Google Backup and Sync (discontinued) vs. iManage Work

Google [Backup and Sync] is great if you want a nice free solution to sharing files where multiple people need to be in them at the same time. Everyone needs a free google account and they can have access and share file easily. If you need something that integrates well with the windows file explorer or a mac computer though, this solution isn't the best one out there because it works best through the web interface.

Incentivized

Legal team using this product helps the team to better access documents securely within their email app (Outlook) and the user experience to control the document is excellent and being able to make it private and isolate confidential documents during a court session is very important and iManage has met our requirements. Also, being able to access instantly from users' workstation/laptop devices is very important and iManage plugin for outlook has satisfied our Business requirements.

Incentivized

• file version is very good to recover if we did wrong thing in that file
• can restore file back if we empty from trash
• smart sync for offline file use in case no internet
• work cross platform mobile, Android, web, tablet, PC easy to share and manage permission

Incentivized

• The full text searching feature, once implemented properly, is incredibly powerful.
• Integrates seamlessly with Outlook to reduce the number of pieces of software you need turning at any given time.
• Filing is relatively quick most of the time.

Incentivized

• A lot of people getting confused by how the app opens. If the app is open, it will give a little icon on Mac on the toolbar so they think it's not working.
• It can be a bit better UI.
• Search option can be stronger.

Incentivized

• Complicated setup. On initial installation it is cumbersome to configure on each workstation just to connect to service.
• Does not enforce structure. Once setting up structure, users can save outside of iManage Work and make their own files and folders under pre-configured system.
• Outlook is a finicky software, access to iManage Work depends on Outlook, nothing against iManage Work, but it sometimes has issues caused by the application it relies on.

Incentivized

It requires little to no user intervention to get it working properly

Incentivized

Google support is usually pretty good, never had an issue that required direct communication or support from Google.

Incentivized

We had an issue a few years ago where a plug-in of some sort which allowed the viewing of PDFs got updated and then whenever some people previewed PDFs in iManage then Outlook would crash. My outlook crashed over 20 times in a single day once. It was a pretty bad time. I know one of our information technology professionals in another office worked non-stop with iManage to get it resolved, and it seemed like they did take the issue pretty seriously.

Incentivized

Since the [Google Backup and Sync] works with google/gmail accounts, and most people have a google account already it made it an easy solution to setup and link with most users. The other solutions would have required setting up new accounts for most employees to get them started, so it saved us that hassle.

Incentivized

I have viewed several other document management system software, but iManage was already installed at my company before I started working here. For us, I think this is the right solution. Companies with a smaller number of employees or smaller document collections could find some other options that might suite their needs and budget better. We definitely want an on premises solution that provides all the security, tracking, searching, and integration issues iManage offers. Many of the other solutions have adopted cloud technologies only at this point and we are not ready to consider cloud storage due for our sensitive documents at this point.

Incentivized

• Google Backup and Sync is not expensive for businesses
• Google Backup and Sync has good data leak prevention inside already

Incentivized

• A bit pricey but worth it once you know how to use it. It makes any document sharing easy and seamless which is priceless.

Incentivized