Cuatrecasas migrated their 1700 users to NetDocuments for best in market security and continuous innovation in document management.

Leading and growing Spanish firm Cuatrecasas specialises in all areas of business law. With over 1000 lawyers, the firm has a strong focus on Spain, Portugal and Latin America, a presence in 13 countries and a turnover of around €275 million.

Cuatrecasas is no stranger to document management, “It’s important to have a homogeneous process for storage and retrieval – we left file systems and the culture of saving documents behind a long time ago,” says Francesc Muñoz, CIO at the f irm. Having adopted a firm-wide system back in 2002, by 2017 there were significant business drivers to make a change, “We were still using OpenText and our perception was that each day our solution was becoming more and more distant from the facility and features that other providers were offering. Our users were suffering. The usability was less than friendly, collaboration was hard. On top of that there was no mobile functionality which actually meant we had to spend time and resources to create our own solution in-house.”

Document management revolution, availability, security and innovation

The firm had been tracking NetDocuments’ progress for several years, “I was closely following the success of NetDocuments, what customers were joining the platform, the innovations and, importantly, the security.” Leadership had growing challenges around compliance for a number of different regulations and Muñoz could see that true cloud and a more robust security posture would help.

Exploratory conversations with the NetDocuments team led to the decision to make a move. “We knew the change would be a challenge but it had to be done. I was very keen to make it a success,” explains Muñoz. A formal selection process at the firm considered OpenText iManage alongside NetDocuments.

“Neither of the other vendors we considered were cloud ready, not really, there was still lots of work to do. They still had many clients on prem and I knew that would be a distraction from innovations in the cloud.”

Francesc Muñoz, CIO, Cuatrecasas

Document management in the cloud

Muñoz says that neither of the other two vendors they considered were cloud ready, “There was still lots of work to do and they still had many clients on prem. I knew that would be a distraction from innovations in the cloud.” In contrast NetDocuments was created in the cloud with innovation at its core, “I think cloud makes innovation easier and more natural. There’s just one version of the platform which allows NetDocuments to focus on the important things: availability, innovation and security. Everyone benefits from this immediately. It also means better, easier maintenance.”

Cuatrecasas have several other cloud applications but Muñoz believes that a technology ecosystem, incorporating a mix of Clouds and of SAS and on-premise software, works best. “We have a Cloud first approach, but not all tasks are appropriate in the cloud. A key benefit is that NetDocuments totally understands this and has created robust integration capability with SAS and on-premise software. They understand how businesses work.”

The big bang

With 1700 users and the training task falling to Muñoz’s team the implementation was bound to be very challenging, “Migration, little by little, was not going to work, it would be far too time consuming – we had to make a big bang!”, so the firm decided to make the change in February, when the business is naturally a little slower. This meant teams were better able to adjust quickly. “Saving and retrieving was the big concern, actually finding the documents after migration!” but he says they needn’t have worried, “The implementation went far better than expected. It was smooth. In terms of usability it’s friendly so we had very good feedback, lots of people congratulated us.”

The Cuatrecasas internal IT team delivered high level training in groups then moved documents so they could begin to work on them. There were also more in-depth e-learning sessions delving into the features of the solution and super users walked the floor for a month.

Reaping immediate benefits

“Seeing and benefiting from the pace of innovation at NetDocuments is refreshing and the collaboration and mobility is exactly what we need.” Increased productivity and efficiency has been achieved because lawyers can find documents faster, “At the end of the day we are a word and document factory, so the speed of the solution is key for the users, every second you can save adds to the bottom line.”

Muñoz also considers NetDocuments to have best in market security, “Clients ask for this and the robust frameworks that are used around encryption and certification means that we are compliant in the various assessments we have each and every week for finance institutions. It means our clients are happy!”

Mobility uptake is another area that Muñoz is focused on, as they had fewer mobile users than expected. “I think because 100% of our people have laptops they can use anytime anywhere the mobile device has been a second thought. But I plan to shift the culture a little so they use smart phones on the go more – because I know it will make their lives even easier.”

“The implementation went far better than expected. It was smooth. In terms of usability it’s friendly so we had very good feedback, lots of people congratulated us.”

Francesc Muñoz, CIO, Cuatrecasas

Document management evolution

The benefits from innovations are important to the firm going forward and NetDocuments’ collaboration tool, ndThreads, is on the agenda. Competition in this area is tough because there are many free collaboration tools and software with collaboration included. However, Muñoz says, “I suspect the cost benefit for ndThreads works out. NetDocuments is already trusted in terms of security- this means we can reduce the risks involved in digital collaboration and also reassure our clients. We want to improve collaboration and NetDocuments’ continuous innovative mind-set is very attractive. It’s an interesting solution for us.”

In conclusion Muñoz is keen to point out that the process doesn’t end, “Document management isn’t one task, it’s an evolution, you have to keep innovating. For example, we create internal campaigns to get people to use new features – maybe encouraging collaboration. It means we continue to make the most of the fast, secure and innovative NetDocuments platform.”

The Benefits

• Increased productivity and efficiency because lawyers can find documents faster.
• Clients reassured by best in market security.
• Ever increasing business benefits of sustained platform innovation.
• Positive user experience develops goodwill with IT function.
• No maintenance reduced IT team resources required for document management.
• One version means all 1700 users have the same experience and functionality.

“We have a Cloud first approach, but not all tasks are appropriate in the cloud. A key benefit is that NetDocuments totally understands this and has created robust integration capability with SAS and on-prem software. They understand how businesses work.”

Francesc Muñoz, CIO, Cuatrecasas

To learn more about NetDocuments and how you can work smarter with an intelligent document management system, click here to request a personalized demo.

About Cuatrecasas

With a multidisciplinary and diverse team of over 1,000 lawyers and 24 nationalities, Cuatrecasas advises on all areas of business law, applying a sector approach and covering all types of business. They combine technical expertise with business vision and have a solid track record working side by side with leading companies, providing sophisticated advice on day-to-day activity and major transactions.

To learn more about NetDocuments and how you can work smarter with an intelligent document management system, click here to request a personalized demo.

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