Engage users in compliant content filing, however and wherever they discuss and collaborate with documents
It’s the age-old problem, which was magnified a thousand-fold during the lockdown. How to get users to adhere to a standard, agreed way of managing content across the lifecycle of client engagements, legal matters or other projects.
Even today, co-workers tend to default to email as their primary means of discussing, circulating and collaborating on documents and related status information.
A risk-free reset
Sometimes it’s easier to accept that this is the way that works best for users, than to try to change people’s entrenched behaviour. If Microsoft Outlook is the favoured way of communicating, why try to force users to switch to other applications to manage content? It will feel unnatural, and could interrupt workflow.
But, even if Outlook serves as the default window to content, there does need to be some control over where the latest versions of documents and related correspondence are filed. Otherwise, firms end up with multiple, siloed emails and documents – strewn across hard drives, Exchange, and document management applications.
At the same time, this chaotic approach to content management can result in preferred document repositories such as SharePoint or specialist document management systems suffering low adoption. This undermines the organisation’s investment in those systems, and means users can’t fully trust the content stored there – ie whether they are looking at the latest content or related information.
Equally, users will be missing out on MS 365’s inherent document collaboration capabilities – if these haven’t been rubber-stamped as an approved vehicle for everyday content exchange.
Make Outlook the enabler
The good news is that Outlook-driven content management best practice is well within companies’ grasp, and doesn’t require any major upheaval – or for organisations to abandon existing systems.
Because actions speak louder than words, we’re going to show you how to make a success of all of this in a new bite-sized webinar on Thursday July 16th.
In this short, practical session we’ll demonstrate how, using Repstor technology, you can make Outlook the default window on content, while simultaneously enforcing controls over where matter/project/client engagement-related email correspondence and documents are retained and accessed.
So that latest versions are always easy to locate and refile, from within the familiar everyday Outlook interface.
See for yourself
Watch and learn how to:
- Bring emails and documents together in SharePoint;
- Expose new capabilities in the familiar environment of Outlook and everyday workflow;
- Make light work of filing emails and attachments;
- Promote routine email and document management best practice – harnessing the way users already work instinctively; and
- Provide a consistent experience on demand, whether users are working on their desktops, mobile devices, or offline.
Sign up here to attend the webinar.
Fergus continues, “Our latest campaign will help firms to make the case for selecting Office 365 for complete matter lifecycle management – a move that law firms ranging from large international practices like Eversheds Sutherland to challenger firms like gunnercooke have already made.”
Ilse Niehof, Legal Counsel Business at ForFarmers commented, “We evaluated the Repstor custodian solution and found that it clearly fits with our technical legal strategy and from a business perspective, it is definitely the most appropriate solution for our needs.”
“Queen’s University chose the Repstor affinity product because it provided a level of product integration, ease of use and performance that we did not see elsewhere. The filing of email is key within the Contracts team and in our evaluation filing of email to SharePoint using the Quick File tool in Repstor affinity was fast and easy, which was not the experience with competing products. The affinity product required no user training and was easily deployed across our entire team,” Tom Edgar, Head of Consultancy & Technical Services, Research and Enterprise Directorate, Queen’s University Belfast.
“We are delighted to be working with Queen’s University Belfast. It is great to work with a local University and to hear how their evaluation of the market led to our product being clearly identified as the market leader for Outlook and SharePoint integration,” Alan McMillen, CEO, Repstor Limited. 
“Our existing remote office thin client model wasn’t performing to acceptable standards and we needed to make some radical changes to introduce improvement. We decided early on that we needed to move away from a thin client model yet try and retain the centralised Worksite document management system but this simply wasn’t possible until we became aware of Repstor’s products. Testing and piloting of the products has got the remote offices really excited because it has resolved many of the performance issues that they see. It has also provided a level of matter management, product integration, ease of use and performance that we could get nowhere else. We are so impressed with the Repstor products, and their speed at turning around our feature suggestions, that there is every likelihood that we will roll them out to all remote locations throughout 2015/16,” Tony Le Lerre, Head of Information Services, Mourant Ozannes.
“In our desire to make life easier and more productive for our customers, while finding solutions that users love, we are delighted to partner with Repstor as their technology offers solutions that make ECM easy. Repstor affinity provides intuitive access to any ECM repository, from Microsoft Outlook. Repstor affinity’s interface provides the simple behaviour of filing and collaborating from within Outlook even though the user is saving content to an ECM system,” says René Beulen, Managing Partner at Transform Data.
Alan McMillen, Repstor CEO commented, “By partnering with Transform Data we have extended our reach further into the Benelux and Nordics regions. This partnership will allow us to develop business jointly in these important regions, and will enable us to provide effective local support for Repstor resellers in these regions. The Repstor product range continues to develop with the ethos that the company was built on – making happier users. We create products that users will adopt by making them intuitive and familiar. Transform Data also strives to increase users’ productivity –making it a natural fit for our companies to partner.”