London 7:00am, Thursday 12 March... The AIM-listed Tikit Group plc has just published its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2008. The headline financial figures (presented under IFRS) are:
Revenues
£28.5m (2007: £26.4m) 8% increase
Operating profit before share-based charges and amortisation
£4.2m (2007: £3.6m) 16% increase
Profit before taxation
£3.5m (2007: £3.4m) 3% increase
Earnings per share before share-based charges and amortisation
22.0p (2007: 20.3p) 8% increase
Basic earnings per share
18.1p (2007: 18.6p) 3% decrease
Dividend per share
6.0p (2007: 5.0p) 20% increase
Net cash at year end
£0.3m (2007: £2.5m)
Tikit chairman Mike McGoun that despite the market having entered a recession during the course of last year, the company had still been able to increase revenues, operating profits and earning per share. He also explained that the decline in net cash was attributable solely to the £6.03 costs of acquisition associated with the TfB deal and the final deferred consideration paid in respect of Shamrock Marketing.
Managing director David Lumsden added that despite the recession, law firms were still investing in systems that could help improve efficiency and cut costs, with both the Interwoven Worksite DMS and LexisNexis Interaction CRM products performing well.
Lumsden added that the TfB transaction "not only added almost 500 new law firms to Tikit’s client base, but also enhanced the strength of the senior management team. In line with our stated strategy, it increased our managed services revenues through its strong support business and also added important Tikit-owned software revenues. The benefit of cross-selling opportunities is starting to come through and this mid-market expertise strengthens the Tikit proposition. Revenues from TfB’s contracted managed services now cover 95% of its overheads, making this a particularly strong business in the current environment. The benefits of being part of Tikit Group, in terms of financial strength and industry expertise, have accelerated TfB’s customer mandates against weaker competitors in the sector. TfB’s practice management software won many awards during the year, culminating in its highest accolade as the Law Society’s top PMS product."
With the addition of the TfB customer base, Tikit now has over 1000 active customers.
Turning to the future, Lumsden said "Given the tougher trading conditions expected over the next 12 to 18 months, we will continue to focus on providing excellent service levels in order to maintain the high renewal-rate of our managed services contracts. Revenues from these contracts represented 44% of the Group’s revenues in 2008 and are a key element of the Group’s strategy.
"Our continued focus on Tikit’s own software should enable our clients to capitalise on their existing investment in CRM and document management systems as we provide high-value, low-cost, add-on applications. In addition, we anticipate increased penetration by TfB into the mid-size law firm market as a result of it being part of Tikit Group.
"The operational focus for 2009 will be to continue to place particular emphasis on Tikit-owned software sales, better utilisation of resources, strong cost control and cash management in order to deliver increased margins from an improved business mix."
The full results can be found in the attached file.
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Thursday, March 12
Wednesday, March 11
Thousand user + Bighand DDS roll out at Freehills
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 11 Mar 2009 19:33 GMT
Sydney (Australia), Thursday 12th March, 2009 – Leading Australian commercial law firm Freehills today announced it has rolled out BigHand software across the firm. The voice productivity software has been provided to over 1000 staff across the Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane offices, with Singapore due to receive the technology later this month.
The implementation of the BigHand digital dictation workflow system formed part of a strategic initiative to create a national Document Production Service that was accessible instantly to lawyers and business services staff and that delivered client documentation of the highest standard. Outstanding or in-progress documents at Freehills, as well as urgent or large dictations, can now be moved between individuals, teams or offices depending on workload, capacity or the time of the day maximising staff utilisation and skill sets, whilst also taking advantage of 'follow-the-sun' time-zone differences. Confidential voice recordings can also be confidently moved around the firm, respecting ethical walls, as the system creates information barriers and private workflows. Philippa Thornton, Freehills Secretarial Work Practices Manager who led the programme of work to establish the national Document Production Service and introduce the digital dictation solution said: “We realised some time ago that we needed to upgrade our infrastructure and improve our document support framework to enable lawyers and support staff to work together more easily, and to free lawyers up so they could focus on delivery to clients. Our aim was also to ensure that all documents are of a consistently high quality, regardless of which support resource or office they originate from. BigHand’s technology was an important component of the programme, as the centralised workflow management tools allow dictation to be managed and transferred within and between offices to deliver faster document turn around and improved utilisation of our support resources. In fact the BigHand system provides automated administration and customised workflow to such a degree that the number of dedicated document production team leaders required at the firm has gone from seven to four during the course of the roll out.” Following the BigHand software implementation 90% of Freehills lawyers responding to a post-roll out survey reported an improvement in document turnaround times, over 50% reported an improvement in the quality of the resulting document and more than 50% had increased the amount of dictation they produce. Work-life balance has also been addressed as the BigHand technology allows lawyers to work remotely or from home when required and connects them to support mechanisms as if they were in the office. Miles Ashcroft, Freehills Business Technology Solutions Manager, described: “When you are looking to evolve a business process and introduce change it is important that you build trust with the end-user. We wanted our lawyers to be able to trust the new processes and the technology we were asking them to use. The roll out caused very little disruption to daily work within the firm, as the BigHand software interface is intuitive and we set up workflows to reflect the way our lawyers work. This meant that they adopted the digital solution immediately following training and the improvements in workflow and productivity around dictation were immediately realised.” Tuesday, March 10
DocsCorp goes coast-to-coast in the US
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 10 Mar 2009 18:07 GMT
DocsCorp today announced a number of significant wins as more and more US law firms turn to the pdfDocs Solutions Suite software to help manage business-critical documents. Wins this month include Washington DC-based intellectual property law firm Sughrue Mion, who purchased the pdfDocs Solutions Suite because of its integration with Microsoft Vista and the Interwoven 8.2 document management system. Flaster/Greenberg, with offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, purchased compareDocs for its document comparison needs. Berger Singerman, a Florida business law firm with offices in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tallahassee will deploy the pdfDocs Solutions Suite across the firm.
Jackson Walker LLP, one of the oldest and largest Texas-based law firms with 300 attorneys statewide in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Angelo, and San Antonio purchased pdfDocs compareDocs (pdfDocs Desktop and OCR Server purchased previously) because its integration with the pdfDocs products provides anything to anything comparison (Word to Word, PDF to PDF, Word to PDF, JPEG to JPEG) and outputting the marked up changes to a formatted Word document. Gallop, Johnson & Neuman, one of the largest law firms in the St. Louis metropolitan area, will deploy the entire pdfDocs Suite. On the West coast, Oregon law firm Hoffman Hart & Wagner, chose pdfDocs Desktop for its out-of-the-box integration with Interwoven. pdfDocs Desktop enables users to simply right-click on a document in Interwoven, convert it to PDF and save it as a new, new version of an existing, or as a related document.
Tikit sign up to sell Chrome River
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 10 Mar 2009 11:36 GMT
The Tikit Group has entered into a partnership agreement with Chrome River, which will see it market Chrome River’s new online expense reporting and management service throughout the UK and Europe, with exclusivity for the UK legal market. Chrome River has experienced rapid growth since launching its new SaaS-based expense reporting solution in the middle of 2008. Subscribers include over 20 law firms around the globe including firms from 17 lawyers in size to six of the Global Top 50. Tikit will market, implement and provide support services for the Chrome River solution.
Tikit CEO David Lumsden said “Chrome River Expense is a compelling solution that fills a distinct need in the legal sector. I believe it will be greeted with great enthusiasm by law firms. In the current economic environment, law firms are actively looking at ways to cut costs, enforce compliance with policies, and streamline labour intensive business processes. Chrome River Expense can be implemented without the need for any capital expenditure on hardware or software, and it can be rolled out swiftly, helping firms to better control the personnel expense claim and reimbursement process.” Chrome River’s expense reporting solution is designed using the latest rich internet application technologies and is delivered through the SaaS (software as a service) model, providing law firms with the ability to get a rapid return on product investment. For more details about the Chrome River product, read the December 2008 (issue no.215) edition of the Legal Technology Insider newsletter – it's in the archive section so can be downloaded free of charge. • Tikit is also holding a product launch in London next week (Thursday 19 March). Click on the attachment for details.  1 Attachments
Don't forget the ILTA UK show
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 10 Mar 2009 10:47 GMT
With a question mark hanging over the head of the future of a number of events in the UK and European legal IT calendar (you know which ones we are talking about) one of the few bright spots between now and the autumn looks like being the ILTA Insight UK show which takes place in London later this month (31st March). If you are a larger firm, this event – free, with a multi-stream programme and plenty of networking opportunities HOWEVER it is essential to reserve a place in advance – is definitely worth a day out. Click below to see the attachment containing the full programme.
1 AttachmentsMonday, March 9
AlphaLaw debt product to receive group-wide launch
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Mar 2009 14:45 GMT
Following the acquisition of AlphaLAW in November 2009, IRIS Legal has been conducting a review of the existing AlphaLAW commercial and technical operations with the objective of positioning the AlphaLAW products for long-term success, and exploiting synergies with the rest of IRIS Legal. The conclusion of the review has been a renewed commitment to the AlphaLAW product set and in particular a focus on AlphaLAW’s ClaimIT debt recovery product, which was specifically designed to automate, simplify and greatly improve the recovery of unpaid bills or invoices.
Commenting on the move, IRIS Legal managing director Tony Bromfield said: “AlphaLAW, under the guidance of general manager Brian Welsh, has detailed a strategy that will see AlphaLAW focus on providing customers with the recently launched Esprit+ product, as well as Vantage and Uno upgrades, whilst continuing to provide customer service and support. The AlphaLAW strategy will also focus on the highly successful debt recovery product ClaimIT which will become one of the flagship products for IRIS Legal and will be made available to IRIS customers. This is a very exciting opportunity for AlphaLAW and for the whole of the IRIS Software Group.”
SaaS - understanding the legal aspects of this model
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Mar 2009 08:13 GMT
In this guest article Andrew Hartshorn, a partner and head of the ICT practice at law firm Shakespeare Putsman, and member of the Federation Against Software Theft Legal Advisory Group (FLAG), looks at the benefits and risks of implementing SaaS and argues the legal risks associated with implementation of SaaS are more akin to those of a managed services or outsourcing contract rather than software licences...
SaaS is growing apace. There has been a growing recognition over the last 18 months or so that SaaS has moved from revolution to mainstream – indeed McKinsey predicts that SaaS will represent 35% of annual software budgets by 2011. Whether Nasstar’s CEO Charles Black will be proved correct in his prediction that by 2013 web-based applications in the workplace will make IT departments redundant is yet to be seen. However, in the current climate with businesses looking to save on all aspects of their cost base, SaaS is seen as a good opportunity to reduce costs and allow for future growth without capacity constraints. My view is that customers should see the SaaS model as being more akin to a managed service or an outsourcing contract than the traditional software licence model. In a managed service model, whilst the customer might develop their own business requirements and specifications which are priced and delivered by a managed service provider, with SaaS the provider has pre-developed the specification and the software and the opportunity for customisation is limited. As with any system implementation, businesses still need to understand their own processes to ensure that they can map to the SaaS service and gain full value from the implementation. The SaaS Model In the SaaS model, a software application (and particularly complex software such as CRM, HR and accounting packages) is hosted by either the software vendor or a third party and the use of the application is provided remotely to the customer over the internet. The host is responsible for the operational environment including the software and hardware, dealing with upgrades and patches and data storage. The customer accesses the application using a client side application which may be bespoke or a standard web browser. Benefits It is argued by the service providers that SaaS provides a number of benefits particularly regarding cost and flexibility. Cost: Rather than undertaking expensive and time-consuming software development projects, its proponents say that SaaS is ready as an off the shelf solution. The standard pricing model is based around annual fees either on a per-user or an enterprise wide basis which enables budgets to be managed on an annual basis without the need for major investment in the initial implementation. Pricing models do vary however with some providers charging for additional storage capacity over a particular level. Training may also be a chargeable item as may any specific configuration requirements of the customer. Scalability: With SaaS, the customer is not tied to particular hardware platforms for its installation of the software – instead the provider manages the hardware. If the customer wants to add a raft of new users, it merely ups the user numbers and pays the additional annual fees. Active monitoring of users’ requirements for the software is important to avoid spiralling costs for users who don’t need to use the software. Maintenance: With the provider responsible for looking after the system, the customer does not need to worry about managing patches and upgrades. Access: With web access, many SaaS applications are available 24/7 from any location where internet access is enabled. Clearly in an era where many businesses are looking to empower mobile working, the provision of remote access to business critical applications such as CRM can be a valuable business tool. Mobile working is implicitly catered for by SaaS applications because they are internet-based and therefore not dependent on a private network. Market specific: The fact that the provision of a SaaS service does not require the physical presence of the provider at any particular location enables the development of market specific applications. Thus an Australian SaaS provider could develop a CRM application that is particularly suitable for, say, media companies. UK media companies would be equally able to access this application from Australia as they would a UK based application. Downsides/Risks The very benefits that SaaS offer can also be interpreted as risks facing businesses who are considering adopting a SaaS application. In this section we look at the risks associated with SaaS and the contractual approaches to managing them. Control: One major challenge associated with SaaS is the ceding of control to the SaaS provider. By asking the SaaS provider to manage the system, the customer loses control over the system. The customer is reliant on the SaaS provider to respond to faults and to decide when and how to implement upgrades. In weighing up the pros and cons of adopting a SaaS approach, a customer must understand (as with a managed services contract) the fix times (and consequences of not meeting these fix times) offered by the provider. The customer will have no ability to manage the fix itself. Nor is the customer likely to have any say over the functionality of new versions of the software implemented by the SaaS provider. With the standard software licence model (and even in managed services contracts) the customer would expect some degree of control over the timing of the implementation of new versions and could decide for itself whether the functionality provided by the new version merited an immediate upgrade or whether to continue on the current version. As with any business change, there are costs other than the pure IT costs of implementation of a new version of software. Integration: A major consideration for any business considering implementing an additional or alternative software application is the cost of integration of the application into the existing ICT infrastructure schema of the business. This is no less true for SaaS solutions. Without looking at the particular technical challenges of SaaS implementation, the integration of SaaS solutions may well require use of specialist third party SaaS integration tools or the development of a bespoke solution to enable appropriate integration with existing applications. This could require either in-house or specialist third party support to enable the integration which needs to be factored in to the annual costs. SaaS providers also control the timescale for release of upgrades and new versions of their product. Whilst reputable providers of SaaS solutions are likely to consider backwards compatibility, there is no guarantee that newer versions of SaaS applications will not require further implementation work for customers. Whilst SaaS is sold as deployed offsite, it is sometimes necessary for the customer to concern themselves with deployment or upgrade of packages such as Java or other “add-ins” to ensure the smooth operation of the SaaS software. The customer will also need to ensure that they are using a consistent and supported version of their internet browser. Data security/recovery: As with any offsite managed service, the customer in a SaaS service is reliant on the application provider to manage data security. Whilst a SaaS provider is unlikely to leave a laptop with the customer’s data on the train, both the protection of a business’ reputation and data protection laws require customers to understand exactly how the provider will manage all aspects of data security. Many of the cost benefits of SaaS are predicated on a “one size fits all” approach and there is likely to be little opportunity to require the SaaS provider to move to a data security regime different from its standard offering without pricing implications. Indeed, for smaller customers, the offering is likely to be on a take it or leave it approach. Data protection: I do not propose in this article to run through all aspects of data protection that need to be covered off in the SaaS delivery contract (and much will depend on the nature of the data itself) but as a minimum the following aspects should be documented: • Back-up processes • Any ability of the SaaS provider to send data overseas • Disaster recover procedures • Exit provisions (see the section on exit below) Loss of expertise/Vendor lock-in: As with an outsourcing, the transfer of responsibility for management of an application away from the customer may enable the customer to reduce the cost base of its IT department. Whether or not this is the case, in any event the customer is at risk of diluting the skill set of its in-house team. However, unlike outsourcing, it is unlikely that any employees of the SaaS provider will TUPE back to the customer on termination of the SaaS contract potentially leaving the customer with a skills deficit. Whilst customers may ask for support on exit (see below) as outsourced customers have sometimes found this does not necessarily equate to in-house expertise. Whilst there is always a challenge and cost of moving applications, the loss of in-house expertise may add to the problems faced by a business looking to migrate away from a SaaS provider. Exit: With a standard licence model exit should not be an issue – the customer is in control of the implementation and data and can carry out all tests that it considers appropriate to provide comfort that, once it switches over to the new application, it will not suffer any unmanageable teething problems. This is not the case with an outsourced service as the customer is reliant on potentially two competing third parties to assist in transition. Any managed services contract should therefore deal with exit. A SaaS contract is no different. Whether the exit is planned or forced, the customer needs to know that the transition away from the incumbent provider to the replacement (whether in-house or third party) will be seamless and with as little interruption in service as is practicable. It is important to ensure that the SaaS provider is not able to switch off access resulting in the loss of business-critical systems before the business has an alternative solution. The exit provisions need include the ability of the customer to recover its own data. Whilst one would expect this to be a given, certain SaaS provider terms explicitly deny this right to customers in the event of non-payment by the customer. Summary Clearly there can be benefits of adopting the SaaS model. The pricing model offered by the SaaS community is clearly articulated and may, on the face of it, provide a clear saving over the equivalent in-house licence model. Some of the obvious benefits of SaaS (such as simple remote access) may also be persuasive. As with any investment decision though, businesses need to understand the total cost of ownership including the medium term costs and potential disadvantages such as loss of in-house skills. Understanding the risk allocation in the contract clearly forms a part of this decision. • Editor's note: Who is FAST? We've been given the following explanation... "We need to educate people who FAST IiS are – it’s tough as all the brands sound the same and have been related in the past, that’s our problem! FAST IiS (a merger of the two not-for-profit groups The Federation Against Software and Investors in Software) is the membership, education, government lobbying and enforcement body. These guys also run FLAG (The Federation Legal Advisory Group). The FAST Ltd/FAST Consultancy is owned by the Iris Group, not FAST IiS anymore. This link has a good explanation as the the relationships." http://www.fastcorporateservices.com/fast2/Templates/Template_Graphical.aspx?siteId=1&menuItemId=31 Friday, March 6
Facebook - friend or foe?
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 06 Mar 2009 10:57 GMT
Last month Orange Rag editor Charles Christian rather pointlessly put some time in, cranking up his profile to 90% on the LinkedIn social networking site. This month he's been playing with Facebook – and what a difference...
"Comparing the two, LinkedIn has the feel of being a Web 2.0 presence that has been designed by accountants or members of a golf club – you know, worthy but dull – whereas Facebook looks a social networking site that has been designed by people who like to network – and party. On the technology front, when the two are compared, LinkedIn is, frankly, lame whereas Facebook has all the bells and whistles anyone could possibly want. And having free downloads so you can also keep in touch with Facebook developments on an iPhone (or iPod Touch) or Blackberry really is a killer. When Crackberry meets Crackbook – see second part of this story. "It's also interesting to see that while there is an element of overlap between my LinkedIn and Facebook contacts, there is also an element of self-selection, with the more straight-laced, we take ourselves very seriously brigade on LinkedIn and the people you'd happily spend an evening drinking in a wine bar with on Facebook. (I know, I've just single-handedly alienated half the people I know – but, hey, it is Friday.) "That said, I think a lot of businesses are missing a trick here as Facebook is far more pervasive – its even taking off in the US now and starting to challenge MySpace. Its 'find a friend' networking database is spectacularly good. And its access controls mean it is possible to control what parts of your profile different groups of people see. In otherwords you can create Chinese walls between your private life and the stuff you would not mind your employers, clients or parents seeing. "The groups facility also has a lot of potential for creating company or product related sections. Perhaps instead of building yet more integration between Interaction and LinkedIn, CRM software developers should be focusing on the likes of Facebook instead. But there again, a lot of software companies are also run by accountants and golf club members." • You can find Charles Christian on Facebook via his charles@legaltechnology.com address. Next month he'll be playing with Twitter in the hope he can find a serious use for it. And now for a warning about the dark side of Facebook from Mace & Jones... Law firm urges employers to get tough, as worker sacked for Facebook misuse Recession battered employers are being urged to crack down on the devastating impact to staff productivity of internet misuse at work. Law firm Mace & Jones made its remarks after teenage office worker Kimberley Swann was sacked last week from her job as an office administrator in Essex after branding it “boring” on Facebook. Mace & Jones employment law partner Mark Hatfield said the case came as “no surprise” and advised that many employers are taking a firm line on the internet considering it a “silent time killer” of epidemic proportions. “Employers are not prepared to tolerate misuse of the internet generally but especially in the current climate,” said employment law partner Mark Hatfield. “With businesses struggling and redundancies rife every job and every hour counts. Staff who idle away on the internet are wasting valuable time which should be being deployed to maintain company efficiency and productivity. To enforce proper IT use, it is critical staff are told exactly what the company internet policy is so no-one is in any doubt about its importance and what the punishments are”. Mr Hatfield said the problem is not isolated to junior staff and reported he has advised one firm on disciplining a senior member of staff who was misusing the internet by playing online computer games. "Staff can be allowed time during breaks to surf the net and send emails to friends,” he said. “But employers need to ensure staff members are not sharing sensitive or embarrassing company information, as happened with the case in Essex on the internet. It is worth noting, for example, that Facebook has privacy settings which people should be made aware of. But Facebook seems especially damaging to productivity because it encourages people, who work together or nearby, to start communicating with each other instead of getting on with the job.” Orange Rag comment... Many major employers have already taken a tough line on internet abuse including Lloyds TSB, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse which have all banned Facebook. Cynics would say they might have made better use of their time monitoring the business rather than social activities of their bankers. True there is the time wasting factor – but exactly the same arguments have been made in the past about email, web surfing and blogging. And, for those with longer memories, the telephone and the long liquid lunch hour. Thursday, March 5
IRIS Group explains its results
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Mar 2009 13:13 GMT
Following yesterday's story on its results, the IRIS Group has issued the following statement...
IRIS demonstrates its financial strength, positioning itself as a software supplier of choice to weather the economic downturn With average annual growth of 76% over the past 3 years, IRIS Software – www.iris.co.uk – was recently identified as one of Britain’s top performing private companies, rising to 16th position in the February 2009 Sunday Times Deloitte Buyout Track 100 League Table, with annualised profits of £40.8m www.iris.co.uk/docs/2009-BuyoutTrack100.pdf (Or try this link http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack2002/bin/2009-BuyoutTrack100.pdf – and thanks to the reader who supplied it.) Reporting on both these results and the Group’s 2008 results, Martin Leuw, Group Chief Executive of IRIS commented: “As a private company, we have not historically announced our results beyond filing them at Companies House. However, in the current uncertain economic environment, we feel that it is beneficial for our employees, customers, prospects, suppliers and partners to fully understand and have confidence in the strong financial position of IRIS and the significant long term covenant free cash facilities we have in place to continue to fund not only the future development of our products, but also to make complementary strategic acquisitions. “Our first set of statutory accounts for the 10 month period to 30 April 2008, reflects the £500m buyout and merger of IRIS Software with Computer Software Group plc which we completed on 3rd July 2007 and was backed by Hellman & Friedman, now a majority shareholder, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms with over $8 billion currently under management. “The accounts show that for the ten month period to 30 April 2008, when you add back the amortisation of goodwill on acquisitions and one-off restructuring costs at the time of the buyout, IRIS made an Operating Profit of £32.6m, had free cash flow in excess of 100% EBITDA to comfortably service its interest payments and had cash in the bank of £20.7m. The buyout package was funded by approximately £320m of long term bank debt, repayable no earlier than 2015 and loan capital of £200m from Hellman and Friedman and other shareholders, repayable no earlier than 2017. In addition IRIS had an acquisition facility of £75m, largely undrawn, repayable no earlier than 2015, which gives us the opportunity to continue to make acquisitions. Unlike many businesses both public and private, IRIS has no financial covenants on its debt package. With approximately 60,000 customers providing a wide spread of business, an average 95% renewal rate which is one of the highest in the industry and around 65% of annual revenues underpinned by maintenance contracts”. Now the largest privately owned software and services business in the UK, IRIS’ unique differentiator lies in the fact that it is a sector specialist with leadership positions in the markets it operates in. IRIS is: The No 1 provider to UK accountancy practices; The No 1 provider to UK law firms, barristers and coroners’ offices; The No 1 provider to the UK not-for-profit sector; The No 1 provider of payroll and accounts software to GP practices The No 2 provider of payroll and HR software solutions, providing payslips to circa 10% of the UK workforce; An award-winning provider of accounting and ERP systems to UK businesses; A leading provider of specialist software for: • sports clubs • field service companies • IT divisions of major organisations • higher education and commercial training • architects • engineers <ends>
Good news & bad news for UK legal publishers
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Mar 2009 09:58 GMT
In its latest round-up of media news, Fusion Corporate Partners – www.fusioncorp.co.uk – report that Incisive Media Plc – best known in this market for Legal Week and the Strategic IT Forum in Spain – is in or close to a breach of its banking covenants.
CEO Tim Weller has reportedly admitted that UK profits have fallen below the
level agreed with the bank when taking the company private in 2006 and
the company is looking to correct the situation. The US arm of the
business – which now includes the American Lawyer Media group – has a separate financing arrangement which is not in breach.
The company remains profitable and cash generative at a operating level.
In contrast, Wilmington Group Plc (the company behind Central Law Training and the Solicitors Journal and Managing Partner magazines, among other things) in its interim results for the six months ending 31st December 2008, reports revenue from continuing operations up by 13% to £43.1M (2007: £38.1M), with adjusted PBT up by 9% to £5.9M (2007: £5.5M), and statutory PBT of £2M (2007: £3.3M). The Professional Publishing & Information division reported profits up 20%, with a mixed performance from the Professional Training & Events division. Wilmington's performance is weighted towards the second half of the financial year, and whilst it expects the continued deterioration in the legal training market to impact on the full financial year, it is still open to making acquisitions which are a strategic fit. |
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