It goes without saying that Document Management is an important aspect of law firm technology.  Attorneys need an efficient way to share documents and collaborate on projects.  There are some very robust proprietary document management programs, such as Worldox.  There are plenty of free and open source choices as well.  In this article, I take a look at Alfresco.

 Alfresco is open source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) that is cross-platform.  In addition to document management, it touts records management, knowledge management, and web content management.  There are two versions of Alfresco to choose from, the community version and the Enterprise version.  Both are released under version 3 of the GPL license.  The enterprise version costs money on a per CPU basis, but comes with support.  The community edition, of course, is available without charge.

You can download the community edition from the Alfresco downloads page.  In addition to Alfresco Community, you can download additional packages, such as add-ons for web content management, language packs, MS Office integration, and Firefox extensions.

The great thing about Alfresco is that it is platform-agnostic.  It will work anywhere Java works, which includes Windows, Linux, and Unix.  The other great thing about Alfresco is that you only have to install it on one computer, your sever (you can also have Alfresco host the software on their servers). Once the server is installed, you access the software through a web-browser.  While Alfresco can host the program for you, I prefer to host it myself on my own LAN; that way, I have total control over the software.  You can't do that will Google apps.

I chose to review with Alfresco Community Edition without any additional add-ons at first.  I installed and ran it on my Ubuntu Linux laptop and accessed it with the Firefox browser. Again, Alfresco can also be installed on Windows and Mac. 

Installation

Installing Alfresco isn't very complicated. The first thing I needed to do was to install the Java Platform and the J2SE development kit (jdk).  This was a snap on my Ubuntu system as both are contained in the repositories.  On Windows, you can download both from the Java website.  From that point, all I had to do was to download the Alfresco Tomcat Bundle.  The Bundle includes the Alfresco application itself, the database back-end, and Tomcat, the server on which it runs.  Once the bundle is downloaded, just unzip it in the right place.  That's it.  It is now installed.  Starting the Tomcat server is as simple as entering a single command or clicking on a .bat file.  Then point your browser to the right place.   Since I set Alfresco up on my workstation, I just typed on http://localhost:8080/alfresco. 

Using Alfresco

Once installed, Alfresco is easy to learn.  I was able to work my way through things without having to read an entire manual. For those who don't like to read the manual, Alfresco has a tutorial on the start-up page. 

To set up Alfresco, the 'admin' needs to log in and create users. Once that is done, you can start adding content. Accessing documents with Alfresco is just like using a shared folder--only the folders are called spaces.  Each space can contain files or other spaces (sub-spaces).  A convenient tree-view of the space hierarchy is displayed on the left side of the screen. It is within these spaces or sub-spaces that you put your documents.

Obtaining a document is as simple as 'downloading' it from the server much the same way you download a document from the internet.  Sharing a document is as simple as browsing to the file on your local hard drive and clicking 'upload.'  

Once a document is in the system, a user can take several actions--it can be edited, deleted, or checked out--all of which you would expect from a document management program.  You can also start a 'discussion', which encompasses users leaving comments regarding particular documents.  The discussion is similar to a web forum--users can post new comments or reply to previous ones.

One very powerful feature of Alfresco is 'workflow management.'   This allows users to assign content to another user as a task.  A list of all of a user's tasks will appear when they first log in. A user can even assign a document to a superior to review and approve of the document--a feature that could be useful when paralegals or junior associates draft pleadings or other documents.

Another powerful feature set is 'rules.'  There are dozens of rules one can apply to each space. So much so that I didn't have time to try them all.  Once very handy rule allows you to make all documents 'versionable.'  This activates full version control for documents.  For those who are not familiar with version control, it allows users to save documents in various stages of progress.  This makes it easy to roll-back a document to a previous version or it prevents anyone from accidentally use a version other than the most recent one.  This is great for document collaboration.

Extensions

All of the above functionality comes with the most generic installation.  But there are other packages and extension available.  If you use the FireFox web browser (and you should), you can install an add-on that will open documents with any application you specify.  This would be a necessary time-saving add-on for everyone. They also offer an add-on to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (versions 2003 only).

Other Alfresco extensions include Web Content Management, Records Management, and some developer's tools.  The Records Management Module looks interesting.  It promises to meet DOD 5015.2 Requirements, including automatic metadata extraction and classification, and rapid eDiscovery.  It also promises to be easy to install.  I did not find this to be the case. I could not find clear installation instructions on-line, and the forums weren't much help either.  If you need the Records Management module, you may have to enlist some help to get it set up.

Conclusion

Alfresco is a viable open source alternative to proprietary software for document management purposes.   Although Alfresco was not designed with the law firm in mind, it offers the features that the majority of law offices require, including version control, workflow management, searching, and categorization.  Best of all, it is available at no cost.  But if you insist on paying for it, you can do so with the added benefit of technical support.  The only downsides are the difficulty in getting the add-ons to work and the slowness inherent in web-based applications.