TimeMatters vs. Worldox for Document Management

Every once in a while somebody asks me about the relative merits of TimeMatters vs. Worldox as far as document management is concerned. As a leading practice management system, TimeMatters obviously does many more things than Worldox. But what about the document management feature?

To my mind, the following are the primary differentiators between the two.

1.  Enforced use.  Worldox obliges end-users to use the system. This means that a firm can assert with some confidence that all documents generated by firm employees are in the system. TimeMatters is optional. For every document, a TM user can choose whether or not to save it to the "document management" system. So there is no system integrity. True, most firms that use the TimeMatters document management function implement firm “guidelines,” but users are notorious for not following them when they are rushed, tired, feeling frustrated, etc.

2.  Email integration.  This is probably the single biggest source of aggravation to TM users. TM email integration with Outlook is extremely poor. In particular, the way it deals with attachments is very cumbersome, although there are third-party add-ons that partly remedy the issue.

Further, TM can only see the Outlook InBox, not any sub-folders you may have. So if you have organized client sub-folders, in order to move an email from Outlook to TM, you first have to move it into the main InBox and from there to TM. By moving the emails back to the InBox, you lose the organization by client and have to search through what can be a very long list to find them. Obviously a very cumbersome process.

Worldox sees your entire Outlook navigation pane, all sub-folders, etc. and can batch move or drag-and-drop multiple emails from Outlook to Worldox. I once watched with some trepidation as an enthusiastic user marked 3,000 emails and moved them to Worldox in one pass. No problem. Any attached files are automatically also moved to Worldox with the email. No separate steps. All emails in Worldox are full-text indexed (including attachments), so searching is a breeze. You can instantly find all emails to or from a given individual (including if they relate to different matters).

3.  Searching. While TM indexes documents (it uses dtSearch), the search is either or. You can do a full-text search, OR you can search for, say, a particular type of document. You cannot combine the two. You cannot do a search for, e.g., all briefs done in the last 6 months containing certain words. 

4.  Integration with other Programs. TM is very limited with what it can integrate with -- MS Office, Acrobat and WordPerfect, Internet Explorer,  and that's about it. It does not integrate with (for example) document comparison programs such as Workshare, CompareDocs, DiffDocs, etc. Worldox integrates with over 50 programs out of the box and tech support will usually be able to write “hooks” to provide integration if you are using a program that is not only the list. Worldox can integrate with alternative PDF generators or programs like Roxio, so files can easily be exported to a CD. This is difficult if not impossible with TimeMatters and frequently has to be done outside the system.

5.  General Customization. Worldox is extremely flexible and customizable and generally provides a document management feature set that TimeMatters cannot match. 

6.  Ease of Use.  While this is of course somewhat subjective, it is a factor nevertheless. For example, TM cannot match the Worldox “viewer” technology which lets you rapidly scroll through documents without having to open them; print from the viewer, and copy text from the viewer into the document you are working on without having to open the other document. Worldox conveniently lets you see the last 20 documents you worked on, all your documents for the last week, etc. If you want to attach four files to an email, you select the four files and attach them. With TimeMatters you have to attach one file at a time four times.

7.  Speed. If you have matters with an extremely large number of documents (over about 200 or so), TM can be very slow in displaying them. Worldox is lightning fast.

TimeMatters consultants frequently pitch the TimeMatters document management on the basis that it is (1) “good enough” and (2) “free” (i.e., included in the high cost of TM itself). A firm needs to examine this proposition carefully. For all but the smallest firms, the savings and convenience derived from implementing Worldox can rapidly pay for it.

Finally, I would note that the document management features of most practice management programs (Amicus, Practice Master) have similar, although not identical shortcomings in comparison with Worldox. The item at the top of the list is always that these programs do not “lock down” your system – you are not obliged to use them.

Comments

[Ruby Badcoe]

Ease of use and speed go hand in hand. Document management tools that have both of these features help business operations run smoothly. If the tools you use are user-friendly, then it’s likely that users would be able to operate them smoothly. There’s one more thing that should be in here, as well – accuracy. Speed is nothing if you don’t have accurate data.

[Steve Stockstill (Data Equity)]

With a few more tweaks to the integration, Time Matters with Worldox, together is stronger than the sum of the parts.

Time Matters creates and manages the profile in Worldox. The TM Save and TM Open fully integrated with Worldox behind the scenes. Check-in, Check-out, all done from within Time Matters.

Very cool document management integration. My guess is this integration hasn't been functionally enhanced since version 4 of Time Matters.

[Frank Rivera]

When it comes to document management I would have to say that Worldox is best in class. TM is a PMS not a DMS. I think John was pretty clear on this point. I think the takeaway from John's article is if you need a strong DMS then Worldox is a better choice then the DMS features found in most PMS`.

[Mark A. Deal]

Actually, you may not be 100% accurate in your limitations of Time Matters email handling from Outlook or in your document searches.

In Outlook, the TMConnect button is available in Outlook on any email, not just in the primary inbox. It works great to bring your client related emails into Time Matters.

The Time Matters document search absolutely allows you to search for all documents within a date range that contain certain words.

I love Worldox, I just don't seem to need it.

[Gurpreet]

John,

This is a great article. Can you do one article comparing the main practice management systems like Time Matter, Amicus, and also the online options?

Thanks

[Tom Caffrey]

You are right - after I posted I saw that you limited the question to a doc mgt. comparison.

[John Heckman]

Tom,
You're kicking in an open door. As I stated at the outset, "TM obviously does many more things than Worldox." I would certainly not claim that you can use Worldox INSTEAD OF Time Matters or similar program.
Just that a firm with any substantial number of documents needs it in addition to replace the inadequate TM document management piece.

[Tom Caffrey]

I agree Worldox is great at doc mgt and that it provides strong searching but I am not convinced it is to be relied on to manage your practice to the exclusion of TM or similar program for reasons outlined below.

FYI - The 'TM Connect' is a batch import feature of Time Matters (TM) and can be used on sub-folders to import all or selected emails into TM in one easy step. Email attachments may be saved with the email or saved as documents with a link (specified relation) to the email. Email and attachments are fully indexed and searchable. Granted it doesn't force doc profiling, but just because you force it doesn't mean a passive-aggressive user is going to profile the doc correctly.

Many firms like the friendly user defined folder and file naming where documents are saved in easily understood names that may be viewed with Windows Explorer.

Furthermore, I am not sure it Worldox will let you do the following all in one program ...
- when saving an email to Time Matters it is easy to trigger an automatic billing record that inherits most of the billing record info from the email.
- also using a custom email field and trigger, create automatic 'follow-up' Todo's,
that are used in Todo(Task) reporting by person, or code, or staff etc.
- and reports for 'Delegation Tracking
- and 'Past Due' reports for management by exception reporting
- and emails are related in both a 'client centric' and 'matter centric' manner, in context to all of the other records (documents, notes, billing, events, todos, phone, etc user defined records) for example, if the client questions a billing entry you can see all the other records in context.
- plus you can arrange emails in a 'Powerview' (side or bottom panel) with or without other records.
- besides, an option that may be turned on at any time, TM will work hand in glove with both Outlook/Exchange and Worldox, if necessary.

So when it comes to integration I feel TM exceeds Worldox/Outlook. If all one needed was doc management than I'd go with Worldox, but if you want a full function practice mgt system, I definitely would not select Worldox versus the comprehensive features of TM or something similar.

Tom Caffrey
Premier Software
Time Matters CIC