The Problem With
Practice Management Software
For Managing Documents
Legal Practice Management software is great for time tracking, billing and calendaring, but often falls short when it comes to managing documents.
The Problem Practice Management Software for Managing Documents
Watch our short talk on the challenges of Practice Management software for managing documents (and what to do about it).
The Wrong Tool for the Job
We love Legal Practice Management software: It helps law firms track time, stay on top of their cases, invoice clients and manage their calendar.
But Practice Management Software isn’t well-suited for managing a firm’s documents and email. Many Practice Management applications offer limited or bare-bones tools for documents and email.
“Document Management” features in Practice Management software are often limited to:
- Basic Document Uploading / Storage (akin to a built-in Dropbox)
- Linking Documents from an Existing File System
For some law firms, this is adequate.
But many law firms need more sophisticated capabilities when it comes to managing their firm’s documents and email. They need features like:
- Full-Text Search
- Organization with Folders & Subfolders
- Document In-Use Tracking
- Outlook Integration
- Document Tagging & Profiling
- Open, Edit and Save (Without Re-Uploading)
- Unique Document ID for Each Document
We’ve talked to dozens of firms that jumped into a particular practice management solution for it’s time, billing and calendaring… saw “document management” listed as a feature… and later realized that the functionality is limited to storing documents in the system (and not much more).
Don’t make this mistake–if your firm needs true document management software, consider getting an actual DMS in addition to (or in some cases, instead of) practice management software.
Graduate to LexWorkplace
Cloud-based Document Management for Law Firms
- Matter-Centric Organization
- Powerful Document & Email Search
- Comprehensive Email Management
- Document version management
- Document Tagging & Proofing
- Office and Outlook Integration
- Your Data Backed Up to Multiple Regions
- One Click Open, Edit, Save
- Document Check-Out / Check-In
- Automatically OCR’s Documents as You Upload Them
We’ll help migrate your documents from your Practice Management software into LexWorkplace, so your firm enjoys the best of both Practice and Document Management software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Document management is a kind of software that stores, organizes and provides tools to help your law firm manage its documents. Beyond the basic storage that you’ll find with an on-premise file server, or basic cloud storage services like Dropbox, document management software provides capabilities including full-text search, version management, OCR, document tagging and more.
Document management software provides structure and tools for your firm, your matters and the documents (and email) for each matter. Document Management software such as LexWorkplace helps you manage document versions, find what you’re looking for, tag and categorize documents, organize matters and matter documents, and much more.
Good Document Management software also integrates with the tools you use most, such as Microsoft Office and Outlook.
Document Management software stores, manages documents and email, and does so in a very robust way. Practice Management software, on the other hand, provides contact management, calendars, billing and other “front-office” functions. Practice Management software sometimes includes rudimentary file storage, but almost always lacks the robust functionality of a true Document Management System.
To learn more, read our article on Practice Management vs. Document Management software.
If you’re a law firm, yes. LexWorkplace is the only document management software born in the cloud and built exclusively for law firms. Other document management software is either not cloud-based, crudely cloud-based, or built for the masses (not for law firms).
LexWorkplace starts at $395 / month. For more information, see our plans & pricing.
We’ll handle everything. Rather than farming out your onboarding to a “certified consultant,” we handle moving you LexWorkplace in-house. Our expert onboarding team will work with you to understand your current data, then plan and execute a thoughtful migration of your data to LexWorkplace.
Give us a call! Contact us any time, we’re happy to help you explore legal document management solutions.
DMS stands for, Document Management Software. Document Management software such as LexWorkplace helps you manage document versions, find what you’re looking for, tag and categorize documents, organize matters and matter documents, and much more.
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“I’ve been a happy Uptime Legal customer for over 10 years, and love their LexWorkplace system.”
Ron Canter
The Law Office of Ron Canter