Simmons Company

LED BY THE LEGAL TEAM, DEPARTMENTS ACROSS THE COMPANY HAVE SIMPLIFIED INFORMATION SHARING, DOCUMENT REVIEWS, AND COLLABORATION—BOTH INTERNALLY AND WITH OUTSIDE PARTNERS. ALL THE WHILE, THEY HAVE A SINGLE SOURCE OF RECORD FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION. 

THE SITUATION

A series of ownership changes at Atlanta-based Simmons Company had resulted in fractured document management, storage and retention practices. Legal files, contracts and other important documents were scattered throughout various divisions and departments across the company.

THE PROBLEM

The legal team would often scan documents and email them to colleagues at the company’s external law firms. Often, the electronic files proved too large for email, resulting in the team spending valuable time printing and sending them via courier or overnight mail.

THE IMPLICATIONS

Simmons’ general counsel recognized it was important to collect, organize and store thecompany’s most critical information in a central location. This would reduce the administrative burden on the small legal department and ensure it was ready to act when presented with time-sensitive business opportunities.

THE SOLUTION

In 2001, Simmons was introduced to Intralinks ExchangesTM during its acquisition by Thomas H. Lee Partners. With its anytime, anywhere access, Intralinks was the ideal solution for the company to store, manage, share, and track its critical information. Rather than sending bulky emails, Simmons could provide outside counsel with secure access to its entire exchange, or only to specific documents or folders.

THE RESULT

Now Simmons Company uses Intralinks to streamline document exchange for a variety of purposes including tracking intellectual property, managing litigation, managing vendor and real estate contracts, documenting corporate governance and regulatory compliance, and facilitating stockholder relations. Now the legal team is always prepared should the company’s private equity owners decide to pursue a future sale, public offering or business opportunity.

THE BENEFIT

Other departments have adopted Intralinks solutions to improve the way they manage sensitive business information. The human resources department is using Intralinks to store labor and employment details, while the taxation group posts tax documents for internal specialists to review and store for state and federal agencies.