillips, senior document management consultant at Affinity Consulting Group.
1. Four simple steps to start your DMS search.
Document management systems (DMS) are critical to the success of any law firm. Legal-specific document management eliminates a "Wild West" approach to document storage and security and significantly improves your efficiency and productivity.
Selecting a DMS can be daunting. To make your decision a lot easier, consider following these four simple steps:
(A) Identify core features of your DMS.
Before looking at a DMS, first understand the real needs of your firm. Does your firm have issues capturing emails? Is finding documents difficult? Do you lack a consistent method for saving and naming documents? Identifying the document challenges of your firm is the first step toward understanding and selecting the features you need in a DMS.
(B) Rank the importance of each DMS feature.
It's likely that no DMS product will provide you with the perfect solution for every problem. Know what features are most critical to you and your firm by ranking your requirements. Which features can you live without? Which features you do not want or need? Consider selecting a DMS that has features you absolutely need over one that has features that are clever but not useful.
(C) Evaluate on-premises solutions vs. hosted or cloud-based solutions.
Understand your choices when selecting the DMS configuration that's best for your firm. With on-premises solutions, you'll need resources to purchase hardware and software and access to someone with the knowledge to set it all up. For hosted solutions, you'll need to consider recurring costs (usually monthly, quarterly, or annually) to maintain servers and store your documents. Understand that with hosted and cloud-based systems, your data will live elsewhere, and you must maintain a strong internet connection to access it. Identify the choice that best meets your needs and budget.
(D) Explore solutions via a demo.
A DMS product should enhance your firm's workflow. It should not add more steps or additional challenges to it. By watching an actual demonstration and seeing how a document management system's features perform, you'll be able to see which system will make your office more productive and efficient. If a DMS representative claims the system can perform a critical function, ask to see how it's done step by step.
2. Resources:All of the bar’s document management resources are available on the
PracticeHQ site. Here are some specific resources to help you learn about document management systems: