The Council of Europe, Europe’s leading human rights and democracy organisation, has partnered with Tikit, a global provider of technology solutions to legal and professional services firms and governmental organisations, to select NetDocuments as its cloud-based document management platform (DMS). The contract is the result of a year-long competitive process that looked at several suppliers of document management systems. The Council of Europe selected the NetDocuments platform from Tikit after a search to find a mature cloud-based solution to meet its needs. Tikit, which provides technology to the legal and professional services sector with over 1500 law firm clients globally, is part of BT Group. NetDocuments was founded in 1999, with more than 2500 enterprise customers worldwide, providing a cloud-based content services and workflow platform.

Supporting democracy

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe currently includes 47 member states, 28 of which are members of the European Union. The organisation assists these states in supporting democracy by fighting corruption, terrorism and undertaking necessary judicial reforms. In addition, the Council of Europe promotes human rights through international conventions and makes recommendations through independent expert monitoring bodies, as well as the Committee of Ministers, Parliamentary Assembly European Court of Human Rights, Commissioner for Human Rights and the, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

Rigorous process

John Hunter, CIO at the Council of Europe, said: 'We went through a rigorous process in which DMS providers were invited to showcase their software to us and take part in an extensive proof of concept. We wanted a best of breed, highly customisable system that could support our user base of approximately 2500 employees. Tikit and NetDocuments were selected after an extensive call for tender process and demonstrated that they were the best fit for our diverse and complex needs.'

Compliance standards

NetDocuments enables organisations across the globe to improve workplace productivity, mobility and ensure sensitive information is safe, secure and governed by the most up-to-date compliance standards and regulatory controls of any cloud-based document management solution in the industry. 'NetDocuments has spent two decades providing our customers with the safe, ready, and proven solutions necessary to manage, collaborate and share content in one secure location,' said Josh Baxter, CEO, NetDocuments.'We are excited to partner with Tikit to welcome the Council of Europe aboard the platform.

Highly sensitive

'The documents we produce are highly sensitive and need to be accessed remotely from our offices in over twenty- three countries and by over 6,000 external users,' Mr Hunter added. 'NetDocuments ticked the right boxes in terms of our overall needs, in particular security, collaboration, mobility and compliance and have a solid, proven multi-tenant platform solution.'

Contract signed in Strasbourg

John Hunter and Simon Hill, CEO of Tikit, signed the contract this week at the Council of Europe offices in Strasbourg. 'It’s really exciting to welcome The Council of Europe to our client base,' said Mr Hill. 'This deal demonstrates further that the global partnership between Tikit and NetDocuments is being recognised far and wide. Together we can provide leading legal and professional services firms and organisations, such as the Council of Europe, with the support and expertise they need to enter a secure, mobile and true cloud working environment.'