Onward Technologies Receives “Kudos” for DOCS Open to Hummingbird DM5 Migration

January 2007

Onward Technologies was recently recognized for its outstanding performance in assisting in the migration of an Indiana-based financial firm from DOCS Open to Hummingbird DM5. For this transition, Onward partnered with Management Information Systems Company (MIS) of Indianapolis.

Brett Walters, IT Client Engagement Manager for MIS expressed his and the client’s appreciation for Onward's invaluable contribution to streamlining the migration and training process. “I am compelled to express MIS’ gratitude, our client’s gratitude, and our appreciation/admiration for Onward," Walters said. "Time and again they rose to the occasion and went far and away beyond reasonable expectation to ensure that our client was migrated as smoothly as possible. They made this as seamless as anything of this nature could be.”

He goes on to congratulate Hummingbird on having such a capable and reputable company as Onward promoting and distributing DM to its many satisfied customers. “If Onward Technologies is the face presented to customers and partners of Hummingbird, then Hummingbird can be assured of long success and appreciation.”

Onward continues to work in successful partnerships with its vendors and fellow technology firms to ensure that its clients receive the best in implementation, service and training.

Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman chooses Onward Technologies to help it make the move from legacy software to Hummingbird Enterprise™ for Legal with LegalKEY

February 2006

Hummingbird Ltd., a leading global provider of integrated enterprise content management (ECM) and network connectivity solutions, today announced that Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman P.S.C. has selected Hummingbird Enterprise™ for Legal with LegalKEY® Practice Support Solutions. The seamlessly integrated system will provide the firm with a true, end-to-end matter lifecycle solution that will help the firm mitigate risks while addressing compliance issues.

Established in 1967, Hall Render is a leading health law firm that provides the highest standard of professional service to an extensive client base. Clients include large and small businesses, non-profit organizations, private individuals, and major health care providers. With Hummingbird Enterprise for Legal, the firm will implement a unique, end-to-end framework including document management, collaborative workspaces, new business intake and conflicts management solutions.

“To support the firm's long-term business initiatives, we needed to go beyond the microcosm of document management and look towards adopting a comprehensive, agile technology infrastructure. Hummingbird has a completely integrated suite of products that are better aligned with our strategic direction than other vendor offerings,” said Leslie Judkins, Director of Information Technology at Hall Render. “From previous experience with Hummingbird products, I also knew that the software was well-designed and that the customer support, especially after-hours accessibility, is second-to-none.”

Hummingbird Enterprise for Legal with LegalKEY Practice Support Solutions offers a truly integrated approach that links key firm processes throughout the matter lifecycle. With this deployment, Hall Render will leverage the document management and collaborative workspace capabilities of Hummingbird Enterprise for Legal to manage critical work product on a firm-wide basis, enabling attorneys to share and manage document-based information and support knowledge management initiatives.

Since Hall Render is a niche law firm specializing in health, Hummingbird Enterprise for Legal will also enable the firm to comply with such regulations as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Additionally, LegalKEY New Business Intake™ and LegalKEY Conflicts Management™ - key components of Hummingbird Enterprise for Legal - will enable Hall Render to strike the perfect balance between the need to take on new business as quickly as possible and the mandate to mitigate the firm's risk, ensuring that only the right business is undertaken. An entirely Web-based solution, New Business Intake system allows for multiple approval levels that correspond with the firm's business rules, creating a truly automated client intake process. The firm's attorneys will become billable faster by streamlining and automating the on-boarding of new clients and matters.

Hummingbird partner, Onward Technologies, a full-service IT solutions provider to law firms and enterprise professionals, recommended the Hummingbird solutions and will oversee the migration project converting the firm's current document management system to Hummingbird Enterprise.

“The fact that Hall Render has chosen to switch to Hummingbird Enterprise only solidifies our reputation for offering unrivalled solutions for the legal industry,” said Yuri Frayman, Vice President, Legal Business Solutions, Hummingbird Ltd. “With Hummingbird Enterprise for Legal, Hall Render will more effectively manage and track document-based information, execute quick and thorough conflicts searches, and automate the client intake process for faster approvals and increased protection, while addressing compliance and risk issues.”

Onward Technologies Expands Operations with New Lombard Office

October 2005

Onward Technologies, Inc. is proud to report that we have expanded operations with a new Lombard office.  The new office was established to manage the expansion of clients.  The new warehouse and sales center is located at 445 Eisenhower Lane South in Lombard, IL 60148. The phone number is (630) 231-9465.

“We are confident that our larger warehouse and expanded office space will contribute to the continued growth of our hardware sales division to serve our valued clients.” said Slava Ruderman, President of Onward Technologies.

Since 1985 Onward has provided its’ superior full-service IT solutions to law firms and enterprise professionals, aiming to help cut costs, increase productivity, and streamline existing processes.  Onward Technologies’ new Lombard office will support its’ mission to provide the best possible service and products at the best possible price.

Louisiana Law Firm Turns to Onward Technologies for Hurricane Katrina Recovery

September 2005

Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, LLC (Barrasso), a New Orleans litigation firm, called upon Onward Technologies (Onward), a Chicago based technology firm providing customized software and hardware solutions to law firms and enterprise professionals, to rebuild its computer network, that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Suffering from the loss of homes and personal belongings, the firm focused its efforts on resuming operation. Onward acted quickly to help recover the network of the New Orleans firm. “We are proud and honored to have a dedicated and professional staff capable of helping Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, LLC recover from the Katrina Disaster,” said Slava Ruderman, President of Onward Technologies.

Onward hosted Barrasso’s website while the firm awaited Internet installation. In addition to the remote work of Onward developers, two Onward Network Engineers traveled to Baton Rouge where they worked to install and configure servers and begin tape restore. Upon Onward’s engineers’ return, Onward extended their continuous remote technical support.

Onward Technologies partners with CaseLogistix to provide legal professionals technologically advanced software applications

October 2005

Onward Technologies, a provider of world-class software solutions and hardware services for legal and enterprise professionals, has teamed with litigation software provider CaseLogistix to provide law firms and attorneys with cutting-edge customizable software and consulting services.

The partnership between the two companies will allow Onward Technologies to add value to the CaseLogistix litigation application by providing existing IT infrastructure, support, and consulting services to end users. Onward Technologies aims to leverage its 20+ years of experience in providing IT services and support to law firms by aggressively integrating CaseLogistix litigation software into applications for the legal community. Finally, Onward Technologies’ experience with SQL will allow the company to offer an SQL-based litigation support application, which has previously been unavailable in the legal industry.

Onward Technologies offers:

• Decades of experience with SQL-based integration, as well as customized software applications
• Design, integration, optimization, and maintenance of new and existing IT environments
• Customized approach to training and consulting for customers within the legal industry
• Web-based intranet/extranet solutions with integrated practice management tools to promote collaboration among staff and clients
• A detailed understanding of the needs of law firms and attorneys, cultivated through 20+ years of comprehensive legal IT support

CaseLogistix offers:

• A categorized view of all issues, transcripts, pleadings, and evidence pertaining to a specific case or groups of cases
• The ability to access all case information—documents, spreadsheets, graphics, video, audio, and even X-rays—from one application
• A “Notes” feature that allows attorneys to create unlimited private (or shared) notes and information for future research of case evidence
• A Document Library that enables attorneys to neatly organize every element of individual cases
• The most powerful search feature in the industry, allowing attorneys to search by terms, synonyms, and even phonetic word pronunciations
• A “lawyer-friendly” interface based on an Outlook email format

Village of Skokie chooses Onward Technologies to help it make the move from legacy software to Hummingbird DM™

May 2005

Onward has supported the Village of Skokie's needs for various IT hardware and networking services over the years. The Village had been using a legacy version of Hummingbird DOCS Open and wanted to avail themselves of the performance capabilities and new features of the Hummingbird DM5 platform. "Our users wanted to be able to collaborate more effectively, manage documents more efficiently and enhance their productivity. We turned to the experts at Onward to deliver a better document management solution that protected and incorporated our existing data," said Iqbal Kalota, Village of Skokie acting MIS Director. Onward developed a multi-phased, systematic approach to hardware and software selection, layered software installation, existing data migration and IT staff administrative training. Post-project support will ensure the Village gets the maximum benefits from Hummingbird's document management solution and Onward's partnership.

Onward Technologies chosen to participate in Hummingbird Enterprise™ 2005 beta testing

April 2005

Hummingbird Enterprise™ 2005 client allows close integration of different departments and access to business content, organization and workflow from within Microsoft Outlook® via a Business Solutions Framework that incorporates business logic, vertical-specific taxonomies and role-based presentation rules. The Business Solutions Framework is exposed in virtually all of Microsoft’s integrated content-authoring applications. It supports searching of the local desktop, corporate knowledge repositories, and internal and external resources, all from within Outlook and other Hummingbird clients. Hummingbird Enterprise 2005 facilitates management of the enterprise content lifecycle, including the application of business logic rules and policies, for increased user productivity and reduced costs. Seamless integration with Hummingbird LegalKEY provides outstanding records, conflicts, new business intake and critical dates management capability. The Automation e-mail management module increases worker productivity by easing the burden of repetitive content management by automatically managing e-mail based on business rules.

“Unlike the traditional integrations available in the marketplace today, Hummingbird Enterprise Client for Microsoft Outlook allows organizations to manage the entire lifecycle of their business content, presenting all the content and business processes in a dynamic view tailored to the organization’s business and the user’s role,” said Barry Litwin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hummingbird Ltd. “User adoption is key to the success of every ECM deployment, and our new Client ensures virtually no additional training requirements for Microsoft Outlook users.”

Slava Ruderman, President of Onward Technologies, said, “We are excited and honored to test this important new release and to help Hummingbird deliver a great product. Gaining a thorough understanding of this product’s new features and functionality well in advance of its general release will enable us to provide our many Hummingbird Enterprise clients with even better support.”

Founded in 1984, Hummingbird is a leading global provider of enterprise content management (ECM) solutions with over 33,000 customers, including 90% of the FORTUNE 100.

Onward welcomes John Malkin, certified Hummingbird DM, SunOS System Administration, HP-UX System Administration and applications development professional, as new director of professional services.

March 2005

John brings to Onward 15 years of experience in the IT arena, including more than 12 years of experience as project manager, systems manager and application / database developer in the legal market for companies such as Baker Robbins and Altheimer & Gray. “John has managed countless successful integrations of Hummingbird document management systems, Elite practice management systems, Carpe Diem time-recording systems, Interwoven applications and numerous custom tracking systems applications in law firms around the world. This tremendous depth of experience will significantly enhance Onward’s capabilities to satisfy the increasing demand for these solutions,” said Matt Dell, Onward’s VP of Business Development. John leads team of specialists involved in flawless integration of commercial applications, as well as Onward’s own technology solutions that solve business problems.

Clausen Miller, PC. Awards Knowledge Management Initiative to Onward Technologies

October 2005

Clausen Miller, PC, ranked among the Top 275 largest law firms in the United States, serving both business and private clients, awarded a Knowledge Management Initiative to Onward Technologies, a leading provider of customized software and hardware solutions to law firms and enterprise professionals.

Onward’s kmSearch, a custom application designed to search multiple data repositories to retrieve relevant content, will provide the firm with a robust search tool to search against a proprietary conflicts database. “We are excited to have a powerful tool such as kmSearch for searching conflicts based on our client and matter information. Onward Technologies’ extensive knowledge of the legal industry should prove to yield positive results for the IT environment of Clausen Miller,” said Ray Matter, Clausen Miller’s Director of Information Systems.

Onward’s kmSearch, designed with an intuitive, professional looking user interface, will allow attorneys to efficiently search potential conflicts based on multiple search criteria. Client matter data, which is full-text index, is created and made available for searching via a custom kmSearch connector built for Clausen Miller. Attorneys will have the power to go beyond a simple keyword search and perform advanced search queries including fuzzy and natural language processing. Leveraging the existing IT infrastructure, kmSearch will enhance Clausen Miller’s efficiency and profitability by allowing attorneys to tap into the knowledge and data resources of the firm and quickly and accurately locate the matter conflict information that is relevant to their needs.

Onward sponsors Webinar and International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)’s meeting, hosted by Jenner & Block, to promote Web empowerment of law firms.

February 2005

The two-hour session will feature demonstrations of Onward Technologies’ products and solutions. Brent E. Kidwell, partner and Chief Knowledge Counsel, and David Pilling, IT Director, will discuss how Onward’s applications have empowered the firm to better manage its internal operations, streamline business processes and provide quick response to clients’ needs in a flexible and highly secure environment. For additional information, contact Matt Dell, VP of Business Development at Onward Technologies, at 312-795-9524 or mdell@onwardtek.com.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP chooses Onward Technologies to equip firm with new PCs.

February 2005

Eric Muniz, Network Operations Manager, was in charge of obtaining a large quantity of desktops and laptops for his firm’s many users. “We needed to make sure our image worked on any new equipment and Onward was there to consult and support the configuration of the new equipment,” said Muniz. Onward’s hardware specialists and sales staff took the challenge and immediately helped to identify the most appropriate new equipment that would accommodate the firm’s existing images. Muniz was quite satisfied and said, “They recommended the best configuration to meet our needs. They even loaned us a new PC so we could test the images for ourselves before we committed to buy. Onward went the extra mile. Their recommendations were spot-on.” Sonnenschein placed an order and took delivery within two business days for this large quantity of PCs. Onward’s VP of Business Development, Matt Dell, said, “This is what we do best: apply technology to eliminate IT and business problems for law firms.”

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, founded in 1906, is a Chicago-based law firm with 700 attorneys and other professionals in nine offices across the U.S.

Onward Technologies has partnered with DocsCorp to provide advanced PDF functionality and integration with Hummingbird DM and all other major business applications.

May 2006

Onward Technologies, a provider of world-class software solutions and hardware services for legal and enterprise professionals, has teamed with software provider DocsCorp to provide its clients seamless PDF functionality and integration with Hummingbird DM, Microsoft Office, and most other popular desktop applications.

This partnership allows Onward Technologies to offer a simple and cost effective alternative to the traditional pdf rendering products available in the marketplace today. Our clients' needs for their existing line of business applications and, particularly, the very popular Hummingbird Enterprises Solutions, will be significantly enhanced by the advanced PDF creation, editing and manipulation features made transparently available from within their current applications. Onward Technologies will leverage its 20+ years of experience in providing professional IT services and support by aggressively integrating DocsCorp software into desktop and Hummingbird DM implementations for legal and enterprise professional organizations.

Onward Technologies offers decades of experience with the design, implementation, and support of Hummingbird Enterprise Solutions in both client server and three-tiered (thin client) environments.

DocsCorp offers fully integrated and flexible tools designed to intuitively produce PDF documents and collections from any number of source applications, organize and manipulate these documents, and then save the final product independently or back into the Hummingbird document management repository.

Onward welcomes Jeanne Holwerda, Certified Hummingbird DM Professional, as Vice President of Professional Services.

May 2006

Jeanne brings to Onward her extensive management experience with the design, installation, integration, implementation, and troubleshooting of Hummingbird document management systems in both client server and three-tiered (thin client) environments. She is certified as a Hummingbird Administration Trainer, has extensive database administration skills using both Microsoft Access and, particularly, Microsoft SQL Server, including SQL installation, implementation and database maintenance.

Jeanne's experience includes 20 years of in-house legal technology experience, as well as nearly 10 years of document management consulting, most recently as Vice President of Client Services for Docman Technologies. Already well known in the Hummingbird legal vertical space, Jeanne also brings significant experience with assorted complimentary products, and is well positioned to lead Onward's growing document management team.

Onward Technologies’ software solutions help Jenner & Block’s Chief Knowledge Counsel earn Law Technology News’ second annual Champion of Technology award.

February 2005

Brent E. Kidwell, Jenner & Block partner and Chief Knowledge Counsel, received the award on January 31 from the legal profession’s leading technology publication. Kevin Vermeulen, the magazine’s publisher, said Kidwell’s selection was based on his “remarkable success in melding the expertise of technology professionals with lawyers’ practices to create a synergy that measurably enhanced client service.”

Kidwell leads the Firm’s technology program and implemented its robust Strategic Technology Plan, cornerstones of which are Onward Technologies’ portal solutions, kmSearch, and Onward Q&A survey and evaluation tool.”

Jenner & Block, founded in 1914, is a Chicago-based law firm with more than 400 attorneys and other professionals in Chicago, Dallas and Washington, DC.

Gould & Ratner LLP Chooses Onward for Hummingbird Support.

January 2007

The Chicago-based firm of Gould & Ratner recently opted to join Onward’s growing new family of Hummingbird support clients. As a certified Hummingbird integration partner, Onward offers Hummingbird customers an alternative to the traditional phone support offered by the software vendor itself. “Onward support gives us the advantage of forming a close partnership with the team providing our assistance,” explained Cheryl Hill, Gould’s IT Manager. “Recently we had an odd software issue that turned out to be a throwback to a much earlier version of the software. Onward was quickly able to provide the information necessary to resolve the problem.”

Onward’s DM Support Team becomes an extension of our clients’ in-house resources. Our team has over 20 years’ of document management and database experience, putting us in a unique position to work closely and seamlessly with our clients to maintain their system in optimal condition and address any and all issues before they can become real problems.

DM Support with Onward affords you not only access to our extraordinary support resources, but makes you part of a dynamic group of other Hummingbird users and administrators, each with their own unique ideas and experiences to share. Contact Onward today to see what we have to offer for all of your document management support needs.