Issue 124 - 19.03.2003 - Hummingbird acquires LegalKEY - Tikit lines up with FileSurf - Tikit results show evolving business - UK supplier tackles Chinese market - Microsoft's slice of WordPerfect up for sale - Dutch firm goes with Hummingbird - Online divorce can say millions in legal fees - Desktop Lawyer to star on QVC - iManage claims US market lead - Mourant selects Touchstone - Another Australian win for CMS Open - Amsterdam show report: Lex Connects

HUMMINGBIRD ACQUIRES LEGAL KEY
Hummingbird has acquired LegalKEY Technologies, a New York-based software company best known for its electronic records management and conflicts of interest checking systems. With effective records management, including corporate document retention policies, now high on the agenda for law firms in the wake of Enron and similar scandals, there has been a suggestion that in an ideal world, the best possible approach would be a combination of a conventional document management system linked to a records management system that, like LegalKEY, could handle both paper and electronic files. Hummingbird will now be able to deliver this integrated solution from one source.

The LegalKEY business will function as a subsidiary of Hummingbird and continue to serve all their existing clientele - UK users of LegalKEY products include Clifford Chance, Norton Rose and Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw. The executive management of LegalKEY will also remain in charge of the LegalKEY operation, while for LegalKEY customers running the rival iManage DMS, Hummingbird will offer a free migration package from iManage to Hummingbird DM5.

Commenting on the deal, Hummingbird UK country manager Liz Maloney said the move not only reflected the company's strong commitment to the legal market but was also part of a broader strategy to provide an integrated matter centric suite for complete life cycle management of documents, knowledge repositories, digital and paper records, and client and matter information. At the time of going to press Hummingbird and LegalKEY's existing UK distributor Kramer Lee & Associates had not yet met to discuss the future of the relationship - a previous relationship between KLA and Hummingbird unravelled acrimoniously in June 2000.

AND TIKIT LINES UP WITH FILE SURF
Just like London buses, there is never a records management system available when you want one and then two come along at once - the second in this case being MDY Advanced Technologies' FileSurf software which, along with LegalKEY, currently dominates the US market - US users include Akin Gump, Cooley Godward, Cravath Swaine & Moore, MoFo and Weil Gotshal. MDY, which opened its London-based European operations earlier this year, this week announced a mutually exclusive partnership that will see Tikit sell and support FileSurf in the UK legal market. MDY is a strategic partner of iManage however FileSurf is also compatible with Hummingbird, thereby providing an immediate synergy with Tikit's own DMS customer base.

MDY's European director Ron Christian (spooky coincidence but no relation to the editor) told the Insider that the company's design philosophy was that the medium should be irrelevant and that the key concern was providing an technology platform that could support an organisation's document retention policy. To this end FileSurf can handle physical and electronic records management, it can email management - it can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, Lotus Notes and GroupWise, it can manage web content and, along with document management software, it can also be integrated with case and practice management systems. In common with LegalKEY, FileSurf can also be supplied with a number of ready to run modules, including conflict of interest checking. As to the prospects for records management systems in the legal sector, Christian is convinced "the market is ripe" as more and more lawyers and inhouse counsel recognise the need for this kind of software. www.filesurf.co.uk

TIKIT RESULTS SHOW EVOLVING BUSINESS
Staying with Tikit, the AIM listed company today (19 March) released its preliminary results for the year to 31 December 2002. Given the difficult trading conditions the UK legal IT sector had last year - particularly at the top end of the market among the larger firms where Tikit has its main customer base - the company did well to see its turnover fall by only £900k from £9.12 million to £8.23 million. Inevitably net pre-tax profits were also down - from £1.07 million to £648k - although the company's gross profits were very little changed from the previous year. It is also worth noting that these figures take into account internal software R&D and the acquisition of another new business - the KM consultancy Granite & Comfrey. Although understandably cautious given the continuing general economic uncertainty and the added shadows cast by the likelihood of a war in Iraq, in common with a number of legal IT companies, Tikit chairman Mike McGoun is reporting a positive start to the 2003 trading year.

To the outside observer, possibly the most interesting development is the way Tikit has managed evolve over the last 12 months from being primarily a software distributor and systems integrator into a broader based IT services and consultancy business. Consultancy work and services (either undertaken directly or via its Aurra Consulting and Granite & Comfrey arms) now account for over 53% of Tikit's revenues (compared with about 30% last year) with pure consultancy fees up by 7.5% to £2.4 million. With many firms revisiting their knowledge management operations this year, Tikit's evolution into a broader based consultancy looks like being a winner.

UK SUPPLIER TO TACKLE CHINESE LEGAL IT MARKET
Specialist UK legal software developer Griersons is working with Smart Act Software of Beijing to market a Chinese language version of its legal file management and accounts software to lawyers working in the Peoples Republic of China. The move follows a private initiative by Griersons, when they employed Ji Min, a Chinese law student turned computer studies graduate, at their Newcastle offices. The software was subsequently taken to Shanghai for evaluation and following a positive response from both Chinese lawyers and government officials, Griersons negotiated a distribution agreement with Smart Act. www.griersons.com

MICROSOFT'S SLICE OF WORDPERFECT UP FOR SALE
Wordperfect, the wordprocessing system the legal world fell out of love with, is on the block again. This time the vendor is Microsoft which has just announced that it is selling its 24.6% shareholding in Corel, the Canadian software company that owns WordPerfect, to Venture CC Holdings, a San Francisco venture capital group, The sale, which is due to be completed by 24 March, will see the shares change hands for just $12.88 million. This represents a loss of over $100 million on the $135 million Microsoft paid for the shares in October 2000.

MAJOR DUTCH FIRM GOES WITH HUMMINGBIRD
AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen, one of the top three law firms in The Netherlands (the Dutch firm also has a strategic alliance with Deloitte & Touche Legal) has purchased Hummingbird Enterprise 5.0 for its document and knowledge management and portal technologies. Working with local partner Timesoft, Hummingbird will create a web-based desktop environment for the firm. Timesoft is responsible for developing e-Clips plug-ins that will bring the firm's client and matter information and management reports to the end users through the Hummingbird portal.

DIVORCE ONLINE SAVES £4 MILLION IN LEGAL FEES
Divorce-Online, the UK online divorce service, has just processed its 5000th divorce since the launch of the service in May 2000. The company's managing director Mark Keenan reckons the service, which allows users to undertake their own divorce proceedings without a lawyer for just £85, has saved consumers £4 million in legal fees during the last three years.

DESKTOP LAWYER - ON THE BOX
QVC, the television shopping channel, is now offering the Desktop Lawyer range of boxed CD-Rom legal service products to viewers. Richard Cohen, the joint CEO of Epoq Group - and a partner with London law firm Landau & Cohen - said "We believe this is the first time a legal product has been chosen for mass marketing by a television company in the UK and marks Epoq's continuing strides to break new ground in the provision of legal solutions." Cohen will be appearing alongside the QVC presenters to demonstrate and explain the benefits of the Desktop Lawyer product range.

iMANAGE NOW US DMS MARKET LEADER ?
Holland & Knight has become the latest US law firm to select the iManage WorkSite system as the basis for its document and content management system. The deal means that 26 of the AmLaw top 50 US law firms are now iManage users and also reveals that since 1999, over 90% of the AmLaw top 100 that selected a new DMS chose WorkSite. At the last count, 23 of the Insider's top 100 UK firm's were using iManage although it is worth noting that a lot of these sites still do not run a dedicated document management system.

MOURANT SELECTS TOUCHSTONE & GREAT PLAINS
The Mourant professional services group - best known in the legal world for its Channel Islands based law firm arm Mourant du Feu & Jeune - has gone live with £150,000 of software and IT implementation services from the Touchstone group. For its financial systems, Mourant selected the Microsoft Great Plains package running on SQL Server 2000 with remote sites using Citrix thin client technology.

ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN WIN FOR CMS OPEN
Australian law firm Henry Davis York has chosen the CMS Open system from Solution 6 as its new practice management system. Solution 6 reckon that over 80% of Australia's top tier law firms now run Solution 6 PMS products. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles has also signed up for CMS Open.

AMSTERDAM SHOW REPORT - LEX CONNECTS
The Ark Group looks like it may have finally cracked the European legal IT market if the initial reports coming in from its Lex Connect event last week at the Amsterdam Hilton are anything to go by. The event, which was attended by about 60 delegates followed the networking model of matching vendor solution providers with senior European lawyers in a convivial, conference environment.

Hot topics were document management, portal technology, risk management and knowledge management and, as one delegate put it "Conspicuous by their absence, IT Directors with limited budgets had been replaced by managing partners with strategic visions for their organisations." Or, as Derek Southall - the head of strategic development at Wragge & Co and one of the speakers - commented "The attendees were very European and for the first time ever I detected a real appetite for buying IT/putting key systems in place from the European firms. Overall it was reasonably good and it helps to be reminded of the UK's place in the worldwide global IT market."

Ark Group publisher Henry Anson added "Lex Connect succeeded in aligning technology and strategy in a programme that attracted an audience of managing partners from across Europe. This has rarely happened in past events as law firm management have treated IT as a separate entity to management decision making. Times are changing however and as Lex Connect found a way to bring together solution providers and decision makers with real budgets where previously others, including themselves, have failed. Ark will be running Lex Connect again next year on the 1 & 2 March 2004 in Amsterdam.