Headlines

Another UK legal IT supplier takes on the APAC market
Technology for Business (TFB) has become the latest UK legal IT vendor to focus on the Asia Pacific law firms market. TFB, best known in the UK for its Partner for Windows integrated case and practice management system, has formed a subsidiary company in New Zealand and will initially be targetting the North and South Islands, as well as some of the Pacific island states, from is Auckland offices. The TFB-NZ operation is being headed up by Nicole Birsdall, a New Zealander who until recently worked for TFB in one of its UK offices.

Commenting on the move, Birdsall said "Our product required only minimal modification to meet the regulations set by the New Zealand Law Society and those who have seen the product have been impressed by its flexibility, user-friendliness and the fact that it incorporates both accounts and case management in a single product. Encouraged by this feedback, we are really looking forward to establishing a firm presence in the market, with a product that is more advanced than those offered by traditional suppliers." For more information email nicole.birdsall@tfbnz.co.nz or visit www.tfbnz.co.nz

Stibbe uses workflow to cut inception times
Stibbe, one of the largest law firms in Continental Europe, has implemented the Infographics FloSuite workflow/business process management system, initially to provide a framework "to intelligently handle data requiring entry into or retrieval from the firm's practice management system," as well as data transfers between different systems (such as the transfer of a prospect from the CRM to client status within the PMS) with maximum efficiency and minimum risk of input errors or data duplication.

The FloSuite system has already been used by Stibbe to manage its new client/matter inception process, cutting the time involved from days to in some instances just minutes. The system is also being used by Stibbe to manage areas such as conflict checking, new employee start procedures, cheque and holiday requests, billing and multiple core legal process types.
www.flosuite.com

Copitrak strengthens its market share
Costs recovery systems specialist Copitrak has further strengthened its leading position in the UK, Ireland, Europe and Asia legal IT markets with 20 new orders being confirmed for its DIAMonde system during the last quarter of 2003. These include orders from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert in London, Simmons & Simmons in London, Latham & Watkins in Tokyo and Paris, Denton Wilde Sapte in Paris, Sidley & Austin in Brussels, Jones Day in London, Dockrell Farrell in Dublin, NTU in Singapore and Salans in London. Copitrak's director of sales & marketing Mark Gower said that with law firms "from Beijing to Birmingham" installing Copitrak systems and the company posting its best ever quarterly sales results was "further proof that the legal sector in investing again in IT".
www.copitrak.com

Deacons orders two Timeframe modules
The Australian top 10 firm Deacons has ordered two new modules from Australian time and billing software specialists Timeframe Systems. These are OpenEFT - an add-on to the accounts payable function within the Solution 6 CMS Open practice management system that provides EFT (electronic funds transfer) to all major Australian banks. Remittance advices may be generated via email, fax gateway or SMS. And, Informer - an application independent notification system that Deacons will initially be using to monitor nominated activities within CMS and automatically generate exception reports. Timeframe, which now has offices in Sydney and Melbourne, is planning to open a New Zealand office in Auckland later this year. For more information visit www.time-frame.com/products.htm

Law firm Briffa continues growth within interactive games sector
Briffa, the rapidly growing digital IP law firm based in Islington Business Design Centre in London, has appointed Alex Chapman as a partner. Chapman, who while still at law school set up a software development company specialising in online and PC games, will specialise in the new media, interactive entertainment and computer games sectors. Chapman already acts for a wide range of clients including leading games developers Sports Interactive, The Creative Assembly, Minds Eye and Exient and online businesses such as Neutralize, Firebox and sundayleague.com.
www.briffa.com

Ringtail announces CaseBook v7
Ringtail Solutions has been previewing the latest release - Version 7 - of its CaseBook KM and litigation support application at this week's LegalTech New York event. A major new option available with Version 7 is the integration of the xmlTriangle web authoring tools, which will be incorporated to provide a new Ringtail Authoring module that will effectively allow users to create and publish web content as simply as they can write wordprocessor documents. The familiar Ringtail tabbed interface has also been extended to allow for the creation of custom tabs to gain access to external content from client intranets and third party applications. One of the first applications to be integrated using using a custom tab will be the new Webnote product from LiveNote. Version 7, which is described by the company's president Eddie O'Brien as "the most significant and powerful release we have yet produced," is scheduled for a med-2004 release date.
www.ringtailsolutions.com

Document assembly - Real Decisions to roll out smart-DOCS
Real Decisions, the real estate software company formed last year as a spin off from Calvis, are now marketing their new smart-DOCS application which they believe "could hold the secret to unlocking the real potential of PISCES (the XML standard for real estate transactions) by allowing legal and other documentation (such as Word and Excel files) to have data seamlessly embedded, ready to be exported directly into other PISCES-enabled systems".

The way it works is data from PISCES files can be imported directly into pre-formatted templates such as new leases, valuation reports or investment particulars. For new documents, smart-DOCS provides a mechanism for capturing the information in a format that can later be exported to PISCES for use in any compliant system. Documents created using smart-DOCS operate as normal Word or Excel files in all other respects and can be emailed, or stored within corporate filing systems. smart-DOCS also offers version control and an audit trail.

Real Decisions' director Nick Matthews says he "envisages that advisors such as law firms and estate agents will create 'smart' templates with key information populated directly from PISCES files supplied by clients - significantly reducing the amount of time spent in document creation. The client or purchaser can receive the PISCES information for immediate use within their management or valuation/appraisal system. It is possible, subject to the volume of information, that weeks could be shaved off transaction times. This will help promote a more liquid real estate investment market where transactions are more likely to complete, as they are capable of being handled more swiftly and successfully. So, no re-keying of information, faster document creation, swifter due diligence, less abortive sales and information that has been validated at source."
www.smart-docs.com

Law firm employee benefits online
The UK law firm Hammonds has introduced a voluntary benefits package that will allow the firm's 1200 staff to access individually tailored products and services via the firm's intranet. The service is called BringMe and was developed by the Lloyds TSB banking group to provide a range of products - from mortgages and car insurance to CDs and holidays - and allow Hammonds' staff to take advantage of specially negotiated discounts. For more information visit www.bringme.co.uk
 
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