We're grateful for an IT director at a law firm (AIM users as it happens) for forwarding the following announcement – an announcement which to-date has not been circulated to the media...
IRIS Legal Communication
Arlene Adams – Managing Director – IRIS Legal Business Unit
Following the successful reorganisation of the IRIS Legal Business along functional lines, with a new and experienced management team now in place and the establishment of a clear future Product Road Map and Strategy for the IRIS Legal products, Arlene Adams has decided to leave IRIS to pursue a new challenge elsewhere.
Arlene was originally recruited to consolidate its leadership position within the legal market and to effect the big changes required to position it for future growth. Her enthusiasm and energy have enabled this task to be completed as planned and meetings with our legal customers, advocate that our plans are on track and that we are responding well to the needs of our customers. With this initial task complete, the MD role is now much more operationally focused around building upon the strong position we now have within our marketplace. We have all really enjoyed working with Arlene and wish her every success for the future.
Arlene’s successor will be Tony Bromfield who starts with us on Monday 24th November. He brings an exceptional combination of business development and operational experience from telecoms, professional services and technology industries. Tony was on the Board at Cable & Wireless International where he ran the businesses in the Caribbean, before which he was responsible for global operations at C&W Europe, Asia, US. During his time as an IT Partner with Ernst & Young in the 1990s, Tony was responsible for selling and delivering business transformation programmes in the Technology, Media and Telecoms space.
Like Arlene, Tony is committed to our plans which continue building upon the strong position we have within this market and will ensure that those plans are uninterrupted. Tony will be communicating with the IRIS Legal customer base in the coming days. If you wish to contact Tony sooner, please do so via legal@iris.co.uk
Kind Regards
Catherine Bailey
Head of Marketing
IRIS Legal
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This Month
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Wednesday, November 26
All change at IRIS - again
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 26 Nov 2008 12:18 GMT
Now Axxia take out an AIM site
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 26 Nov 2008 12:03 GMT
The battle of the consolidators continues...
This morning LexisNexis announced that Bindmans LLP has selected Axxia DNA as its new practice management system – the system will also supply the firm's document management, case management, reporting and business process workflow capabilities. Commenting on the decision Kambiz Jahanshahi, the IT Manager at Bindmans LLP, said "When we were informed that our existing IRIS AIM practice management software was being discontinued, we investigated the market for a single integrated solution. Compared to all the other similar solutions, DNA instantly ticked all the boxes – for fee-earners, secretarial staff and the finance team alike." • In a related development, we are hearing reports of more senior management changes within the LexisNexis legal systems team. As soon as we know more, we will post the information up on this blog.
VAT change the new Y2K ?
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 26 Nov 2008 09:33 GMT
We're hearing suggestions (although admittedly the first person to suggest it was a recruitment consultant, who obviously has a vested interest in whipping up demand for programming staff) that next Monday's change in the VAT rate in the UK from 17.5% to 15% is going to be the equivalent of Y2K for software companies as they struggle to implement the changes in time. Any thoughts on this subject matter – particularly as over the next two to three years the figure is going to return to 17.5% and then possibly up to 18.5%.
Friday, November 21
Wins at both Aderant and Eclipse
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 21 Nov 2008 08:12 GMT
Recession – what recession? Some vendors are still winning orders – these two came in late on Thursday...
South coast law firm Moore Blatch Resolve has selected Eclipse Legal Systems' Proclaim case management software to help manage growing caseloads following its business restructure. This follows the move earlier this year when Moore Blatch Solicitors created two separate limited liability partnerships: Moore Blatch Resolve LLP – which incorporates its personal injury and clinical negligence practice; and Moore Blatch LLP – which encompasses the firm’s professional services. Moore Blatch Resolve selected Proclaim for an initial tranche of 60 users and is also implementing the Proclaim Accounts system to provide an integrated practice management toolset. The original Moore Blatch practice was a LexisNexis Axxia/Lexis Nexis Visualfiles site so we understand Eclipse are pretty ecstatic about snatching the deal from under the noses of Visualfiles. A consultant told the Orange Rag the inherent flexibility of the Eclipse Proclaim software has become a key differentiator for firms setting up new business units (such as Moore Blatch Resolve) because "the last thing anyone wants is months and months of implementation time and then to be lumbered with a system that can't be tailored or tweaked inhouse unless you employ a troop of Solcase programmers". The second deal to be announced was by Aderant was at the licensed insolvency practitioners & business services provider Begbies Traynor Group plc, which is replacing its legacy management system with the Aderant Expert integrated business and financial management application suite. The group will also deploy a spend control solution from Proactis Group, a new partner of Aderant. Nick Taylor, the group financial controller at Begbies Traynor said that after an extensive selection process, Begbies Traynor selected Aderant Expert to replace its current legacy systems. Among the reasons given were Aderant's extensive use of industry-standard Microsoft technologies and its proven track record of timely and successful implementations. Thursday, November 20
November issue of the Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 20 Nov 2008 09:34 GMT
The November issue (No. 214) of the Legal Technology Insider newsletter is out now. Top stories include London law firm William Sturges switching from Axxia to Pilgrim; a report on Tikit's recent Word Day and the plans of UK law firms to migrate to Office 2007 (or not as the case might be); and, the apparent return of Open Text to the land of the living with a new product roadmap – we hear there are some other very interesting announcements on the horizon from Open Text, as ever we will report them on the blog as soon as we have them. The next issue is out on 18 December.
Wednesday, November 19
E-learning company publishes interims
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 19 Nov 2008 09:51 GMT
Intellego – the AIM-listed e-learning & training systems company – has just published its interim results for the 6 months to 30 September 2008. As there are so few UK quoted companies operating in the UK legal sector, we are publishing their results (see attached PDF). Chairman Angus Forrest's comments are of particular interest...
"In the current trading period, sales activity is significantly ahead of last year with an increased forward order book and buoyant prospect list. This is a reflection on the investment made in all aspects of the company’s infrastructure and particularly with emphasis on the sales and marketing activities. However, as I mentioned in the annual report, there is a trend among our customers to take longer in their decision making. "We have instigated a programme to enable the company to better weather a recession in the event that there is an impact on the training market. The company’s strengths in e-learning should provide us with significant opportunities to grow the business despite the current economic conditions as e-learning is demonstrably effective as a method of training at significantly lower cost than traditional instructor led training." • It will be interesting to see how many more companies come out with the argument over the next few months that there are hard RoI (return on investment) reasons for buying their stuff rather than battening down the hatches and saving your money until the recession has been weathered.  1 AttachmentsThursday, November 6
Did Aderant go for $111million ?
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 06 Nov 2008 14:32 GMT
We're grateful to the finance director of a well-known legal IT vendor for drawing out attention to this posting on the AltAssets private equity news website – www.altassets.com ...
California-based mid-market private equity firm Vista Equity Partners has closed its third fund on approximately $1.3bn. Vista Equity Partners Fund III (VEPF III) is the firm's first institutional fund. Vista focuses on mid-market enterprise software companies and technology-enabled solutions businesses. Since the first closing in January 2007 for an undisclosed amount, VEPF III has already completed four private investments valued at $757m: Sunquest, which provides laboratory information and management systems for hospitals and commercial laboratories, acquired in October 2007 in a deal valued at $382m; Accero (formerly Cyborg), a provider of human resources and payroll software, acquired in January in a deal valued at $47m; Petroleum Place, a provider of software, data and property marketplace solutions to the oil and gas industry, acquired in June in a deal valued at $217m; and Aderant, a provider of business management applications for law firms and other professional services organisations to efficiently manage operations, attract and retain clients and maximise profitability, acquired in October in a deal valued at $111m. Robert Smith, managing principal, Vista, said, 'We are extremely pleased to close this fund with strong support from a wide range of investors. Despite widespread problems in the financial markets, we found our investors' appetite remains strong for experienced investment teams with differentiated approaches and proven strategies.'
Latest from Pilgrim - they're smiling in Edinburgh
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 06 Nov 2008 09:53 GMT
Pilgrim Systems plc has announced new faces and organisational changes to support its growth strategies. In order to build on the 19% annual growth of the last financial year (ended 30th September 2008) the company has made some key appointments.
Colin Kennedy has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. Kennedy joined the company a year ago after leaving LexisNexis Visualfiles where he held the same role. His role touches all areas of the business, but in particular business development and overseeing Pilgrim’s continual drive to refine and improve how Pilgrim delivers successful projects, on time, with maximum ROI and customer satisfaction. Kennedy will work closely with the sales consulting team which, as of 3rd November, includes Matthew Fiske-Jackson, who Pilgrim describe as "one of the most successful new business sales consultants operating in legal technology circles today". He was central to Visualfiles’ dynamic growth of 2000 to 2007. Since leaving LexisNexis Visualfiles he has worked with Zylpha, a legal IT consultancy. Pilgrim say that during this period he had an opportunity to fully assess the new shape of the legal technology market since the recent spate of consolidation and is confident that Pilgrim and its LawSoft technology are best placed to cater for the complex technology needs of today’s legal profession. Pilgrim also welcomes Brian Dudley to the company to head up its Installation Team. Dudley has worked in legal technology circles for many years, most recently as IT director at Gillespie MacAndrew, a 200 people firm in central Edinburgh. Comment... Is the sub-text here: will the last person to leave LexisNexis Visualfiles please turn out the lights? Company chairman Jim Cummings also told the Insider that Pilgrim has a healthy pipeline for the coming year. Wednesday, November 5
Solcara becomes part of Access Intelligence group - Vinasty gone but not forgotten
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 05 Nov 2008 10:40 GMT
Just over 30 minutes ago, the directors of the KM and search systems vendor Solcara announced that Solcara Limited is now part of the Access Intelligence Plc group. Rob Martin and Ray Jackson will continue as managing director and chairman of Solcara respectively. Ray Jackson has also been appointed as a non-executive director of Access Intelligence. No financial details have been disclosed.
The announcement goes on to say "As a result of the agreement Solcara customers and stakeholders will benefit from the significant expertise of Access Intelligence’s executive chairman, Michael Jackson, former chairman of Sage Plc and current chairman of Elderstreet Investments Ltd, a leading UK based venture capital firm." Solcara's Rob Martin added "The agreement to become part of Access Intelligence is a significant milestone in the continued development of the Solcara business. We will maintain our focus on delivering high quality software products and solutions that address the unique problems associated with Reputation Management, Corporate Communications and Information Access. We will also maintain our commitment to our existing customers whilst continuing to expand the number and range of solutions that we offer as a service. There are considerable synergies with other companies in the Access Intelligence group and our customers will see significant benefits with even more comprehensive solutions becoming available from Solcara." • Orange Rag readers will recall that Elderstreet Investments is probably best known in the UK legal market for the activities of another of its directors – Vin Murria. Monday, November 3
Aderant changes hands
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 03 Nov 2008 17:24 GMT
The following announcement was made by Aderant at 12 noon New York time/5:00pm London time. Plus note The Orange Rag's own comments that follow...
Vista Equity Partners today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Aderant Holdings Inc. Vista, a private equity firm with over $2 billion in committed capital, invests in private and public software and technology-enabled companies, focusing on successful organizations committed to maintaining industry leadership. “We are very pleased about our partnership with Vista Equity Partners, especially because we share a common focus on delivering long-term value,” said Michael Kohlsdorf, President & CEO for Aderant. “I am fully confident that Vista will help us further energize our business, and I look forward to working with our current management team and dedicated employees to reach the next level of our company’s growth. In that context, we remain focused on developing world-class products and providing unrivaled customer service and support.” Vista focuses on vertically specialized companies that develop and market software, software-as-a-service, and technology-enabled business services. Acquiring Aderant is consistent with Vista’s strategy of partnering with exceptional executives in technology-oriented businesses. Vista chose to acquire Aderant because of its strong market position, product offerings, loyal and satisfied customers, and its highly-talented and devoted employees. Leveraging its experience with numerous other vertically oriented software and technology-enabled companies, Vista is uniquely qualified to help position Aderant for continued growth and will enable the company to strengthen and expand its position in its respective markets. Vista Founder and Managing Principal Robert F. Smith said “We are long-term investors in technology companies that are committed to market leadership. We are tremendously excited about working with Aderant. We look forward to working with the management team to both continue serving the needs of their current customers as well as building on their platform to offer additional solutions to existing and new customers. The company has an impressive list of global clients and a shared vision to be a best-in-class provider of software products and services. The management team, led by Mike Kohlsdorf, has done a tremendous job transforming and growing a great company over the last few years.” Harris Williams & Company acted as financial advisor to Aderant. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Comment... • We understand that not only have the entire existing executive team at Aderant been retained (including Mike Kohlsdorf) but also that many have them have taken the opportunity to invest their own money in the company. • The Vista Equity deal also ends rumours (admittedly spread by some competitors) that the previous owners – another private equity group Francisco Partners – were poised to sell Aderant to LexisNexis. Instead, Aderant remains a privately held, independent vendor. Apart from removing any uncertainty, this also ensures there will be no disruption to services and customer-facing operations, which would have inevitably followed had Aderant become part of a larger existing legal market vendor. |
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