Worldox® - "Giant Killer SQL-Optional" DMS
© World Software Corporation
By Tom Burke

January 2007: Version 3.0
March 2004: Version 2.1

Worldox is now “SQL-Optional”

In January 2007 World Software Corporation announced the availability of its new “wdSQL” Connector.  The wdSQL Connector is a separate add-on product for World Software Corp.  It is created when Worldox copies its current Central Search Profile Database, now managed by ISYS (Worldox’ search engine), to Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005.

This new wdSQL Connector is an optional addition to Worldox because its results can also be, and have been, achieved by our ever-expanding Worldox SDK (newly upgraded to version 2.75 in January, 2007).  wdSQL is also optional because Worldox has not changed its ISYS Search Profile Database.  Henceforth, Worldox will be known as a “SQL-Optional” DMS (Document Management System).

See our Worldox Connectors page for more information.

Some Larger law firms may believe or perceive that SQL is mandatory for the Central Search Database of a Legal DMS to scale to their size firm. We do not. What they may not know is that Worldox, without SQL," can be successfully installed in a Top 100 or "Large" Law Firm. For example, Worldox has been successfully installed at Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A. in Florida, which has 504 attorneys and 12 offices, which are all WAN connected. Akerman Senterfitt, with 504 Attorneys, is projected (2007) to be the 75th largest law firm in the USA as (to be) listed in the National Law Journal -
Nation’s 250 Largest Law firms based on the numbers of Attorneys.                                                          

Worldox is also successfully installed in 9 "Medium-Large" firms of from 150 up to 350 attorneys. (See combined list below).

As of January 2007

Worldox is also successfully installed in seventy (70) firms/organizations in the "Medium" range of 50 to 150 attorneys.

The issue of SQL, non-SQL, or "SQL-Optional" (as we now call it) is a huge issue as it can triple the price and complexity of a DMS; require much more in-house support; but most importantly, we have proven SQL is not needed for a Large (Firm) Legal DMS. We have not found any publication or article critically examining the need for SQL for a Legal DMS. But our installed base shows that if an organization decides SQL is not appropriate or necessary for their DMS needs, then there is only one real choice - Worldox. In fact, Worldox is the only one of the top 3 legal DMS's that does not need or use the extra baggage and overhead of SQL and the "third tier" technology offered by our competitors.

If you were to remove SQL and its “Third-Tier” prerequisites from the cost of an Interwoven or OpenText (Hummingbird, PC DOCS) proposal, their total costs would be reduced as follows:

• PC DOCS 51% to 68.5% reduction
• iManage 23.7% to 45.3% reduction
• See Attachment A for details

If you were to remove SQL from a law firm's DMS by switching to Worldox, suddenly you would find - (a) one (or more) of your top in-house support people has more time available to work on the many other software challenges you face, for example, upgrading to Windows or XP/Vista or Office 2003/7, etc.; or (b) paying an outside consultant to support a (SQL) DMS would be virtually eliminated. Compared to the challenges of managing SQL servers and systems, Worldox requires very little in-house support.

If you haven't thought there is an alternative, you now have one with "SQL-Optional" Worldox as your DMS. Regarding the subject of being "locked-in," our philosophy and practice at World Software is not to lock you in but to exist based on merit.

Also, we do not seek or require unnecessary software like SQL, Windows NT, and third-tier software nor extra hardware servers for all this high priced software to reside on. Our philosophy is the less software/hardware, the fewer things that can go wrong, and we've proven our way works and requires much less support. It's just commonsense. Worldox has a 99+% customer retention rate.

For over 19 years, our philosophy has been not to include or add any extra or superfluous software/hardware unless we believed it was needed to do the Legal DMS job.

Our software philosophy is also organic or natural. Whatever of the base software, e.g. Windows, file attributes, file name, Explorer, Path Tree, we can use, we do. Whatever of the philosophy and sequence of steps or software logic the base software vendor has established, we naturally adopt and build upon. For example, when you Open a document and make changes, Worldox makes these changes directly to the document on the network's file server - just as Windows has done successfully and safely for many years. Guess what? Other DMS systems do not do it that way. At least one of the "big 3" legal DMS systems is programmed to copy the file to the local "C" drive of the requestor's workstation and all changes are made to the file on the C drive. When you are done, the program then copies the file from the C drive and overwrites the file server copy. This method runs counter to what Microsoft has successfully established in Windows as a programming procedural standard and which the Worldox programming logic follows completely. In addition to the increased network traffic, it also results in the now infamous "lost edits" problem whereby changes made to a pre-saved document get lost due to something that occurs during the update process or when copying the document back from the C drive to the file server.

As a result of our philosophy and practice, we have kept the cost and support requirements of Worldox much lower than our competitors while Worldox's excellent performance and reputation has risen and become well known.

Also, unlike the large software vendors, we have not increased prices (nor do we intend to) except if and when we add significant functionality or performance, as stated in our Maintenance Agreement.

For all these reasons and more, it's no wonder that an informed IT Director of a large law firm in New York City referred to Worldox as the "GIANT KILLER."

The Myth of SQL Objections to Non-SQL Products like Worldox

1. Worldox's database is proprietary and you are locked in.

False. Worldox ships with standard utilities built in to extract the Worldox profile database to an ASCII file for export into other systems. Thus you are not locked in to Worldox if you merge or wish to switch. (Now (January 2007) with the introduction of wdSQL the issue of a Proprietary Profile database is invalid). Over the years, due to a merger, the following firms have converted from Worldox and the profile data was readily and successfully exported, without SQL support:

• Tuke, Yopp & Sweeney - Nashville - acquired by Dinsmore & Shohl
• Ballem MacInnes - Edmonton - acquired by Gowling Lafleur Henderson
• Cruickshank - Edmonton - acquired by Fraser Milner Casgrain

Also, Worldox has a sophisticated API (available from our web site at no charge) wherein you can also access the Worldox profile database.

2. Non-SQL data base products do not integrate with SQL data base products.

False. Today Worldox integrates with Time Matters, ProLaw, Amcius (version 5) and Law Base, all of which are SQL. For example, when Elite (SQL accounting program) creates new client and matter numbers and names, they can be copied to a report file (subdirectory). Worldox monitors this subdirectory's activity and when new names and numbers are found therein Worldox automatically moves them and adds them to the Worldox Client and Matter databases. Once again, SQL is not needed for Worldox to integrate and communicate with other databases, including SQL databases.

Also with wdSQL users can access their Worldox database via SQL if they chose to do so.

3. We already have in-house support for another SQL product(s), so adding or having one more SQL application is not that big a deal.

While SQL may be great for accounting and case management systems, it is not for a DMS. There are no economies of scale when adding a third SQL system.

4. SQL is the "standard" that most law firms use. (Not anymore - Circa 2004)

It was true that PC DOCS, the SQL legal DMS initiator, was installed in more law firms than either Worldox or iManage and was considered to be "the standard." However, that is no longer correct as follows:

Worldox MARKET SHARE - Worldox has surpassed its two major competitors in market share.

• Worldox/World Software............2900 law and professional service firms
• Hummingbird/PC Docs......................"more than 1000 firms globally"
• Interwoven/iManage........................."over 1500 organizations"

Standards change, and that change has taken place now as more firms discover that there is no significant advantage to the triple cost of SQL DMS.

World Software Corporation Closing Comments

Isn’t it time you stopped to consider, or reconsider, why you have a SQL DMS in the first place? Perhaps you didn’t know of Worldox when you made your decision, or you thought it was only for the small firm, or your consultant or integrator told you it wouldn’t work in your size firm. All these reasons or explanations not longer apply.

"The Truth Is Out There"

The truth for legal DMS users is: You do not need SQL for a successful Legal DMS installation. World Software has over 2900 law and professional service firms. Currently, we are adding over 225 new law firms and legal customers per year. Worldox, unlike the competition, is primarily committed to the legal industry, and these results prove our unique focus strategy is working.

See Attachment A-1

Attachment A
Cost Comparison of the 3 Leading Legal DMS Vendors *
260 Licenses Each **
(May 2001)

Recap:  Costs & SQL Component Costs

Recap of Total Costs Over 5 Years (add 4 years maintenance and extra support person ***** to above Costs)

Notes

* World Software Corporation does not have direct access to pricing information of our competitors. This pricing information was provided to us by one of our customers from a comparison they conducted which resulted in their selection of Worldox. The information is used with their permission.

** Worldox is priced based on concurrent user usage. The customer in this comparison chose not to consider the concurrent usage pricing model. At another large Worldox customer, they chose to take advantage of this pricing model and thus reduced the number of copies of Worldox required by 15%. The concurrent pricing model could result in additional savings with Worldox as our competitors charge "per seat."

*** This proposal is for iManage's old, now obsoleted, product line. The new product line named "Worksite" we, as of yet, do not have prices for, but they are reported to be higher than the costs for the older system shown herein.

**** iManage has found a way to eliminate the SQL Client per PC charge incurred by PC DOCS above. However, Microsoft in its new (10/2001) SQL pricing policy will require a client charge. This could add an additional $35,100 to iManage's price based on the PC DOCS prices above. Thus, iManage's SQL costs could increase and become 31% of total costs.

***** According to this customer, "considerable MIS and/or NT training will be incurred in order to run and maintain the SQL servers. (It) Probably will require at least one/half person/per day to maintain." World Software estimates the annual salary of this person is $80,000/yr, hence we used $40,000/yr to support a SQL product or $200,000 over 5 years.

Attachment A1

Detail of Cost Comparison of the 3 Leading Legal DMS Vendors
260 Licenses Each
(May 2001)

• World/Worldox (Total Initial cost) = $ 111,000

World Software Corporation does not have direct access to pricing information of our competitors. This pricing information was provided to us by one of our customers from a comparison they conducted which resulted in their selection of Worldox. The information is used with their permission.

• Competitor #1 (PC DOCS)

• Competitor #2 (iManage) *

* This proposal is for iManage's old, now obsoleted, product line. The new product line named "Worksite" we, as of yet, do not have prices for, but they are reported to be higher than the costs for the older system shown herein.

** iManage has found a way to eliminate the SQL Client per PC charge incurred by PC DOCS above. However, Microsoft in its new (10/2001) SQL pricing policy will require a client charge. This could add an additional $35,100 to iManage's price based on the PC DOCS prices above. Thus, iManage's SQL costs could increase and become 31% of total costs.

Note: We have rounded some of the percentage calculations above for presentation purposes.

If you have any questions about the information presented in this paper, or would like more information, please contact World Software Corporation via electronic mail at Worldox@worldox.com. This paper is available at the official Worldox web site at www.worldox.com.

World Software Corporation
124 Prospect St.
Ridgewood, NJ USA 07450
800-962-6360
www.worldox.com