How Microsoft provides a high level of document control
Updated: February 9, 2006
The massive increase in paper and electronic documents that professional services firms create and exchange today is straining the capability of firms to effectively control what happens with these documents.
Heightened scrutiny around ethics and compliance requirements mean that more documents must be tracked and monitored for inappropriate access (or changes in content) to avoid breaches of client privacy and the risk of litigation.
Convenient, intuitive authoring and control tools
Microsoft is working with its technology partners to develop document authoring and control tools that are convenient and intuitive, and that help to ensure important compliance and risk-management policies are enforced. Microsoft and its partners can design document tools that work within a job-specific intranet site or workspace, with Microsoft Office Word, or within Microsoft Office Outlook messaging and collaboration client folders.
For example, Microsoft partner Workshare, Inc., offers Workshare Professional, a document integrity program that works with Microsoft Office programs and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server to meet the demanding document control requirements of law firms and other businesses.
Tight integration between Microsoft and partner programs
Workshare Professional captures information about documents before they change hands internally or leave the firm. It also manages the state of the document to make the review process efficient and accurate across e-mail and other channels. Workshare Professional automates exception handling based on preset security and compliance rules. It can generate reports that detail changes to a document, send history reports, and more.
Best of all, the tight integration between Workshare Professional, Outlook (to manage document flow), and Word (to track and manage changes) means that firm employees can learn quickly and easily.
Document-management tools from Microsoft and partner Workshare can help protect a professional services firm from the risks inherent in poor document control. At the same time, these tools can drive efficiencies in how work is performed, simplify document audits, and increase security in team workspaces.
Document control solutions from Microsoft partners
These featured partners offer document control solutions built on the Microsoft platform:
Microsystems
(630) 598-1100
Microsystems delivers innovations that help document-intensive firms better create, maintain, and e-file their documents. Microsystems understands the business and productivity challenges that these firms face, and provides solutions for their short- and long-term needs—from first draft to final delivery.
Workshare
(415) 901-9030
Workshare Professional 4 (WP4) helps you automate typical document processes in Microsoft Office applications. Employees can capture important document and email events while ensuring document accuracy, security, and compliance. Some of the benefits of Workshare Professional 4 include secure assembly, review, and verification of document content; an audit trail of who emailed, viewed, or made changes to a document; policy-based document security controls; and compliance reports detailing a document’s change history, hidden data risk, and send history.
