Fenwick & West and other law firms are beginning to look seriously at Microsoft SharePoint as an alternative to the traditional legal document management system. SharePoint provides a robust platform for storing and managing documents with the ability to store millions of documents and associated versions, “tag” documents with metadata (e.g., author, client number or practice group) and retrieve documents via metadata or full-text search.
SharePoint costs less than traditional DMS platforms, but goes well beyond the basics. It includes the ability to integrate documents and line-of-business systems through the Business Data Catalog, a workflow engine and a rich application programming interface that supports rapid customization.
