We just wrapped up our ndElevate EMEA event and our global ndElevate event is around the corner. ndElevate EMEA in London was a smashing success. Over 120 of our customers and partners from across Europe created a memorable day. The backdrop for the day was a great venue of The Law Society.

The day was centered around the theme of lighting the fire of innovation on our safe, ready and proven platform. Attendees were mesmerized by our CTO, Alvin Tedjamulia’s presentation on fire – how it first came from the clouds as lightning, then was harnessed by early man for productivity and world dominance. Sound familiar to how our platform helps our customers?

Always entertaining and educational – Alvin left no doubt about the potential, innovation and momentum of the NetDocuments platform. Customer panels and breakout sessions continued through the day. We finished at the Law Society day with a reception hosted by eSentio.

Before customers could leave, Alvin’s themes of fire and disruption were accentuated by 10 African drummers who led all ndElevate attendees through the streets of London to the Kanaloa Bar for the afterparty sponsored by Tikit. You can follow the shenanigans on the twitter feed here.  

Speaking of disruption, one session really underscored the importance of a safe, ready and proven document management service in the cloud. Peter Buck, VP of Product Strategy at NetDocuments, and Maurice Tunney, IT Director at Keystone Law, the largest dispersed law firm in the UK, traded on the London Stock Exchange, and one of our valued customers, talked about the software-defined law firm. The talk suggested the software-defined law firm will outpace the hardware defined variant, where hardware is exclusively lawyers advising clients for the billable hour.

Peter, a veteran of the legal industry, shared insight into the four factors shaping the legal technology industry and IT delivery.

1. Clients want to consume legal services output not pay for input (hours)
2. The legal services marketplace is fragmented with technology creating a “winner take all” mindset
3. We are in the cloud services era powered by APIs and distributed trust, i.e. cryptography everywhere
4. A software-defined law firm can shape legal services output with products + embedded services

This set the stage with the concept of a software-defined law firm focusing not on billable hours, but the value-add output a firm delivers to their clients. Maurice took the stage and told the Keystone story. With several hundred people around the globe, Keystone operates, for the most part, with no brick and mortar footprint. As the largest dispersed law firm in the UK, software has been a central piece to how they have defined and grown their firm to what it is today – and what was their driving principle? A Lawyer-Centric approach.

We often hear about the importance of being client-centric and client experience focused, but what does lawyer-centric mean and why is it working so well for Keystone? Keystone has built and positioned technology to set law free (www.lawsetfree.com). This new model for structuring a law firm allows for incredible market agility and empowers the lawyer at the core. Their proprietary technology hub, called Keyed-In, facilitates the administration, client entry and billing in a streamlined and completely mobile way. The result is a global network of extremely productive and efficient lawyers working from anywhere. In the case of Barrister Benjamin Maltby, it likely means working from a superyacht.

There is no doubt we’ll continue to see the power of a software-defined firm as firms of all sizes embrace the cloud and leverage open platforms to deliver technology that truly enables their professionals. At the end of the day, business is done between people and adopting a lawyer-centric approach to law firm technology management is paying dividends and proving to be the right course for Keystone Law and we are sure others will follow.

ndElevate EMEA was supported by several of our friends and partners across NetDocuments global partner community. Sponsoring partners included: nQueue, Encoretech, DocsCorp, Bundledocs, eSentio, Prosperoware, Lumina, Peregrine Cloud, Workshare, Nikec, Hoffbrand Consulting, Tikit, and FileTrail.

Our global ndElevate event is coming up in November at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in the beautiful mountains of Park City, Utah. Join hundreds of legal professionals and industry experts (including Maurice and the Keystone story) for several days of learning, networking and sharing ideas on how to leverage the power of the NetDocuments global platform and its unlimited possibilities. Details and registration can be found at www.ndelevate2018.com.