The new Windows Workflow Foundation-based workflow capabilities within Aderant Expert are being greeted with enthusiasm, with some firms already achieving more with Windows Workflow than they previously managed with 3rd party platforms, such as Metastorm. In fact the workflow message is sinking home to such an extent that in one session, a delegate had what can only be described as a Meg Ryan When Harry met Sally moment. Readers will be amused to hear US firms dealing with workflow for the first time are encountering the same problems (project creep, managing expectations etc ) UK firms encountered in the early days of case management systems project implementation.

The conference also saw further amplification and explanation of Aderant’s overall product strategy. Essentially, Golden Gate is an ‘iceberg’ or enabling platform that sits on top of the current Expert 7.5 release to allow users to take advantage of next generation tools and applications now on their current infrastructure. Next comes Titan (in effect Expert 8.0), which will bring with it a whole new family of optional workflow enabled applications – but which will still co-exist with existing applications and the underlying data schema. The overall intention, according to CEO Michael Kohlsdorf, is to create a framework that allows users to move forward, based on what their needs are – but without having to reinvest in or implement a whole new system, in the style of 3E or Axxia DNA. In terms of product release dates, we can expect an SP2 of Aderant Expert 7.5 later this summer, with a service pack for Golden Gate early next year and the launch of Titan by late 2010.

Turning to the longer term, Aderant is researching a number of areas including: virtualisation, Sharepoint, cloud computing, .Net 4.0, data mining, touch surface computing (think the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report) and the Apple iPhone. In fact it was noticeable at the conference just how many people now use the iPhone although most of them also still carry a Blackberry.
• For the record, although total delegate numbers were down, the number of firms sending representatives was up by about 10%. Aderant also retain their reputation for throwing the best user conference parties.
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
April's big deals

Pilgrim in Axxia swap-out
London law firm Underwood & Co has selected LawSoft from Pilgrim Systems as its next generation PMS. As well as migrating from its existing LexisNexis Axxia accounts system, the firm is also retiring its Hummingbird DocsOpen software to get the benefits of LawSoft’s integrated DMS capability. Underwood did consider but rejected migrating to Axxia’s new DNA system.

Keoghs outsource with SCC
Working with the Neil Cameron Consulting Group, Keoghs has selected SCC to provide IT infrastructure and systems support services to underpin its planned business expansion and provide an improved quality of service to staff. SCC’s three year agreement will deliver end to end support for 650 users across three sites, including a fully outsourced remote service desk, end user computing support, plus management of the server network. Keoghs’ core platform includes Elite and LexisNexis Visualfiles.

Wilsons go DMS with Worksite
Salisbury-based Wilsons has selected the Worksite and IUS Universal Search systems, plus Phoenix Knowledge Assist, as its new DMS and KM platform. The project is being delivered by Phoenix Business Solutions. IT director Al Patch said: “IUS will not only meet our know-how needs but also allow us to utilise the mash-up technology to represent key client information across the firm.”
• Note: this announcement also reveals the post Autonomy deal rebranding. No mention of Interwoven, instead the DMS is now called Autonomy iManage Worksite.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
April’s big launch: DPS Delta Search
DPS Software has launched a new full text search facility that can be run from within the company’s One Office, Outlook Office and Web View products. Called DPS Delta Search, the document types that can be searched include doc, docx, xls, xlsx, rft, pdf, ppt, txt, csv and msg plus any email attachments in a searchable format or zip files.

Linetime now - why wait for Streamline later?
Along with being one of the few independents left in the UK legal IT market, Linetime are also one of the most under-rated vendors. The Insider recently visited their Leeds offices to have a look at their new Liberate Signature Edition (SE) system. This is a interesting product, combining case management and matter management, along with document management, time recording and full accounts integration where required. Linetime director Phil Snee said SE was developed to meet the needs of firms who require the flexibility of being able to run both options, rather than commit to either case or matter management – which in many instances means parallel systems to support, maintain and train staff to use.

Liberate SE is built on Microsoft .NET, can support team working, and offers DocsCorp document comparison for version checking and PDF court bundling, as well as ISYS search engine functionality. It will also happily co-exist in larger organisations with a full-blown DMS such as Open Text. Effectively Liberate SE offers everything the much delayed (Q3 ‘05 was the original launch date) LexisNexis Visualfiles Manilla/Streamline product promises to offer, except SE is here and available now.

DPS acquire Access
This story came in just after the last issue of the Insider was published... DPS Software has acquired Access Legal Systems and taken over the company’s development, maintenance, support services, sales and ongoing training activities. The Access operation, which is now known as DPS-Access, will retain its current staff, with the exception of managing director George Fowler who has retired.

DPS managing director Osman Ismail said users had already been notified of plans to develop the Access accounts product range and the integration of these with DPS Outlook Office software. “We have already converted Outlook Office so any Access user who wants to view ledger cards from inside Outlook can do so. Access fee earners will also have the option to issue cheque and billing requests from inside Outlook.”

Speech recognition: server versus desktop
Last month’s seminar, organised by SRC in London, highlighted some of the issues surrounding the use of speech recognition within law firms. Case studies from Hammonds and Field Fisher Waterhouse both showed SR does have a role to play, particularly where lawyers need to turn around a document quickly and don’t want the delay of waiting for it to be manually transcribed. It was also suggested that if you are drafting longer documents, speech recognition makes it easier to keep track of what has gone before, rather than keep rewinding and replaying the recording.

Another suggestion, possibly flying against conventional wisdom, was secretaries don’t mind handling SR proof-reading as it means time they’d otherwise spend transcribing a document can be devoted to other tasks. However one subject where opinion, certainly within the audience, remained divided, was whether the best way to process speech recognition was in the background on a server or on the desktop in front of the user.

Napthens standardises on SOS
Lancashire-based Napthens LLP has just placed an £80k order with Solicitors Own Software to standardise on SOS Connect case and practice management across its five offices. Although Napthens has been running an older SOS system for accounts since 2001, following three mergers over the past two years, the firm found it had inherited several legacy systems, including Axxia and Eclipse. After reassessing the options, the firm decided to standardise on SOS Connect for its accounts and case management.

Browne Jaconson pick new FWBS system
Browne Jacobson LLP has become the first law firm to select the new Matter Centre Unite system from FWBS. Matter Centre Unite effectively creates a client and matter centric dashboard or backbone, so a firm can pull together all client and matter related information from multiple systems across the practice and then deliver it within familiar Microsoft Office applications. Browne Jacobson’s director of IT Peter Birley said by using the Matter Centre design toolkit “we extended our ability by tailor making common core activities to be within the same view.”
• The Matter Centre Unite product sheet and Browne Jacobson case study are available for download from the FWBS website at www.fwbs.net
   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New wins
 
Six more Mimecast wins
Six more law firms have signed up as users of Mimecast’s SaaS email management solution. The six are: Halliwells, Thomas Eggar, HBJ Gateley Wareing, Morgan Cole, Boodle Hatfield and Wright Hassall. Commenting on the decision to go with Mimecast, Neil Renfrew – who joined Thomas Eggar as head of IT in July last year – said the move was one of the first decisions he took. The result has been to simplify infrastructure (cutting out multiple vendors and removing archiving from Exchange) and lay the foundations to implement firm-wide email policies.
• IT services provider Ramesys has now become Mimecast business partner. For further details email Jonathan Bignell at jonathan.bignell@ramesys.com
• TFB and Mimecast will host a breakfast seminar on email management at the offices of Wright Hassall in Leamington Spa on 21st May. For details email emma.rae@tfbplc.co.uk

Quaestor back office winning orders
Professional Technology UK has made a number of new installations of its Quaestor for Windows law firm back office management system. The firms are Stephen Thomas in Kent, Andrew Sutton in Northants, Atkins Solicitors in Suffolk and two London firms – Aman Solicitor Advocates and Cartwright Adams.

Five more go with DPS hosted solution
Five more firms – Mantilla & Stonerwood, Keene Marsland, McKenzies, Dundons and Pearsons – have chosen to have their IT systems hosted by DPS Software. DPS has published a case study on Malcom Dodds experiences as a hosted customer.

Olswang selects DocsCorp
Olswang is the latest firm to select pdfDocs compareDocs from Phoenix Business Solutions to replace its legacy Workshare Deltaview system. The product will be deployed firm-wide. Olswang join over 100 law firms now utilising the DocsCorp software products in Europe.

A&O demerger win for TFB
TFB has won an order from Maurice Turnor Gardner, a new firm that recently demerged from Allen & Overy, to provide case and practice management software. TFB’s parent Tikit will provide network infrastructure services. TFB was selected on a shortlist of four vendors after the contract was put out to tender – a key factor was meeting a four week timescale.

Copitrak goes into Winckworth
Winckworth Sherwood has become the latest firm to sign up for Copitrak’s cost recovery systems and, as part of a move to new premises, is installing print, secure print and scan modules across the firm.
• Copitrak has launched a new version of its mobile software which now includes the ability to track and record call activity on a Blackberry.

IRIS proves to be family law friendly
Two firms specialising in family law – the Child Law Partnership in Basingstoke and long-time Mountain users Bemrose & Ling in Derby – have installed new IRIS Law Business case and PMS software.
• Another part of the IRIS Legal group – AlphaLaw – reports that it has received 10 signed orders for its recently launched Esprit+ practice management system for small firms and sole practitioners in the space of just eight weeks.

Dunham Law deploy Aquarium
Dunham Law has deployed Aquarium Software’s SaaS case management system for handling work in its financial mis-selling claims division. Dunham specialise in payment protection insurance and unenforceable credit agreement claims.
         
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
The Backpage

What the tweet is all this twittering about, part 98
We’re still investigating whether there really are serious business roles for some of the Web 2.0 technologies out there. Informal conversations with delegates and vendors at last week’s Aderant user conference suggest LinkedIn is now pretty much discredited, as the only messages anyone could recall receiving were from consultants either fishing for information or pushing their services; and from recruitment agencies and job hunters touting their CVs.

Turning to Twitter, the Insider is experimenting with this but rapidly reaching the conclusion it’s more trouble than it’s worth. If we want to spread wit and banter with our chums, we’ll use Facebook. If we have a breaking news story to report, then it’s better to blog it on the Orange Rag, so it can receive full and considered coverage, rather than try to compress it into a 140 character message.

As for pushing out longer stories, as some tweeters do, as a series of 140 character micro instalments... Richard Susskind, who recently gave a keynote at the ABA Tech Show in Chicago, reports he was a little disconcerted to see that, what seemed like, half his audience spent the entire lecture on their Blackberries posting tweets about his talk. He was even more surprised to find some ‘twitteratti’ were posting tweets commenting on the content of his keynote and new book purely on the strength of other people’s Twitter reports. All of which prompts the question: if the medium is the message, what is Twitter telling us?

Marathon men
So far, the fastest of our competitors in last Sunday’s London Marathon was Shoosmiths’ IS director David Bason who finished in a time of 4 hours, 22 minutes (4:22:31). Next in was David Thorpe of Aderant, completing in a time of 4:38:42. The Thorpedo reckons he’s raised about £5500 for the children’s charity NSPCC – and by 7:00pm on Sunday evening, he’d also managed to send out an email round-robin thank you. Finally, Mark Garnish, the business development director of Tikit TFB, came in with a time of 5:16:53. More results to follow.

Coast-to-coast for charity
Congratulations to Andy Jackson, of the IRIS Lasersform sales team, who (along with other family members) raised £1500 for the Bowel Cancer UK charity by completing the 147-mile Whitehaven to Sunderland coast-to-coast cycle route over the Easter weekend.

It was 10 years ago today...
Stories reported in the Insider of April 1999 included news that... Lichfield law firm Keely Beedham was swapping out Microsoft Word in favour of Wordperfect 8.0 (uh?); five more firms – SJ Berwin, Bristows, Olswang, Memery Crystal and Travers Smith – had ordered Interaction CRM software via Tikit; and Manches was replacing its old London Bridge Trial/400 system with a new Keystone PMS. Thanks also to Avanquest Solutions for pointing out it is now 10 years since Lewis Silkin’s IT director Jan Durant first introduced their CallXpress unified messaging system into the firm.
   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
Other stories

Eclipse says it is bucking the trend
Eclipse Legal Systems say they are bucking the trend by continuing to grow in a recession. During the first three months of this year, the company has sold its Proclaim case management software into 23 new practices, while existing user sites have implemented over 600 additional user licences – including Winn Solicitors in Newcastle who recently bought 40 extra licences.

E-learning vendors in J-V
Ad Alta Learning and RBM Training have joined forces to create an e-learning module to help introduce new support staff to working in a law firm environment. The course covers such things as jargon and why law firms are different, and can be customised to include a firm’s own policies, images and content. The module can be run in an LMS or intranet or burned onto a CD.
www.adaltalearning.co.uk
• E-learning company TutorPro say their board director Simon Meager is no longer with them due to ill-health.

New Microsoft Word consultancy
Integral Document Solutions (07870 956361) is a new Microsoft Word-related consultancy set up by Cathy O’Connor to help law firms gain the maximum benefits from Word through both training courses and advising on best practice solutions, including the creation of shortcuts and/or toolbars/ribbons.
www.integraldocuments.com
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
The Insider web site

For the latest legal IT news, jobs, events and information, visit the Insider web site - www.legaltechnology.com, described by The Times newspaper as "the definitive online resource for legal technology information". And don't forget our breaking news blog The Orange Rag.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top

People & places
 
Hasan quits SAP
Davud Hasan, SAP UK’s Global Account Manager (Legal & Professional Services Sectors) left the company earlier this month, with Simon Jones taking over his role. Hasan has accepted a new role with an SAP partner called Blueprint.
www.bpms.co.uk

Rauf quits Workshare
Samia Rauf, most recently Workshare’s sales director for Northern Europe, has left the company. We hope to be hearing from both Rauf and Workshare’s EMEA V-P Frank Boening on their respective plans within the next couple of weeks.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top
 
Digital dictation news in brief
 
nFlow now has iPhone offering
Users of iPhone and iPod Touch devices within firms using nFlow’s digital dictation system, will now be able to send dictation recordings to their offices, for integration and transcription within the nFlow DDS v5.0 workflow. The system (developed in conjunction with Jotomi GmbH) is said to be the first of its kind in the UK – nFlow claim no other UK DDS vendor is able to offer such advanced integration into their systems’ workflows.
• This is an interesting development as the iPhone’s popularity is clearly growing in business circles, with many people once more back to carrying two devices: a Blackberry and an iPhone.

Bird & Bird to roll-out Bighand
Bird & Bird is now rolling out a Bighand digital dictation system at its London offices, with 80 users already live and another 130 to follow in the coming weeks. Head of IT Karen Jacks said future projects under review include a DDS pilot at the firm’s German offices and integrating Bighand with the iManage DMS. Jacks said the firm was already investigating a migration from analogue tape to digital however after merging with a firm that already used DDS “the potential RoI became increasingly visible, in addition to resolving the many issues we had with our analogue based system”.
• Welsh Health Legal Services say that since migrating to a Bighand DDS from analogue tape, the organisation has been able to cut its annual secretarial ‘temps’ cover budget by around £16,000.

Digital recorders now supporting Dragon
The last month has seen both Philips and Grundig announce new recorder hardware that supports Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition system. Philips is now shipping its SpeechMike microphones with Speech Control software, which allows SpeechMikes to be used straight out of the box with Dragon. In addition, the mike’s function buttons have also been programmed with the most frequent speech recognition commands.

In a separate development, Philips new Digital Voice Tracer (DVT) 660 recorder is now shipping with a special voice recorder edition of Dragon. The DVT 660 can also record directly in an MP3 file format. The Insider is currently testing this device and we’ll report back later.

Meanwhile, Grundig Business Systems (GBS) has extended its DigtaSoft range of digital dictation software with the launch of its entry-level DigtaSoft One. This supports playback in DSS, DSS Pro and WAV file formats, as well as encryption and compatibility with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MediaInterface SpeaKing speech recognition packages.
  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top
 
New product launches
 
Is Cranberry fruitier than thin client?
E-know.net has launched the Cranberry Smart Client as an alternative to thin client terminals or PCs as vehicles for its managed desktop solution. It can be deployed out of the box and can then ‘call home’ to receive automatic configuration updates and software applications without the need for an on-site engineer. Yet it also supports locally attached peripherals and the use of local, remote and even virtualised applications.
• e-know.net has also published a new Survive & Thrive guide for law firms on IT provision via the managed services. www.e-know.net/press-room/white-papers.htm

Seven Nine offering 10 free days
With budgets tight at the moment, Ed Hodgson’s security consultancy Seven Nine is offering up to 10 firms one day free consultancy each to help them assess and improve their compliance with the English Law Society’s recent practice note on information security. The exercise includes a 2-3 hour site visit plus a report on their current status and recommendations on how to tackle any risks.
www.sevennine.co.uk

InTechnology introduces hosted call recording for IP
InTechnology reports that Live-PA, its recently launched call recording system for Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 platform, will also support InTechnology’s hosted IP telephony service Unity IP Voice. The integration of the two systems gives firms the ability to record any phone call across the practice but without the need for any on-site call recording equipment.
• InTechnology has published Convergence, a new briefing paper on IP telephony that can be downloaded from www.intechnology.co.uk/Documents/whitepapers
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top

Sharepoint news in brief
 
Linklaters/ClearPeople DMS case study available
ClearPeople has published a case study looking at the way it helped create a document management system for the Linklaters CEE spin-off Kinstellar using SharePoint and MacroView’s Wisdom DMF product.
www.clearpeople.com/ms-casestudy-sharepoint.dm

Bird & Bird’s website developed by Sword on Sharepoint
Sword ECM has delivered a new website for Bird & Bird using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to provide the content management environment.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top

EMEA news in brief
 
Tikit appoints French country manager
Tikit has appointed Emmanuel Potvin to the position of Country Manager, Tikit France, based in Paris. Previously Potvin was the business development manager for LexisNexis France, with account management responsibility for the country’s top 25 law firms.

More DocsCorp wins in Europe
Wins this month include German property law firm Jebens Mensching, which has gone with a DocsCorp pdfDocs Desktop solution. Cripps Harries Hall in the UK is to deploy pdfDocs Desktop and compareDocs as its document comparison and PDF management solution. Arntzen de Besche in Norway has chosen pdfDocs compareDocs and Metadata Assistant. And, Belgium’s largest independent law firm Eubelius has gone with Metadata Assistant.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top

Litigation news in brief

Renehan joins LDM as international director
Paul Renehan has joined LDM Global as international director of professional services. Before joining LDM he was with Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions.

Legal Inc holds court with Linx effect
Legal Inc has launched a new e-court service, called Linx, for criminal and civil cases that are judged to be very high value, highly complex or relate to security. Linx has already been used in the prosecution of one of the suspects involved in the June 2007 terrorist attacks.
• Legal Inc is hosting a disclosure workshop on 19th May, as part of this year’s Information Retention & E-Disclosure Management Conference.

Iron Mountain brings its discovery escrow service to UK
Iron Mountain has announced the availability of its intellectual property litigation discovery escrow service in the UK, to facilitate the secure collection and examination of evidence during IP lawsuits. According to Ian Brookes of Iron Mountain, the value of the service is claimants can protect proprietary information by having contentious IP examined on the premises of a secure, neutral 3rd party.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------top

Contact us

For all editorial, subscription insert, reprint and advertising enquiries contact: Legal Technology Insider, Oak Lodge, Darrow Green Road, Denton, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 0AY, UK

Publisher & Editor: Charles Christian | Tel: 01986 788666 | Fax: 01986 788808 | Email: news@legaltechnology.com

Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations Data
Company name: Legal Technology Insider Ltd
Registered Address: Oak Lodge, Darrow Green Road, Denton, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 0AY, United Kingdom
Company Registration Number: 4738780
VAT Registration Number: 318 2621 73

ISSN 1740-8474 (Online) Copyright © Legal Technology Insider 2008. All rights reserved. Published by Legal Technology Insider Limited. No part of this publication may be reproduced without consent. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, no guarantee is expressed or implied and the Publisher does not accept liability for any loss or damage that may arise from any errors or omissions. Please note that website addresses can change. All brand names and trademarks are acknowledged. Privacy policy: We do not sell or disclose the names, addresses or contact details of our subscribers to anyone... ever!

© 2009 Legal Technology Insider