Press Release: Law firm Hjort accelerates and improves processes with I.R.I.S.

 Oslo, 30th March 2010 – The stock exchange listed company I.R.I.S., specialized in Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR), Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and complex infrastructure for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), has been selected by law firm Hjort as the implementation partner for iManage WorkSite 8.5. By replacing its current document management system, Hjort expects to increase data quality and improve its internal processes.

The origins of Hjort date back to 1893. Today, Hjort employs approximately 85 staff members, of whom 63 are lawyers and associate lawyers. Hjort is owned by 26 partners, all of whom are active in the firm. Morten Staubo, IT Director at Hjort: “Different from most of the larger law firms in Norway we have a wide customer approach. We don’t just work in business law but also in many other areas like civil procedures and family business. Besides, we employ many high ranked lawyers.”

The implementation of the new WorkSite 8.5 solution was very important to Hjort to accelerate and improve the many different document and e-mail handling processes. For many years Hjort used a document management system, developed in-house and based on a SharePoint platform. “Unfortunately, this system had become outdated,” says Staubo. “It had too much downtime so the documents were not available and the performances weren’t as good as they should have been. We decided it was time to explore the market and look into different solutions and approaches. The major question for us was whether we wanted to develop the new software ourselves, or start using common market systems for law firms. Data quality will increase by using a sophisticated DMS like WorkSite: we want to centralise all documents and communication on all subjects in WorkSite. This will create an extensive helicopter view.”

Hjort consulted other law firms and did extensive market research: what solutions did other Norwegian firms use en what were the results? “The feedback on I.R.I.S. was very positive and rightly so: the cooperation with I.R.I.S. is successful and the people are professional. Other important issues in our decision making process were stability and availability,” Staubo adds, “and WorkSite really meets our demands.”

Peter van Dam, manager operations at I.R.I.S. in the Nordics says: “Hjort has taken the right decision to replace their DMS system before the efficiency of the firm became at risk by increasing amounts of e-mails and other documents. Obviously we are very pleased that we can add this prestigious Norwegian law firm to our already extensive list of customers in the legal sector.”

Building on Autonomy’s advanced Meaning Based Computing platform, Autonomy iManage offers the most comprehensive suite of information management applications on a single, common platform and is used by more than 1,400 law firms worldwide, including 75 of the top 100 global law firms.

About I.R.I.S.
The I.R.I.S. mission is to increase our clients' productivity and knowledge by helping them to better manage their documents, data and information.
I.R.I.S. Products & Technologies develops Intelligent Document Recognition technologies and products and markets its portfolio of products worldwide through solid partnerships.
I.R.I.S. Professional Solutions enables companies and government bodies to find in one company the innovative expertise and high-tech solutions to efficiently manage their documents, information flows and IT infrastructures.

I.R.I.S. employs over 600 people, based in Louvain‐la‐Neuve, Brussels and Antwerp (Belgium); Paris (France); Windhof (Luxembourg); Amsterdam and Maastricht (Netherlands); Aachen (Germany); Delray Beach (Florida, USA); Hong Kong (China) and Oslo (Norway).

For more information, visit www.ecm.irislink.com or  www.iriscorporate.com 

Press Contact
Influx PR
Marleen Lassche
marleen@influx-pr.com
Tel.: +31 (0)55 366 3034