Schedule a Demo
All Blog

BLOG

eDOCS Joins NetDocuments: What Legal Professionals Need to Know About the Future of Their Document Management System

eDOCS acquisition blog header

NetDocuments has completed its acquisition of the eDOCS solution from OpenText, including the full product portfolio and the dedicated eDOCS team. For eDOCS customers and partners, this change brings stability today and opportunity tomorrow — with the backing of a company focused on helping legal professionals do their best work.

Most importantly, nothing changes about your current eDOCS system.

There is no planned end of life for eDOCS, and NetDocuments will continue to support the on-premises platform for years to come. Your logins, workflows, infrastructure, and daily operations remain exactly as they are today.

eDOCS customers will now be supported by a partner deeply committed to legal technology, service excellence, and long-term innovation. By bringing together eDOCS’s trusted team, longstanding customer relationships, and strong partner network with NetDocuments’ cloud and AI leadership, customers gain more choice, more support, and more possibilities — all at their own pace.

What Is eDOCS?

eDOCS is a long-established, on-premises enterprise content management system used by law firms, corporate legal departments, and government entities that require complete control over where and how documents are stored.

Known historically as OpenText eDOCS DM and, before that, Hummingbird DM, eDOCS provides:

  • Matter-centric organization
  • Metadata-driven search
  • On-premises document storage
  • Integrations through modules like eDOCS InfoCenter, Microsoft Office, email filing, and records management tools

Customers can continue using their existing eDOCS login, portal, and workflows exactly as they always have. NetDocuments supports eDOCS as a stable, secure solution.

eDOCS vs. NetDocuments: Key Differences

As eDOCS customers look at upgrading to the cloud at their own pace, here are some key differences they are seeing (on top of core cloud differences).  

Deployment & Maintenance

  • eDOCS: On-premises; customer-managed servers and upgrades.
  • NetDocuments: Cloud-native SaaS with zero customer maintenance and automatic updates.

Search & AI

  • eDOCS: Traditional metadata search.
  • NetDocuments: AI profiling, automated metadata enrichment, and robust search, including semantic search that understands meaning and intent.

Security & Compliance

  • eDOCS: Strong but requires customer oversight.
  • NetDocuments: SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and FedRAMP compliance built in and continuously updated.

Integrations

  • eDOCS: Limited modern integration framework.
  • NetDocuments: Deep Microsoft 365 integrations and native connections with leading AI partners like Harvey, Legora, Thomson Reuters, and Vincent by Clio.

Innovation Cadence

  • eDOCS: Stable solution with minimal recent enhancements.
  • NetDocuments: Continuous innovation across AI, search, workflow automation, and collaboration.

eDOCS & NetDocuments Comparison Chart

CategoryeDOCS (On-Premises)NetDocuments (Cloud-Native)
HostingOn-premises or hostedFully cloud-native SaaS
UpgradesCustomer-managedAutomatic, continuous
SearchMetadata-basedMetadata + AI profiling + semantic search
AI ToolsMinimalQ&A, summarization, drafting, and more
IntegrationsLimitedMicrosoft 365 + legal AI ecosystem
SecurityStaticContinuously updated certifications
AccessRestricted mobile/webFull-featured on any device
Long-Term CostHigherLower total cost of ownership

The Hidden Costs of On-Premises Legal Tech

  1. Productivity Loss: Slow search and manual processes reduce both billable and non-billable efficiency.
  2. Higher Security & Compliance Risk: Older systems were not built for modern cyber threats or evolving regulations.
  3. Increased IT Burden: Server maintenance, patching, and backups require substantial resources.
  4. Innovation Barriers: Legacy platforms limit access to AI, automation, cloud collaboration, and mobile work.

Why eDOCS Customers Have Already Been Switching to NetDocuments

Thousands of legal professionals have already switched from eDOCS to NetDocuments as part of their modernization initiatives. Here are the top pain points shared by former eDOCS customers and how NetDocuments addresses them.

Pain Point: Heavy IT Burden & Operational Overhead

Many customers report that running eDOCS on-prem requires significant internal IT resources, including servers, patching, upgrades, backups, and specialized expertise. Over time, this becomes costly and hard to sustain.

How NetDocuments Helps

NetDocuments eliminates server management, patching, upgrades, and backups through a fully managed cloud platform, reducing IT effort while maintaining enterprise-grade security and reliability.

Pain Point: Aging User Experience & Productivity Friction

While eDOCS is trusted for stability, customers frequently describe the user experience and everyday workflows as dated, with extra steps required for filing, searching, and collaboration.

How NetDocuments Helps

NetDocuments delivers a modern, intuitive user experience with streamlined filing, collaboration, and Microsoft 365 integration that reduces clicks and helps legal teams work more efficiently.

Pain Point: Search Limitations & Findability Issues

Customers often note that search relies heavily on metadata and exact inputs, making it harder to quickly find information — especially across large or long-lived repositories.

How NetDocuments Helps

NetDocuments enhances findability with AI-driven profiling, metadata enrichment, and semantic search that retrieves documents by meaning, not just exact metadata matches.

Pain Point: Customization Lock-In

eDOCS customers — particularly in government and regulated industries — have deep custom workflows and integrations. While powerful, these customizations increase long-term complexity and make change feel risky.

NetDocuments Solve

NetDocuments supports configurable, standards-based workflows and integrations that meet complex regulatory needs without locking customers into fragile, hard-to-maintain custom code.

Pain Point: Limited Innovation & AI Readiness

Customers consistently point out that eDOCS was not designed for modern AI-driven workflows. Adding new capabilities often requires bolt-ons or separate tools.

How NetDocuments Helps

NetDocuments embeds AI directly into the document lifecycle — enabling search, summarization, Q&A, and workflow automation — without requiring separate tools or bolt-on platforms.

Pain Point: Rising Total Cost of Ownership Over Time

Although license costs may feel “sunk,” customers report ongoing maintenance fees, infrastructure costs, and professional services that quietly increase the total cost year after year.

How NetDocuments Helps

NetDocuments reduces long-term costs by replacing infrastructure, maintenance, and professional services with a predictable subscription model that includes continuous updates and innovation.

Your Pace, Your Path

When customers choose to modernize, NetDocuments provides a streamlined, upgrade path designed specifically for eDOCS environments.

Best-Practice Migration Playbooks

NetDocuments offers a proven path for successful upgrades, further enabled by owning and supporting both platforms. This strategic combination allows upgrades to be accelerated with purpose-built migration tools, preserving institutional knowledge and established processes, and delivering a streamlined upgrade experience when customers are ready.

A Clear, Guided Path

A phased approach tailored to each organization’s infrastructure and goals.

Immediate Value

Upgrading enables:

  • AI-driven profiling
  • Search toolbox with Semantic search in 2026
  • Collaboration in Microsoft 365
  • Workflow automation
  • Enhanced mobile and remote access
  • Reduced IT load

Stay Informed

FAQs

Has NetDocuments officially acquired eDOCS?

Yes. On January 12, 2026, NetDocuments completed its acquisition of OpenText’s legal document management solution, eDOCS. As part of the transaction, NetDocuments acquired the eDOCS product and dedicated personnel associated with eDOCS. NetDocuments eDOCS is now a solution in the NetDocuments portfolio.

What does this mean for eDOCS customers? 

It is primarily business as usual — same product, same team, and same service — now backed by more resources and a company 100% focused on legal professionals and legal document management. 

NetDocuments has no plans to end-of-life the eDOCS solution. Current eDOCS customers will not be required to transition off their current solution until they are ready. NetDocuments will continue supporting the on-premises eDOCS platform, and expects to for years to come, while offering a high-value upgrade path to the NetDocuments intelligent DMS when customers choose to modernize.  

What’s next for eDOCS partners?

eDOCS partners will receive an invitation to a welcome town hall on January 21 that is a joint partner briefing outlining timelines, onboarding, and new benefits available through the unified NetDocuments Partner Program. They will also receive outreach and ongoing engagement from our collective channel focused resources.

How do eDOCS customers contact Support?

eDOCS customers should continue to access the OpenText support site at https://www.opentext.com/support/opentext-enterprise. 

Support will transition from OpenText systems to NetDocuments in the second half of 2026, at which point eDOCS customers will contact NetDocuments directly. This will be communicated fully ahead of this change to make it seamless for customers and partners. 

Is eDOCS going to continue to be developed?

There are no announced changes to the existing eDOCS product roadmap. The platform will be maintained and updated to ensure promote solution continuity and stability for years to come. 

Is eDOCS going to move to the cloud?

No. eDOCS is an on-premises solution and will remain that way. Customers who want a cloud or AI-enabled solution can choose to upgrade to NetDocuments through a purpose-built upgrade path. 

What options are available if eDOCS customers want to modernize?

For organizations ready to modernize now or in the future, NetDocuments offers a proven path for successful upgrades, further enabled by owning and supporting both platforms. This strategic combination allows upgrades to be accelerated with purpose-built migration tools, preserving institutional knowledge and established processes, and delivering a streamlined upgrade experience when customers are ready. 

Why This Acquisition Matters

This acquisition prioritizes what legal professionals value most: choice, stability, and innovation when they’re ready for it.

eDOCS continues as a supported on-premises platform, while customers gain access to the NetDocuments ecosystem whenever they choose to modernize.

By uniting eDOCS’s trusted team with NetDocuments cloud and AI leadership, customers benefit from:

  • Stability and continuity today
  • New opportunities and expanded capabilities tomorrow
  • A partner fully committed to legal technology and customer success

Next Steps for eDOCS Customers

Whether you continue on eDOCS or begin exploring modernization, NetDocuments is here to support you.

Visit the eDOCS Welcome Site

Share

Level up with these blogs