It's win one, lose one for Axxia today. After just ousting SOS at Scottish firm Aberdein Considine earlier today, now we have Edinburgh-based Pilgrim Systems announcing that London law firm Kerman & Co has selected Pilgrim's LawSoft as its next generation practice management system to replace its legacy LexisNexis Axxia system.
Having decided to migrate from Axxia, the firm embarked on a review of the legal IT marketplace. Having outgrown its legacy system the firm said it wanted a product and supplier that was committed to the legal profession. Interestingly, the firm also took the opportunity to replace its Autonomy iManage document management system with LawSoft’s DMS module.
Managing partner Daniel O’Connell said “We want to develop a relationship with a supplier that will stand us in good stead for the future. We feel we have found that supplier in Pilgrim and believe that LawSoft is the best consolidated solution on the market. We have aggressive growth plans here at Kerman & Co. We had to select a technology that supports our plans and will be easy for new team members to pick-up when they join the firm.”
Orange Rag editor Charles Christian will be at the Legal IT Show in London all day tomorrow (Wednesday). Needless to say he has already got himself double-booked – so just grab him when you see him. He's also conducting the Keynote Interview – Legal IT & The New Normal – with Neil Renfrew, the head of IT at Thomas Eggar, at 11:50am, facilitating roundtable discussions on the implications of the Legal Services Act at 2:40pm and 3:30pm, and attending a legal industry Twitter meeting (a tweet-up) from 5:00pm. As ever, best to contact him during the day by email on news@legaltechnology.com or on 07786 738172 – tho we're uncertain how good mobile reception is within the Business Design Centre.
SAP's chief executive Leo Apotheker is out and leaving the the company board after less than one year. Apotheker has worked at SAP since 1988 when he joined as boss of SAP
France. He was joint-CEO of the backoffice software group from April
2008 to May 2009, in order to ensure a smooth takeover from his
predecessor, Henning Kagermann. His contract was not extended by 'mutual
agreement'. SAP said he had resigned his job and his position on the board effective immediately. (No smooth takeovers needed following his departure then.)
He will be replaced by joint-CEOs Bill McDermott, who was head
of field operations and Jim Hagermann Snabe, previously head of
product development. The board thanked Apotheker for his contribution to SAP over 20 years and wished him the best for the future. The company is holding a conference call later today for media and analysts.
Scottish law form Aberdein Considine has selected LexisNexis Axxia dna as its single, integrated practice management system of choice. The firm will also act as a showcase reference site for LexisNexis Axxia dna in the Scotland region. In addition, Russell-Cooke LLP has chosen to upgrade from legacy accounting and billing solution Personal Knowledge Centre (PKC) to LexisNexis Axxia dna. Aberdein Considine has purchased user licences for its Legal Services Division. It chose LexisNexis Axxia dna for its easy workflow build capability and superior reporting functionality. The firm had been using an accounting system from SOS.
Rob Aberdein, Partner in charge of Lender Services, Litigation and Employment, explained, “We went through an exhaustive due diligence process prior to selecting LexisNexis Axxia dna. The workflow development capability offered by the solution is truly exceptional – even non IT staff can easily create new workflows. As the showcase reference site for Scotland, we have a seat on the LexisNexis Axxia dna Product Development Board, which means that we have the opportunity to contribute to its further development. This is important to us. One of the key reasons for our consistent growth has been a strategic and progressive approach to technology adoption."
As part of its build-up to the Legal IR Show in London later this week, WinScribe is offering a special promotion to law firms
visiting the WinScribe stand. Law
firms who would like to try "cloud" dictation and transcription
should visit the WinScribe Stand, 66A.
The first ten law firms to sign up at the show will be offered 6 months free use of WinScribe dictation
and transcription software for up to 10 users per firm through the
WinScribe OnDemand platform.
Also
included in the offer is the WinScribe BlackBerry application
which enables lawyers to dictate their reports from their BlackBerry
Smartphone. As part of WinScribe version 4.0 Mobility Suite, this application
offers a range of advanced and time saving features such as job status view, rules based workflow management and Wireless/USB download
options.
Hammonds LLP today announced it had selected Autonomy iManage as the single vendor for all of its document, knowledge and business process management requirements. After a competitive procurement Hammonds selected iManage Universal Search, iManage WorkSite for document management solution, and iManage Workflow Manager for process automation. Autonomy iManage’s conceptual capabilities and ability to provide firms with the complete set of EDRM tools from one common platform were among the key factors in Hammond’s final decision. According to the Insider 250 chart, Hammonds previously used EMC Documentum for DMS. “In today’s volatile economy, a piecemeal approach to intelligent content processing is no longer attractive or feasible,” said Russell Firth, CIO at Hammonds LLP. “As a leading commercial firm, we are constantly striving to boost collaboration and enhance productivity in order to improve client service and derive the highest value from each billable hour. Autonomy iManage was the natural choice for us. Its end-to-end, meaning-based platform and unprecedented scalability make this a truly strategic investment that we will be able to develop in the future by adding functionalities and modules as and when the need arises.”
Greenspoon Marder PA, a Florida-based boutique law firm has announced its decision to upgrade its financial and practice management platform to Elite 3E. The firm’s investment in 3E’s leading-edge technology supports its mission to provide the personalized client service of a boutique firm coupled with the experience and technology of the largest firms.
“3E’s built-in reporting and business intelligence capabilities will allow us to deliver real-time information directly to our attorneys’ desktops,” said Gerald Greenspoon, co-managing partner of Greenspoon Marder. “We will now be able to provide our clients with the information they need in a more timely and accurate manner." The firm's management was also attracted to 3E’s combination of integrated workflow, collaboration and development capabilities. “3E will help streamline our internal processes and provides us with a flexible growth platform for the future,” added Michael Marder, co-managing partner. “After a rigorous evaluation process, we decided that Elite is the right long-term partner for our firm.”Formed in late 1970’s, Greenspoon Marder has six locations throughout Florida with 75 lawyers on staff.
Comment: The Orange Rag blog hears this deal came down to a two horse race between Elite and Aderant. The contract was actually signed on the Elite booth at LegalTech New York earlier this week.
Work has now started on the February issue of the American Legal Technology Insider newsletter – out at the end of next week. Final deadline – for everything – is close of business (UK time) on Wednesday 10th February.
Here's a round-up of the final day at LegalTech New York courtesy of our associates at InsideLegal – www.insidelegal.com
The third and final day of LegalTech started off with a bang and a truly impressive headliner in Malcolm Gladwell and his participation in Wednesday's keynote: I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information. Gladwell, along with Dr. Lisa Sanders, medical columnist for the New York Times and technical consultant for the TV show House, and David Craig, Thomson Reuters Chief Strategy Officer (and the keynote session's sponsor), drew a mega-crowd of several hundred legal-ITers to discuss how technology can be used to help supplement decision-making capabilities of subject matter experts.
While the host shared that 2009 saw 2 billion searches performed on Westlaw, a near 50% increase from the previous year, and that Thomson financial and news systems now process more than a half-million updates per second, Gladwell and Dr. Sanders cited examples from their respective books and columns questioning to what extent more information leads to better decision making. Gladwell impressed with his short stories and witty examples reminding the audience that intuition is the key to better decision making, and that information overload is a big "distraction" in this regard "intuition is fragile and easily upset", he stated. The panelists discussed a few questions and then followed up with a lively Q&A session, all the while we (along with many of our compatriots following on twitter) thought "shut up already and let Malcom tell more stories". Surely his book sales got a boost as well! In a nutshell, our keynote takeaway was "not more info, better info".
While topping this day 3 kick-off wasn't in the cards, we caught-up with more vendors to capture their show impressions: Marc Adler of PerfectLaw feels 2010 is REALLY the year of the paperless office. "Firms no longer want to pay to store hard copies so document imaging is very popular this year." Adler also notes the importance of a reliable and secure back-up system when transitioning to paperless. PensEra's President, Peter Zver lamented the fact that floor 3 had no vendors at all. Zver stated that it was always a highlight of his to tour the 3rd floor and speak with new entrants in the industry who in years past have set up there. Dean Evans & Associates noted an estimated attendance downturn of 20-30% and less booth traffic, despite a pre-show direct mail and email campaign.
According to Logan Sutterfield, Product Manager of Symantec, about 30% of the LegalTech NY crowd consisted of "trick or treaters" and another group of e-discovery experts. Advanced Productivity Software's CEO Jim Tharpe was encouraged by what he's heard at the show and shared that several firms he spoke with had "good Q4s" and looking to spend again. Dan Bressler, VP of Marketing for IntApp, mentioned Autonomy's iManage ConflictsManager release as big show news.
In other new product news, we also caught-up with SAP and Susie Krupa, Industry Principal, Professional Services, and responsible for the German software giant's penetration within the Am Law 200 financial practice management market. Krupa told us recent SAP wins at Baker & McKenzie and Shoosmiths is the beginning of what they see as increasing firm demand for a true end-to-end solution spanning time & billing, financial management, HR, payroll, marketing, etc. Of course, there has been "SAP enters legal market" chatter for over a decade but with Susie (and her many years of legal practice management and enterprise experience) driving the bus, it will surely be interesting to see what happens.
The Orange Rag plans to run a separate round-up on e-discovery news.
