iManage, a leader in advanced Artificial Intelligence and powerful document and email management, recently announced the end of life (EOL) for DeskSite, Filesite, and IDOL Indexer. This move will end support for its core legacy products after December 2023. With the introduction of iManage Work 10, iManage will retire all 9.x versions of its classic clients and add-ons.
So, what does this mean for your firm? It means changes are on the horizon, and firms will need to leverage technology to meet these changes head on.
At Litera we're here to help guide firms through this process, both informing and instructing their migration to the Cloud. In this blog, we'll set the stage for the iManage EOL announcement and teach you what considerations about this move need to be taken by your firm before the real fun starts.
How Does this Change My Firm's Day-to-Day?
i iManage's decision was motivated by upgrades to Work 10 and their technology partners' integrations to support the Work 10 interface with the Universal API. A normal part of any technology's lifecycle, products eventually reach a natural end of life phase and for various reasons, such as newer and better technologies, as well as changes in the market.
As a result, the following 9.x versions of legacy iManage clients and add-ons will cease:
- iManage DeskSite
- iManage FileSite
- iManage OffSite
- Email management for Outlook and the Outlook Module
- iManage Express Search
- iManage Miner
- iManage DealBinder Add-On
iManage 10 will offer improved security, responsiveness, and the ability to view and edit matters, documents, and projects form anywhere, along with much more. In the long run, firms will reap the benefits. In the meantime, this move will put many firms in a position to change the way they've been doing things for quite some time as they lose these classic clients.
If your firm plans to stay on-prem, you will need to plan your upgrade to the Work 10 Server to fully leverage the Work 10 Client. This will include your DMS, communications platforms, and a newly added Preview Server. Any third-party apps your firm utilizes will need to be updated, and you will also need to confirm whether they are compatible with Work 10.
While the iManage EOL doesn't mean the end of on-prem operations, it does complicate things a bit. That's why we recommend an easier course of action: migrating to the iManage Cloud.
Why Move to the Cloud?
Moving to the Cloud is the simplest way to handle this transition. When migrating to the iManage Cloud, the Work 10 Server components and the Cloud Search Service will be part Of The process as well.
This transition also carries with it various benefits to both your teams and organization at large, as a Cloud-based environment is more conducive for a modern hybrid workforce. For instance, your IT Teams won't be bogged down by as many administrator tasks, allowing them to work on higher–value tasks.
The iManage Cloud also offers boosted security and improved scalability to your DMS and other collaboration platforms. Not only that, but your data is much safer in the Cloud as it is secured by iManage and their perpetual updates. And of course, the Cloud is proven to be more cost-effective than on-premises solutions in the long run.
So, the better question here would be "Why move now?"
If you begin your Cloud migration now, your firm won't be rushing when the EOL date nears. Instead, you'll ready for go-live, while others are lagging.
Other benefits of the Cloud include boosted security and improved scalability to your DMS and other collaboration platforms.
In our follow up blog, we'll walk you through the next part of the process: designing your on-prem workspaces to mimic the Cloud infrastructure.
How CAM Helps
CAM is a Software-as-a-Service platform (SaaS) for adoption and governance of multiple collaboration systems. It allows organizations to provision, classify, protect, manage, and govern data, mitigating data chaos and reducing risks related to privacy & cybersecurity.
CAM enables organizations to create logical locations for users to place data. It provides rich, custom metadata, empowering users to locate documents, and risk management teams to understand business context to apply the right security & data minimization policies. CAM also created a unified project directory to further facilitate content location.
CAM integrates with Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, OneNote, Planner, Lists), iManage, NetDocuments, files shares, and more to come.
We'll help you get the Cloud, and once you're there, we'll make sure your teams prosper.
Check out our new White Paper with Cornerstone.IT if you want to understand the ins and outs of this iManage EOL process and what it means for your organization.
Posted in Governance
