OK people, this is probably the last post before the Christmas/New Year break (as we call it in the UK – for our North American readers Happy Holidays and for our German readers, enjoy the 'Silent Season') so seasons greetings to everyone. If there are any breaking news stories between now and 2009, you can be certain we will see them reported here first.

In the meantime, here is a quick catch-up of random news & developments – both serious, less serious and downright frivolous...

• Oracle (yes, this is the first time in several years that we've heard them taking a direct interest in the legal vertical market) have published a new white paper on electronic data discovery – a copy of the white paper is attached. We also hope to have news in the New Year about SAP's activities.

• We're hearing suggestions about a new legal tech networking event that could replace some of the present conferences and events – more news on that in 2009.

• We're planning a further extension of our news coverage in 2009 – so you shouldn't need to go anywhere else for legal IT news than the Insider/Orange Rag stable of publications.

• If someone buys you an Amazon Kindle for Christmas (OK, this is for American readers as the Kindle is unlikely to become widely available in the UK until the spring) and you are wondering what to do with it – well worry no more as you can subscribe to and read the Orange Rag blog on a Kindle.

• Finally, we've been asked by some horizontally challenged legal ITers if we could encourage them in their slimming activities. More than happy to do so – let's call it the Orange Rag dIeT – and we'll devise some prizes (not boxes of chocolates) for those of you who make the biggest impact on your BMIs over a six month period. We think dieting is an excellent idea – not only does some moderate weight loss do you good – but you also then need to buy replacement clothes in a smaller size, which is going to benefit the wider economy. (Well perhaps it doesn't benefit the restaurants you no longer visit but two out of three ain't bad.)


Happy Holidays, Christmas, Silent Season or whatever festivities you celebrate at this time of the year – and that includes you pagans who celebrated the Yule winter solistice yesterday.

The December edition of the Legal Technology Insider newsletter (issue 215) is now out. The digital version hit desktops during the past 15 minutes and the hard copy version will be arriving (subject to the Christmas post) from Thursday onwards.

Top stories include two pieces on the rise of 'cloud computing' plus the results of the latest readers poll – Reasons to be Fearful. We started out by asking whether firms had significantly amended their IT strategies since 1st September 2008. 35.5% of those responding said ‘yes’ they had – the remainder said ‘no,’ which means they are either oblivious to the recession or else revised their plans earlier this year. There again 58.1% of those responding said they had postponed, delayed or deferred IT projects since 1st September; 36% said they had cancelled IT projects; and, 60% said they had delayed, postponed, deferred or cancelled decisions on future IT procurement projects.

On an even more sombre note, nearly one third of respondents (32.3%) said they had already made IT staff related redundancies and lay-offs since 1st September and 41.9% were actively considering lay-offs. In other words, we could be seeing IT related job losses in nearly three quarters (74.2%) of law firms over the next few months.

In total, a mere 35.5% of firms said their current IT procurement plans were continuing unchanged – which suggests 2009 could be a very lean year for the legal IT industry. Asked why, 12.9% cited difficulties is securing credit to fund IT projects; 22.6% said they were reluctant to be seen spending money on IT at a time when they were laying off staff; and, 77.4% their prime motivation for cutting back on IT was continuing uncertainty about the economy and its impact on their firms’ business.

Commenting on the company's performance this year, Aderant's president & CEO Michael Kohlsdorf said "the outstanding performance in 2008 sets the stage for the introduction in early 2009 of the next-generation of the company's business management application suite – the Aderant Expert Golden Gate Release." This new release will leverage Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 technologies, including Windows Workflow Foundation, to deliver workflow-enabled file opening and enhanced time entry capabilities as well as provide users with contextual access to tasks, information, and collaboration tools.

"Aderant is taking advantage of Windows Workflow Foundation and other Microsoft .NET Framework technologies in the Golden Gate release of Aderant Expert, which can deliver strong business solutions to Microsoft customers around the world," said Paul Andrew, senior product manager for Microsoft. "We are confident Aderant's incorporation of Microsoft .NET technologies can provide organisations with even more cutting-edge functionality and capabilities while potentially lowering their costs."

"There is no doubt that we have made great strides in 2008," added Kohlsdorf. "We remain committed to providing the best products, services, and support to our clients and this commitment will continue to drive our organisation in 2009."

High-end international legal, tax and strategy consulting firm, Nishith Desai Associates, based in Mumbai, Bangalore and Palo Alto, has successfully gone live with 3E, the next-generation financial and practice management software system from Elite. Milind Mundankar, chief technology officer at Nishith Desai Associates, said  “The firm had been successfully billing clients using a legacy system for the past ten years. We were looking for a system that would centralise the time billing and accounting functions and that offered inbuilt conflict check and pending collection modules. Most impressive was the way in which the implementation was handled by Elite. The transition was smooth with minimal disruption to fee-earners and, since go-live earlier this month, a number of valuable training programs have already been successfully completed by Elite.”

• Nishith Desai Associates specialises in cross-border transactional work with a focus on the financial services, IT and telecom, pharma and life sciences, media and entertainment, and infrastructure sectors. Key practice areas include international finance and tax, corporate and securities, intellectual property as well as litigation and dispute resolution. The firm practices Indian law from its overseas offices in co-operation with local law firms in a wide variety of jurisdictions.

What a difference a year makes. Visitor figures for The Orange Rag blog have hit a new high. The total number of visitors (measured as distinct URLs) has increased by 40% from 11,000 in November 2007 to 15,500 in November 2008. And the site traffic (measured as page views) has increased by a massive 140% from 100,000 in November 2007 to 240,000 in November this year. On weekdays the average number of page views is 10,000 a day – hitting 16,000 a day when major news stories break. We'd like to thank all our regular visitors – and of course Vin Murria, IRIS and LexisNexis – for making this all possible.

The Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) has announced an agreement with the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to govern how changes in LSC policy will be communicated to – and implemented by – LSSA members.
 
"I think that it's fair to say that the LSC has not always prioritised the impact of change on software vendors. Any changes in policy – including those which might seem relatively minor to the LSC – will potentially have a big impact on software providers," said LSSA chair Dominic Cullis. "However, following a recent Working Group meeting with representatives from both organisations, we are feeling much more optimistic about the LSC's ability and willingness to keep its promises with regard to how future changes will be rolled out to members of the LSSA."
 
A key element of this newfound partnership rests on the formation of this Software Vendor Working Group, a body which will help to create a formal channel for two-way communication between software vendors and the LSC. Cooperating at this level will allow the LSC to hear the views of software vendors first-hand, and to take account of these concerns when implementing change. The Working Group will also ensure that a representative range of vendors will now be brought into discussions at an earlier stage in the planning of policy implementation.
 
"We are very much aware of the impact of change on LSSA members, and recognition of this issue has reached the top level of our organisation," said  John Binks, Head of Provider Readiness at the LSC. "The Provider Readiness Team has implemented a sign-off procedure for all change requests where an impact on vendors is likely. This way, we can take the opportunity to seek the views of vendors on proposed changes, gain a better understanding of the impact they may cause, and factor that into the sign-off process. With this approach, we can ensure that the LSC understands the impact of change on software providers from the beginning, and factor into our plans proper provisions for making technical information available to vendors, along with sufficient time to prepare for change."
 
According to LSSA, even trivial changes can have a big impact on software vendors, as suppliers will need to review and understand the new specification, write and test the new code, make any necessary design changes, communicate the changes to clients, distribute the updated software, organise additional training, and then respond to any queries they receive about the changes from clients. As such, following the most recent meeting of the Working Group, both sides have agreed that any changes affecting case management software will only be requested by the LSC for implementation at two set dates in a year, in April and October. Furthermore, the LSC has promised that a clear description of the transitional arrangements – as well as requirements for access to old data – will be supplied, and that software vendors will be provided with all appropriate changes in reasonable time to allow for the development process.

BSI British Standards has published BS 10008: Evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information – Specification. The standard sets out the requirements for the implementation and operation of electronic information management systems, including the storage and transfer of information, and addresses issues relating to authenticity and integrity of information.   
 
Legal admissibility concerns whether or not a piece of evidence would be accepted by a court of law. To ensure admissibility, information must be managed by a secure system throughout its lifetime (which can be for many years). Where doubt can be placed on the information, the evidential weight may be reduced, potentially harming the legal case. BS 10008 ensures that any electronic information required as evidence of a business transaction is afforded the maximum evidential weight. The process is based on the specification of the requirements for planning, implementing, operating, monitoring and improving the organization’s information management systems.

Specific areas covered by the standard include:
 
• The management of electronic information over long period, including through technology changes, where information integrity is a vital business requirement
• How to manage the various risks associated with electronic information
• How to demonstrate the authenticity of electronic information
• The management of quality issues related to document scanning processes
• The provision of a full life history of an electronic object throughout its life.
 
BS 10008 combines some of the content of the BSI guides, BIP 0008-1, BIP 0008-2 and BIP 0008-3.  BIPs 0008-1,2,3 are still current and can be used in parallel to BS 10008. BS 10008 is now available from www.bsigroup.com/BS10008

Orange Rag sources report that there are likely to be only 11 suppliers listed in the upcoming edition of the English Law Society's Software Solutions Guide – compared with the 15 featured in the 2008 edition. One known departure is JCS, which has been acquired by Cognito Software and already has a place in the guide, and it is rumoured that the IRIS Group is cutting back on the number of its entries. No doubt the suppliers remaining in the guide will get very excited about all these departures – but the question is does anybody outside the small firms 'we buy about £30k of software every six years' set actually read or care about the guide anymore? As Videss, in their still-independent pre-IRIS days said, when they pulled out of the guide after the 2003 edition: it's a lot of marketing money to spend on a directory entry that merely generates inquiries from firms that are too small to afford our software anyway...

Reports suggest that the Law Society may now rethink the format of the guide. And about time too, it is way past its sell-by date and needs an urgent refresh. In fact as long ago as 2004, the guide's founder John Miller was talking about a major revamp – but then he left the Law Society and inertia set in. In the meantime, if you can get hold of back copies of the guide, treat yourself to looking at the mugshots of all the directors featured on the supplier profile pages and ask yourself 'where are they now?'

The IRIS Group are still on the march with the acquisition on Friday of AlphaLaw – we're still awaiting a formal announcement however last Friday (4 December) Simon Meehan sent this letter out to the company's customers.




• No purchase price has been disclosed. AlphaLaw is a trading name of Management Support Systems Ltd.

Aderant say they have scored a significant win in the battle of the 'next generation' ERP/practice management systems against Elite 3E with the news that Allens Arthur Robinson – which has 1500 users across 14 cities in Australia, South East Asia, and China – has selected Aderant Expert to replace its legacy Keystone system. As the Keystone system has been part of the Aderant empire for some time, no doubt Elite will say the deal was more of an upgrade than a new win however Allens did go through an extensive evaluation process, citing Aderant's track record for timely implementations as part of its decision.