Strategic Acquisition Expands NetDocuments’ Secure Cloud Platform Capabilities in Collaboration and Project Management.FAQ

NetDocuments, the leading secure cloud-based document management, email management and collaboration software platform for law firms and corporate legal and compliance departments, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Clearlake”), today announced that it has acquired ThreadKM, a leading provider of collaboration technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

NetDocuments’ cloud-first, cloud-only content management platform delivers secure, matter-based governance through industry leading encryption and compliance functionality.  ThreadKM, winner of the 2016 ILTA Innovative Solution Provider of the Year, delivers intelligent, matter-based collaboration and agile project management.  The combination will deepen the existing technology partnership and rich integration, to deliver a collaborative and dynamic environment to support the modern knowledge worker.

“We are thrilled to see the ThreadKM team and technology combine with NetDocuments as we continue to disrupt the legal and compliance market, displacing traditional technologies with modern, innovative productivity solutions built on the secure NetDocuments global cloud platform,” said Matt Duncan, CEO of NetDocuments. “Today it is not enough for a matter workspace to exclusively contain documents and emails. Workspaces need to be brought to life with real-time conversations and simplified project management, which expands NetDocuments commitment to invisible technology adoption.”

"Communication and content creation are the core day-to-day tasks of the modern knowledge worker," said Dan Hauck, founder and CEO of ThreadKM. "By combining with NetDocuments, we introduce a new document collaboration experience to power the next generation of professionals. NetDocuments' multi-tenant, cloud-first approach accelerates our ability to deliver on the promise of ThreadKM and transform workflow for law firms and corporations globally.”

“The acquisition follows Clearlake’s platform growth investment in NetDocuments. We continue to expand our value and solutions through strategic technology acquisitions that extend our secure cloud platform,” added Josh Baxter, President and COO of NetDocuments. “This acquisition is an early example of our goal to accelerate innovation in the legal industry with cloud solutions and improve productivity for our customers."

The ThreadKM development team will join NetDocuments, led by Dan Hauck, who will become VP of User Experience at NetDocuments. NetDocuments will continue to support the existing ThreadKM customers.  For more details about the combined company, please visit https://discover.netdocuments.com/threadkm/. NetDocuments is hosting an ILTA webinar on December 7th at 12PM ET, focused on the integrated solution.

About NetDocuments

NetDocuments is the leader in secure cloud-based document management, email management and collaboration software solutions. Founded in 1999 with over 2,000 enterprise customers worldwide, NetDocuments is the trusted cloud-based content management and workflow platform for lawyers and knowledge workers, complete with built-in security, compliance, information governance, disaster recovery, matter centricity, enterprise search, mobility, records management, and collaboration. More information is available at www.netdocuments.com.

About Clearlake

Clearlake is a leading private investment firm founded in 2006. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.® The firm’s core target sectors are software and technology-enabled services; industrials and energy; and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $3.5 billion of assets under management, and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 100 investments. More information is available at www.clearlake.com.

About ThreadKM

ThreadKM was founded to help legal teams and knowledge workers who are overwhelmed with email. Our goal is to streamline communication, simplify tasks and deliver productivity solutions in the contexts of a matter or project. We wanted to help make these tasks easier to manage by providing tools fit for the purpose, so users could focus on delivering the best possible results to clients.

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FAQ

Which primary customer benefits does the new combination provide?

The NetDocuments-ThreadKM partnership already provides rich integration whereby users can attach NetDocuments items to a thread or initiate new threads around a NetDocuments workspace. Moving forward, NetDocuments will treat threads, document annotations and tasks with the same security, encryption and control used to protect NetDocuments files. Most notably, the integration will enable:

1. Integrated, real-time, intelligent conversations and task management directly inside NetDocuments workspaces.
2. On-the-go access from mobile applications to documents and real-time conversations for just-in-time matter collaboration.
3. Immediate access to ’Threadbot’, a conversational assistant that can respond with important information and documents based on user-defined keywords and phrases.
4. Document commenting and paragraph-level inline discussions, enabling legal teams to focus on key issues quickly and globally against any NetDocuments object.
5. Secure management of any discussion through the existing NetDocuments cloud platform.
6. Automated processing of threads using NetDocuments’ Intelligence Fabric, where people’s names, companies, dates, financial amounts, products, titles, and email addresses will all be extracted using advanced machine learning technology, just as with documents and email.
7. Threads, projects, and tasks can be secured by dual-custody keys for entropic cryptography, stored automatically in geo-aware storage according to matters for GDPR compliance, and fully searchable by NetDocuments’ search platform.

Who is ThreadKM?

ThreadKM is the cloud-based, real-time legal collaboration platform that allows law firm users to securely and effortlessly work together.

Who currently uses ThreadKM?

ThreadKM is used by law firms and corporate legal departments to enable matter-based conversations and agile project management across teams and practice areas.

What will happen to existing ThreadKM customers and integrations?

NetDocuments will provide support to current ThreadKM customers and integrations.

Can firms and corporate legal departments continue to purchase ThreadKM as a standalone product?

Not at this time. ThreadKM will be available as a module to new or existing NetDocuments customers by the end of Q1 2018.

What does this mean to the NetDocuments global partner community?

As an add-on solution to NetDocuments, the ThreadKM technology will be included in the products and offerings currently sold, implemented, supported, and integrated through NetDocuments global partner ecosystem.

What is happening with ThreadKM employees?

The entire ThreadKM development team will join NetDocuments to expand the NetDocuments portfolio. Dan Hauck, ThreadKM founder and CEO, will assume the role of VP of User Experience at NetDocuments. ThreadKM’s office and team will remain in Atlanta, GA.

What does it mean to the legal technology market?

Secure and intelligent conversations, discussion threading and projects and tasks will be incorporated at the matter workspace level, reducing the amount of email and integrating conversations into the NetDocuments search engine.

What will NetDocuments do with the technology?

ThreadKM capabilities and roadmap will continue to provide the same great collaboration while being migrated into NetDocuments' secure cloud platform, leveraging the same security, encryption, and compliance measures NetDocuments has deployed across its global data center infrastructure. The technology will play a key role in NetDocuments' collaboration offering.

How will the acquisition benefit ThreadKM customers?

ThreadKM customers will benefit from NetDocuments best-in-class security and compliance infrastructure, product roadmap, R&D expertise, and innovation delivery through quarterly product releases.  

What does this announcement mean for NetDocuments customers that don’t currently use ThreadKM?

As an add-on technology to NetDocuments’ platform, current NetDocuments customers will be able to incorporate intelligent conversations and task workflow management in the context of the NetDocuments repository, maintaining matter-relevant content and ongoing matter collaboration at the workspace level. Schedule a private demo with one of our team members to learn how ThreadKM’s intelligent conversations and task management will improve your practice and team collaboration.

How do NetDocuments customers purchase ThreadKM or get access to services such as support or training?

NetDocuments will offer ThreadKM technology as an add-on service to the NetDocuments platform in Q1 of 2018. Live product demonstrations are available now.

When can I order the combined NetDocuments and ThreadKM solutions?

NetDocuments will begin selling ThreadKM as an add-on service to NetDocuments in Q1 of 2018.

Who do I contact for additional questions regarding this transaction?

Visit https://discover.netdocuments.com/threadkm/ to receive periodic product information and to request admittance to the beta and development pool.

Who is the primary target audience for the combined NetDocuments and ThreadKM solution?

New and existing NetDocuments and ThreadKM customers.

By adding ThreadKM to the NetDocuments product mix, will customers still be able to enjoy the ‘one-to-many’ quarterly upgrades with the inclusion of ThreadKM?

Yes, NetDocuments will incorporate the ThreadKM technology and software development into NetDocuments' agile development schedule.

How is ThreadKM’s technology architecture different or the same compared to NetDocuments’ native cloud solution?

ThreadKM’s backend infrastructure will be transitioned into NetDocuments' global datacenters, leveraging our technology stack and security and compliance infrastructure.

If adding ThreadKM to their ND solution, will firms need to rely on additional support and training resources beyond what they currently receive from NetDocuments?

ThreadKM technology will be supported by NetDocuments global support department, knowledge base, help guides, video tutorials, as well as NetDocuments certified partners.

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