Second Opinions

What Can I Use to Index Documents When I Don't Need Full Search Tools?

By Anthony Wilcher

THE RANGE of products that might suit this firm's needs is quite extensive. They range from open code source code; to sophisticated litigation support and document management tools; to customized records management systems.

The first question to ask: What other software products are already in use at your firm?

Many law firms purchase specialty software to meet a particular need, when they already have a program that could accomplish the required task. The places to look? Litigation, work product retrieval, records management, document management and/or assembly. If you have this type of software chances are you have the capabilities you require. You will simply need to modify the products to address your specific requirement.

But let's assume that you do not have a product with this capability in house. The next set of questions to ask yourself include:

* What format are your briefs and their attachments in? How do you need to access these briefs? Who needs to access them? From where? When?

* Are you looking to identify a best practices repository, or do you need more case and matter specific?

Because you stated that you do not require full-text indexing capabilities, your needs probably are not in the litigation support area, and are more document management oriented. Nonetheless, there are some good tools in the litigation support/text retrieval category that might meet your needs: ZyIndex and ISYS. Both are solid text retrieval products worth looking at and would most likely meet your needs and then some.

A firm of your size is most likely in need of a document management system (DMS). While your requirement appears fairly simple, you would be wise to consider the document management requirements of your entire firm --both today's needs and your future requirements. There are really only a few good choices out there. Consider iManage, Hummingbird Ltd.'s PC DOCS, or WorldDOX. These programs will give you the base functionality you described, and a whole lot more.

A DMS will allow you to quickly and easily profile documents created in most popular law firm applications (word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, or personal information management systems) and classify the documents by client, matter, document type, attorney assignments, and other criteria.

One document type, for example, might be "briefs" -- thus creating a searchable repository for your briefs. Searching can be done by several means: by profile, full-text, relevancy ranking, combination (profile and document contents), quick searches (stored search criteria), multi-library, and date range. You can also mark a document or a brief as a "best practices" document, creating a "knowledge" repository.

While a DMS usually offers full-text capabilities, it is not necessary to utilize full-text search. A DMS generally can handle any object in electronic format including images, electronic documents, e-mail, voicemail, faxes, audio and video files. Most packages have excellent version control, and basic routing and publishing capabilities. Additionally, the archive features and history tracking are added benefits of these packages.

Both iManage and PC DOCS offer paired down versions of their product for smaller firms. For example, iManage's "Primera" was designed for firms that are want collaboration and content management capabilities exclusively for internal use.

PC DOCS offers the "Esq." edition for small to mid-size firms, and touts that this more affordable offering encompasses 90 percent of the functionality of its flagship product.

WorldDOX on the other hand, was designed primarily for small to mid-sized firms in mind. Because WorldDOX does not require the extra hardware and upkeep of SQL systems, it tends to be a bit more affordable from an implementation and maintenance standpoint.

Before proceeding with the selection and installation of any of these products, however, carefully consider your firm's full requirements in this area. Then seek the assistance of someone well versed in these technologies to guide you through the selection process.

Explore your requirements to access your documents via the Web, and the necessity or value of allowing clients to access and collaborate on work product.

Each of these products handle these requirements in different ways, and it is often these requirements that distinguish one product from another.

Other Avenues

If you are a Microsoft shop you might explore the new SharePoint Portal Server 2001. (It's still in beta, but you can download a free evaluation copy.)

SharePoint (a.k.a. "Tahoe") combines document management, advanced search capabilities and an Intranet portal within one server. The server is geared towards firms that wants to create an information portal with search capabilities across the Web and in many information repositories.

With SharePoint Portal Server, you can create an Intranet site that lets you easily access key content from a broader set of firm-wide information. You can also set the portal to have information come to you with information via subscriptions, etc.

However, this product has not yet been customized for the legal community, so it caution, for now, might be in order.

Anthony Wilcher is a senior consultant and technical director for eSentio Technologies, which offers consulting and systems integration for the legal community.