HotDocs Document Automation Blog: Document Services
Gamification or Process Automation: D. Casey Flaherty of Kia Motors Explains What Really Works
In describing what might get him to switch law firms, Flaherty describes a powerful expert system that Kia built and deployed itself, a HotDocs-based system that enables his internal clients to “access an automated questionnaire that enables them to generate the contract themselves.” Flaherty goes on to point out that HotDocs, (as it turns out,...
Proud to be a Gartner Cool Vendor
We at HotDocs are extremely proud that our company has been named one of Gartner’s Cool Vendors for Content Management in its 2014 report. As a product class, content management (ECM) includes a wide range of technologies and hundreds—if not thousands—of qualified vendors. To be singled out in this way is exciting, and, we believe, a validation of our company vision, business
Skunkworks and Large Law: Disrupting Your Own Business Model
Anyone connected to the legal services industry is aware of the widespread malaise: commoditization that took root in small law decades ago has now worked its way to the top; Am Law firms are feeling pressure to change pricing policies; some firms are shedding partners who are then opening leaner, meaner boutique firms; high-tech vendors...
HotDocs Cloud Services: Delivering Interviews in Actionstep Workflows
HotDocs Cloud Services is a Document Generation Platform as a Service (DGPaaS) designed to deliver interactive HotDocs interviews into 3rd-party applications targeting vertical niches. The strategy behind Cloud Services is based on the notion that many different types of applications require complex document-generation interviews delivered on point within structured processes, but that most such web...
What is Contract Generation Software?
Contract generation is a common application of document generation software (document assembly software). Document generation is a subset of the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) market and is often aligned with the business process automation movement (BPM), given that document generation tools are used to automate the process of generating complex contracts (really, any kind of...
Disruption in the Legal Services Industry: Embrace Innovation
In the wake of the Weil, Gotshal downsizing in 2013, Barry Wolf, the firm’s Executive Partner, referred to the current economic environment for law firms as the new normal—what could best be described as an oversupply of legal services that was forcing law firms to adapt in a number of ways, including creatively dealing with...
HotDocs Is Not Directly Affected by Heartbleed
HeartBleed is the name given to a bug/vulnerability discovered recently in OpenSSL’s implementation of the HTTPS/TLS protocol. It allows remote attackers to obtain potentially sensitive information (up to 64KB at a time) using specially crafted packets that trigger a “buffer over-read”. It can potentially expose passwords, usernames, private keys, and other sensitive information. HotDocs is...
HotDocs Cloud Services: Paving the Way for a New Breed of Platform Provider
It’s been more than three years, now, since we began developing the HotDocs cloud stack, an integrated group of technologies that not only fortifies HotDocs’ position as the heavyweight of the document generation (document assembly) space but also position HotDocs as a key player in the ECM market. At the base of the stack is...
HotDocs, a Standard for Document Generation among ECM Vendors
According to Gartner, ECM is a technology class that spans five key functionalities: content generation, content processing, content distribution, content storage, and content access . What’s interesting about Gartner’s definition of ECM is that it seems to be an expansion on definitions provided by other organizations. For example, the governing body for ECM, the Association...
Document Agility: An Embodiment of the HotDocs Cloud Services Vision
When we envisioned HotDocs Cloud Services, a Document Generation Platform as a Service (DGPaaS), in the fall of 2010, the idea was to enable 3rd-party web developers targeting specific niche markets to deliver complex, cloud-based HotDocs interviews indigenously within their own applications. It was a strategy in anticipation of the fragmentation of large, platform-dominated markets...
What do Moneyball and Document Generation have in common? Plenty, says Victor Li of ABAJournal.com
In the 2011 film Moneyball (based on a true story), Brad Pitt, playing the role of Billy Bean, employs a novel approach that enables his small-market, small-budget Oakland A’s to compete with clubs having much larger payrolls. In the movie, Bean, the team’s real-life general manager, embraces a non-traditional application of inferential statistics to cobble...
The Price of Resistance Is Too High and Entirely Unnecessary
In 2012, Dewey & LeBoeuf, a fabled Manhattan law firm filed for bankruptcy and liquidated assets. In 2013, Weil Gotschal, another New York-based Am Law 100 firm, went through a major restructuring, giving way to the now common refrain of “the new normal” for large law—too many lawyers and too little work. The situation out...