Four innovative software platforms address key challenges faced in today's always on, always connected, security-conscious and cost-conscious modern world
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Founded in 2009 to develop technology that connects the business with the practice of legal and professional services, Prosperoware today announced it now has 255 customers, which include 47 percent of the Am Law 100 firms and 33 percent of the Am Law 200 firms. In addition to the adoption of their software in law firms, Prosperoware has gained traction in a variety of professional services, including accounting departments, in-house legal departments and consulting firms, who have similar challenges. The evolution of Prosperoware's software offerings reflects the emerging priorities of legal and professional services firms.
Improving matter centricity and adoption of the electronic file
The business need to centralize content relevant to a specific legal matter or professional engagement in a secure document management system—both for ease of access and fiduciary integrity—has been hobbled by the slow adoption of the electronic file. Prosperoware's initial focus was to introduce a variety of process improvements and security add-ons to the document management systems most commonly used by legal and professional services firms—iManage and SharePoint—with its Milan and Zone platforms. These platforms simplify administration, increase user adoption of iManage and improve information governance and security across the firm. A third Prosperoware platform, Ascera, connects iManage to SharePoint.
One of Prosperoware's newest Milan customers is the legal department of a leading pharmaceutical firm. They deployed Milan to improve adoption of WorkSite by giving users the ability to do basic tasks that previously required IT support, such as deleting folders and creating ad hoc workspaces, without giving users elevated permissions that could compromise security.
"A survey of our users after the deployment of Milan indicated that 30-40 percent were more inclined to use WorkSite," said the company's DMS architect. "And our WorkSite admins reported that support tickets were cut nearly in half."
Adoption of the electronic file becomes even more challenging when two document management systems are in use. Case in point: BCF LLP in Montreal.
"We didn't want to host documents in multiple document management systems," said Marie-Claire Garneau, the firm's IT Manager. "When we started our SharePoint implementation, we looked for a solution that would help us display WorkSite documents in SharePoint. Ascera from Prosperoware does this very well. One of the key benefits of the software is the integrity of the data displayed. Our iManage document management security governs access to data in SharePoint as well, eliminating the need for additional training for our end-users. Prosperoware is the only company we know that can do this type of thing properly."
Integrating lateral hires
Onboarding lateral hires is another challenge for many legal and professional services firms, who want to quickly and efficiently get these professionals up and running with easy access to the documents and email associated with their legal matters and professional engagements. A number of firms are resolving this issue with the Zone platform from Prosperoware. One of these is Seyfarth Shaw LLP, who purchased Zone Email Import to streamline their onboarding process for lateral hires.
"The key benefit of Zone Email Import is the speed and ease of importing folders, subfolders and content from .PST files into our WorkSite environment," said George N. Kaytor, Director of Practice Services. "We also like the fact that Prosperoware operates at the same lightning speed that Seyfarth's internal staff is accustomed to. The Prosperoware team responds in an agile manner to new feature requests and provides superior support as needed."
BCF LLP in Montreal had similar challenges and solved it with another Prosperoware product.
"We deployed Milan Move, Consolidate, and Archive to bulk transfer millions of documents we needed to add to our document management system when we integrated over 40 lateral hires," said Marie-Claire Garneau, aforementioned IT Manager at BCF LLP in Montreal. "Milan is a product that does exactly what it promises to do. It took just three weeks to integrate into our iManage environment and just another three weeks to transfer the documents. The support we got from Prosperoware's sales, professional services and support teams was very professional."
Securing greater value for clients who want to make the "cost conscious" choice
The professional services industry—and more particularly the legal industry—is undergoing a dramatic change. Clients are unusually focused on securing greater value for their firms. As a result, they are making the "cost-conscious" choice. For many legal and professional services firms, this has created a meaningful drop in demand, requiring leaner organizations with fewer support staff and tighter margins. Against this new reality, firms are struggling to manage with their traditional infrastructure.
Prosperoware's newest product—Umbria Pricing, Budgeting, Business Intelligence & Analytics—addresses the need for partners in legal and professional services firms to price, budget and monitor matters for cost-conscious clients while maintaining profitability. Umbria puts up-to-date information about clients and matters at the partners' fingertips by giving them access to a modern web application with a dashboard or by delivering alerts to their email. Umbria increases client value with metrics-driven fee predictability and greater visibility into the economics of engagements. This leads to better decision-making on staffing resources that can deliver an appropriate profit margin.
Prosperoware continues to enrich its technology
"We continue to focus on enriching all four of our platforms," said Prosperoware President and co-founder Keith Lipman. "Simplifying administration, increasing user adoption and improving information governance and security processes with add-ons to iManage and SharePoint was our initial focus when we founded the company. Now we've extended our process improvement expertise with Umbria to the core of a firm's business, which is undergoing significant pricing pressure. What really makes us stand out from many other vendors is our ability to create platforms that are enterprise scale and our focus on solving meaningful, business-critical problems."
About Prosperoware
Prosperoware is an enterprise software company in its sixth year of business. Our innovative technology connects the practice and the business of legal and professional services. We offer four platforms and a variety of integrated products that automate critical business processes, including:
- Simplifying administration and improving user adoption of the electronic file
- Improving information governance with a strong focus on security
- Improving relationships with cost-conscious clients while controlling profitability
We have over 50 employees and offices in London, Chicago and near Philadelphia. Our more than 255 customers are in law firms, professional services firms, consulting firms and legal and accounting departments that range in size from a few users to our largest with over 14,000 users. Nearly half of the firms in the Am Law 100 is a Prosperoware customer. Clients include: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP, Baker Botts LLP, Hill Dickinson, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, DLA Piper, Duane Morris LLP, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, Comcast, NBCUniversal and HP.
Media Contact
Paula Matias
Marketing Manager, Prosperoware LLC
484-436-2433