Does It Compute?

Worldox and Office Administrators

It may be subjective but I seem to be encountering an increasing number of office administrators who tell me “I hardly use Worldox any more because I don’t deal with client matters.” This is based on a misconception.

For most of my clients I set up an “Admin” cabinet to deal with just this issue. The Admin cabinet contains firm and personnel information. Thus the “clients” could be physical plant, insurance, 401k, banking, CLE, personnel records, management committee, partners, vendors, etc. The “matters” might various years for financial information, specific employees for HR information, different vendors, etc.

This is more secure and more efficient than saving that kind of data on a network drive or a local computer. Local computers are the worst because people that should have access may not, and there is also the question of data loss when a computer fails.

The Admin cabinet can be locked down so that access is available only to certain people (partners, accounting, etc.). However, on top of that, specific areas or even files can be restricted further to only certain individuals within the Admin group. This is more efficient that a network drive where further security is not readily available.

Also, the Admin cabinet offers all of Worldox’s other advantages in terms of searchability and locating documents (“find me all the CLE sessions that Attorney X attended last year”).

In short, there is no good reason to keep administrative/management information outside Worldox if it is configured properly.

Worldox, File Sharing and Portals

Exchanging and sharing files are a critical part of your interaction with clients. What functionality do you need and what are your options? Email just doesn’t cut it any more. There is a proliferation of copies of documents and a lack of security that makes email a bad choice as your go-to option.

Then there are basic file sharing apps such as Dropbox and Box. These are very popular due to their ease of use for a single user. But ease of use frequently correlates to lack of security, especially with Dropbox. And despite recent advances of “business” versions of these programs, these don’t really meet your needs for business communications.

That leaves higher-end “portal” options that offer secure file exchange, version control and in some cases other calendaring and “deal room” options.

As with selecting and configuring any software the main thing to decide is what functionality you need.

• Do you simply need to securely exchange files?
• Do you need to exchange large numbers of files?
• Do you need a portal where clients can review and edit a selected subset of their documents?
• Do you need real-time simultaneous collaboration on files, with multiple people contributing edits?
• Do you just need to upload and download files from your document management system, or do you also need to maintain version control with respect to your main document repository?
• Do you need to control what sort of access clients have to their documents (edit, read only, blocking the ability to print, etc.)?
• What short of tracking/auditing of your document history do you need?

In short, what you put in to a system depends on what you want to get out of it.

In addition to simple file sharing mentioned above, Google Docs and Microsoft Teams offer collaboration features, although at present not linked to document management system. Worldox is developing an integration with Teams that will let you manage documents from Worldox, import edited documents back into Worldox as versions, etc. I am currently working with a beta copy, but no release date has been set as yet.

Among higher-end applications, there are three main legal-oriented portals that work with Worldox: Legal Anywhere, Sharefile, and Hubshare. Aside from similar baseline functionality, each one offers slightly different functionality, so you need to consider closely what functions you need and match them with the respective programs.

Legal Anywhere is generally the most full-featured and flexible of the portal options. It is aimed at larger and longer-lasting deals, and features things like deal rooms, great flexibility in locking down and limiting access to documents. Granular rights can be assigned to specific users and even specific files. It is based on an upload/download functionality and within Legal Anywhere is based on a directory structure that mirrors the Worldox structure. Like other portals, it can scrub metadata from documents copied to the extranet.

Sharefile, as its name implies, is primarily a secure file sharing application. Instead of attaching a file to an email, it puts the file in a secure location in the cloud and sends an email prompting the recipient to download the file. This offers very good security and also enables you to transfer much larger files than would be possible with standard email. It also offers meta-data scrubbing and a companion product, RightSignature, that gives you electronic document signing. Sharefile has an add-on integration module that integrates it more seamlessly with Worldox.

Hubshare also offers basic one-way integration with Worldox. You can upload files from Worldox to Hubshare, but you have to get them back manually. Full integration is lacking and the program requires an SQL installation to work.

One of these products may be right for your firm.

Worldox Training

Many if not most firms skimp on training, not just for Worldox but for most software. This is always a mistake since the cost of training will be more than offset by the losses due to low productivity and inefficient work habits caused by inadequate training.

Historically the most efficient means of training is in-person, on-site classes. People pay more attention in a classroom setting and trainers can make adjustments when they see people looking confused or not paying attention. Students don’t have the opportunity to check their email or make phone calls when they are supposed to be paying attention. But hardly anybody does that any more.

That leaves “live” online training using the firm’s own data and an instructor who can answer questions, and tailor the class as needed. When that is not possible or inefficient (only one or two people need training), there are a number of “canned” online training options.

A number of consulting firms have posted training videos on YouTube, but this is hit or miss. Worldox itself has about 50 short (2-5 minute) videos on its web site (www.worldox.com/howtovideos).

One of the most useful options is DoxAdvisors’ “Worldox Academy,” which has 18 videos totaling about 50 minutes that mimic how an organized training session would present Worldox. This is available for $99 from https://www.doxadvisors.com/worldoxtraining. Other more extensive options are also available.

When doing more organized training an excellent followup is “tip of the week”. After the original training, if a firm sends out a “tip” (provided by their consultant) once or twice a week it can significantly reinforce the original training. I have a series of about 18 “tips” that I have used in the past. If a firm sends out a “tip” twice a week, this will last about 2 months and can substantially reinforce/improve the effectiveness of the training.

Worldox in One Hour for Lawyers

The third edition of my book, Worldox in One Hour for Lawyers, published by the ABA’s Law Practice Division, covers the numerous changes to Worldox GX4 since the program was first released in 2015. These include notably:
• The new Outlook integration which allows users to drag and drop emails to Outlook folders and have them filed directly to Worldox with no further user intervention. Note that while this and other changes do not involve any additional cost, there is significant setup and configuration time involved. This will be particularly attractive to high volume smartphone users, since they can now file emails to Worldox from their phone without needing to have Outlook open on their office computer.
• The new Web 3.1 internet access module replaces the old version (which had involved significant additional cost) and is significantly more robust. It is now actually feasible to “work from home” and to access Worldox with a Mac over the internet. In addition, an add-in provides internet access directly from Word or other programs. When you open or save a file in Word, the Web 3.1 module opens and takes you directly to your document store.
• New Indexer as a Service. Although this is not immediately relevant to end users, it does provide more reliable indexing as well as better reporting.
• Various other improvements, such as the ability to drag files directly from inside a zip file to Worldox without un-zipping the file first.
It can be ordered from the ABA bookstore.