Microsoft Office 2010 and related products such as SharePoint 2010 have been redesigned and engineered to deliver enhanced communication and collaboration capabilities, accessible from any location, and across multiple devices.

ION Resources is uniquely qualified to assist law firms with an Office 2010 deployment. Microsoft Word and other Office programs are rarely installed “out of the box” in a law firm, so considering a migration to Office 2010 requires careful planning and assessment of the business needs of the firm and it’s users, including selecting the right technologies, customizing applications for the legal environment, and end-user training requirements.

Our extensive background in workflow analysis, legal software tools, and end-user training enables ION to craft a solution that improves and enhances worker efficiency and productivity so that our clients achieve the highest return on their investment.

For a law firm to take full advantage of Word’s most powerful and valuable features, many customizations should be made prior to deployment. Three areas requiring customization are:

Office Customization Tool: The Office Customization Tool (OCT) allows a customized and standardized Office installation throughout your organization. Using the OCT, you can configure numerous settings, ranging from tasks to be performed during the installation process to settings that will hide features and strengthen security.

Styles: Styles are the backbone of Word; however, out of the box Word's styles do not contain the formatting used by law firms. For example, in Word 2010 the default Body Text First Indent style uses the font Calibri 11 points, is indented at .25” and has line spacing of 1.15. Word’s default styles must be customized to reflect the default formatting of the firm, including font style and size, paragraph alignment, etc.

Quick Access Toolbar: By default, the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is displayed above the ribbon and the only features it contains are Save, Undo and Redo. Prior to deployment, the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) should be customized to contain the features most often accessed by a firm’s users and also to be displayed below the ribbon.