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?'
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Tuesday, December 9
Only 11 suppliers in the next Law Soc Guide
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 09 Dec 2008 10:58 GMT
Monday, December 8
IRIS buys AlphaLaw
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 08 Dec 2008 10:37 GMT
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 claim 'next generation' win
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 08 Dec 2008 08:35 GMT
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.
Friday, December 5
First rollout announced for Nflow's DDS 2.0 system
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 05 Dec 2008 12:46 GMT
nFlow today announced that an installation of its widely reported next generation DDS 2.0 digital dictation system has been successfully completed for 100 users at top 50 accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael. nFlow DDS Version 5.0 has been deployed to users across three offices in Elgin, Inverurie and Huntly in just two weeks. A second phase will see the solution rolled out to an additional 90 users during the course of this month. In addition to rolling out nFlow DDS Version 5.0 Johnston Carmichael have also deployed nFlow Mobile for Blackberry to deliver remote dictation for users.
Commenting on the project Johnston Carmichael IT partner, Douglas Rintoul said "Prior to selecting nFlow's new Version 5.0 product we were already using a small installation of Winscribe over Citrix with our IFA team however there was interest in widening the use of DD so we decided to review the market. This led to a trial of both nFlow and Bighand in our Citrix environment as a comparison to Winscribe. Following this trial we decided to carry out a second trial of nFlow and Bighand with our executive team. Both suppliers were offering new versions so we started with a trial of Bighand however when we saw the nFlow Version 5.0 product we were completely blown away. We felt the excellent opportunities nFlow's complete .NET design offered us in reducing administration of the application and the simple yet intuitive functionality combined with the modern Outlook 2007 look and feel meant it offered the best solution for us." nFlow deployed the version 5.0 SQL databases and the .NET web services at Johnston Carmichael's Aberdeen office. Plus they installed audio file repositories on local servers at each remote site. To complete the first phase of the installation the .NET component and driver management service was automatically deployed to all desktops and laptops with the servers prepared for the second phase of the rollout to a further 90 users in six offices, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Perth. The result of this was a fast and low cost implementation that saw the solution deployed to 100 users in just two weeks. Tony Moxham, nFlow's technical operations director commented, "I believe the administration and maintenance functions in nFlow deliver an unbeatably low support overhead. Johnston Carmichael have a number of offices spread across Scotland so when they saw that the centralised .NET component and driver management service gave them centralised control of application maintenance at either a global and granular level they were very impressed. It means they don't have the overhead of any 3rd party technologies such as SMS to achieve this. When you add to this the on demand service delivery of user configuration without needing additional technology like roaming profiles it all adds up to a very neat solution that suits mobility and hot desking across offices extremely well. "nFlow DDS Version 5.0 provides a complete service orientated architecture (SOA) that delivers everything a user needs to the PC when they log in. This is particularly relevant to user experience as rather than use registry keys to configure the experience as older technologies do, nFlow delivers all settings via the service to whichever PC the user logs on. It also delivers the specific dictation and transcription hardware drivers a user needs but is clever enough to automatically switch a user to an alternative device if it is available delivering complete flexibility in terms of hardware used." • Comment: The formal announcements are still being finalised however nFlow has given the Orange Rag the names of three law firms that have also ordered nFlow v 5.0 after going out to competitive tender, bringing the total number of user seats signed up for 5.0 to over 500 just two months after the system was formally released.
Bighand launch 3rd generation mobile platform
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 05 Dec 2008 10:17 GMT
BigHand, the digital dictation workflow systems market leader, today announced what it believes to be the most advanced and complete set of mobile dictation capabilities yet available within the digital dictation market. The update is the 3rd iteration of BigHand Mobile and now offers the most comprehensive and flexible suite of smartphone features when set beside competing solutions. Jonathan Carter, BigHand's client solutions director, commented "This 3rd edition is the only offering within the market that truly extends the power and flexibility of an enterprise DDS workflow product onto the mobile platform."
Features that have been added to the core BigHand Mobile functionality include: • BigHand Mobile (BlackBerry Edition) now includes live status updates on whether work is in-progress (and who with) and whether it has been completed. Multiple priority options and unlimited send options also extend full enterprise DDS workflow to the BlackBerry platform. In addition ‘one click recording’, recording when the SD card is fully encrypted, multi-language support including American English, British English, French and German, ability to deploy password from BES, improved default keys for reduced keyboards (eg BlackBerry Pearl), ‘Send All’ option, and full support for the BlackBerry Bold. • BigHand Mobile (Windows Mobile Edition) now includes the non-RIM specific enhancements above as well as an extended set of screen resolutions for a variety of Windows Mobile devices. • In addition to the previously announced unique support for .caf and .aiff format allowing dictations to be submitted from an iPhone, BigHand Mobile now offers full support for various .amr formats allowing dictations to be sent from any e-mail capable Smartphone such as Palm (eg Palm Treo 680 Smartphone) and Symbian devices (eg Nokia E71, Samsung D900). The update also includes enhanced processing of multiple attachments, logging if no attachment is included, and superior fail resilience. • The BigHand Web Client has now been updated with automatic selection of appropriate language setting with ability to override (American English, British English, French and German), VPN with AD authentication, and support for IE8. • Finally the new System Administration console now includes advanced mobile user mapping, licensing for and information about mobile users, as well as instant user/email association. Comment: Although the market perception has always been that Bighand are great at marketing but only so-so at technology (a view probably stemming from the fact the original Bighand TotalSpeech 1 product back in the 1990s was primarily middleware based around Philips technology) the company has been steadily – but very quietly – upping the ante on its inhouse technology capabilities. For example, since the launch of Bighand 3.0 in early 2005, the company – under the guidance of software 'Chief Architect' Graham Wright – has been moving over to the concept of being an "agile development shop" that is able to add additional functionality to its software offerings (such as the latest mobility suite release) without having to keep rewriting the whole core product from scratch. And, since 3.1 was launched in 2007 (the latest iteration is 3.2.3) Bighand's DDS has been solidly based around the Microsoft .Net 3.5 platform. Wright makes the point that if you get the core technology in place, you don't need to keep rewriting to evolve and cites the example Microsoft Word. This has never been rewritten from scratch yet the latest version (2007) retains very little of the code of earlier versions. In otherwords, Bighand is firmly within the DDS 2.0 world – it just hadn't spelled it out in those terms before. And, talking about not broadcasting their achievements to the world, Bighand marketing director Dan Speed has also drawn this information to our attention... "The evolution of our BlackBerry Edition is a great example of how working with alliance partners and learning from them can boost internal knowledge in new areas of technology. Back in May 2007 we jointly released the first BlackBerry Dictation product in the legal sector in conjunction with PaperIQ. As leading BlackBerry operating system experts PaperIQ (now known as DevelopIQ) were instrumental in accelerating our internal knowledge of the BlackBerry platform, and we still have a great relationship with them. However that strategic relationship ended in Jan 2008 and complete with internal expertise we were at that point able to take the BlackBerry dictation component inhouse. Since we made that decision we have been delighted with how the second more advanced iteration has been received and we have seen the product installed across firms such as Lawrence Graham, as well as many many other sites both in the UK and internationally." Tune in later today for more digital dictation news. Wednesday, December 3
Issue #5 of American Legal Technology Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 03 Dec 2008 15:22 GMT
The fourth issue – December '08 – of the American Legal Technology Insider
newsletter is out now. Click on the link to download your free copy as
a 409k PDF file.
Top stories include the decision by US legal software vendor SoftWise to share the pain of the recession by freezing prices on both software purchases and maintenance contracts at their current 2008 levels through to the end of December 2009. So who is going to be the first UK supplier to make a similar commitment? You can also register to receive it direct to your desktop as an email file attachment – just email to altisubs@legaltechnology.com with the word subscribe in the subject line. The next issue will be published on Thursday 15 January 2009.  1 Attachments
OUP launch online titles
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 03 Dec 2008 09:16 GMT
Is this the start of a new force in legal publishing? The law publishing department at the Oxford University Press (OUP) has launched 3 new online services:
Oxford Reports on International Law – www.oup.com/online/oril/ Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law – www.oup.com/online/law/epil/ Investment Claims – www.oup.com/online/ic/ The publisher says "This is just the beginning of our commitment to offering law resources to practitioners and scholars in multiple formats" – which sounds like they are muscling into the territory that has traditionally been dominated by the likes of Thomson/Sweet & Maxwell/WestLaw and LexisNexis Butterworths. Although OUP has a reputation for being a primarily academic press – they have just published Richard Susskind's new book The End Of Lawyers - Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services* – OUP has been publishing in the practitioner sector since 2001 and the acquisition of Blackstone Press. According to Alison Bowker, head of marketing (medicine & law) "It is now a core part of our law publishing programme, and in 2009 we’ll publish in the region of 100 new works and new editions. Our approach is to bring the values of OUP as a scholarly publisher – quality, fair-dealing, and partnership – to the practitioner sector. We focus on subject areas where opportunities exist for the development (and sometimes acquisition) of current works and the creation of new ones, whether in book, looseleaf, journal or online form. Our lists in IP and competition law, banking and finance, arbitration and public international law are all gaining strong reputations, and of course our stable contains some of the key Blackstone copyrights and series." Bowker adds that she would be grateful to hear people's views and what they think of OUP as a practitioner publisher? * One of the blurbs for Susskind's book says: "Susskind remains the only writer today who can put the future of lawyers and the legal professions on the agenda at the highest levels of government, the judiciary, the legal institutions, major corporations – and law firms." Tuesday, December 2
PISCES publish two new standards
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 02 Dec 2008 10:10 GMT
PISCES yesterday published two new standards...
• Lease Delivery Standard Version 2.0 • Portfolio Information Exchange (PIE) – opens for member review until 22 December Lease Delivery: Based around the exchange of data between a Legal Advisor and their Client or Client’s Agent this version incorporates changes submitted, since the release of Standard Version 1.0, as well as the Lease Summary Standard (previously a different Standard). PISCES now welcomes Members and Non-Members to adopt Version 2.0 and apply for Compliance. For PISCES Members only there is free technical and implementation advice available. To download this standard follow this link http://web.pisces.co.uk/public/StandardsItems.aspx?ID=25 PIE (Member Review opened until 22nd December 2008): This Standard is aimed at the transfer of core portfolio data between different property management systems. Following release of Standard Version 1.0 (February 2008) a number of changes were submitted. This version now incorporates all the changes received as well as re-use of the Lease Component (from the Lease Delivery Standard Version 2.0). Opened only to PISCES Member organisations the purpose of this Review is to approve the changes made, before Version 2.0 can be published. To download this standard follow this link http://web.pisces.co.uk/public/StandardsItems.aspx?ID=26 Monday, December 1
Lexis strategy to take on local focus
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 01 Dec 2008 12:29 GMT
Following last week's rumours about the senior management changes within the LexisNexis Practice & Productivity Management business (aka the legal systems division running Axxia and Visualfiles) we have just come off the phone from a briefing with LexisNexis UK managing director Josh Bottomley and UK general manager Tim Cheadle.
In brief, the LexisNexis group has implemented a "subtle shift of direction" with the realisation that "the ownership of the product roadmaps" for systems such as Axxia DNA and Visualfiles Streamline (the new name for Manilla – but still on schedule for going into early adopter sites in the New Year) "needs to be more local" so as to reflect the needs of local customers. The P&PM business will however still be subject to a global strategy, supervised out of New York, to ensure any new acquisitions or product development plans are complementary to, rather than conflict with, existing parts of the LexisNexis tech empire, such as Interaction and Redwood Analytics. Bottomley also said that in terms of the use of transaction-based case management technologies, he believed UK law firms were leading the world and that both DNA and Streamline were "worldbeaters". As part of the refocussing, Streamline is being pitched as a product for the 'large-law' firm market, whereas DNA was aimed at the 'mid-law' sector, where there was a greater demand for an integrated PMS+ case solution. LexisNexis UK will also be announcing, in the New Year, a new head for a commercial & government team to focus on selling into inhouse legal departments etc. So, where does this leave the P&PM senior management team of Kate Holden and Edouard Tavernier? Because of the change from a global to local focus, their roles are subject to a period of internal consultation and it is thought likely they will pursue other options within the Reed Elsevier (the parent of LexisNexis) group – although the finer details are still under discussion. • As an example of what LexisNexis has achieved in terms of creating an integrated – everything from legal research to practice management software – solution, check out the attached Lexis Back Office Library brochure PDF from Australia. 1 Attachments
Whatever happened to Steve Chivers ?
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 01 Dec 2008 09:49 GMT
In the comments that followed last week's posting about the departure of Arlene Adams from the IRIS Group, a couple of readers remarked that they were sad to hear that Steve Chivers – who headed up the Laserform practice management systems business – had also gone. So we caught up with Steve to find out what he had happened... and he told us that he had resigned from IRIS on his own initiative because he felt (after two-and-a-half-years with the group – and immediately prior to that he had been the managing director of the then still independent Laserform LFM Partnership Solutions division) it was time for new challenges. The net result is that he will be joining the Cognito group – which since earlier this year also includes the JCS business – with responsibility for sales and business development. We wish him well.
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