NetDocuments DMS, ChatLink for Teams, ndMail, CollabSpaces, ndSync, PatternBuilder, PatternBuilder MAX, SetBuilder, DocuSign eSignature Integration, Tasks, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Workspace Security Manager (WSM), Analytics.
Check out our interview from ILTACON 2024 on YouTube, featuring Jarem Shook, Strategic Account Executive of NetDocuments
“As a member of the Microsoft Cloud Storage Partner Program (CSPP) and Cloud Storage Partner Program Plus (CSPP+), NetDocuments is one of a select few vendors to offer deep interoperability with Microsoft 365, enabling features like native co-authoring.”
Figure 1: NetDocuments organizes matter workspaces into functional tabs providing external collaboration and document sharing (CollabSpaces), binder generation with SetBuilder (Sets), document and task management (Tasks), and automation (Apps) within the DMS.
NetDocuments complements how lawyers collaborate in Teams digital workspaces and Outlook email. Without leaving Teams and Outlook, lawyers can use the Microsoft Copilot integration to make natural language search requests and receive results linked to content stored in the NetDocuments DMS.
NetDocuments’ Teams app seamlessly integrates with Teams, reducing the time spent toggling between applications and improving productivity, security, and collaboration. It uses NetDocuments’ trusted security to access documents in the DMS and make notes, all within Teams.
Teams’ users generally pull documents from their source of truth and copy them into Teams to share work, which creates data governance concerns in access controls and duplication. But that’s not the case with NetDocuments. Users can query the DMS from within Teams, and NetDocuments checks a user’s access permission before it loads document views and provides access to documents. Before opening a document to edit, you can view document versioning information, access permissions, and make margin notes separate from the document that safeguards your notes if the document is shared with a client or another person outside the firm.
Users can link a team or channel to a specific workspace or location in NetDocuments. As a member of the Microsoft Cloud Storage Partner Program (CSPP) and Cloud Storage Partner Program Plus (CSPP+), NetDocuments is one of a select few vendors to offer deep interoperability with Microsoft 365, enabling features like native co-authoring. See Figure 2.
Figure 2: With a view from Teams into a NetDocuments workspace, you can open a document in Word, NetDocuments, or Word Online to co-edit.
You can use ChatLink for Teams to send channel posts to message threads (Thread) in a corresponding matter workspace. If you delete or remove a Team, the communications record remains intact in NetDocuments. Within Teams, search NetDocuments for the content to review and collaborate with Margin Notes.
Margin Notes allows you to edit and comment on a document collaboratively without the need to edit directly in the document. This avoids the “checkout wars,” version conflicts, and other challenges that arise when teams need to collaborate on a document in real time. Open a document in Teams and review and comment on it in Margin Notes. The notes provide an ongoing discussion by the editors. You can view the Margin Notes in Teams or NetDocuments and review and comment in real time, regardless of your interface.
“NetDocuments complements how lawyers collaborate in Teams digital workspaces and Outlook email. Without leaving Teams and Outlook, lawyers can use the Microsoft Copilot integration to make natural language search requests and receive results linked to content stored in the NetDocuments DMS.”
“Once the document is assembled, it’s time to analyze and revise. CoCounsel Drafting helps check for common drafting errors. It’s like having an eagle-eyed proofreader who won’t judge for excessive semicolons or misplaced “whereases.” The user can correct any slip-ups to ensure consistency and accuracy.”
NetDocuments has purpose-built, generative AI apps that work on documents and email messages in the DMS. With PatternBuilder MAX, you can build, configure, and use generative AI in specific workflows for individuals, teams, or the entire firm.
Figure 3: Configure PatternBuilder MAX Studio Apps to summarize documents by selecting the summary length and document type.
PatternBuilder MAX, the first product available from the ndMAX suite, connects to Microsoft’s Generative AI, but you are not using a free-form chat interface. You control the input, system, user message, the model used, and the context window.
Maintaining the security and confidentiality of your documents and data is a critical element of the responsible application of generative AI in legal. With PatternBuilder MAX, not only is your information not used to train Microsoft’s LLMs, NetDocuments and Microsoft have a zero-day content retention policy on AI, which means Microsoft retains neither your input nor output.
Additionally, NetDocuments is one of a small number of providers to have secured an exemption to Microsoft’s abuse monitoring policy. This exemption ensures neither inputs to nor outputs from Microsoft’s LLM AI are subject to systematic or human oversight by Microsoft. Additionally, firms and departments can set up ethical walls to control the matters and clients for which generative AI-powered applications can be used and make policy-oriented decisions around the use of AI applications by individuals, such as first-year associates.
If you don’t use PatternBuilder MAX, NetDocuments still provides PatternBuilder, a no-code document automation environment to create custom Microsoft Word or PDF documents from user input, such as form-filled or database- driven questionnaires and surveys with variables to store user input. The output document, such as an intake form or retainer agreement, can trigger a workflow or add to an existing flow using Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power Automate, or NetDocuments’ tasks and notifications.
To simplify and enhance your workflows, you don’t have to leave NetDocuments to create tasks for associates and staff. In the tasks tab of a matter workspace, create assignments in message format, as if you were in Threads, using an “@” mention and include links to documents from the DMS without making a copy. Review assigned tasks, comments, status, and details in list views or Kanban-style boards, such as due dates and checklists.
Legal professionals often create documents from multiple files in tedious and time- consuming processes. Whether they work in M&A, real estate, or criminal law, lawyers and staff make deal bibles, closing binders, trial exhibits, witness packages, electronic court filing packages, and more. SetBuilder collects and organizes documents of various file formats and email messages into a zipped file or a single consolidated PDF, complete with a cover page, a hyperlinked table of contents, and bookmarks for sharing and collaborating.
NetDocuments supports an open application programming interface (API) to connect data sources and systems with the DMS. Customers access over 500 integrated applications within the platform weekly, including its deep penetration into Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Word. You can choose from more than 150 apps in NetDocuments’ App Directory.
For example, DocuSign eSignature integration makes it easy to collect a signature by right-clicking any document in the DMS, and PacerPro integrates with NetDocuments to store and track federal filings in their respective workspaces with custom document profiles using PACER metadata.
Law firms, corporate legal departments, and public sector entities choose NetDocuments as a versatile and trusted cloud platform for their best work. Request a personalized demo to see if NetDocuments suits your law firm.
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