Key challenges

• Deploying compareDocs to a new environment following a merger
• Integrating document comparison into Office 365 and iManage
• Powering efficiency with continued access to document comparison during a period of large-scale change
• Minimizing technical issues for both the IT team and the lawyers and assistants who rely on compareDocs
  

About MLT Aikins

MLT Aikins LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 240 lawyers across six offices. As one of the 15 largest law firms in Canada, MLT Aikins offers its clients a deep understanding of the market’s unique legal and business landscapes.

Integrating compareDocs into a new environment, following a large-scale merger

MLT Aikins was born from a merger between two distinguished firms: MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP (MLT) and Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP (Aikins). As the firm’s IT Infrastructure Manager, Dean Murfitt helped lead the team responsible for merging the software systems together to create a new, cohesive environment.

Assistants and lawyers at both legacy firms were already using compareDocs for document comparison, and it had become a ‘daily tool’ staff members saw as essential to their roles. “I think if we had taken compareDocs away from staff we would have had a revolt on our hands,” said Dean. “compareDocs is one of those tools that make their jobs fairly easy – which is why it was a product we wanted to keep moving forward with building out the new environment.”

“The only thing we had to do was come up with a merge solution for the product itself,” explained Dean, “and that was straightforward.” Deploying compareDocs at an enterprise level often involves installing it on a machine, adjusting the settings, and customizing the rendering sets before deploying the image to the rest of the machines on the network which they accomplished through Group Policies.

The firm’s IT team began rolling out the product on images for laptops while testing continued in the background. “The process was really easy, super simple and very convenient, especially considering the multiple Office versions we had, and even when we moved over to Office 365,” said Dean.

“compareDocs is one of the least complicated products in our environment. We really don’t have to worry about the users because they pick it up quickly and, being in the legal industry, they’re familiar with comparison programs,” said Dean. “So even when new users joined the firm, and we thought about training them to use compareDocs, we realized we didn’t have to worry because they pick it up quickly.”

Transitioning to Office 365 with compareDocs

Another project of the merger process was moving the firm’s office system from Office 2010 to Office 365. “One of the concerns our lawyers and staff had was whether compareDocs would work the same in Office 365,” explained Dean. Dean and his team were reassured to find that integration between Office 365, compareDocs, and the firm’s document management system (currently iManage) was consistent across all versions. “Without any issues for us, these worries went away as soon as staff began using compareDocs in Office 365.”

Receiving product support along the way

“The support that we receive with DocsCorp has been amazing,” said Dean. “Anytime we’ve had a problem, we’ve reached out, and the issue has quickly been resolved.” Whether it’s a major or minor problem, Dean found DocsCorp product support was “usually able to fix it or deal with it right then and there.”