Headlines

Aderant & FWBS in global deal
FWBS, the developer of the OMS Matter Centre case-to-email management system, has just announced a global partnership with Aderant that will see Aderant reselling OMS software in the UK (to firms with 50+ fee earners), parts of Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region. Under the deal, OMS will be offered as part of Aderant’s front office suite, with matter functionality and data delivered directly through Microsoft Office applications including Outlook and Word. Mark Craddock of FWBS said unlike some PMS/matter management integrations OMS and Aderant were both based on a .NET platform and were “welded into each other”. Aderant will be previewing the new integration with OMS at next month’s ILTA conference in Phoenix.

FWBS has also renegotiated the deal with its original distributor Pericom, giving Pericom exclusive rights to distribute OMS to firms with up to 49 fee earners in England & Wales. Pericom, a Law Society Software Solutions Guide listed supplier, is currently involved in an internal reorganisation that will see more resources devoted to its legal division. This has meant a number of redundancies within its corporate division and personnel changes in legal, including David Amies taking over the division, managing director Terry Wilkins being moved sideways to head another Pericom division and Alan Kirton joining the legal sales team from Cognito.

Firm drops Teamflo for Visualfiles
Following an extensive selection process, one of Scotland’s largest firms Shepherd + Wedderburn has chosen Visualfiles to supply its new case management system. Replacing the existing AIM Teamflo system, Visualfiles Scotland will provide the Visualfiles Online system, initially in the litigation department for debt recovery work but with further applications planned. The firm has also purchased 30 Visualfiles M2 matter management licences in order to pilot the system with a view to a potential wider roll out.

Shepherd + Wedderburn IT manager John Watson said “Our requirement is complex as it involves not only the creation of an online case management solution but also integration with other mission critical applications, such as our practice and document management systems. The new M2 product is very impressive and will provide extensive matter management functionality to our users via their favoured Outlook interface. After speaking to existing users, we are confident Visualfiles is the right partner for the job.”

Now smaller firms can have CRM lite
Small-to-mid size firms now have an opportunity to ‘punch above their weight’ with a new client relationship management (CRM) package that has been developed by LexisNexis Interface Software in conjunction with Tikit. Called InterAction Light, it is designed to help firms with 150 users or less to deploy a fully integrated CRM system at what is described as a ‘middleweight’ price. Firms already using InterAction Light include Kendall Freeman, Lamport Bassitt and Memery Crystal.

Tikit, who launched the new system with one of the more novel promotional stunts we have seen in recent times – mailing out a mini punch-bag to announce a ‘heavyweight product at a middleweight price’ – has also won a contract from Bond Pearce. The firm will roll out the full version of the InterAction CRM, along with Tikit’s own ReAction Server application, to 400 staff at multiple locations.

Uncertainty over future of In Brief and Loties
The future of the magazine In Brief and the annual Loties legal technology awards the publication organises are in doubt after upheavals at their parent company, the legal recruitment consultancy Longbridge International.

Following a boardroom row at the AIM-listed company last month, the company’s finance & operations director Bruce Page, non-exec director Keith Lassman and stock brokers Noble & Co all resigned and trading in Longbridge shares were suspended. Ten days later, on 7th July, Page, Lassman and Noble & Co were back, with Jonathan Hill, the chief executive of venture capital group General Capital, joining the board as chairman to replace the company’s founder and chief executive Frank Varela who had resigned with immediate effect.

General Capital is also providing Longbridge with funding, including an immediate loan of £45,000 ‘to enable certain staff salaries to be paid’ but shares in Longbridge remain suspended pending the publication (expected September) of the accounts for the year to 31 December 2004. Page told the Insider that because the new management wants to focus exclusively on recruitment, it is actively “considering the options” for its publishing division PS Publications, including its sale. We have not been able to confirm the exact status of former In Brief and Loties staff but it is clear all activities were frozen at the end of June.

Former In Brief publisher Karen Jones is putting together an MBO bid however a number of other groups have also expressed interest in acquiring the publishing business. Unconfirmed reports suggest these include the American Lawyer Media group and the publishers of Legal Week. Page said he was hoping a decision on the future of PS Publications could be reached quickly – and an EGM is scheduled for 5th August – but until then both In Brief and the 2005 Loties awards are on hold.

Rickerbys to swap out Videss for Elite
Cheltenham-based Rickerbys has selected Elite PMS and business intelligence software from Thomson Elite to provide the foundation for its new practice and financial management system. The firm currently runs Videss. Van Bael & Bellis in Brussels has also recently placed an order for Elite to replace its bespoke accounts system.

Thomson Elite has also announced enhancements to its Elite Process Manager workflow and Paperless Proforma draft billing systems. The latter product is designed to turn the pen and paper process of manually circulating, reviewing and marking up draft bills into an online procedure that speeds up the time taken to convert work in progress into client invoices.

In other Elite-related developments, Saturn Legal (020 7399 7788) has released version 1.2 of its e-balancing system for the Elite PMS. This runs automatically overnight to balance accounts ledgers in preparation for the following day’s postings.
www.saturnlegal.co.uk

Agnew signs up Lewis Silkin for PortWise
Agnew Associates, the new consultancy set up by former Martineau Johnson IT director Ken Agnew, has secured its first deal by introducing Lewis Silkin to the PortWise secure application access system. With PortWise, lawyers and staff at Lewis Silkin can now access applications, data and email through a variety of devices, including PDAs, BlackBerrys and smart phones without exposing themselves to the threat of security breaches. The firm’s head of IT Jan Durant said along with ensuring “complete encryption between the external user’s device and our network applications and providing a full audit trail, we can literally see who accessed what, when and how.” Portwise can also remove all traces of cached pages, URL history, cookies, registry entries and downloadable components when users connect via hotels or cybercafes.

Ken Agnew describes Agnew Associates (0121 354 3727) as “Not consultants – we’re not arrogant enough to say we know better than any other legal IT director. However if you are short of resource for a project from specification, user consultation, through to detailed design, testing, roll-out and sign off, we’re here to help you do that and we won’t cost you an arm and a leg.”

In a spooky coincidence GSH Legal IT (01723 359602), which was set up by former Theodore Goddard IT director Gordon Hill, has just advised insurance litigation lawyers Fishburns on the selection of a Juniper Netscreen-SA system to provide its staff with secure remote access.
www.agnewassociates.co.uk
www.portwise.com
www.gshlegalit.com

TFB taps into small firm needs
Technology for Business is reporting a healthy take-up for its new Partner for Windows Small Practice Edition (SPE) among smaller firms, typically with between 1-to-5 users. Since its launch last year, a total of 28 firms have ordered the SPE system – the most recent signings have been Ian Halstead & Co and Mackenzie Jones. TFB’s business development director Mark Garnish said the main source of interest in SPE comes from start-ups, breakaways and boutique firms looking for a system that provides the functionality of a modern larger firm case and practice management system, such as the full Partner for Windows system, but in a version that will run on either a stand alone PC or as part of a small network.

Ward Hadaway select e1 for CRM
Ward Hadaway has become the latest firm to select the e1 Metis system from e1 Business (01962 831471) as its new client relationship management (CRM) system. Other recent e1 Metis wins, whose flagship sites are Pinsent Masons and Irwin Mitchell, include Bevan Brittan and Langleys. According to the Insider 250 chart, Metis is now the most widely used CRM application in the UK after InterAction and Elite Apex.
www.e1business.com

Axxia extend case
Axxia Systems has launched the latest version of its ADI document integrator product. This allows non-users of Axxia’s case management software to save and retrieve documents from the case system via third-party applications, such as Microsoft Word and Outlook, thereby making it easier and more cost effective to roll out case management facilities on a practice-wide basis. ADI also includes a ‘folder monitor’ utility that can save and store incoming email messages and scanned documents against the case file.

Also, Thames Valley practice Barrett & Thomson has become one of the first firms to install Axxia’s Vision Lite out-of-the-box business intelligence and financial modelling system. The firm is also planning to deploy case management within the first of several departments.

ILTA gearing up for Phoenix
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA, formerly LawNet Inc) is gearing up for its annual educational conference, which this year takes place in Phoenix, Arizona (22-25 August). Although ILTA began life in the United States, it now has a growing international membership, including a section based in London, with the result that the Phoenix conference is now viewed as one of the two ‘must-see’ legal IT events in the US and attracts a healthy number of UK delegates. ILTA president Sean Curry also points out that thanks to email, webinars, listservs and videoconferencing, ILTA membership provides access to a global network “so it’s like having the world’s largest IT department at your fingertips 24 x 7”.
www.iltanet.org

TLT to shadow DR
TLT is the latest firm to invest in Office Shadow’s Shadow Planner product for developing and managing disaster recovery and contingency planning. Commenting on the move, the firm’s IT director Russell Levan said “Everyone thinks of disasters as being catastrophic but in today’s electronic age, even simple things like a contractor severing a power cable can reduce working capacity to zero.” The TLT order was secured by Practical Solutions (01525 635853) who have just been appointed distributors for the product and will also be providing consultancy support. Other users of Shadow Planner include Pinsent Masons, Freshfields, Thomson Snell & Passmore, Finers Stephens Innocent and the Legal Services Commission.

Hummingbird buys RedDot
Hummingbird has announced the acquisition of RedDotTM Solutions AG, a German supplier of content management software. Hummingbird acquired the shares of RedDot for an initial cash consideration of euro 39.1 million and an additional cash consideration of approximately euro 4.5 million based on performance targets. Commenting on the deal, analysts Scotia Capital said “our view is the RedDot acquisition provides Hummingbird with a missing technology component – content management – required for consideration in new ECM deals. We do not view this acquisition as materially changing the landscape. Our view is that the addition of RedDot effectively provides Hummingbird with functional parity in marketing against other ECM vendors.”
www.reddot.com

Blogs on the Insider website
The Insider has expanded the know-how resources section on its website to provide permanent links to some of the legal IT and information service world’s leading blogs. These include Delia Venables’ ‘new on the legal internet’, the Nick Holmes/Infolaw ‘what’s new on the UK legal web’, Sean Hocking’s House of Butter for law librarians and Sabrina Pacifici’s LLRX law & tech resources blog.

The Insider has also added a number of new case studies and white papers, including free internet resources for personal injury lawyers, speech recognition, Graham Gill’s latest law firm IT staff salary survey, a review of Cognito’s Custodiens trust & probate software, Chris Spencer on using IT to manage e-conveyancing risks, plus a whole new sub-section on information for inhouse legal departments. You can also keep up with the latest news stories, which we will be filing on our home page as and when they break during the summer vacation period.
www.legaltechnology.com

5 millionth NLIS search
At the beginning of the month it was announced that since the National Land Information Service (NLIS) first went live four-and-a-half years ago in February 2001, over 5 million local authority searches have now been carried out online. Over 6500 law firms now use NLIS and since the start of this year the service has been averaging 200,000 search requests a month. The fastest recorded search through NLIS took 9 minutes from the solicitor requesting to receiving the local authority search response on their PC.

IE share down to 89%
For the first time since 1998, Microsoft’s hold on the web browser market has fallen, with Internet Explorer’s share now standing at 89%. Firefox has emerged as the main contender with over 50 million downloads since its launch in November.

90% shut in 18 months
According to research by systems house Ramsac, 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close within 2 years and 90% that lose data in a disaster close within 18 months. But, at a recent seminar on disaster recovery, just 12% of delegates had up-to-date business continuity plans.

Things we didn't know
Buried in an otherwise routine announcement that the Brighton-based firm Wynne Baxter had selected Videss to supply its new case and practice management system was this fascinating snippet about the firm’s founder Wynne Edwin Baxter. Apparently along with being a solicitor, he was also the coroner who conducted the inquests on several of Jack the Ripper’s victims and he chaired the official enquiry into the death of John Merrick, otherwise known as ‘the Elephant Man’.
 
Wet wipes will travel
Congratulations to Alan Richardson, the sales director of Norwel Computers, who has just raised over £7000 for the charity Action for Medical Research after completing a sponsored trek across the Inca Trail in the Andes. Richardson said the highlight of the trip “was the day we followed the winding path alongside the mountains listening to the rapids of the Urubamba River. Upon reaching the top we entered the Sun Gate and there you catch your first glimpse of the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.”

He added that “Dead Womans Pass was the highest point at 4200 meters and I have now seen enough steps to last me a lifetime. The low light was five days’ camping without showers or flushing loos, so I was glad I was introduced to wet wipes!” You can find more information about the trip – including some tips for happy trekking and camping – on the web.
www.norwel.co.uk/MachuPicchu.htm

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News in brief

Walker Smith fo Pilgrim way
Walker Smith Way, which has a large trade union practice based in Chester and Wrexham, has ordered the Pilgrim LawSoft practice management system. This is the third major win for Pilgrim Systems in recent months (the others were Watson Burton in Newcastle and Anthony Collins in Birmingham) and the company has just declared a net profit of £374,000 for the six months to March 2005.

Tollers heading for 30 years with Norwel
Norwel’s longest standing customer Toller Hales & Collcutt in Northamptonshire has re-affirmed its commitment to Norwel by upgrading from a Unix and Informix platform to the latest SQL Server version of Norwel’s case and practice management software. The firm first began using Norwel nearly 30 years ago in 1977.

Kesteven process licences with Civica
South Kesteven District Council in south Lincolnshire has selected Civica’s ‘authority bureau’ managed licensing service to help it process an estimated 2000 licence applications ahead of the November 24th deadline under the 2003 Licensing Act. The Civica service is being delivered in conjunction with specialist licensing law firm Poppleston Allen.

Opsis offer Xerox scanning integration
Legal software supplier Opsis (01780 764947) and Xerox are offering an integrated scanning solution that will allow users of Opsis systems to scan in documents and save them to matter files as either PDFs or readable OCR files. The Opsis anti-money laundering package, which is due to be launched in September, will be bundled with a Xerox Documate hi-speed scanner.

Ince & Co go with Phoenix & Workshare
After using Phoenix Business Solutions to implement an Interwoven DMS, Ince & Co has now become the first firm to purchase the Workshare Professional redlining and document integrity system from Phoenix.

Herbert Smith begin helpdesk project
Herbert Smith has completed the first phase of an improvement programme for its information systems helpdesk. The project involved a £15,000 contract with IT services company Plan-Net (020 7353 4313) who carried out an independent review of call responsiveness, first line resolution rates and service availability.
www.plan-net.co.uk

Field Fisher invests in Nedstat data
Field Fisher Waterhouse has invested in Nedstat’s (020 7841 1544) Sitestat website analytics service to provide traffic reports on visitors to the firm’s 11 specialist websites. Nedstat say Sitestat, which is used by a number of other London firms, can improve the effectiveness of online operations by providing accurate website visitor information.
www.nedstat.co.uk

Two join ConveyanceLink
With demand for its pay-as-you-convey case management system on the increase, ConveyanceLink has appointed Patrick Ward, previously with Siemens Financial Services, as new business account manager, and Justin Bateman, previously with Transaction Online, as business development manager. The latest firms to sign up for the system include John Wood in Wakefield, Woodcock & Sons, which has offices in Bury and across Lancashire, and Fendom Dawson, which has offices in Aylesbury and the Home Counties.

A&O get rhythm
Allen & Overy has become the second major UK firm within six months to select Percussion Software’s Rhythmyx web content management software. A&O has a global document management system called Omnia, based on Hummingbird DM, and will use Rhythmyx to manage the publishing and reuse of content on its intranet, client extranet and public internet sites. DLA Piper Rudnick also use the Rhythmyx software.
www.percussion.com

Another new offshore transcription service
Some firms hate them, others love them so here are details of another offshore facility based in India. Called GTL, the company can offer a full range of outsourced secretarial facilities, including transcription, case processing support and legal research. Although GTL says savings of up to 40% can be realised for some services, the company suggests firms should never go offshore for costs savings alone “as there will inevitably be some negative quality issues”. Instead, GTL positions itself as able to handle the ‘grunt’ work so UK secretarial staff can be ‘upskilled’ and move into a more paralegal, fee earning role. For more details contact Deepak Rao of GTL on 01483 730712.
www.gtllimited.com

WinScribe bring in digital dictation anywhere
WinScribe has boosted its support for remote working with the launch of WinScribe Anywhere. This allows users to record their dictation on a handheld recorder, such as a Philips 9350 or Olympus DS4000, and then upload the voice files from any location, providing they have access to a PC with a USB port running a web browser. The uploaded file is then automatically routed to the correct secretary/transcription team at the author’s office for processing in the normal way.

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International news

FloSuite wins three more BPM sites in North America
FloSuite, the Scottish BPM and workflow management software company, has secured three more wins with firms in North America. The three are Steel Hector & Davis in Miami plus Macleod Dixon and Fillmore Riley in Canada. Other North American FloSuite sites include Sheppard Mullins, McGlinchey Stafford and Dinsmore & Shohl.
www.flosuite.com

New Lawman in New York
Timeslice, the UK time, billing and case management software supplier, has opened an office in New York (212 837 7830) as part of a strategy to sell its Lawman fully integrated front and back office system into the US market.
www.timeslicelegal.com

Henry Hughes becomes latest NZ customer for TFB
TFB’s New Zealand operation (9 918 0530) has secured its sixth new business deal since the start of the year. The latest order was placed by Wellington firm Henry Hughes who said TFB’s Partner for Windows software met their ‘wish list’ better than any of the other systems they reviewed. TFB NZ will also be one of the sponsors for the Law Awards taking place in Auckland this October.
www.tfbnz.co.nz

NRH opt for Locus workflow-enabled PMS
Queensland firm Nicol Robinson Halletts has rolled out Locus Affinity as its new practice management system. Speaking at a recent seminar in Brisbane, NRH general manager Peter Scanlan said Locus was selected because “they did not want just another accounting system that just kept score”. Instead, NRH wanted “to create an end-to-end view of the work being done and the financial outcomes achieved” using tools such as workflows to automatically capture fee and costs data plus dashboard-style reporting that would focus staff on key performance indicators.
www.locus.com.au

DocsCorp upgrade PDF software
The Australian PDF specialist DocsCorp has released a major upgrade to its pdfDocs system. Features of the new release, which allows users to collate documents from multiple sources into a single PDF for electronic delivery or permanent storage, include the ability to resize images, improved scanner integration, an enhanced Hummingbird desktop interface, and expanded redaction functions. The pdfDOCS software can be integrated with Hummingbird and Interwoven document management systems.
www.docscorp.com

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People & places

Calvis strengthens management team
PISCES and real estate software specialist Calvis has strengthened its management team with two new appointments. Martin Hughes, previously head of IT services for the commercial division of Strutt & Parker, has joined as a managing consultant; and Darren Cottom, previously the managing director of an IT PR agency, has been appointed communications director.

Nflow receive IIP accreditation
Nflow, one of the leading developers of digital dictation software, has received Investors in People status. The IIP assessor said Nflow’s planning and management was “very efficient and effective” and added that “current working practices will facilitate growth and exceptional client care is perceived by all staff as a priority.”

Seymour crosses over to Jordan
Paul Seymour, the events manager for the English Law Society’s Law Management Section, is quitting Chancery Lane at the end of July to take up the post of director of events at Jordan Legal Publishing in Bristol. Seymour will be heading up a new team that will be delivering a national programme of conferences and events.

Three appointments at Cryoserver
Email archiving and compliance specialist Cryoserver has expanded its management team with three appointments. David Clayton, previously with Credit Suisse First Boston, joins the company as chairman; Paul Grossman, previously at Clearswift, becomes sales director; and Stephen Mason has been appointed legal director.

New general manager at eCopy Europe
eCopy has appointed Alan Cornwell as its European general manager. Cornwell, most recently with the digital rights management company Sealed Media, will be responsible for sales, marketing, channel partners and business expansion. Revenues from eCopy’s European operations grew by 130% last year.

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Litigation support news

LiveNote acquires RealLegal litigation support arm
LiveNote Inc, the developer of the LiveNote transcript management system, has acquired the litigation technology division of RealLegal, the creators of the E-Transcript industry standard format for electronic transcript delivery, which is now used by more than 75% of US court reporting agencies. The acquisition excludes the RealLegal Practice Manager system, which is being retained by its existing owners, who will drop the RealLegal name after a transitional period.
www.reallegal.com

New Trilantic home for Nigel Murray
UK litigation support industry veteran Nigel Murray, most recently with Millnet, is now heading up a new lit support and e-discovery business called Trilantic. Trilantic has offices at Roman House in Wood Street, in the heart of the City of London, and can be contacted on 020 7042 1000.
www.trilantic.co.uk

Oyster moves into the City
Josef Elliott, one of the co-founders of the old Elliott Slone litigation support bureau, has moved his new business Oyster IMS (020 7959 3274) into new City offices at 288 Bishopsgate. Oyster IMS, who describe themselves as providers of ‘vendor independent advisory, implementation and project management services’ in the fields of records and document management, archiving, scanning and information audits, are planning to launch a legal market specific offering later this year.
www.oyster-ims.com

New PCMCIA pod to capture computer evidence
As part of its portfolio of computer forensics tools, Vogon International (01869 355255) has launched a PCMCIA interface pod that will allow it to take evidentially sound images from a range of computer media types including flash cards, SD cards and memory sticks commonly found in laptops, PDAs and digital cameras.
www.vogon-international.com

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Publishing news

Another new MD for Butterworths
We’ve lost track of the number of people who, in recent years, have been in and out of the hot seat as managing directors at either LexisNexis Butterworths or their arch-rivals Sweet & Maxwell. The latest incumbent at Halsbury House is Josh Bottomley, who joins LexisNexis just as the company is about to bring to market its new online information service – code named Project Rosetta – for its legal, tax and corporate customers. Bottomley is a former director of the Financial Times Group and CEO of International Masters Publishers Europe.

Justis launches CCH tax cases
Legal electronic publisher Justis has launched the CCH Tax Cases collection, which carries law reports dating as far back as 1875, on its Justis.com online service. The tax reports are fully cross referenced and can also be searched together with other Justis online titles, including the Law Reports and Weekly Law Reports.
www.justis.com

New source for flooding data
The Landmark Information group is now publishing new data for conveyancers on the potential for flood risks that could have an impact on a property transaction. The service draws on data from the Environment Agency, identifies such features as 100 and 1000 year flood events, plus factors such as flood defences and flood water storage areas. The data is published through the Homecheck Professional reports service.
www.homecheckpro.co.uk

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Insider job of the week

Start Up eDisclosure Company
City of London (01.07.05)
Opportunity to get in on the ground floor with exciting new company offering electronic disclosure, litigation support and computer investigation services. Excellent salary and shareholder options. We’re currently looking for staff with experience in: eDisclosure/EDD, business development, litigation support systems, technical consultancy, e-data rooms, project management & scanning/coding. Call Lucy Harrison on 07970 284699 or email lucy.harrison@people-link.co.uk

Looking for legal IT staff, including positions in management, sales, development, support KM, publishing, marketing, online services, accounts or training? The Insider Jobs Board has the best choice of legal IT jobs available in the UK and you can post your vacancies free of charge by emailing the details to jobs@legaltechnology.com For full details of all vacancies visit the Insider Jobs board at www.legaltechnology.com

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