Transcript Legal Portals with Microsoft SharePoint

Legal Portals With Microsoft
SharePoint
Doug Horton – Handshake Software
Kalani Munden – Jackson Walker L.L.P.
Teresa Grote - Consultant
Why SharePoint as a Legal Portal
Asked many of our clients, the survey says
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Cost
Can’t fight Bill Gates
Integrated platform with MS Office
Ease of use
Features/Functionality
Performance/Scalability
Cost
Microsoft Technologies
• Office Collaboration
– SharePoint
– Information Bridge Framework
– Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Our Speakers today…
Introducing – the SharePointer Sisters
Kalani Munden – Director of Knowledge
Management, Jackson Walker L.L.P.
Teresa Grote – former CIO of Dinsmore & Shohl
and President of Dinsnet.
Here they are to tell you what they know
because they actually know something
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
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Firm of 300 Lawyers
7 Offices
CMS OPEN
Hummingbird DM5
Custom Developed Applications
• CRM “OneContact”
• Records “OpenFile”
• Conflicts Workflow
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• J2E and WebObjects Intranet on Sun OS
• One Mac developer + one programmer
• Missing flexibility to incorporate KM culture
– difficult to extend views and
administration
• Lack of search engine
• Looked at Plumtree, LawPort, and
upgrading existing intranet
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Selected SharePoint because:
– Teresa Grote made me?!?!
– My CIO took me to Reno for a class?
– Flexibility
– MS Support
– Non-programmer (a/k/a Kalani) could use
– Built in Features
– Complemented KM structure
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Features We Liked
– Ability to Create and Categorize Areas for Communities of Interest
(COI)
– Search Capabilities
– Personalization Features
– Ability to Brand Themes and Templates
– Sponsor’s Role Supported Out-of-Box
– Ability to Create Extranet Sites Without a Programmer
• WSS v. SPS
– SPS is Portal for Communication About a COI
• Areas represent COIs in the firm
• Currently 220 Areas in Main Portal (there are 5)
– WSS is Site for Communication To a COI
• WSS Sites organize teams, extranets, projects, etc.
• Currently 464 Sites
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Concern about Content
– Financial Data in CMS OPEN
– Documents in Hummingbird
– People in Contact Management
– Other Information
• How to tie it together
• Concern about Programming requirements
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Our Process
– Reviewed Alternatives
– KM Committee Recommendations
– After-the-Fact Studied SharePoint
– Selected Handshake Software For Content
Integration
– Training on SPS and Handshake
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Our Approach
– Can we say pure chaos?
– Selected people to work on it – why me?
– Built the proof of concept portal
– Built WSS extranet sites to appease existing
demand
– Rolled out portal 6 months early due to XP
conversion delay
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Where We Are At Now
– 5 Portals Delivering Content to 220 COIs
– 464 WSS Sites Organizing Teams
• It Just Works!
• Sponsor Program Works!
• But … Not Enough!
• Where Does Handshake Fit In?
– How to Provide Sites Without Manually Creating
35,000+ Individual WSS Sites?
– 3 WSS Sites + Handshake Integration
• My Desktop
• Client Desktop
• Matter Desktop
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
Screenshots deleted at the firm’s request
Samples available from Handshake
Software
Jackson Walker L.L.P.
• Lessons Learned
– What we did right (by accident)
• Studied and Remedied Culture
• Defined Role of Sponsor
• First Base, Second Base, Third Base
– What I would change (who wouldn’t?)
• More IT Training
• More Resources
– TA DA!!!!
“Portal” Technology changes the
way you think
• Portal applications are horizontal, not vertical:
The way we buy technology must change – the
software client based pricing does not work
• A portal extends beyond the Web – Outlook,
Word, Excel and Powerpoint are also Portals
• Developers can no longer work in silos – there
are multiple entry points to any application. .Net
makes this possible
• Identity Management is paramount,
infrastructure (AD and other directories) must be
a part of the plan
The Architecture
Internal Structured Relationship
External Structured Relationship
Unstructured Relationship
SharePoint Portal Services Office 2003 Inform. Bridge Framework
Handshake Software Integrated Web Service
The Internet
Handshake Relationship Toolkit
Contact
CRM
Docs
Client
Employee
Benefits
Company
Doc
Type
Billing
Lawyer
Mailing
List
Author
Matter
Document
Management
System
Financial System
HR System
Portal Example
Expense Report Form
Old world:
A document in Word indexed in DM (secretary or
Accounting)
An ASP form on the Intranet (Web Developer)
An Excel spreadsheet on individual drives or in DM
(individual attorney, secretary or Accounting)
Random Notes on a PDA (individual attorney)
Portal Example
Expense Report Form
New World
Web Service to Time and Billing generated using
Handshake Software (Accounting Report Writer)
IBF used to query and verify accounting data in Infopath
forms, Winforms and WebParts which deliver to
Outlook, Excel and Word (.Net developer)
PDAs can be integrated to applications allowing
SharePoint Web Parts or Winforms to be used for
entry (.Net Developer)
IBF uses Time and Billing API to begin workflow to
update accounting system (Accounting/.Net
Developer)
Portal Example
Expense Report Form
Why the new world?
– The old world requires at least 3 changes to forms
and requires 3 different skill sets to do so.
– This process slows down progress – upgrades to any
of the packages must wait for all forms to be updated
– In the new world web services control what is
delivered to the “portal”. If T&B changes only one
change is required (Handshake)
– .Net Code for one portal can often be reused in
others. By example, Web Parts code can sometimes
be used in Sharepoint, Outlook and Word.
How our skills must change
• Data sources must be treated in a holistic
manner. Report writer skills are necessary
to build useable web services for data
retrieval
• Web programmers should NOT control
how data is treated
• Data Sources should be separated from
the user interface – data changes should
be invisible to the user
Typical Law Firm
• Report writers who understand SQL
queries and the data
• Web programmers – ASP .Net some SQL
• VB/VBA programmers – sometimes a part
of the training group
• HotDocs or other document automation
personnel
• Tech savvy secretary – some document
automation
How our skills must change
One person, several technologies
• .NET!!! Make sure you know ALL of the
capabilities. You need to expect your
programmers to expand beyond the Web
• Winforms for overall Office Automation
• XML, Word ML – think of this as reveal codes
• Information Bridge Framework/IBF
• Infopath/Smartdocs (down with Templates!)
• Document automation (HotDocs etc.) can now
be handled without third party tools
Terms you must know
• Web Services
• Data Relationship Mapping (vs. Data
Warehouse)
• WinForms
• Information Bridge Framework (IBF)
• XML/ Word ML
• Application Programming Interface (API)
• InfoPath
• SmartDocs
Realign and reassess
• Look at what you want to accomplish and
the logical division of responsibilities and
roles
• Develop training plans
• Scope documents become even more
important
• Data “owners” can control the applications
results across the enterprise, a true
change in culture
Demonstrations/Sessions on SPS and IBF
Tuesday, August 23rd, Microsoft Hospitality Suite 2nd Floor Desert Resort
10:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Innovations on the Legal Desktop Leverage SharePoint and the Information Bridge Framework.
Join us for an in-depth look at how Handshake Software’s products help law firms quickly gain
more value from MS Office and SharePoint. The presentation/discussion will include
representatives from Microsoft and Andy Stokes from Wragge & Co., a 600+ lawyer firm in the
U.K. who has launched a SharePoint initiative.
Wednesday, August 24th, Grand Sonoran J&K
3:00-4:00pm
MS Information Bridge Framework – Impact on the Desktop and Firm Profitability
Join us to hear John Green, CIO of Baker Donelson and Teresa Grote, ex-CIO of Dinsmore &
Shohl describe the exciting technology around Microsoft Office 2003 Information Bridge
Framework/Smart Client and how it impacts their firm’s today and in the future.
Thursday, August 25th, Demo Room
2:00-3:00pm
State of the Art Technology Track
Handshake Software was one of the few vendors chosen from over 80 applicants to present State
of the Art Technology. We will be presenting MS SharePoint and Information Bridge Framework
integration with legal applications and reprising a demonstration presented during the Information
Worker keynote speech at Microsoft’s World Wide Partner Conference this year.