BigHand today announced that Top-30 law firm Hill Dickinson has migrated to BigHand digital dictation workflow software and the BlackBerry mobile dictation app. The firm has replaced its incumbent system* with BigHand to significantly improve the availability and uptime of dictation software and as a result, the equivalent of one full time support professional has been reallocated to other projects.
Keith Feeny, Director of IT & Operations at Hill Dickinson, said "Our primary objective in upgrading to BigHand was to improve the availability and uptime of our dictation software. Our technologies are rated on a scale of bronze through to gold based on their performance, reliability and provision for business continuity and disaster recovery – far better than our previous system, BigHand ranks gold, it's bullet proof.
"We were receiving a staggering 400 calls per week from users requesting help from IT in order to administer work and for the most part, this was simply to recall or reassign work. The upgrade to BigHand has totally eliminated dictation related support calls and this has enabled us to redeploy valuable resource to other projects.
"BigHand has enabled us to reach a level of business continuity and disaster recovery planning previously unattainable. Our infrastructure is virtualised and replicated off-site, authors can dictate anytime, anywhere via their BlackBerry and secretaries can access BigHand at home via Citrix. We have also integrated BigHand with Autonomy iManage to efficiently manage our document production. The increased visibility of work, access to dictations and reliability of the BigHand software and BlackBerry App has resulted in very high levels of user satisfaction."
Andrew Evans, a partner at Hill Dickinson, added "Our team of fee earners and secretaries recognise the benefit of our new system. BigHand dictation is easy to use, allows our fee earners to use a combination of dictation capture devices and enables us to deliver information to our clients faster. In addition, the BlackBerry capability of BigHand dictation provides greater flexibility for our travelling fee earners. The BlackBerry capability allows authors to dictate between locations without having to return to the office to submit paperwork. It works well, because of the simplicity of use. I feel that BigHand will be a good fit for our long-term goals, and the team have been happy with the system."
Commenting on the firm’s plans for the year ahead, Feeny said "We will shortly be integrating our BigHand software with Dragon speech recognition technology to further increase productivity. BigHand's new components for authors and innovative proofreading tools are incredibly impressive, and place them well ahead of the game."
COMMENT: The press release does not name the incumbent DDS that Bighand was brought in to replace however Legal Technology Insider records reveal it to be Winscribe. Our sources report that Bighand will be reporting another Winscribe swapout at a UK law firm within the next few days.
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Tuesday, February 21
Hill Dickinson 'going for gold' with Bighand
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 21 Feb 2012 12:49 GMT
Peppermint now support iPads and smartphones
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 21 Feb 2012 09:37 GMT
Legal technology innovator Peppermint Technology today announced it will support Apple iPad/iPad2* and a range of Smartphones including: Windows Phone, Apple iPhone 3GS+, Google Android and RIM Blackberry in its Q2 2012 release of its Legal Service Platform.
This move ensures that the Platform delivers a consistently rich user experience via today’s popular mobile devices. It gives users choice and flexibility as to how and where they work while ensuring a consistent service experience across all channels. Effective mobility is an increasing important factor for lawyers who need to remain productive and informed whilst out of the office. A fact back up by Gartner who report that by the end of 2013, approximately 33% of Business Intelligence will be consumed from a mobile device. Coupled with the growing trend in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), where employees are permitted to use their device of choice at work, the Peppermint Platform is leading the market in supporting the legal service providers of the future. > Peppermint's Arlene Adams is one of the speakers at next month's LawTech Futures conference in London. www.lawtechfutures.com * We know, by Q2 it will also need to support iPad3 ! Monday, February 20
Wragge & Co go live with Linetime
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 20 Feb 2012 13:44 GMT
Wragge & Co LLP’s Finance, Insolvency, Recoveries and Sales Team (FIRST) has streamlined its systems and services with Linetime, a leading provider of case, practice, matter management and debt recovery software. FIRST advises mortgage lenders and financial institutions on all aspects of secured and unsecured recoveries work, from multi-million pound claims to mortgage repossessions. It wanted a combined case, matter and practice management system which could cater for both complex and volume instructions. Following a competitive tender process, FIRST selected Liberate from Linetime. Adrienne Mansfield, FIRST general manager, said: “To maintain our current high level of client service we need to be as agile and efficient as possible. We wanted a system that supported the team’s technical expertise, enabled them to deliver consistently excellent client service and put us at the forefront of technological developments.” With client service its priority, FIRST had a number of objectives for the project: to improve workflow, reporting and billing, to automate administrative tasks and to provide quality assurance. It also wanted a provider which understood the legal market and the challenges facing a busy legal team. Ian Weatherall, FIRST partner, added: “Linetime demonstrated a flexible team approach and a case management system that could integrate data and processes with FIRST, and the rest of the firm, to increase productivity. Linetime has worked in partnership with us, working through the various options and queries to ensure we had the right solution for us and for our clients.”
Guest article: Data is the new oil - and 'publicy' is the new default
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 20 Feb 2012 10:59 GMT
by Gerd Leonhard*, one of the keynote speakers at next month's LawTech Futures event in London www.lawtechfutures.com
When observing the explosive growth of the mobile Internet, the ubiquitous availability of ever more powerful digital devices as well as the global boom in social networking, it becomes patently clear that there is a common economic force behind these trends, and that force is data. In this hyper-networked society, everyone seems to want to know what we think, all the time, what we like, where we are and who we are connected to. Data (and metadata, i.e. data about data) is quickly becoming a primary force in our digital society, and since successful advertising is forever based on having good data on who is on the other end, the consumer is becoming more powerful than ever before – if he/she opts out of providing data it’s game-over. Never before did consumers wield this much power over marketers; never before could we trade our data for free goods and services in this way (eg Gmail, Skype, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook). The quest for data has made us powerful but it has made us dependent on its benefits as well. The Faustian bargain is in full swing. Some pundits even argue that the only reason advertising in its ‘traditional’ form (a global business worth approx. $550 billion per year) ever existed was simply because we were not yet truly connected, and had no real way to ignore it. Interruption was the game, and the loudest yelling was the best way to sell. Now, with digital technologies in the hand of billions of consumers, we are indeed ignoring what we have no use for, and from our media we expect a lot more than meaningless noise and interruptions. If we provide our cherished data we will expect perfect matches, i.e. a sprinkler system of truly good stuff not a fire-hose of noise. Because we can now wield data as our currency, we will no longer tolerate interruptions, meaningless pitches, disruptive pop-ups or junk email. Very soon we will be open only for truly personalized offers, real meaning, solid relevance, timeliness, word-of-mouth, and yes, real transparency and truthfulness. It’s all about merit and values that are geared 100% towards us, not to everybody else, or someone else. Our data has become our weapon, and we will barter hard with it. Trillions of dollars of marketing, advertising and public relations budgets are at stake. Clearly, going forward, if brands and their marketers, the media, and the ads and messages we see do not provide real value we will quickly lock them out of our lives. Useful, data-rich and properly permitted advertising is indeed becoming content itself, and the-people-formerly-known-as-consumers are getting better and better at creating meta-content as well. The power has shifted from the middle to the edges ie to the users, and to the creators (and this is, by the ay, why we have so much upheaval in the content business). Of course, the key question for marketers still is the same but has just become much more Darwinian: how can you cut the noise, how can you be relevant, be truly wanted (and possibly even loved, like Apple), make a better match, and benefit from meaningful connections? How can you turn the intent of selling into content, into engagement, into mutual appreciation? Is that even possible in the age of digital empowerment? Yelling is dead, and engagement needs permission - a tough but extremely rewarding challenge. This is where we must consider the enormous value of data, and what it will mean to this new playing field. Data is now generated at an exponential rate, every day, by billions of users forwarding a link, rating a site, commenting on a blog, tweeting, sharing bookmarks, allowing cookies on their devices, sharing their location, logging into websites, liking something on Facebook. Everywhere we go, everything we do, every move we make around the Net (and soon, elsewhere, as well) creates click-trails, leaves digital breadcrumbs, produces data exhaust, and creates what I like to call meta-content, ie content around content. In our immediate future are faster mobile Internet access at a much lower cost and much cheaper, yet more powerful and smart, mobile devices, connected devices that are not phones or computers but things, objects and products; computing shifting from tethered computers and mouse clicking to tablets, touch-screens and finger-sweeping; and from downloading to cloud-tapping, which without a doubt will generate seriously more data than ever before, and at an increasing faster rate. The mind boggles (or, as some would say, it recoils) over the possibilities as well as the challenges. data is the new oil and just like we fought over oil we will fight over data – however these fights will be visible to everyone, and will be fought in public. Whoever gets to sift through this data, slice and dice it, move it around, make it useful, define its legal and fair use, and somehow make sense of it all, is probably going to be more powerful than Big Oil has ever been. Google, Facebook and yes, Twitter, come to mind immediately. Something that we must certainly come to grips with is that privacy will almost certainly become something that we must act on to get back, rather than something we attain or retain by mere default. In a way, as Jeff Jarvis likes to put it 'Publicy' is now the default, and privacy is merely an option (and an action item!). Scary thought or huge opportunity? Either way, those powerful new tools of sharing and self-publishing will require that we learn to realize, accept and handle new responsibilities, as well – now that all of us can easily and constantly connect, we also need to learn new limits, new do's and don'ts – and the purveyors of this new power need to help us rather than merely seduce us. The data that all of us are increasingly generating and constantly spreading as most of us are switching to an always-on mode, will be at the core of all future success in marketing, branding and advertising – and for that alone it's roughly worth $1 trillion already (counting advertising spend, marketing and communication budgets, data- mining etc). If the future TV does not know who we are, where we are, what we have watched, for how long, who we have shared shows with, what we have commented on, how we rate things, then the marketers' job will become a lot harder, if not impossible. Matches can't be made, relationships can't be forced, brands can't be followed, connections are interrupted. Getting too little or bad data – or not understanding it – will literally mean running out of gas in the middle of the desert. Therefore, the mission is to keep it all fuelled up. And just like oil, there will be a myriad of issues (hopefully, not wars) that will arise with the responsible and fair practices of drilling, pumping, shipping, refining and dispensing of data. But without a doubt these issues will be solved in due course because this Data-Oil is very potent and because the responsible use of it will light up so many households that a sufficient incentive for problem-solving exists. Telecom companies and mobile operators will want in on this game, as well – afterall, it's their networks that make this all work (for now). My prediction is that we will see a huge influx of companies dealing with the various aspects of data drilling, shipping, refining and remixing, and that the next Exxon or Mobil may well be a data-slicing company. Hopefully, they will be more ecology minded and sustainable, though. Agencies, marketers and brands need to embrace the challenges and stake out their roles in this new Data-Oil ecosystem. * The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd ‘one of the leading Media Futurists in the World’. He is the co-author of the influential book The Future of Music as well as the author of The End of Control. Thursday, February 16
February American Legal Technology Insider newsletter out now
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 16 Feb 2012 21:30 GMT
The February issue (No#43) of the American Legal Technology Insider newsletter
is out now. Top stories include: extensive coverage of LegalTech New York, including who is the main Sharepoint DMS contender + the March of the Macs + the Attack of Generation X & Y - who's afraid of Generation Y - everyone, including Generation X
You can download a free copy by clicking on the attached PDF or you can read it in the Flash page-turning edition see below. (Sorry iPad users but we are working on this.) You can also have the newsletter delivered straight to your desktop via email free of charge – just send a note of your email address to subs@legaltechnology.com and include the words 'American Insider Subs' in the subject line. The next issue will be published on Thursday 8th March.  1 Attachments
Lexis parent says no breakups or sell offs
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 16 Feb 2012 10:54 GMT
Reed Elsevier has published its latest results showing a total revenue decline by 1% to £6002 million in 2011 but its pre-tax profit rose from £768m to £948m, whilst net debt was cut from £3.5bn to £3.4bn year-on-year. Company CEO Erik Engstrom said the group would keep its five main assets: Elsevier, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, LexisNexis Legal & Professional (the bit the legal market is most familiar with) Reed Exhibitions and Reed Business Information – this is in contrast to some analysts calls to break up the company.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Engstrom said "High quality global journalism requires investment. We have no plans to divest any of our five major operating business areas. We have no plans to divest our main events business. ... We expect to continue to make small disposals within all of our five main operating divisions, just as we have over the past two years. And we expect to dispose of businesses that we don’t think are aligned to the strategic direction that we want to go." Tuesday, February 14
Tikit works with Linklaters on Office 2010 rollout
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 14 Feb 2012 11:04 GMT
Tikit today announced it had provided the software and related services for a global template update as part of a Microsoft Office 2010 upgrade for Linklaters LLP.
With 27 offices in 19 countries and more than 5,000 employees, the Microsoft Office Suite and customised Linklaters desktop are critical to ensuring Linklaters applies consistent, international standards to all their transactions. The introduction of Office 2010 has provided additional opportunities to improve template management, ensure global consistency and upgrade the firm’s IT infrastructure. Moving from physical equipment to a virtualised environment has reduced both cost and the firms’ carbon footprint. Following a formal RFP process, Tikit were selected to provide the Template Management System (TMS) solution to deliver all Linklaters branded templates and related functionality in an Office 2010 environment. One of Tikit’s flagship products, TMS allows firms to reduce the amount of in-template code and the number of templates that have to be managed. An administrator tool enables support teams to make simple changes to templates quickly and without requiring any development resource, ensuring increased productivity and reduced risk. “The Office 2010 upgrade was a complex project for Linklaters, with the potential to adversely impact client service if not done well. It was important to take the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of our solutions, and to simplify and standardise our templates. The use of Tikit TMS provides us with a simple way of managing, updating and building templates that supports Linklaters geographic diversity.” Ian Makey, Linklaters, Office 2010 Project Sponsor. Monday, February 13
TLT upgrades its SOS PMS
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 13 Feb 2012 14:52 GMT
The UK law firm TLT has rolled out SOS Connect from Solicitors Own Software (SOS) for accounting and practice management. The firm intends to maximise the use of new features and provide input to SOS’ on-going software development programme to support continuous improvement and greater efficiency throughout the firm.
Growing both organically and through mergers and acquisitions TLT has used SOS Connect’s predecessor for practice management and financial accounting for over 15 years and wanted to ensure that its systems were as efficient and as effective as possible for the benefit of its staff and clients. Matthew Surman, programme manager at TLT who headed up the project to roll-out the software and implement SOS Connect, explained: “SOS has served us well over the years and we were keen to take advantage of SOS Connect’s modern user interface as well as improved features, such as time recording and workflow to achieve considerable efficiencies.” The project to upgrade the system started at the end of 2010. SOS assisted TLT by customising screen views to emulate the most familiar look and feel for users, while adding new functionality, as a way of minimising training time and costs. The SOS Connect roll-out to staff across the three offices was completed between May and October last year for client and matter creation, time recording, disbursements and accounting. “We quickly appreciated the advances in time recording,” said Matthew Surman. “SOS Connect’s flexibility will enable us to adapt to change more readily. The system will help us respond to evolving market and client demands and provide greater business agility for grasping new opportunities.” David McNamara, managing director of SOS said: “We have partnered with TLT since it was a customer with 20* SOS licences and witnessed its transformation into the award-winning, law firm it is today. SOS is obviously delighted to be working with TLT more closely than ever to support its goal of continuous improvement.” * Today TLT employs approximately 700 staff in offices in Bristol, London and Piraeus.
Guest article: Future of Law, Lawyers, Law Firms, Corporate Legal, Attorneys & Legal Counsel
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 13 Feb 2012 11:02 GMT
by Patrick Dixon*, one of the keynote speakers at next month's LawTech Futures event in London www.lawtechfutures.com
The practice of law is changing very rapidly, mainly due to a combination of technology and globalization. Traditional law firms and law schools are being left behind rapidly. Lawyers have enjoyed being part of a relatively protected and exclusive community, with few price pressures, little transparency over cost structures, billing by the hour, rather than offering fixed price deals, and a mystique that until now has meant they faced few challenges from their clients in the way they worked. The future will be far less comfortable. Successful law firms will require far stronger customer focus: under promising and over delivering, exceeding expectations every time. It means deep insight into what it actually feels like to be a customer, with an intuitive understanding of what really matters. Here are 10 key legal trends which relate to each other to differing degrees, depending on where you are in the world: 1. Deregulation – eg in UK, with approval of the so-called Tesco Law, allowing corporations to offer a wide range of legal services. Traditional law firms are now able to raise capital in the market through public share listings, and rapidly expand, in competition with any company who wishes to enter the same market. Expect changes in the way that legal services are marketed. 2. Outsourcing – Forrester estimates that outsourcing of legal services to emerging markets could be an industry worth more than $4 billion by 2015. Many tens of thousands of legal jobs have already moved offshore – mostly lower grade roles for tasks such as document preparation. Some of this is outsourcing to law firms in the same nation, the rest is offshoring, particularly to India, where hourly cost may be only 10-20% of a US or European equivalent. Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) will continue to grow rapidly as corporations become more confident that issues relating to confidentiality and security are being dealt with. As part of this shift, we are also seeing huge growth of new legal graduates in nations like India – over 20,000 a year. 3. Globalisation – as legal requirements of multinational clients grow more complex, many law firms have globalized to keep pace, offering specialist advice in many different countries, as well as centers of excellence in specialty areas. 4. Virtual Law Firms – in the past, many of the best-known firms drew most of their talent from a small geographic area, often in competition with other leading Firms. Most staff sat in traditional offices, where they saw clients, and worked full time. Virtual law firms are growing very fast in numbers. They may have a very small physical office, with team members working from home or various other locations, maybe part-time. They benefit from the fact that it is unusual these days for people to go and see a lawyer. More often, the lawyer will visit them – especially the case in corporate legal practice. Team members often work on a freelance basis, earning most of the fees they generate, which is unheard of in larger, traditional Firms. 5. Legal search engines and other web-based legal services – Companies like CyberSettle, LegalZoom and CompleteCase are changing the way that members of the public get legal help and advice. The number of standard legal forms available online is growing fast, often supplied with minor customization. Social networking is allowing people to locate others with the knowledge or experience they need, with a couple of mouse clicks. 6. Commoditization – separating out all repetitive tasks, or ones requiring low grade knowledge and skills, from those that require a full legal training, and experience; use of computer systems to produce a growing range of sophisticated documents. 7. Multichannel communications – many law firms were slow to adopt email in the 1980s and 1990s, and are lagging far behind today’s clients in their non-use of social media, video links, Google+ and other means of digital contact. 8. Growing numbers of lawsuits – in every nation, as citizens become more aware of their legal rights and opportunities to claim compensation. Huge growth of no-win, no-fee deals with clients, enabling low income claimants to go to court. Industrial scale searches for potential medical injury clients by companies who then feed leads following events like auto accidents into the “system” in return for fees for each referral. 9. Reduced state funding – for those on low incomes in court cases, as part of austerity cutbacks. 10. Rapid growth in complexity of legislation and regulations – in many parts of the world, with explosion in compliance costs for all businesses, particularly those in financial services as a direct result of recent economic crisis. What will be the net impact of all this on earnings for lawyers? Is law still a good career choice? The answer is that it depends where you are and in what specialty. At the top end, the best specialist advisors will continue to be highly prized and will be rewarded very generously. Middle level lawyers will continue to be in demand, but with increasing pressure on fees, expected to work harder with less staff support, less use of office resources, and more use of technology. However, at the same time it will be easier in future for lawyers to work part-time, to take career breaks, work from home and so on. Those doing fairly routine legal tasks in expensive nations will find themselves in competition with online automation, with new non-traditional retail competitors (in countries like the UK), and with human beings with far better qualifications in emerging nations. Those that wish to future-proof their careers will focus on areas that require specialist knowledge, keep ahead in digital innovation and social media, and invest in key relationships – both clients and potential employers. * Patrick Dixon has worked with senior teams of leading law firms such as Linklaters and Freshfields, as well as lecturing to many thousands of lawyers, including corporate legal teams of multinationals, on a wide range of law-related trends. www.globalchange.com - @patrickdixon Friday, February 10
Something for the weekend: the HR beginners guide to religion
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 10 Feb 2012 13:08 GMT
Our thanks to the law firm that sent us this easy-to-follow guide to religion now being used by their HR department. Warning: this infographic (larger version attached) may offend pretty much everyone.
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