Tag: Microsoft 365

Repstor Gears up for Continued Fast Growth in Legal & Professional Services Sectors with Series of New Appointments in the UK & US

Microsoft 365

Belfast, UK –  January 26th,  2021 – Repstor, the Microsoft 365-based information and matter management specialist preferred by professional services firms globally, has kick-started 2021 with an expanded team, reflecting the company’s confidence in another strong year ahead.

Repstor, which recently made the Deloitte Top 50 Rapid Growth Tech Company list for the fourth year running, has appointed seven new consultants to the team to address the soaring interest in its software among legal and professional services firms on both sides of the Atlantic.

Alison Thorpe has joined as Sales Manager for Repstor’s UK Legal operation, and will spearhead new business development team in this important and fast-growing market for Repstor. Alison joins the company from Eclipse Legal Systems, where she was a Sales Consultant, with other career highlights including the Regional Sales Manager role at Prosperoware.

New products consultants Eve Boardman and Chris Colahan strengthen Repstor’s professional services-focused team in the UK.

Colin Truesdale, whose impressive career includes more than 12 years in Product Marketing and Managing Consultant roles at Kainos, and four years as Training Manager at Meridio, has joined as Head of Pre-Sales. Colin will be responsible for actively driving and managing the pre-sales process within customer opportunities in Legal and Professional Services.

Based in England, Juelma Isabel Nunes joins as an Inside Sales Executive, to support business expansion in the UK.

In the US, a strong and fast-growing market for Repstor’s legal and professional services solutions business, Repstor new appointments include Brad Teed, an experienced solutions architect, product manager and former CTO and Abby Moore, a skilled project manager, to drive business expansion State-side from their base in Texas.

Commenting on all of the new appointments, Alan McMillen, Repstor’s CEO, says, “On behalf of all at Repstor, I warmly welcome these impressive individuals to the company, and look forward to the additional sales growth and customer success they will help to drive in 2021, both in the UK and internationally.”

After a busy and successful year for the company in 2020 despite the difficult climate, Repstor continues to enjoy strong and growing demand for its Microsoft 365-based information management solutions. These help knowledge workers, especially in the professional services sectors, to streamline content and information management from within familiar existing applications including Outlook and Teams.

“We’ve seen all kinds of professional services teams seek to consolidate and digitally simplify the way they manage their projects and caseloads, as the pandemic has deepened and caused operational chaos for firms,” Fergus Wilson, Repstor’s CTO, notes.

“Teams of professionals already loved what we do, but continued lockdowns and remote working have brought forward transformation plans. Specifically, the pandemic has prompted consolidation of information management platforms, and rising interest in secure hosting in the cloud. We’re helping them to standardise more of what they do via the investments they’ve already made in Microsoft 365.”

As well as the recent Deloitte accolade, Repstor has also been named in Gartner’s recent Market Guide for Corporate Legal Matter Management, which recognises companies that have achieved visibility and traction in this sector.

Want to know what Repstor could do for you? Fill in the form below NOW:



Norsk Hydro ASA (Hydro), one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide, has selected Repstor Custodian for Legal™ from Transform Data International as its new matter management solution for its Group Legal Department, building on its existing corporate Microsoft 365 environment.

The legal department wanted to replace its legacy, on-premise document management system, iManage Work, with a cloud-based solution linked to Microsoft 365 which would be more cost-efficient and give the department more consistent control of information security and compliance across its operations.

Integrating comprehensive matter management into Microsoft 365 brings the Legal Department into line with the enterprise-wide efficiencies and controls enjoyed elsewhere in the company, and further increases the return on investment on the company-wide platform.

Specifically, the legal department found in Custodian for Legal a secure, affordable, and scalable solution which provides both on-and off-line access to matters. Because the IT makeover harnesses Hydro’s existing investments in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, the required IT effort was acceptable, ensuring that the implementation was quick and easy. The data from the existing iManage system has been migrated using Transform Data’s Migration Toolkit, which comes with out-of-the-box connectors to various systems and guarantees minimal disruption for users.

Commenting on the choice of Custodian for Legal solution that Transform Data provides, Annette Sommer, who headed up the DMS project in the Group Legal Department, said: “We liked Custodian for Legal from the start, in particular because of its simple design and user-friendly interface. Our end-users are happy with the new system, and we have appreciated the close collaboration with the Transform Data team. It helps that they are familiar with our current way of working and have a standard approach to moving data from the legacy system to the new solution, making the transition very easy. Once our IT department confirmed that the solution was compliant with the strict security guidelines we have to follow these days, the project got underway rapidly.”

Rob Kubben, managing partner at Transform Data added: “We are pleased to welcome Hydro to our customer base. The migration approach we’ve developed and honed over numerous previous projects made the switch easy from the end-users’ perspective. Once the teams have become used to the new system, they will start to benefit from the numerous functions and features provided by Microsoft 365 and Custodian for Legal – without additional costs or licences.”

Want to know what Repstor could do for you? Fill in the form below NOW.



Repstor Clocks up 4th Consecutive Year of Recognition in the Deloitte Top 50 Rapid Growth Tech Firms

BELFAST, December 21st 2020 – Repstor, the Microsoft 365-based information management specialist preferred by professional services firms globally, has been named in the Deloitte Top 50 Rapid Growth Tech Firms for the fourth year running. The news marks the culmination of a busy and successful year for the company, despite the difficult climate.

The Deloitte Fast 50 awards celebrate indigenous Irish technology companies that have demonstrated exceptional growth in turnover, which Repstor continues to show.

2020 has been another successful year for the company, as all kinds of professional services teams have sought to consolidate and digitally simplify the way they manage their projects and caseloads.

Pandemic-related lockdowns have placed new emphasis on remote working and information access, while a surge in use of Microsoft Teams has driven strong demand for Repstor for Teams™, launched in August at this year’s virtual ILTA>ON international legal technology event.

Repstor has also hosted multiple series of timely webinars this year, providing practical advice for legal and professional services teams looking to bring coherence and compliance to email and document management, particularly as professionals were dispersed to work from home.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards is one of Ireland’s foremost technology award programmes. It is a ranking of the country’s 50 fastest-growing technology companies based on revenue growth over the last four years.

Announcing this year’s winners, Peter Allen, Partner at Deloitte (NI) Ltd, said: “The pandemic has presented huge challenges to the way we work and live, and technology has responded to provide innovative solutions.  Although the economy has come under severe pressure, this crisis has presented unprecedented opportunities for NI tech businesses to shine.”

Commenting on Repstor’s continued success in the rankings, Alan McMillen, Repstor’s CEO, said: “We’re delighted to be among such great company in being named in these awards once again, and to have achieved so much during such a difficult year. We look forward to serving our customers and further expanding our business in 2021.”

Last month, Repstor was named in Gartner’s latest Market Guide for Corporate Legal Matter Management, which recognises companies that have achieved visibility and traction in the market.

Want to know what Repstor could do for you? Fill in the form below NOW:



Why it’s time to digitally transform matter intake

In a recent webinar, the General Counsel of a major UK bank perfectly captured the current mood among his peer group: he had no intention of resuming his two-hour commute to the centre of London, he said, after months of working from home. He is far from alone, and this has ramifications for the way corporate legal teams operate – redoubling the business case for process modernisation, to bring the function more in line with how other departments such as IT, facilities management, and HR operate.

Take the age-old issue of matter intake. For the longest time, the business and the corporate legal function have long enjoyed the informality of a quiet word in the right ear, a nod that some new advice is needed. This ad-hoc way of working has been convenient for business users, able to tap directly into the expertise of their favourite lawyer, while legal professionals have enjoyed their knowledge being sought out; that sense of providing personalised value.

But maintaining these casual, ad-hoc interactions is more cumbersome when people are working from home. There is a further factor at play now, too. Most industry sectors have been hit hard economically by the events of the last six months, putting the pressure on managers to rein in costs and drive new efficiency into everything they do.

For in-house legal teams, which need to be able to demonstrate the value they provide in facts and figures, this leaves no choice but to revisit process digitalisation. If ever professionals needed to be able to deliver more with less – and be discerning and efficient about how work is allocated and resourced, as well as fastidious in measuring progress and productivity – it is now.

Making Microsoft 365 the means of change

Matter intake – the point at which new work comes in – is an obvious place to start with process digitalisation, offering quick wins. Studies suggest that as much as 20 per cent of a corporate legal team’s time is spent on the admin surrounding intake, triage and allocation of new legal instructions from the business – clarifying what’s required and confirming verbal instructions – where there is no standardised process in place. (That’s not including the time spent delivering frequent ad-hoc matter updates expected by the business.)

It is no coincidence that Microsoft 365, the mainstream cloud-based productivity and collaboration platform, has risen to new prominence for legal operations over recent months. That’s as teams have realised just how well it lends itself to streamlined, trackable matter lifecycle management across any combination of locations – starting with matter intake.

Capturing the full requirements needed to process routine legal requests (straightforward contract work, NDAs and simple advisory requirements, for instance), and bringing this activity more in line with administrative processes elsewhere in the business, is fairly easy to achieve. Using structured self-service digital forms, for instance, can prompt the business for the information they need to provide up front – saving on legal professionals’ valuable time that would otherwise be spent capturing any missing details.

Recording the value of legal services

Digitalising matter intake doesn’t need to take away from personal relationships that have been built up with the business, of course. And it may be that this self-service process is reserved for only certain kinds of engagement. But note that one of the big benefits of making things more official from the outset is that each interaction between the business and the legal department is recorded. This makes it easier to account for those lost days spent on ‘5-minute jobs’, and demonstrate the true value the legal department provides to the business.

This is exactly the kind of scenario we can help with, building on organisations’ existing investments in Microsoft 365 applications – to formalise matter intake processes, and sharpen matter lifecycle management, transforming business engagement and document and email management, while also delivering powerful matter analytics.

We’ve produced a rather helpful eBook on it all too which you can download here

Leigh Smith – Repstor

Accelerating digital transformation with Microsoft 365

A practical guide for law firms.

A handy walk-through for law firms looking to consolidate their document, email management and collaboration strategy to support multiple use cases and more flexible working.

Read More Here

Want to see what Repstor could do for you? Fill in the form below now:

Microsoft Cortex paves the way for AI-enabled knowledge management

If ever there was a reason to swap legacy legal document management systems for mainstream Microsoft 365-based matter management, this is it.

The potential for artificial intelligence, and machine learning in particular, to transform enterprise content management has been clearly identified. And no sector stands to gain more from this capability than the professional services world, which is so closely bound with hefty and complex documentation. So it was amid great anticipation that we welcomed the recent unveiling of Microsoft Cortex.

Project Cortex is a suite of new Microsoft AI tools, designed to analyse content created across the Microsoft 365 platform, and shared across teams and systems – to form an on-demand ‘knowledge network’ across the enterprise which is organised and updated automatically in connection with common topics. (It also offers the facility to automate processes based on content discovered and extracted from incoming documents, with the potential to save busy knowledge workers a great deal of time scouring files for the critical information they contain – something I’ll cover in my next blog.)

AI for all

For the professional services world, and for legal teams in particular, the arrival of Cortex is potentially transformational. Up to now, AI-based tools for legal teams have tended to be expensive, niche products designed for specific tasks such as automated contract assembly or document content analysis. But now that Microsoft is championing AI-based content services, richer and more diverse capabilities will come with reach of entire enterprises, potentially spanning multiple use cases -including all kinds of legal applications. And it’s these legal uses cases that Repstor will be homing in on and making easy and intuitive for busy professionals.

So what can we expect in the way of improved knowledge management?

With Cortex, any client or matter-related content or information created or passing across the Microsoft 365 platform will be able to have AI techniques applied to it – so that it can be identified, categorised and discovered more readily, via smart automation.

This isn’t just about content itself, but about the wider picture – for example identifying the relevant people working on a particular client matter, the experts in a particular field, and/or the key documents linked to a given topic.

Powered by the Cortex AI tools suite, Microsoft 365 will be able to distil themes and key attributes from email, documents and teams activity to determine distinct topics and important materials and information linked to them, drawing all of this together so that it can be found instantly. Better still, teams will be able to guide Cortex in its learning so that it becomes more accurate at determining what’s important, or the topics to which materials and experts are linked.

Exponential efficiency gains

For legal teams under pressure to be more productive and contribute more directly to the business, Microsoft’s new smart knowledge management capabilities will save substantial time spent looking up related email threads; previous matters or contracts; or legal experts involved in similar or adjacent cases.

Although Microsoft may not have specific credentials in legal content management, this is where Repstor comes in – bringing the best of proven, mainstream, Microsoft IT to the intricacies of legal matter management. Put another way, we enable legal teams to benefit from the billions upon billions of dollars that Microsoft has invested in the latest, smartest and most secure content management, collaboration and business productivity software.

Content technology analysts such as Gartner are hailing Microsoft as a visionary leader in the field. It is no coincidence that Microsoft has invested billions and achieved industry leading set of patents on AI.   Repstor has fairly exclusive access to ongoing plans for the platform too, as an official Microsoft content services partner. This, coupled with our deep legal sector expertise, positions us perfectly to bring AI to bear where it really matters. So watch this space.

 

Repstor Continues to Convert the Legal World to Microsoft 365 for Matter Lifecycle Management

Enviable legal sector talent on both sides of the Atlantic along with Repstor’s Microsoft Gold partner and Content Services Partner status drive big-name client wins with corporate legal teams and private law firms in the UK and the US as the urgency around digital transformation intensifies

Belfast , UK –  September 14th,  2020 – Repstor, the Microsoft 365-based matter management specialist, has seen demand for its Custodian for Legal™ matter lifecycle management and interest in its new Repstor for Teams™ solutions soar in the wake of the global lockdown, as more legal teams seek more intuitive and mainstream ways to collaborate on their caseloads across distance.

Repstor’s clients around the world include North American law firm Charthouse Lawyers; international firms Adams & Adams and Konexo; Anthony Gold Solicitors, gunnercooke and Boels Zanders Advocaten in Europe, plus the in-house legal departments of UK Power Networks, National Grid, Wellcome Trust and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) All have turned to Repstor’s Microsoft 365-based legal software to deliver greater agility, visibility and efficiency as they progress and monitor client matters.

Repstor has bolstered its senior teams in the US and the UK in response to the explosion in demand for its legal solutions. Among the latest appointments are Kevin Bley, US Sales for Corporate Legal in the US – an experienced VP of sales with strong business development skills in IT and services, particularly linked to Software as a Service (SaaS). He joins Bryan Ferguson, Director of Sales for the Americas.

Heading Repstor’s global Legal Solutions organisation is co-founder Sheila Gormley in Belfast, UK. She is joined by Deirdre Sweeney, Repstor’s recently-appointed Head of Operations responsible for customer success. Deirdre has worked in the IT industry since graduating from Trinity College Dublin in 1987. Another highly-experienced member of the UK team is Principal Consultant for Legal & Professional Services, Leigh Smith, who joined Repstor from global law firm Eversheds Sutherland in 2018.

Repstor Custodian for Legal provides legal teams with a secure matter lifecycle management Solution for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft SharePoint incorporating document & email management and collaboration. Its soaring success with both corporate legal teams and private law firms is down to its accessibility, affordability and easy integration with existing systems.

Repstor recently launched a timely new solution, Repstor for Teams™, allowing legal teams to coordinate and progress all matter management in a secure, ordered and traceable way from within the mainstream collaboration hub, Microsoft Teams. The new Repstor solution comes in response to the sharp rise in Teams adoption seen during the COVID-19 lockdown, as dispersed colleagues have sought more spontaneous ways to stay connected and keep matters moving outside of the office.

“Repstor’s success in the international legal market has been phenomenal, and is a strong indication that the profession is no longer well served by complex, expensive, proprietary document management solutions,” commented Alan McMillen, the company’s CEO.

“Legal teams are voting with their feet and switching to software that’s intuitive, close at hand, and used by everyone. Repstor meets that need, giving legal professionals a single window through which they can monitor and manage matters right through to completion, in a fully compliant way, with everything they need to hand. Demand for our Microsoft 365-based matter lifecycle management solutions is stronger than ever, and with our expanding and deeply experienced team on both sides of the Atlantic, our clients couldn’t be in better hands.”

Want to know what Repstor could do for you? Fill in the form below NOW:


Swiss Retail Giant, Migros, Selects Repstor’s Custodian for Legal from Transform Data International

Swiss Retail Giant, Migros, Selects Repstor’s Custodian for Legal from Transform Data International

The Microsoft 365-based matter management solution has already garnered significant user support and adoption amongst Migros’s legal professionals

MAASTRICHT/ZÜRICH, 22. July 2020 – Transform Data International (TDI) has proudly announced that the legal department of Migros Genossenschafts Bund (Migros), Switzerland’s largest employer, retail chain and supermarket brand, has selected Repstor Custodian for Legal for its document, email and matter management.

Following a successful proof of concept (PoC), the legal team concluded that Custodian for Legal was the right solution to meet its needs. Migros is an established user of Microsoft 365/Office and was looking for an application it could integrate fully within Microsoft Outlook, which its legal professionals already use continuously throughout the day. These knowledge workers’ familiarity with the software led to very high adoption levels during the PoC; users also required minimal training.

TDI will implement the Custodian for Legal solution for Migros, and perform a bulk migration of data from Winpat -the legacy system Migros has used until now. TDI will also advise on the creation of smart reports to provide visual insights into KPIs and workload status from everyday operational data.

Matthias U. Studer, Head of Intellectual Property at Migros, commented: “The scope of the project goes beyond just document and email management. We are configuring the system in a way that will provide the exact data that we need for our reports. This will enable a big improvement in efficiency as we leverage available Office 365 components such as Power BI to create very intuitive dashboards.”
Over the upcoming weeks TDI will work with Migros’s legal department to ensure a smooth implementation and provide training for users, insofar as this needed to embrace the fuller capabilities of the Repstor solution in conjunction with Microsoft 365.

“We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration with the Migros team during the proof-of-concept, which has helped jumpstart the actual implementation project,” said Rob Kubben, managing partner at TDI. “Migros are a prestigious customer and we are delighted that they have selected Custodian for Legal -and Transform Data as the delivery partner.
“We are looking forward to further developing our presence in the Swiss region, and to supporting more law firms and legal departments here as they approach their own digital transformations,” he added.

Want to know what Repstor could do for you? Fill in the form below NOW:


Transform how your firm handles email & document management

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.