“The Traditional DMS Will Disappear – the Future Is AI-Driven”

28
Aug
2025

Rob Ameerun

Epona’s CEO Marcel Lang reflects on the company’s growth under Main Capital and argues that the traditional DMS is on its way out. In this interview, he outlines how Epona positions itself as a true challenger to iManage and NetDocuments, why Microsoft 365 and AI are set to transform the legal DMS landscape, and what firms risk by holding on to legacy systems. For Lang, the future of document management is not about storing files — it’s about intelligently connecting information across the tools lawyers already use every day.

Main Capital took a majority stake in Epona at the end of 2023. How has that partnership influenced the company so far?

“Main Capital’s investment has been very positive for Epona. We became a platform company for the Main group, which means we now pursue a buy-and-build strategy – looking for add-ons that make sense and strengthen the Epona offering.”

“Main Capital has been a great partner. They provide strategic guidance through their Performance Excellence team, supporting us with go-to-market strategies, sales opportunities, and partnerships. Importantly, they do not interfere with day-to-day operations, which allows us to stay agile and responsive to client needs.”

Document management remains your core business. With iManage and NetDocuments dominating the market, and other vendors building on SharePoint, where does Epona fit in?

“Let’s be very clear: we are the third global player in legal DMS. We have more than a thousand clients worldwide, including corporate legal departments and law firms of all sizes, and the market recognises us as such.”

“Yes, other companies offer SharePoint-based solutions. Take Intapp, for example. They do have a DMS built on SharePoint, but it is not really comparable to what we deliver. Why? Because it lacks the deep integrations that a legal DMS requires. A proper DMS cannot just be a document repository — it needs to connect seamlessly with Outlook, Litera, Adobe, transaction platforms, and other tools lawyers use every day. That is where Epona differentiates itself.”

“Functionally, we are on par with iManage and NetDocuments. But our architecture — being fully native to Microsoft 365 — puts us in a completely different league. And with AI moving at the speed it does, that Microsoft foundation is exactly where you want to be.”

Many firms already use Microsoft 365. How does Epona leverage this to gain an edge?

“That’s the point. Every law firm already lives in Microsoft 365. They use Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Outlook every day. Traditional DMS vendors always had to build workarounds to manage email and metadata in separate databases. Microsoft made it very hard to integrate that properly. That’s why we developed Epona365 — to bring full-blown, legal-grade DMS and email management inside the Microsoft ecosystem.”

“So instead of having two worlds — Microsoft for collaboration and a legacy DMS for compliance — we unify them. Firms that move their entire environment to the Microsoft cloud for security, compliance, and now AI, suddenly realise: Why are we still paying for a legacy DMS that duplicates what Microsoft already provides?”

Microsoft rolls out new features at a rapid pace. How do you keep pace?

“We don’t just keep pace — we often lead. Take co-authoring, for example. When Microsoft made it possible for multiple people to work on the same document simultaneously, we immediately supported it. iManage and NetDocuments only caught up years later.”

“Or look at conditional access policies — we supported them out of the box, while others were still struggling with on-premises authentication models.”

“Now with Copilot, the same story. Because we are native to Microsoft 365, we could integrate right away. Every time Microsoft moves forward, it creates new opportunities for us. For traditional vendors, every Microsoft innovation is a problem they need to patch. For us, it’s a feature we can embrace instantly.”

What are the main hurdles when firms migrate from legacy DMS to Epona365?

“Honestly, the technology is not the hurdle. Filing an email in Epona365 works the same way it does in NetDocuments or iManage. The big challenge is change management.”

“A DMS touches everyone in the firm. Partners, associates, assistants, finance — every single person works with documents and email. So change management is about communication and training, training, training. Compare that to AI tools: you might roll those out to a specific group of M&A lawyers. With a DMS, you change the workflow of the entire organisation. That requires a different level of leadership commitment.”

Data residency and sovereignty are significant concerns in the European Union. How does a Microsoft-based DMS address that?

“Microsoft offers sovereign cloud regions — including European-only hosting. For firms that don’t want data to cross the Atlantic, that’s a huge plus. Not every firm requests it, but the option is available. It’s backed by the security and compliance investments of one of the world's largest tech companies.”

“Compare that to smaller DMS vendors who host in a single US data centre — which one gives you more comfort in 2025?”

AI is changing everything. How does Epona integrate AI into document management?

“For us, AI is not an add-on; it’s integral. We already integrate with Microsoft Copilot. But we also built “Ask Epona.” Imagine right-clicking a document and selecting from a library of predefined prompts tailored to your department or practice. Summarise this case. Draft a client letter. Compare these contracts. It’s simple and it’s embedded in the workflow.”

“And we offer flexibility. If you have a Copilot license, we use it. If not, we provide a pay-per-use model through Azure. The point is: we don’t want to reinvent AI models. We aim to be the legal workflow layer that brings AI to where lawyers work.”

Looking ahead, what can we expect from legal DMS over the next three years?

“The traditional DMS is dying. Full stop. In three years, you won’t “file” documents anymore. You’ll ask AI to find the right draft, the correspondence with a client, and the closing binder for a deal. AI will connect Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive — everything.”

“Why cling to metadata in a proprietary database when Microsoft gives you a global platform with security, compliance, and AI built in? The future is about finding and using information intelligently, not dumping it into buckets.”

Is Epona primarily for smaller firms, while larger firms tend to stick with iManage and NetDocuments?

“That’s a misconception. Our clients range from solo practitioners to organisations with 24,000 users, which is bigger than the largest law firms.”

“And here’s the thing: law firms follow each other. If one large firm makes the switch, others take notice. Nobody wants to be the last firm stuck on outdated systems. Peer pressure is very real in this market.”

Law firms are famously conservative. How do you convince partners to take the leap?

“True, many CIOs and managing partners prefer the systems they know. But AI has changed the conversation. Suddenly, firms are appointing innovation managers who have a mandate to rethink core systems — including the DMS.”

“And look around: every serious legal tech vendor integrates with Microsoft first. Microsoft 365 has become the backbone of compliance and security. Firms that insist on keeping a legacy DMS are no longer “playing it safe.” They are taking a risk of being left behind.”

“Epona started as a legal DMS built on SharePoint. But what we really do is add the ‘legal cherry on top’ of Microsoft’s cake. We bring the workflows, the integrations, the compliance features lawyers need.”

“To clarify: the future is not about SharePoint libraries or folder structures. The future is AI-powered knowledge management within Microsoft 365. Imagine being able to quickly ask a question like, ‘Can you provide all correspondence between the firm and Mr. Smith about case XYZ?’ The answer will come seamlessly from Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, and other sources, not just from a DMS. This is the direction the legal profession is heading, and we intend to lead that shift.”