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Interwoven Announces WorkSite Solution for Corporate Legal Departments
Leading Provider of Collaboration and Document Management Software for Law Firms and Corporate Legal Departments Introduces New Functionality And Applications to Reduce Cost, Manage Risk
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 26 Interwoven, Inc. today announced a new solution designed for the specific challenges of corporate legal departments (CLDs). Based on the market-leading Interwoven WorkSite Server software suite, the Interwoven CLD solution addresses five key pain points experienced by today’s corporate legal departments: managing the matter file; managing external counsel; board of directors’ compliance; policy publication and monitoring; and contract management.
Typically considered a cost center, corporate legal departments are under intense pressure to reduce costs and do more with less while keeping pace with an ever-widening scope of work. To comply with new government regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, these groups must implement strict internal controls and meticulous record keeping. The explosion of content across e-mail and electronic files coupled with paper records has raised the cost of discovery in the event of litigation. An increased focus on corporate governance had increased the need to document decisions made by boards of directors and the work of board committees. Meanwhile, corporate legal departments must expend additional resources managing the work of outside law firms, while contract creation, negotiation and management remains a major bottleneck.
The new functionality and applications announced today promise to extend Interwoven’s already strong customer base among corporate legal departments, which includes such companies as Gap Inc., NEC USA, Network Associates, and Sybase. Tim Donovan, general counsel for NEC USA, and a frequent speaker on legal department management, notes, «We have been a long time, satisfied user of the Interwoven document management solution. It has proven to be a reliable and user friendly tool in our efforts to increase efficiency and productivity with the many different kinds of attorney work product we generate to support our business clients.»
The Interwoven CLD solution helps corporate legal departments meet these challenges while reducing costs and managing risk by addressing five key pain points:
Managing the matter file. The Interwoven solution provides complete functionality to help corporate legal departments manage matter files effectively and cost-efficiently. WorkSite provides an electronic equivalent to the physical file, in which all documents, e-mails, scanned paper documents, and other records can easily be filed and retrieved from any location via Microsoft Office, Outlook, and the Web. With WorkSite, powerful search capabilities facilitate discovery efforts. Additional features such as task list management support litigation management and e-mail management features make it simple to capture, file , and search matter correspondence.
Managing external counsel. Corporate legal departments can use the WorkSite CLD solution to improve communication both internally and externally. Dedicated extranets can be created quickly and easily for each external counsel, including shared matter files to which the outside firm posts documents. The same information can also be made available to specific internal customers such as line-of-business personnel, enabling them to collaborate and contribute in a secure manner without relying on internal legal personnel. Collectively, these workspaces and matter files provide the legal department with a dashboard view by matters and firm. Easily searchable, this complete collection of all matter files promotes cost-effective re-use by enabling attorneys to identify best practice documents and relevant past work product.
Board of directors’ compliance. The WorkSite CLD solution simplifies key board processes and helps improve corporate governance. A dedicated board of directors workspace provides a single, centralized location for all board materials and enables them to be delivered electronically to board members in any location without the costly and time-consuming process of manually preparing, packaging, and express mailing thick packages. Version control ensures that members access the most recent content available. Between meetings, collaborative board and committee workspaces can be used for ongoing communication without the security risks of e-mail. During meetings, WorkSite provides an electronic replacement for the minute book. By capturing a complete audit trail of all board activities, decisions and information access by individual members, the solution provides the required documentation of who said and did what, when. Ironclad security throughout ensures critical content so only appropriate members see specific content.
Policy publication and monitoring. The Interwoven solution provides tools to help CLDs collaborate on the creation and maintenance of policy documents and manuals. Support for document routing and workflow facilitates consistent policy review and approval processes, while full audit trails track the history of all policies and provide the necessary backup for each decision made. Complete distribution is ensured through the ability to publish updated policies easily to intranets and extranets, and to track employee receipt of updated documents. Once policies are in place, the solution’s collaboration and content management functionality provides an effective tool for conducting well-documented investigations. These policy-monitoring capabilities work in tandem with the compliance support provided by the board of directors’ application mentioned above, as well as with a recently introduced Interwoven Sarbanes-Oxley solution.
Contract management. By supporting efficient collaboration on documents across internal and external parties, the Interwoven solution facilitates the rapid development and negotiation of contracts. Collaborative workspaces can be created for each contract so that all involved parties can work together on drafting and refining the document. All relevant material can be captured in the same workspace, including backup documents, price lists, etc., providing a single view into every aspect of the proposed contractual relationship. Through flexible access control, each user sees only the individual documents and workspaces they are authorized to see. Calendaring and to do list management drives the contract to closure — and access anytime from anywhere with zero delay means that global teams can work whenever, wherever. Automated workflow facilitates contract routing and ensures compliance with internal policies on contract reviews, with a complete audit trail captured each step of the way.
Said Dan Carmel, vice president, legal and enterprise compliance solutions for Interwoven, «As the undisputed leader in software for large law firms, we are well positioned to bring the best practices of matter file management and collaboration to the CLDs. This new solution will help CLDs increase productivity and decrease costs at a critical time.»
For those interested in learning about the Interwoven WorkSite solutions for CLDs, the company is offering a free webinar entitled «Strategies for Cutting Costs and Reducing Risk in Corporate Legal Departments» on Thursday, January 29, 2004 at the following times:
— 8:00 a.m. PST (11:00 a.m. EST/ 16:00 UTC)
(see http://www.interwoven.com/cgi-bin/webcast?wc=cld8am )
— 1:00 p.m. PST (4:00 p.m. EST)
(see http://www.interwoven.com/cgi-bin/webcast?wc=cld1pm )
Webinar details are available at http://www.interwoven.com/events/online/cld/cld.html