Ploum — a law firm based in Rotterdam, Netherlands — switched to NetDocuments in 2015. In our conversation with Willem Leppink, one of Ploum’s intellectual property partners, we learned what makes NetDocuments an ideal fit for their team.

Throughout his career, Willem Leppink has dealt with a variety of approaches to document management — none of which were particularly inspiring. When it was time for Ploum to upgrade to a modern content platform, he was understandably skeptical.

“With those older systems, it was more of a hassle,” he said. “I was critical in the beginning. I was really thinking, ‘Hey, is this going to save us time?’” After six years with NetDocuments, Leppink has changed his tune. From the intuitive user interface to the customer-centric team behind the software, Leppink discovered numerous reasons to appreciate document management.

Nothing is as fabulous as NetDocuments for finding something when I do not have a clue where I need to look for it.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Use it Your Way

Getting started with a new software can be a bit like wearing someone else’s shoes: it just doesn’t quite fit. As Leppink discovered, however, NetDocuments is different. The legal-centric platform is user-friendly and flexible enough to mold to your workflow — not the other way around.

At my previous firm, there were all these tricks to circumvent the system if someone wanted to do something quickly … but those tricks really broke the system. What I like about NetDocuments is that it’s very intuitive and can be used in the way that best fits my workflow.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Find What You Need with Ease

Leppink knew that searching for an old matter file can feel like a lost cause, especially when you’re not sure exactly where to look. That’s what makes the unparalleled search and metadata capabilities of the NetDocuments platform so valuable. You can find what you’re looking for quickly and spend more time on high-value tasks.

I don’t know what my matter numbers are. I just know the name of my clients. But in NetDocuments, I can immediately type in a few letters of my case file and find what I need. I think that’s very helpful because I just
want [searching] to be easy.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Maximize Your Efficiency

No one wants to reinvent the wheel, but Leppink and a few of his team members created a system within NetDocuments to ensure they don’t have to. With an impressive collection of document templates, the Ploum team has been able to easily leverage prior work and collaborate with each other to serve clients with greater speed and accuracy.

Our team has built up a know-how system with templates and standards. We’ve organized it with a tree in NetDocuments. ‘Oh, you need a template for an agreement? A license agreement? What kind of license agreement?’ It’s very easy for people to find what they need, and it works really well.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Count on Collaboration

When you have a single source of truth, everything is easier. That’s what Ploum has gained with NetDocuments: One place that their entire team can go to create, edit, organize, and collaborate on documents, without having to sacrifice security or efficiency. When Leppink compares NetDocuments to the previous systems he’s used, there is no contest.

In the past few years, we have really achieved what we wanted to achieve — a real collaboration in the sense that everybody knows how to store things in NetDocuments, and we can easily find a matter. Back in the old days, we were always relying on whether someone had given authorisation to read their mailbox. Now, it’s super easy. I can just count on it. There’s one place where I can always find all the emails, all the documents, everything.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Store Whatever You Need

Modern legal work involves so much more than standard text documents, which is why the NetDocuments platform allows you to store a variety of different file types. As an intellectual property lawyer, Leppink appreciates this on a personal level in his day-to-day work.

I can store all kinds of files, which is critical in my intellectual property practice. We have lots of photos, pictures, and even movies that can be easily stored in NetDocuments.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Automate Your Organization

Even the best systems can get bogged down by tedious administrative work — like creating a consistent folder structure for all incoming matters. For Leppink and the Ploum team, that problem has completely disappeared with NetDocuments.

The nice thing about NetDocuments is that when we open up a file in our legal system, immediately the matter is automatically opened in NetDocuments. All the folders are there and I can easily move all my files in.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Stay Connected from Anywhere

Some law firms struggled with the transition to working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic — but for Ploum, the process was painless from a technological standpoint. With cloud-based document management, they were already fully prepared to work from anywhere.

NetDocuments ensures we can work from home the same way as we do from the office. And because we had made that transition to NetDocuments already, it has helped us be as flexible as possible. We almost didn’t notice when we had to go work from home because of the pandemic.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Rely on Your Team

When you invest in a tool that’s as central to your business as your document management platform, it’s better if you only have to do it once. For the Ploum team, sticking with NetDocuments is a choice they feel confident in — not just because it meets their needs, but because they know NetDocuments is a technology partner that cares, listens, and strives to serve them better.

What I like about NetDocuments is that they listen. That’s not something I’ve seen with other companies — who can be very arrogant. But NetDocuments is really trying to hear what we want to do. The company
takes feedback to create a much better system and constantly improve.

Willem Leppink, Intellectual Property Partner, Ploum

Remove the daily burdens from your lawyer’s workflows. Request a consultation with a legal technology expert today or call NetDocuments at (866) 638-3627 to find out more about why Ploum and many others trust NetDocuments.