FordHarrison, one of the US’s largest management-side labour and employment law firms, has selected iManage Share in order to better collaborate with its clients and avoid the temptation among its lawyers to use consumer-grade Dropbox.
FordHarrison faced the familiar challenge of its clients and lawyers wanting faster collaboration and Scott Shaw, chief technology officer at FordHarrison said: “We found that attorneys wanted to use Dropbox because of its ease-of-use, but were unaware of the security and other governance implications that introduced.”
The Atlanta-founded firm, which switched from OpenText Hummingbird to iManage Work in 2013, selected iManage Share as its secure collaboration platform after evaluating several alternatives.
iManage Share – rebranded from iManage LinkSite after a management buyout in July 2015 – fully integrates professional work product management and secure file sharing. Lawyers can create a new sharing site, upload scrubbed and secured content and start collaborating with external parties—with one click. iManage Share suggests who to include in collaborations based on email analysis. Professionals can do this through the same iManage Work interfaces they use every day. And clients and external parties can add or edit content through a consumer-like Web application.
Shaw said: “Sometimes I see firms make a significant investment in technology that is never used because it is cumbersome. iManage Share offered us a lightweight, intuitive user experience, and an easy, cost-effective way to adopt the solution. And, the integration with iManage Work means that it is now easier for lawyers to share with clients and external parties from within iManage than using consumer file sharing services.”
Dan Carmel, iManage’s chief marketing officer said: “The challenge of sharing work product with clients and other external parties requires a very tricky balance between what is easy enough for professionals to use, so it is adopted, and what can provide the governance and control needed by professional service firms who are stewards of their clients’ information.
“iManage Share is the only secure file sharing solution today to offer complete integration with iManage Work, so that professionals never need to leave their core work product management system to be able to collaborate securely and safely with external parties. It is easier and safer for professionals than Box.net or Dropbox, yet offers governance and security features that meet the unique needs of professional service organizations.”
In December Dropbox, which has an existing business offering, entered the world of enterprise-grade file sharing and collaboration with Dropbox Enterprise.