How Microsoft LCA “Walks the Talk” when it comes to Enhanced Productivity
In addition to potential cost savings associated with cloud computing tools, law firms and in-house legal departments can also gain productivity benefits by moving to the cloud.
Microsoft Office 365 is one example of cloud computing. Users get virtually anywhere access to familiar Microsoft Office applications, hosted email, collaboration capabilities, business social networking, file sharing, communication services and eDiscovery tools.
Lawyers should feel confident using Office 365. It has been engineered with world-class privacy and security features. Office 365 does not capture, maintain, scan, index, or mine customer data for any marketing, advertising or other unauthorized purposes. It is rigorously tested for, and independently verified to ensure, best-in-class privacy and security and adheres to the most stringent international data protection standards.
This article highlights some ways that Microsoft’s Legal & Corporate Affairs department (LCA) uses Office 365 —specifically OneNote, Lync Online, and SharePoint Online to share knowledge, collaborate with our clients, and work more efficiently. I’ll also highlight Yammer, which works with Office 365 to improve communication.
The paperless office
OneNote is a digital notebook that allows you to capture and organize information in one place. You can search and share that information from nearly anywhere on your PC, smartphone or tablet. We no longer use legal pads and pens. We are going “paperless” by writing our notes and ideas in OneNote.
We can also gather multiple PowerPoint presentations, reports, videos, and meeting notes from several people and make them available in a single OneNote notebook. We’ve done this with our annual mid-year review, adding agendas and other pertinent information, so that everything related to this critical meeting is located in one easy to access notebook.
Fast and easy communication
Microsoft lawyers no longer use landline phones. Instead, we use Lync Online. We can instantaneously start a Lync Online conference call with both Microsoft and non-Microsoft personnel, share our computer screens to display redlined contracts or present PowerPoint slides.
Lync Online lets us know when our colleagues are available. It shows their status as available, busy, participating in a conference call, do not disturb, or away from the office. Lync Online helps us perform our jobs from virtually anywhere and gives our business clients greater access to us.
Collaborate and share information
<a href=”https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-software-FX103789366.aspx” title=”SharePoint Online” rel=nofollow” >SharePoint Online has powerful collaboration capabilities. It offers an intranet portal, content management and document management. LCA uses SharePoint Online extensively, both individually and with teams.
For example, lawyers working on customer deals can create a deal-specific SharePoint Online site to quickly review, share, and update contract terms with other members of LCA and business clients.
Legal professionals who support our global sales team use an internal dashboard built on SharePoint Online called “LCA Sales Connect” to share knowledge and access key resources all in one place.
Knowledge sharing
Yammer helps organizations get work done smarter and faster by making internal knowledge-sharing easy. Think of Yammer as your organization’s own private social network. You can also create private groups that are limited to specific stakeholders.
LCA uses Yammer for training and knowledge-sharing with internal business clients. Senior lawyers have even hosted “YamJams”—live chat sessions—with their teams. The beauty of Yammer is that postings are archived for future reference. We’ve greatly reduced our inbox clutter by using Yammer.
To learn more, please visit our Office 365 Trust Center at http://trust.office365.com.
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