NetDocuments launches Apps Marketplace

Cloud-computing content management provider NetDocuments has had a busy year so far. After two major releases, it recently announced the availability of a NetDocuments' Apps Marketplace. NetDocuments is a big cloud-based provider of document management services to large enterprise companies as well as law firms and financial services firms. It is used in 140 countries. The news should be of some interest to those who also use the Schwab Performance Technologies turnkey Integrated Office platform. That platform includes a customized version of Salesforce CRM. For those not on the platform, the NetDocuments piece acts as an advisory firm's document management and e-mail-archiving system, and thereby provides a firm's advisers with a centralized, searchable and outsourced online hub for storing client documents and communications. And the NetDocuments Apps Marketplace is a centralized location for third-party software developers to create applications that integrate with the company's existing systems and services. This should end up meaning that as yet unimagined apps might be developed to simplify an adviser's life further (or perhaps the more likely scenario is that apps will be designed for other users that can be adapted for advisers). It is unclear how analogous it is to Salesforce's own App Exchange, but the firm does support a pretty diverse client base. As part of the launch, NetDocuments is rolling out the 13.2 release of its content management and collaboration service. A big part of this release is the availability of the new app programming interface called REST API, which gives developers a second means of integrating with NetDocuments apps in addition to the older SOAP protocol abilities already available. With any document management or document storage system, search becomes a quintessential component, and with this latest release, the firm has updated its NDSearch system.