Industry Vertical: Professional Services Firms

In today's global, fast-paced business environment, the sheer volume of email, electronic documents, and paper files - combined with document-intensive processes - keeps many professional services organizations from achieving peak performance. The lack of coordination between individuals and offices, combined with manual, ad hoc processes, make it difficult to leverage organizational knowledge and ensure adherence to guidelines.

Autonomy Information Management Solutions help companies manage documents, document-intensive processes, and engagement content by capturing all relevant information in a central system. Professional service firms rely on Autonomy to help their employees share information and best practices in a secure and collaborative environment, and achieve unparalleled flexibility and scalability to deliver:

For professional services firms, Autonomy Information Management solution provides a complete system for the capture, management, and governance of engagement content within a unified electronic file - and makes it accessible both in the office and on the road.

Due to a rapid increase in Electronically Stored Information (ESI) inside organizations, professional service firms are finding it more challenging and costly to resolve litigations and internal investigations. Traditionally, eDiscovery has been a highly manual and complex process, requiring a substantial amount of resources and involving a great deal of legal and overall risk.

Autonomy offers the most complete suite of eDiscovery tools available for professional service firms. These solutions, powered by IDOL, have helped significantly reduce eDiscovery costs and risk associated with investigations and audits. In fact, many professional service firm customers ultimately decide to license Autonomy's Early Case Assessment (ECA) and Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) technology to offer as a service to their clients. It offers:

Regulations are putting the spotlight on proper records management: the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the ABA Model Rules 1.13 and 1.6, and the changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These regulations cover the risk of malpractice and the legal and professional obligation to maintain client records in accordance with rules and client expectations. Further complicating the situation, records management principles and processes need to be applied to electronic information, particularly email, as well as paper records.

Autonomy Records Management and Archiving Solutions enable professional service firms to securely and cost effectively organize and manage the myriad of paper and electronic files in compliance with policy. Autonomy embeds records management principles into working practices so that the firm can both formulate and enforce records policy. At the same time, Autonomy's solutions do not burden professionals with more process and software applications. Records managers and file clerks can efficiently set policy, apply holds, respond to discovery requests, create and manage file plans, and manage file rooms. Autonomy's solutions work across offices, media types, and systems, offering a truly centralized, easy-to-manage, and modern records system.

Professional service firms face a number of obstacles to improving the bottom line and providing excellent customer service. Among them are the increasing number of regulations, a shrinking professional workforce, and an explosion in client-provided content and email. In addition, distributed and mobile workforces make costs, compliance, and quality more difficult to manage. Once the engagement is complete, there is also the challenge of managing the long- term storage of client information while maintaining easy access to it.

Autonomy helps firms of all sizes improve productivity, comply with regulations, and enhance client service. The Client Relationship and Engagement Management solution helps firms manage the entire client engagement lifecycle by organizing and managing all client-related documents in a centralized workspace. The Autonomy solution gives firms an easy, cost-effective way to track, audit, secure, share, locate, and dispose of data according to the firm's retention policies.

A secure archive for content both during and after engagements makes it easier to comply with retention policies. Integration with work paper management and other applications makes it easy for users to access and manage client content. A work-in-progress repository for content during engagements, plus integration with Microsoft Office and tax applications, makes it easy for users to access and manage client content

The lifeblood of the professional services industry is the mass of unstructured information and expertise scattered across various repositories throughout the enterprise. At KPMG LLP (UK), vital content existed in numerous file formats on Lotus Notes databases, Microsoft Exchange servers, web servers, file directories, custom applications, content management platforms and ERP systems. The challenge, however, was one that many large knowledge-based organizations face: the intellectual capital at KPMG LLP (UK) was growing uncontrollably. KPMG LLP (UK) selected IDOL K2. IDOL K2 is integrated software that manages unstructured information from sources enterprise-wide so the organization's 9,500 professionals can make faster, better decisions.

Autonomy iManage's Worksite powers electronic client files for RBZ, enabling professionals throughout the firm to search, access, and share research, client files, and work product. Integration with Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat enhances efficiency and ease of use. Back-office workspaces provide secure access to human resources documents and support global teams dedicated to client service.

With employee retention and recruitment challenges, new regulatory mandates, and rising competitive pressures making efficiency a top priority, Held, Kranzler, McCosker & Pulice LLP (HKMP) set out to prove that world-class, integrated technologies can deliver benefits for firms of any size. They deployed a complete solution that included an engagement-centric implementation of WorkSite, integrated with their practice and engagement management applications, to support virtually all of the firm's work within a single environment. Today, HKMP professionals enjoy a single point of access for engagement information, and metadata helps the firm adhere to compliance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

Verdonck, Klooster & Associates are an independent consultancy company with extensive experience at the intersection of strategy, implementation, and ICT in the public sector. The firm turned to WorkSite to provide a complete electronic project file, including email and other documents. As a result, productivity has been enhanced and the firm is better able to achieve auditability and quality of service required.

Moore Stephens Sydney Pty Limited needed to upgrade its information environment. As the volume of electronic documents in its business increased, professionals and divisions throughout the firm saved things differently across numerous shared network drives. Further, inconsistent filing practices made information difficult to find. The firm lacked the automated record retention capabilities needed for effective risk management. By selecting Autonomy iManage, the firm now has a standardized electronic information management platform based on WorkSite for greater productivity and responsiveness while reducing costs.

Huron Consulting, financial and operational consulting services, licensed Autonomy's IDOL, Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) and Investigator solutions as one of the key software components of its electronic discovery service offerings. Autonomy helps Huron better address the complex challenges of its client base that arise in litigation, disputes, investigations, regulatory compliance and other document-intensive legal matters. Huron has embedded Autonomy's IDOL solution including Investigator/Early Case Assessment (ECA) to find the most relevant content by identifying key terms, determining categories and applying filters to reduce the content down to a more manageable size for review. Autonomy's Introspect EDD software is used to collect and ingest all of a customer's content and prepare it for review.

iManageWorkSite powers matter-centric collaboration for Frost Brown Todd. The Autonomy solution provides integrated document management and email management within a single matter-centric environment, making it easy for the firm's professionals to manage, store, and collaborate efficiently around complete matter-content. iManage Records Manager enables Frost Brown Todd to optimize their file room operations and bring together paper, electronic documents and email under a uniform retention policy. The solution is seamlessly integrated into the user's work practices, allowing professionals to participate and engage in the records process without sacrificing productivity.

iManage WorkSite provides the foundation for the electronic matter file and matter file content management for the firm, enabling geographically dispersed teams to create content, collaborate and coordinate business-critical activities. For Zuckerman Spaeder, WorkSite is providing integrated document, records, and email management capabilities within a unified environment, making it easy for the legal professionals to manage, store, and collaborate efficiently between their six locations. Integration with the firm's time and billing and docketing systems provides up-to-date information on matter file status from a single point of access. With Interwoven Records Manager, the firm can now manage this content under a unified records policy without impacting the organization's existing work practices.

Ehrhardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman PC (EKS&H), Colorado's largest accounting firm, provides tax, audit, and business advisory services to clients in 16 industries. As with many of its peers, the absence of a proper document management system made it increasingly difficult to maintain the efficient flow of information among its professionals and clients. Autonomy provided both the conceptual model and the technology for EKS&H's launch of a knowledge management initiative to break down information silos. WorkSite powers collaborative document management in practice areas and internal departments with engagement-centric workspaces. Today, professionals find it easy to access information and collaborate with peers and clients. Practice groups are more efficient and more productive. Client portals have strengthened customer relationships.

This top ten accounting firm provides tax, business consulting and wealth management and other services with 3, 500 professionals and more than 200 offices across all 50 US states. The firm turned to Autonomy iManage to help them move to a paperless and highly integrated organization. With its large dispersed workforce, the firm was looking for a way to increase capacity for peak periods without adding additional headcount. The leadership was also trying to find a solution that would allow them to move slow, paper- intensive processes to more responsive, consistent and automated paperless processes.

The firm now relies on WorkSite, FileSite, WorkSite Web and workflow to automate engagement management tasks and replace paper client files through the email system with anytime, anywhere access, including mobile. The system can be accessed by their professionals via Outlook or the engagement management workflow. Documents are captured through a one-time scan of documents where bookmarks are automatically created and organized as PDFs or individually (adhoc) for miscellaneous files such as arrangement letters and missing K-1s. Both methods are integrated with FileSite and the associated client folder. WorkSite Web is used to manage work-in-process and is used as a personalized dashboard.

The solution has proven to be especially helpful during tax season since the firm can leverage WorkSite to have people at different offices involved in engagement flow and retain records. The engagement process has been automated and managed by using workflow to help smooth out the process and ensure consistency across engagements and offices. The firm has also been able to move its internal engagement processes to paperless, reducing time to manage engagements and associated costs.