NetDocuments case study: Forsters modernising for success now – and in the future

MOVING TO THE CLOUD

As a leading London law firm, Forsters provides exceptional legal services to their clients. But the tech they relied on to produce that work was inadequate. “We have been using a practice management solution which we designed ourselves,” said Craig Thompson, partner and Head of Corporate at Forsters, “There’s nothing worse than a piece of software designed by a committee of lawyers.”

Prior to NetDocuments, the previous on-premises system created numerous problems for the firm. Not only was the system slow, but it did not communicate with modern software solutions the team hoped to integrate. “As we wanted to adopt new software, we always had problems with it,” Thompson explained. “It created a lot of user angst, because they blamed the IT team for the fact that we had an antiquated document management system that didn’t talk to any new software.”

More than anything, however, the system was incredibly difficult to use: “It was hopeless” Thompson said. “It could probably do everything—including make a cup of tea—but nobody knew how to do it. ‘Intuition’ was not a word that was known when it was designed.”

Thompson, who was then the partner overseeing IT, began work to find a solution and led the team that reviewed and selected NetDocuments to replace their existing on-premises document management system (DMS).

“Some firms had recommended a NetDocuments competitor for us, but as users we didn’t like the interface or the fact that it had been built for ‘on-prem’ and then was being shoehorned into a client service,” he explained.

“The whole point of this process was to get us in a very modern cloud environment. NetDocuments has been built from the cloud up—that’s really evident. You can see that it’s a cloud solution from day one. So, we are really pleased to have chosen NetDocuments.”

A “BRILLIANT” REMOTE IMPLEMENTATION

Getting your team on board for a new software implementation is always challenging. For Forsters, the team had recently gone through several other significant IT changes and their outlook was not particularly bright.

“Some firms had recommended a NetDocuments competitor for us, but as users we didn’t like the interface or the fact that it had been built for ‘on-prem’ and then was being shoehorned into a client service.” Craig Thompson, Partner and Head of Corporate – Forsters

“My colleagues, the lawyers, they are such a demanding audience,” said Thompson. “Most of them were ready for a kind of disastrous launch, just because of the scale of change that we’d already gone through.”

On top of that, Forsters faced another hurdle: implementing during COVID-19.

“We had to grapple with the headache of how to launch NetDocuments when we’ve got 400+ users in various locations,” he said. “It was a really challenging situation.”

So, when launch week finally arrived, the team was wary. But they didn’t have to be: “The launch was just incredible,” said Thompson. He credits Jason Mills at Verlata Consulting for making the process so smooth.

“It was a big risk for us to go with an implementation partner that was based in Brisbane. But they had such a great track record, they were so experienced. Jason had done over 70 implementations at the time, and I just thought, ‘That’s good enough for me!’” he explained. “I can’t sing their praises highly enough. It was brilliant.”

EMPOWERING GREATER EFFICIENCY

Now that the firm is using NetDocuments, the team at Forsters is loving it. Unlike their previous solution, “The product is so easy to use and it’s so easy to like. You open your Google browser and it’s just there,” stated Thompson. “NetDocuments is just so user friendly. It’s intuitive.”

Among the team’s favorite features are the advanced search capabilities and the platform’s speed. “Everyone talks about the search function, and it’s so fast. We haven’t noticed any latency at all, which was one of our concerns about going to a cloud-based
system. And I haven’t noticed that at all.”

For Thompson, setting up his favorite workspaces was a game changer: “My favorite feature is definitely the ability to ‘Favorite’ Workspaces. Just having those four or five matters I’ve been working on and being able to get into the files so quickly is something I couldn’t do before.”

“Everyone talks about the search function, and it’s so fast. We haven’t noticed any latency at all, which was one of our concerns about going to a cloud-based system. And I haven’t noticed that at all.” Craig Thompson, Partner and Head of Corporate – Forsters

He finds the interface an exceptional upgrade as well: “I always have it open because it’s just such a lovely interface. I just love having it open and I’m always looking for excuses to use it.”

Using ndMail to integrate their email system with NetDocuments has also helped the Forsters team keep up with filing. “On our previous system, we could send emails without being asked to file them,” explained Thompson. “So, I had something like 12,000 sent items in my outbox.”

But ndMail makes that process easy and even automatic with predictive filing. “I love that we set up ndMail so that you can’t send an email without first being prompted to file it,” he shared.

REDUCING THE BURDEN ON IT

As the former IT partner, Thompson has a deep awareness of the demands being placed on that team. Fortunately, NetDocuments has reduced a lot of that burden—especially with the team working remotely.

“There is a huge actual advantage to NetDocuments, which is that it doesn’t take up the same bandwidth that our previous system did,” he explained. “But with NetDocuments, there’s an immediate, tangible benefit that it’s not crashing our home systems all the
time and clogging up our IT Service Desk with queries.”

During launch, Forsters also took significant steps to prevent IT overload: “We were scared to launch it in lockdown because we expected to have lots of floor walkers—people walking the floors, sitting down and helping people with their little issues.”

Instead, they appointed “champions” who were trained to a higher standard so they could triage team queries and relieve pressure on the IT Service Desk. But this process created another big benefit: “It created a shared knowledge within the team,” Thompson said. “Once a champion answered a question, team members were able to help each other. The knowledge just grew and grew and grew. I love it.”

“There is a huge actual advantage to NetDocuments, which is that it doesn’t take up the same bandwidth that our previous system did.” Craig Thompson, Partner and Head of Corporate – Forsters

In Thompson’s experience, the team hasn’t struggled with ongoing issues. Because the platform is so intuitive and easy to use, it’s just a question of becoming familiar rather than having major qualms with the software itself. “The graph of queries to the IT Service Desk that are NetDocuments-related went down very quickly,” he said.

STRENGTHENING THE FORSTERS BRAND

While improving usability and increasing efficiency were crucial factors for the firm, Thompson is seeing additional benefits from the platform as well.

“I think part of the benefit for us is that NetDocuments has cutting-edge technology in terms of software,” he said. “It’s very modern, and it does have the impact of modernizing the Forsters brand. It has a real marketing angle for the firm in terms of positioning us as a technologically-adept law firm.”

“The NetDocuments platform is absolutely superb. It’s transformational. Especially coming from our very old software system.” Craig Thompson, Partner and Head of Corporate – Forsters

Thompson believes this will play an important role in their future success. “The future of legal services is definitely to be much more technologically advanced,” he explained. “You talk about tech lawyers—someone who’s able to deliver legal services in a much more nimble fashion—now being the future of law. Software and technology are definitely part of that.”

A TRANSFORMATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Coming from their legacy system, the Forsters team is delighted with the user experience and capabilities they now enjoy with NetDocuments.

“The NetDocuments platform is absolutely superb. It’s transformational. Especially coming from our very old software system,” said Thompson.

With its intuitive design, NetDocuments makes it possible for the firm to work more efficiently than ever before (even remotely!) and reduce the strain on the IT team—not to mention transforming them into a modern, tech-savvy firm ready for whatever the future holds.

Now, Forsters has a document and email management platform that is equal to the exceptional level of service they provide their clients.