Bighand today announced it had been awarded Vodafone Certified application status for its Bighand Mobile application, which allows lawyers to utilize their Blackberrys to record, edit and send verbal instructions or tasks back to office based support, or to outsourced service providers. In order to achieve Vodafone Certified status, Bighand Mobile underwent an extensive technical evaluation by Vodafone UK. As a certified application, Bighand now has access to Vodafone UK’s technical expertise and will be recommended to appropriate customers by Vodafone UK account managers. Bighand Mobile will be identified by the “Vodafone Certified Application” brand logo.
|
||||
      Recent Comments
Who's there?
Search
Month Archive
Google Ads
|
Friday, January 30
Bighand gets Vodafone seal of approval
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 30 Jan 2009 10:00 GMT
Thursday, January 29
Asia-Pacific news round-up
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 29 Jan 2009 17:43 GMT
From next month we'll be regularising our coverage of Australian, N-Z and Asia-Pacific news on the Orange Rag, but in the meantime – now that Australia Day's over and people are back at work – here's a catch-up...
• In the wake of Martin Telfer's move to Chicago in his new role as global director of IS at Baker McKenzie, Sydney based Brent Snow taking the regional management role left vacant by Telfer's promotion. • Australian commercial firm Arnold Bloch Leibler has implemented Bighand Mobile across the firm as part of a Blackberry business application strategy. Using Bighand Mobile, Blackberry-using lawyers can dictate documents, set tasks for assistants, record diary notes or issue verbal notes-to-self while on the move, further boosting their mobile productivity. The Bighand project is part of an overall IT strategy to leverage the firm’s investment in Blackberrys. This provides lawyers with a range of mobile functions, including the ability to check key financial and client analytics, use their Blackberry to ‘print to fax’ from any available fax machine, and route desktop phone messages direct to their Blackberry. • Digital dictation systems supplier Winscribe has opened a new office in Sydney. Winscribe's sia-Pacific sales manager Arnah Pearson will be based out of this office, which is located at Suite 3305, Level 33, 264 George St, Australia Square, Sydney, NSW 2000 – tel: +61 (2) 9258 1090 • LEAP Software, the company behind the LEAP practice management system and the Smokeball online publishing site has acquired LegalPax, a Queensland provider of automated forms and precedents. The move gives LEAP access to LegalPax's user firms in the state (around 230) and their automated Queensland and Federal precedents. www.leap.com.au • 2nd Annual Managing Partners Forum 27 & 28 February 2009, Byron Resort & Spa, Byron Bay NSW Following on from the inaugural Managing Partners Forum held last year, the 2nd MPF will provide another independently researched and produced agenda, with an innovative programme. Confirmed speakers include: Tony Williams - Jomati Consultants [UK]; Robert Milliner - Mallesons Stephen Jaques; Michael Rose - AAR; Jon Denovan - Gadens; Janet Young - Freehills; Danny Gilbert - Gilbert + Tobin; Mark Chapple - Baker & McKenzie For further info please go to www.chillimarketing.com.au or email jenny@chillimarketing.com.au Wednesday, January 28
Recommind launches MindServer V.6.0
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 28 Jan 2009 10:26 GMT
With all eyes on Interwoven and its enterprise search plans in the wake of the Autonomy acquisition (at the moment it looks like Vivisimo is out and Autonomy IDOL will be in – the company will not be going back to the Verity option even tho that is also now part of Autonomy) Recommind has taken the opportunity to announce the availability of MindServer Search 6.0, the latest version of its flagship enterprise search product. Built on Recommind’s CORE platform (Context Optimized Relevancy Engine), the latest version of MindServer Search extends the solution’s functionality, reach and accuracy by adding features such as enhanced relevancy tuning and by extending the system’s federated search framework.
MindServer Search 6.0 allows enterprises to boost certain search results based on select properties of a document, including: freshness, rank, specific metadata and document length. Search results can feature ‘Best Bets’ which are preselected files linked to particular queries. Also available is a ‘Sponsored Links’ feature, which brings external or indexed documents to the user’s attention through specific queries, but places them outside of the standard search results area. In addition, users can choose to boost results based on their individual profile or that of their team. MindServer Search 6.0’s federated search capabilities enable users to search across internal and external data sources with one query. The extended federated search framework in MindServer Search increases user productivity by integrating internal and external results in the same result set and highlighting search terms in external sources. MindServer Search 6.0 is built on Recommind’s CORE platform, a fully automated information management layer that integrates structured and unstructured data inside and outside of enterprise networks. With the CORE platform, enterprises of all sizes and industries enjoy faster, more accurate and efficient knowledge management, collaboration, records management, regulatory compliance and e-discovery. Comment: This new focus on CORE is intended to reposition the company's products so customers realise Recommind is not merely a search engine business that also dabbles in records management, compliance and e-discovery but rather is a technology company with its CORE platform that powers its MindServer Search, Decisiv Email, Axcelerate E-Discovery and Insite Legal Hold products. Monday, January 26
Has Windows Workflow got shifting foundations?
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 26 Jan 2009 14:32 GMT
A software developer, who would prefer not to be identified, has drawn our attention the the following discussion about Microsoft's Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) platform. The comments were first posted on the Visual Studio Magazine (www.visualstudiomagazine.com) and seem to indicate this could be a major issue for anyone who has built significant workflow capabilities into their products/solutions with the current Workflow Foundation platform.
Our contact says "I believe that typically Microsoft take 1-2 years to move from PDC to release code so to do anything with WWF in the meantime could mean significant re-work that equates to almost starting all over again from scratch if I am reading this correctly (and this is no doubt the positive spin!). That means that even if a vendor is able to re-create or partially migrate their existing solution to the 'new' WWF platform, any client who already has used it as a basis to start and deliver their own customised solution for file opening or anything else built on that platform will quite possibly have to re-implement all of their work again." (Our contact adds that when Microsoft did something similar with the move from Visual Studio to Visual Studio.NET, the subsequent 'migration' equated to a 90% re-write.) Here's the comment – the question is answered by Kathleen Dollard and you can read more on her blog at http://msmvps.com/blogs/kathleen/ Q: I've been hearing that Windows Workflow 4.0 was announced at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC), and that it "changes everything." Is this true, and if so, what does this mean to those of us that have existing workflows? A: Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) 4.0 was unveiled at PDC and is available now as part of the current .NET 4.0 Community Technology Preview (CTP). As such, details aren't complete, so remember that my answer is based on these preliminary announcements. If you're contemplating using WWF and can wait until .NET 4.0 is released, I suggest waiting. This is particularly true if you have an existing state-based solution you can nurse along for another year or two. If you do write new workflows in the interim, I've collected a set of preliminary guidelines for preparing workflows to transition. If you've worked with WWF 3.0 or 3.5, this is a jaw-dropping list; many of the primary elements you might think of as WWF disappear in the transition to WWF 4.0. Be careful with data. The tracking and persistence databases are likely to change significantly between 3.5 and 4.0. Holding data only in tracking is hazardous, unless you prepare a strategy for extracting data, such as when a workflow completes. If you're using rules for simple data retrieval for values that should be set outside the workflow, consider holding this data in a configuration file or database. Note that these are preliminary suggestions. Check out my blog for pointers towards Microsoft's formal guidance, as well as tools (as they become available) that will help you transition workflows. Another important aspect of your transition strategy concerns long-running workflows. The simplest transition strategy is to allow all workflows to complete in 3.0/3.5 but to begin new workflows in 4.0. If you have aggregate information or if you have long-running workflows, this might not be an acceptable strategy. In this case, you need a strategy to bring down existing workflows and bring them back up in WWF 4.0. If you're writing workflows today and believe you'll need this strategy, consider building in events to initiate the process. If you have existing workflows, you might need to alter them later, but it's not yet clear whether Microsoft will provide a tool to help automate the 3.0/3.5 workflow-modification strategy. Friday, January 23
For the record... Interwoven's results
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 23 Jan 2009 16:41 GMT
For those of you trying to work out valuations on acquisitions, here are Interwoven's just posted latest financial results...
Interwoven reported total revenues of $69.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, an increase of 11% from total revenues of $62.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2007. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2008, calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, was $10.7 million, or $0.23 per share, compared to net income of $10.7 million, or $0.23 per share, for the same period in 2007. On a non-GAAP basis, Interwoven reported a net income of $10.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, or $0.23 per share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $8.2 million, or $0.18 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2007. For the year ended December 31, 2008, Interwoven reported total revenues of $260.3 million, an increase of 15% from total revenues of $225.7 million for 2007. Net income for the year ended December 31, 2008, calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, was $32.0 million, or $0.69 per share, compared to a net income of $23.7 million, or $0.51 per share, for 2007. On a non-GAAP basis, Interwoven reported net income of $34.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2008, or $0.74 per share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $28.3 million, or $0.61 per share, for 2007. As of December 31, 2008, cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $185.2 million and deferred revenues totaled $74.7 million.
SAP gaining stronger foothold at Freshfields
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 23 Jan 2009 08:50 GMT
One aspect of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer appointment of Paul Domnick as global
chief information officer (CIO), with effect from 12 January 2009, is that it moves the firm one step closer to SAP.
The firm has been working with SAP on the HR systems front for some time – as we reported on this blog on 21 May 2008, Simon Niven, head of programme management at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, even gave a presentation on talent management and how the firm is using SAP's HR system to provide a cradle-to-grave – or at least from new recruit to retirement and/or 'termination' (his choice of word) – system for monitoring and managing the career progression of fee earners at SAP's annual conference in Berlin last year. But, while comment on the appointment of Domnick has tended to focus on the fact he has the title of Global CIO – whereas his predecessor David Hamilton's role was 'Head of IT Department' – has anyone looked at his CV? Domnick was previously group chief technology officer and deputy head of IT for Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) responsible for technology strategy, standards, enterprise architecture and applications architecture across the entire business. Before taking on this role in early 2007, he was head of global IT sourcing for ZFS – and he joined Zurich in 2004 from Deutsche Bank where he was global head of data centres. Guess what? Both Deutsche and Zurich are large SAP ERP customers. A very interesting development. Thursday, January 22
Autonomy to acquire Interwoven
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 22 Jan 2009 09:58 GMT
The following statement has just been released... Interwoven Inc has announced that it has entered into a
definitive agreement to be acquired by Autonomy Corporation plc for $16.20 in
cash per share for a total transaction value of approximately $775
million.
Interwoven’s products improve human interactions with information, and Autonomy’s technology will allow people to know what those human interactions mean. The combination of these two companies will redefine how global 2000 corporations, leading law firms, and government regulators will discover, analyze, and manage human friendly information. “Interwoven and Autonomy are two high-performing companies that share the same vision for improving the way organizations understand and interact with information,” said Joe Cowan, Interwoven CEO. “We believe customers will benefit from the combination of Autonomy’s industry-leading technology with Interwoven’s unmatched position in our target markets. We are extremely excited with the unique possibilities for future product direction that will arise through the integration with Autonomy’s technology.” “The combination of Autonomy and Interwoven, industry leaders in meaning-based computing and document and content management respectively, will continue the extension of Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) – an information infrastructure that global 2000 companies standardize on to search and process over 1,000 data types,” said Dr. Mike Lynch, Group CEO of Autonomy. “Our past acquisitions have clearly demonstrated how Autonomy can quickly and effectively leverage the power of IDOL into new customer bases and to address new customer needs, and we see great opportunities for continued innovation and development of the Interwoven product offerings. We are very familiar with Interwoven, its product base and management team through our joint customers and partnerships over the years and see this transaction as an exciting opportunity to extend the chain of Autonomy’s solutions.” Under the terms of the agreement, Interwoven will be acquired by Autonomy for $16.20 per share, in cash, or approximately $775 million in the aggregate. The directors and certain executive officers of Autonomy and Interwoven have agreed to vote the shares they own in favor of the acquisition. The transaction is expected to close by Q2 2009 and is subject to shareholder approval by both companies, Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust clearance, and other closing conditions. ...Guess this also explains why Interwoven recently cancelled its annual user conference. Wednesday, January 21
RightFax webinar on Thursday
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 21 Jan 2009 11:08 GMT
There is a new version of RightFax – version 9.4 – now called Open Text Fax Server – available from 1st February 2009.
New features include the ability to implement OpenText Fax Server into a virtualised environment with full support for VMware to reduce the number of physical servers in an organisation. Additional Fax over IP capability means that the system can now also provide automated failover in a Voice over IP environment which reduces the risk of disruption to your business. Fax over IP also represents a huge opportunity to reduce costs by replacing hardware and dedicated ISDN circuits. New reporting functionality also means that companies can improve the way they monitor traffic and track administrative changes that are made to the system such as adding, removing and modifying user settings. Organisations that need to edit received faxes will be able to streamline the process with the inclusion of OpenText Recostar OCR engine. This technology can be further expanded to help organisations extract data from fax images automatically and transfer it to an ERP, CRM, DMS or workflow application. The topics above will be covered in the upcoming webinar announcing the launch of OpenText Fax Server (RightFax) on Thursday 22nd January at 3pm. The session is being hosted by Avanquest Solutions. To register for the fax webinar go to http://www.avanquestsolutions.co.uk/rightfax/webinar94.php Tuesday, January 20
Recessionary Tales - events next to take a hit?
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 20 Jan 2009 09:57 GMT
Marcus Evans events has just cancelled its London e-discovery conference, that was scheduled to take place at the end (26 & 27) of February. The organisers said "due to unforeseeable circumstances we can not guarantee the high standard of event that we are committed to. We have therefore had to make the decision to postpone this conference..."
We're also hearing a number of IT vendors saying that although they will attend next month's event because they are already committed, they are not planning to reserve stand spaces for the 2010 Islington Design Centre Legal IT exhibition. Their view is that in the current economic climate, staying in the office and hanging onto their jobs – not wandering around IT exhibitions – is the main priority of law firm IT managers and directors. They say that if the economy does show signs of recovery, they may reconsider their position nearer the time but are not prepared to commit (and pay) so far in advance. Monday, January 19
Epoq and Cohen brothers hoping for second time lucky
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 19 Jan 2009 13:11 GMT
Epoq Software – the company behind the Rapidocs document assembly & automation – is hoping it will be second time lucky for its ventures into online legal services with the launch today of its MyLawyer.co.uk service.
MyLawyer provides both consumers and businesses with 24 hour access to create their own legal documents. As standard, each service includes individual review and where necessary, amendments, by leading UK law firms, in order to ensure that resulting documents are precisely tailored for customers’ legal requirements. MyLawyer say that while online legal document services have been available for some time now, these have mainly been offered as ‘flat pack’ forms services unsupported by legal review by a qualified practitioner. At its launch, MyLawyer has access to hundreds of lawyers based throughout the UK. The service has been designed to allow tusers to have access to flexible and cost effective legal document services and it is anticipated that in its first year the numbers of participating law firms will quickly rise from the initial 6 firms to over 20. The firms which are announced as part of the MyLawyer network at launch are all listed within the Legal 500 and include Pannone LLP, Hugh James LLP, Nelsons LLP, Minster Law, Brethertons LLP and Last Cawthra Feather LLP. “Historically, technology has revolutionised the back office process but the accessibility of the internet means that the legal front office – the way legal services are offered to and accessed by consumers and businesses - is now changing too. Law firms can now give their clients what they want, keep the personalised service yet lower cost and increase recoverable hourly rates, benefiting from the very real opportunity to provide the generation of consumers and business managers who regularly engage other professional services using the internet and who are eager to embrace these changes” says Richard Cohen, solicitor and Joint CEO of Epoq. Cohen says technology will play a key role in firms’ future structures. “Technology is enabling multiple legal brands to collaborate and in doing so they can achieve far greater scale and cost economies. Solutions such as MyLawyer provide law firms with new channels to access business and will also prove an effective tool erecting barriers to fight the threat of market erosion from alternative legal services providers.” As well as gaining customers from the national MyLawyer brand, firms participating in the MyLawyer network also receive extensions to their own websites, enabling them to deliver transactional services to new and existing clients. They each receive their own branded private-client and business services website where their clients can engage, instruct and generate draft documentation, then seamlessly move from web to bespoke in-office services. For those of you feeling a sense of deja vu, here is the back story (from the September 2001 edition/no.123 of Legal Technology Insider) from the last time the brothers Richard and Grahame Cohen were involved in the UK online legal services market. Back then, the service was called Desktop Lawyer and the company Epoch Software.... EPOCH SURVIVES NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE Twelve months ago Epoch Software, the company behind the Desktop Lawyer service, was being fêted as one of the great success stories of the legal dotcom world. Yet, at the end of August the company had run out of money – the statement of affairs issued by the liquidators suggested investors lost nearly £7 million on the venture – and gone into voluntary liquidation. Ten days later, after a marathon 27 hour negotiating session, the liquidators agreed to sell the business to its original management team, including co-founders Richard and Grahame Cohen, for an undisclosed sum. So what went wrong and what implications does this have for the future of online legal services in the UK? In an exclusive interview, Richard Cohen told the Insider that while the immediate cause of the collapse was the inability to secure additional funding – Epoch’s board spent the past five months talking to nearly every venture capital group in the UK but was unable to find anyone prepared to invest in a dotcom business – the failure also raised serious doubts about the current demand for online legal services as an alternative to conventional bricks and mortar legal services. Although the new business will continue to run the old Desktop Lawyer (MyLawyer.com in the US) consumer oriented online services, it would do so primarily as a shop window to promote the company’s technology capabilities, including its RapiDocs document assembly system. For the future however, the main focus of the business will shift to the supply of bundled online legal service packages to third parties, such as banks and insurance companies, who will then include them as part of larger products that they sell directly to their own customers and policyholders. The Epoch’s US arm (All American Law Inc) is already selling its services as part of a legal expenses insurance package offered by Royal & SunAlliance. (In fact over the intervening years Epoq has been providing online legal services to a range of institutional customers including MORE TH>N, HBOS, RBS, NatWest, DAS, Abbey Santander and Allianz.) Cohen said Epoch would still be interested in talking to smaller law firms wanting to offer ecommerce services to their clients, via Epoch’s DirectLAW system, but would no longer be actively promoting this side of the business. “Because there is no money in it. You can advertise your online legal services until the cows come home but there are not the volumes of consumers and SMEs out there to buy these services. “The only organisations that are going to make this work are either the very large law firms or organisations like insurance companies who already have a captive audience for their services. I really do believe the internet is the way legal services will be delivered in the future but we thought the market would move a lot quicker than it has done. With hindsight, I can see we were ahead of the times and that we are looking at maybe another five years before the demand for online legal services in the High Street firms/consumer market really takes off.” ~ ~ ~ Eight years – rather than five years later – Richard Cohen is clearly hoping this time it will be second time lucky. |
      Recent Articles
RSS Newsfeeds
Main Page RSS
Categories
Twitter Updates Login
 |
||