After the ongoing debate earlier this autumn on the respective merits of Microsoft SQL Server and Progress – and whether it was possible for the two platforms to co-exist, Andrew Bremner (the managing director of Focus IT Ltd) has been in touch to say "My company has recently been granted a license to sell and support a realtime Progress to SQL Server (or Oracle) tool in the UK. This tool is developed and owned by Bravepoint in the US. Called Pro2SQL, this is mature, stable and working at many Progress sites across the US. I believe this product has the potential to end the Progress -v- SQL Server debate and allow end users to have the best of both worlds with their production database on Progress and their reporting in SQL Server."
He adds "Focus IT is licensed to sell, install, support and bill in GBP for Bravepoint's Pro2SQL suite in the UK. The agreement was signed 13th October 2009 so marketing materials like the website are still in their infancy. The product itself is not in its infancy though and replicates all Progress 9 and 10 data types into SQL Server 2005. A new version that will handle the new data types introduced in SQL Server 2008, like DateTime2 that handles dates before 1753, is currently in development and a release date will be issued in due course. Pro2SQL is aimed squarely at Progress sites that want near realtime/one way replication to a data warehouse or reporting database running on SQL Server or Oracle. The replicated database can be performance tuned for reporting without affecting the Progress production database."
www.focusitlimited.co.uk + www.pro2sql.co.uk
Attached are a white paper and a marketing flyer.
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Monday, November 2
Is this the answer to the Progress -v- SQL Server debate ?
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 15:52 GMT
 2 Attachments
Firm says SaaS option cuts costs by 80%
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 13:07 GMT
Bath-based Virtual Practices, which delivers SOS Connect case and practice management software as a service (SaaS) to law firms, has added Scottish cash management to its outsourced legal cashiering service. Glasgow-based Cameron Macaulay Solicitors is the first Scottish law firm to subscribe.
Following a sabbatical from the business and time for reflecting upon the best way for a lawyer to survive and prosper in the modern, post-Legal Services (Scotland) Act market, managing partner Malcolm Cameron has set up his new operation to rely on outsourced services as far as possible, including IT. An independent evaluation of software as a service (SaaS) suppliers of legal software led Mr Cameron to Virtual Practices from a short-list which also included IRIS and GB Systems (now also part of IRIS). Virtual Practices was established to give start-ups and smaller firms access to case and practice management software on a monthly subscription model. In addition, Virtual Practices offers an outsourced legal cashiering service which means that the small firm can avoid the costs of employing a legal cashier. Compliance with cash management reporting requirements in Scotland is more onerous than in England and changes were required to the software. Stephen Parry, business development director at Virtual Practices explained: ”The daily end of day reporting requirements in Scotland place stringent demands on law firms. Even the smallest practice would usually need to employ a legal cashier to ensure that the requirements are met. However due to the flexible, underlying architecture of SOS Connect, we were able to very rapidly add features which generate the reports automatically, effectively removing this administrative burden.” Malcolm Cameron commented: “The software as a service model also takes care of back-ups, business continuity and file storage and provides round the clock access, but the single most important benefit that makes this service exceptional is the legal cashiering. All I have to do is enter the credit and debit vouchers into the system and everything else transpires on time and completely accurately.” “Software as a service – or cloud computing – is no longer theoretical,” says Cameron. “The technology has reached a point where it is truly transformational in providing the smaller firm with a more profitable business model. I have saved around 25 hours a month which is now available for remunerative work and can organise the business around client service and quality. I have reduced overheads by over 80% and have the luxury of time to make service quality the cornerstone of my practice.”
Only one-in-four law firms make proper use of alumni networks
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 10:00 GMT
Only one in four of the Top 100 UK law firms are making use of their alumni networks as part of their marketing reveals research by Sweet & Maxwell, the legal information provider.
Sweet & Maxwell found that just 26% of Top 100 law firms give details of their alumni network on their websites. Sweet & Maxwell says that although this is a marked increase on the just 15% of Top 100 law firms making use of alumni networks in 2006, it is still a low result for what is otherwise now such a marketing savvy sector. Sweet & Maxwell says that professional services firms increasingly see their alumni networks either as a direct source of new business or as a source for valuable referrals. McKinsey, one the world’s most respected professional services firms, is often referred to as treating its alumni as one of its most valuable assets. Sweet & Maxwell says that the smaller the law firm the less likely they are to properly tap into their alumni network. Whilst nine of the Top 10 law firms by turnover have an alumni page on their website this falls to just 19% of law firms ranked 11-100 and just only 10% of law firms ranked 51-100 by turnover. Competition amongst law firms for work is becoming increasingly fierce with ‘beauty parades’ in front of selection panels now the norm. Sweet & Maxwell says that alumni connections can give a firm the edge in this process by acting as informal diplomats for that firm. Sweet & Maxwell adds that keeping in contact with former members of staff has become much more important during the recession as law firms have made redundancies with those former employees moving into jobs at existing or potential clients. Sweet & Maxwell says that the idea that an employee that has been made redundant by a firm would in the future refer work to them may seem counterintuitive but it is actually relatively common. Sweet & Maxwell says that a well run alumni network can help build goodwill between a firm and its ex-employees. Whilst many of the largest commercial law firms have integrated their alumni networks into their marketing strategies many smaller firms seem some way from systematically mining this source of potential new business. |
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