Danish law firm transforms digital collaboration through core system replacement

Law firm NJORD has replaced a legacy document management system (DMS) with cloud-based technology to transform the way its staff access and work on business critical documents.

As part of its digital transformation journey, the Denmark-headquartered company, which serves international customers in Denmark and the Baltic region, decided its existing system was no longer fit for purpose.

With 150 staff, including 70 lawyers, document sharing is a key competency at the law firm. But faced with challenges sharing documents, the company knew it needed a replacement that would complement and work seamlessly alongside its existing practice management system (PMS). It also needed a DMS that would support hybrid working, giving its lawyers the ability to securely search, access and edit documents from any device or location.

“The document management system is the main system that lawyers use and is where they do all their work from,” said Conni Falkner, COO at NJORD. She said the company decided the system it was using – an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system designed for the Danish legal system – had to be replaced.

“We weren’t efficient enough when working with and sharing documents,” she told Computer Weekly. “We had a document management system in our ERP system, but that wasn’t sufficient and needed a new solution.”

She added that problems with the legacy system included difficulty working in different versions of documents, difficulties integrating with Outlook or Excel, and the fact access to the system was only possible through the ERP.

After investigating several options, the law firm chose a cloud-based platform from NetDocuments. “It is super easy to use and user friendly and everything is kept up to date in real time,” said Falkner.

NJORD does not have its own IT department, but outsources to Denmark based IT supplier Envo, and it wanted a system that was simple to use and integrate. The roll-out was straight forward, according to Falkner, and the software went live within eight weeks.

“This was very fast for us. If we had chosen some of the alternatives to NetDocments, it would have taken six months,” she said.

She added that the user base benefits from the systems simplicity: “Lawyers are not particularly skilled in IT and because we have a wide span of IT skills within the lawyer team, it was important it was easy so everyone can use it.”

NJORD looked at around five different platforms before choosing NetDocuments which it chose because it was the most user friendly and was easier to combine with other software products. “We chose NetDocuments as it is a really intuitive system that integrates with our way of working and provides a great user experience,” said Falkner. 

Security was also vital, which Falkner said is built into the system, including General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.

“Keeping our documents and files secure in the cloud is absolutely critical. NetDocuments’ advanced security controls have given us far more control over how our sensitive information is accessed, as well as an extra line of defense when it comes to protecting against cyber threats,” added Falkner.