The integration between Nuance PDF Converter Enterprise 7.1 and NetDocuments has just been revamped and I'm here to tell you about it.

Nuance PDF Converter Enterprise 7.1 lets legal firms convert, edit, share, and create PDF files, including the ability to redact, bates stamp, and quickly combine documents of any type with simple drag-and-drop into a single PDF. The NetDocuments connector provides an out-of-the box configuration to display a NetDocuments Save toolbar option. This allows a user to intuitively save a PDF file directly into NetDocuments, then select the desired matter-centric location to store the document. The connector is included in PDF Converter Enterprise 7.1, and works for all NetDocuments users without any additional installation of software or fee.

NetDocuments has long been integrated with Salesforce.com and thousands of our joint users have leveraged this tight integration to manage all of their client data from one secure place in the cloud.

This video tells the story of Reggie, a small business owner, who sees the light when he sends he sends his documents to the cloud and manages them in Salesforce.

Let us know how you are using cloud. Find us on Twitter at @NetDocuments or drop us a line in the comments section.

Sure, most of us enjoy holding hands with the people we love, e.g., our significant others, children or grandchildren. But do we really like holding our IT person's hand? Or, for that matter, do IT staff really like holding the hands of those in their organization? My guess: umm, not so much. So, cue the NetDocuments New User Interface…

<See more screenshots at http://www.netdocuments.com/start/2011/>

Remember recess in elementary? That's right, a hundred kids running at full speed in different directions, headed for unknown destinations, totally oblivious of who would be there and why? Exciting, yes. Fun, yes. Total mayhem, you bet. The Cloud Computing industry is growing at a break-neck pace, recess is out, and it's time to make some sense of the chaos.

Collaboration is a broad and well trodden topic; in fact, it was Salesforce.com's theme at their event of the year, titled "Collabor8". But just because Salesforce.com can throw around phrases like "collaborative software", or taking a "collaborative approach" in their business vernacular, it doesn't make it any easier to grasp in a real sense, nor to implement in a real-life, competitive and fast-paced environment, especially if your business has nothing to do with Salesforce.com.

Standing with a fist raised in the air, chanting "Bernard come back, Bernard come back", I felt as though I was in a positive mental attitude, MLM event, getting geared up for yet another year of break-neck sales.

But no, thank goodness…I was one of the 30,000 attendees at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce event in San Francisco participating in a Marc Benioff marketing stunt to combat Microsoft Dynamics guerilla marketing tactics with their "I Didn't Get Forced" campaign.

Is it game over for server based document management?

That was the headline in the latest edition of the American Legal Technology Insider Newsletter.

In his newsletter discussing the issue, Charles Christian pointed out recent developments in the traditionally conservative legal market as a signal that the dog days of server farms and boxed software are all but over.

"Are the days of traditional document management systems and traditional DMS vendors coming to a close? For example, over the last two months the cloud-based document management specialists NetDocuments have signed up eight new (legal) user sites, (six law firms and two offices of general counsel) and while some of the smaller sites are new to the concept of a dedicated DMS, the latest wins also include Open Text swapouts at Van Cott Bagley Cornwall & McCarthy in Salt Lake City and Lynn Tillotson Pinkler & Cox LLP in Dallas."

Green Debate: Cloud vs. On Premise

Does the cloud really make businesses more energy efficient? A recently released study done by Accenture and WSP Environmental Consultants boldly declares that it does.

The study states, "businesses that choose to run applications in the cloud can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by 30 percent or more versus running those same applications on their own IT infrastructure."

This week in our ongoing Q&A series, we are joined by Tom Lee of Quintec International. Quintec is a leading cloud based technology company based in the UK that is aimed primarily at the Legal, Insurance and Finance markets.

Q: First off Tom, tell our readers a bit about you and your company?

Tom: Great. I have been in I.T. for over 33 years and have witnessed many changes in technology from the early Mainframes to Super- Mini's, Client/Server and now to the Cloud! At Quintec, we provide our clients with business advice, consultancy, software, training and technical support. These services are delivered by an experienced team of consultants, a rapid support team and a plethora of technical guys who never seem to stop working! I wished I had their energy!

Are you in the cloud?

Whether you answered yes or no, the gateway to the secure cloud just became wider and easier to navigate with the help of a new website aptly titled, AreYouInTheCloud.com.

The website contains a lot of life changing content but the most important feature of the site may be the fully customizable cloud TCO calculator. Intrigued? Let me show you how it works...

1. Calculate

Once you step onto the cloud (enter the site) and scroll down to the TCO calculator, all you have to do is enter the total number of employees in your organization, as well as total number of offices, click calculate and let it do its thing.

Do your friends call you a "techno nomad" or a "21^st century minimalist"? If all you need to run your legal practice is any web enabled device, than you've probably been labeled by one of these terms.

You see, in the 90s, the prevailing trend was bigger is better: bigger cars, bigger hamburgers, bigger houses and bigger technology. But with a downturn in the economy, more fuel conscience consumers and the rise cloud computing, consumers and businesses alike are learning how to do more with less, including their technology needs.