Innovating with iManage: The common denominator

Despite trending efforts to insert artificial intelligence into seemingly every application on the planet, iManage CEO Neil Araujo recently observed that, like electricity, AI technology only has value when you can apply it to the outcomes you are seeking. 

A purposeful approach to innovation 

In a relevant post on LinkedIn, iManage Legal Practice Lead Jack Shepherd offers a distinction between innovation with a purpose and innovation without a purpose. Purposeful innovation, he argues, moves technologists and innovators into a role as the business strategists of the future. 

These two points illustrate that, while AI potential is real, AI investments can quickly become the proverbial solution looking for a problem. 

We’ll grant that sometimes a bias for action can be an effective strategy — when the action is warranted, and the benefit clearly outweighs the risk, for example. However, leaders should take care not to set things in motion before seriously considering whether and why the course of action is valuable. Starting with an effective business strategy is essential.

Shepherd characterizes purposeful innovation as first identifying the business goal or outcome you want to achieve and then directing innovation efforts toward that goal.

All journeys welcome

At iManage, we understand that organizations have neither time nor resources to spend on initiatives that don’t move the needle forward. We know you must weigh the benefit against the risk when you consider a new solution, and that risk wears many guises. 

Above all, we are fully aware that asking customers to implement a solution that does not pay dividends is, in the best case, a grievous waste of resources and, in the worst case, a disaster. This is why we work hard at iManage to guide our customers along the path of purposeful innovation that is most likely to produce strategically beneficial outcomes.

Our efforts are repaid many times over when we hear the success stories from the organizations that embrace iManage. Although everyone’s journey is unique, time and time again we see the similarities these stories share at their core, with iManage as the common denominator — even organizations that are very different in size.

No false platitudes

It’s not hyperbole when we say that iManage helps small firms level the playing field — we’ve actually heard from our customers that iManage has helped them secure an advantage and compete with larger firms for new business. 

One of our latest customer stories features McClandish Holton, a Richmond, Virginia firm with about 95 users who say their upgrade to iManage Work 10 in the Cloud enables their staff to turn requests around very quickly. Jonathan Chapman, the firm’s IT Manager, told us that can make the difference between gaining a new client and losing the opportunity to a competitor.

“We have the flexibility with iManage to act very quickly and compete with firms that are slightly larger than us as well as those that are the same size,” remarks Chapman.

Sowing the seeds of change

Change is hard, and we totally understand why firms may feel wary of moving to a new way of working. The arguments run the gamut, including: 

• Cost of implementing a new system
• Disruption to work
• Lost time or data
• Lack of in-house technical expertise
• Internal debate or resistance to change 

Our answer to these concerns is that a good DMS provider goes beyond being simply another vendor. Your DMS is too important for that. They must be a partner who walks with you every step of the way, helping you plan and execute, and taking steps to ensure that you can bring the whole team along. 

They not only bring the value you need to justify the change but also work with you to quell internal arguments and ensure that you are well-positioned to turn those desired outcomes into reality.

David Boulds, Head of IT Solutions, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP), said his firm tried several different vendors before iManage without really achieving what they set out to do. 

“They couldn’t give us the level of support we needed or fully understand the importance of what the technology could deliver to the firm, like iManage does,” he remarked.

Weighing the value

To capture the invaluable advantages of a centralized document repository, Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti, a Canadian law firm with management labor & employment law expertise, migrated 20 years’ worth of documents to iManage Work 10. The firm’s Technical Support Manager, David Ip, told us “iManage Work 10 gave us the fit and function we needed at a price point we could justify. It offered the best value proposition for the firm.”

T.J. Jones, Partner at Crawford Wishnew Lang, a boutique law firm in Dallas with big ambitions agrees that the cost of iManage was surprisingly accessible, especially in view of the capabilities it offers. Jones recalled, “I thought iManage was out of reach for small firms, but the pricing was much more flexible than I’d assumed. It wasn’t much more than we were already paying and offered exponentially more functionality.” 

The planning and strategy needed to guide a firm through a digital transformation process can be remarkably similar; often, it is only the scale that is really different. A good provider is able to scale its solution to suit the number of users, whether that number is small, large, or somewhere in between. 

Gammage & Burnham is an Arizona firm with about 100 users. Their IT Director, Terry Hernlund, put it this way: “Because iManage scales so well, it can be the right solution for a firm that has five attorneys or a firm that has 500. We've never really looked at going anywhere else.”

The Microsoft effect

We also can’t overlook the critical importance of deep integration with the ubiquitous Microsoft 365. There is a nearly universal desire for a document management system that has direct ties to Microsoft developers — and the obvious advantages that provides.

Anne-Marie Ovin is CIO and Head of Knowledge, Process, and Innovation at Vinge, a Swedish law firm that was planning to move its 500 users from siloed on-premises systems. Ovin oversaw the move and explained that they, too, wanted a strategic technology partner that was close to Microsoft. 

On stage at a recent event, she shared her experience with iManage customers, remarking “Everyone says they are a good partner of Microsoft, so we asked Microsoft who they are closest to, and they said iManage.”

The user experience: Priority 1

In fact — like Microsoft — iManage is the industry-leading solution of choice for firms with users of virtually any number. 

According to Ovin, Vinge’s experience moving its DMS into the cloud was “like flying a plane and changing the engine at the same time.” Scary! Potentially a disaster. And yet — she claims it was the smoothest project the firm had ever done. 

At the end of the day, whether your firm has 5 users or 5,000, isn’t that the experience you want to give them?

Time to meet your security and performance needs

iManage is a long-term partner that is invested in your success. This illuminating infographic shows how iManage Cloud helps law firms of all sizes meet their need for advanced security, mobility, the latest innovations, and business agility.