Mobile Helix, a legal technology solutions provider, used market-leading document comparison technology to meet user expectations for in-app comparison. Since integrating compareDocs SDK through a native .NET API, comparisons in the LINK App for Lawyers are faster and more accurate than ever.
The Business Need
- Provide end-to-end workflows within the protected container of the encrypted LINK App
- Improve the accuracy of in-app document comparison with new technology
- Provide comparison on the server-side, rather than in the cloud
- Partner with a leader in the legal technology industry
About Mobile Helix
Mobile Helix develops software solutions that empower lawyers to work more productively when working on smartphones and tablets. The company is the maker of LINK, a secure mobile app for lawyers that connects them with their documents and emails from smartphones and tablets. Mobile Helix solutions are designed with high levels of security to give users from regulated industries peace of mind.
Why Mobile Helix needed a document comparison SDK
The LINK App’s ethos is to provide end-to-end workflows for lawyers and legal professionals within the protected container of the app. This means users can complete their business-critical work safely without leaving LINK. Maureen Blando, President, and COO of Mobile Helix, the company behind LINK, said document comparison had been one of the most important features for users from day one. “Lawyers are very dependent on accurate comparison, and we were using technology that’s similar to the Microsoft Word comparison functionality. But that did not meet their high standards.” The main reason? Users could not consider the results an accurate comparison since the technology wasn’t reliable. “Small but critical changes were not correctly represented in the comparison report. If you’re going to offer comparison it must be high quality or lawyers won’t trust it or use it. So, some law firms began asking for more accuracy.”
Maureen described how Mobile Helix began to look for a solution – one that would give LINK users the confidence that comes with seeing every change. “We knew of DocsCorp’s reputation amongst law firms, and through our participation at ILTACON, ” (ILTACON is the largest event in the legal technology calendar. DocsCorp is a Premium Sponsor.) The Mobile Helix team began to evaluate compareDocs SDK, the software developer kit from DocsCorp that enables developers to incorporate the market-leading comparison functionality into software applications or services through a native .NET API.
Maureen explained that while deciding if the solution would be the right fit, the company did their own detailed assessment of the compareDocs SDK. “We evaluated the compareDocs SDK from publicly available information, and we spoke with law firms that were already using comparison products.” Mobile Helix’s requirements for the SDK were: it had to be easy for their in-house senior developer to work with and use; produce a highly accurate comparison report; the API provides summary information to create a custom summary sheet (“a very good way for lawyers to see the major changes at a glance”), and that the architecture of the application aligns with the architecture of the LINK App.
Finding the right fit: An SDK with server-based integration
The LINK approach is, according to Maureen, “to do everything on servers behind the firm’s firewall. ” In practice, this works by providing “a feature like document comparison without using the cloud since most law firms are not yet comfortable working in that space. When looking for an SDK, we knew we needed to be able to provide server-side comparison – not in the cloud. ” Maureen said a server-side approach is one less barrier to firms using the LINK App, so this was a big plus for compareDocs SDK. Instead of documents being processed in the cloud, comparison functionality is coded into the LINK App through the compareDocs SDK native .NET API, so it didn’t “create any ripples in what LINK does. Since our solution is already deployed on virtual machines behind the firm firewall, it is consistent with our ethos.”
Integrating the compareDocs SDK within the LINK App
Mobile Helix wanted to trial compareDocs SDK to ensure it was suitable. Maureen explained: “our development team reviewed the compareDocs SDK. They were confident from what they saw that the integration would go well. ” Their senior developer began work on the integration, which was done in-house. “It was a one-person job and took no more than a day of work. ” For the next few weeks, Mobile Helix evaluated how the compareDocs SDK performed for LINK users.
The trial was ultimately successful. Maureen lists the reasons why: “the SDK is simple and clean; the quality of the comparison is very good, and the summary information we use to generate our own reports is very easy to access and understand. That is all one could ask for in an SDK.”
Summary
Mobile Helix integrated the compareDocs SDK with its LINK App for Lawyers. “We wanted to align with a leader in the industry, and we needed to be able to provide server-side comparison. We have achieved both by partnering with DocsCorp and using their compareDocs SDK, ” said Maureen. For other app developers considering an SDK solution for document comparison, Maureen recommends compareDocs SDK. “Integrating with DocsCorp is easy. The SDK works as advertised and it took no more than a few lines of code to get a comparison working. The comparisons are of high quality, and the SDK is fast. We would highly recommend it.”