Legal Portals With Microsoft SharePoint Doug Horton – Handshake Software Kalani Munden – Jackson Walker L.L.P. Teresa Grote - Consultant

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• 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.

• Firm of 300 Lawyers

• 7 Offices

• CMS OPEN

• Hummingbird DM5

• Custom Developed Applications• CRM “OneContact”• Records “OpenFile”• Conflicts Workflow


• 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


• 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


• 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


• Our Process– Reviewed Alternatives– KM Committee Recommendations– After-the-Fact Studied SharePoint – Selected Handshake Software For Content

Integration– Training on SPS and Handshake


• 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


• 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


Screenshots deleted at the firm’s request

Samples available from Handshake Software


• 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 ArchitectureInternal Structured Relationship

External Structured Relationship

Unstructured Relationship

Financial SystemDocument Management

System

CRM

HR System

Handshake Software Integrated Web Service

The InternetSharePoint Portal Services Office 2003 Inform. Bridge Framework

Handshake Relationship Toolkit

Company

Contact

Mailing List

Benefits

Client Employee

Billing Lawyer

MatterAuthor

Doc Type

Docs

Portal ExampleExpense 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)


New WorldWeb 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)


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 changeOne 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 Resort10:15 – 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&K3:00-4:00pmMS 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 Room2:00-3:00pmState 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.