Despite the fact DDS has been in widespread use for a number of years, in many firms it is still run as little more than a replacement for analogue tape. However the elephant in the room, the aspect of DDS everyone seems reluctant to discuss, is the failure to make greater use of the technology’s reporting capabilities. It may seem like ‘big brother’ but if you have got the capability to monitor the performance of your secretarial/transcriptionist staff, why not make use of it, so you can reward the ones who are pulling their weight and identify the slackers?

And, it is not just transcriptionists, what about the authors generating all this dictation? Why are so many fee earners spending precious time dictating routine correspondence and file notes that could far more easily be handled by a case or matter management system? With so much focus on law firms utilising business intelligence to a commercial advantage, why the reluctance here?
 
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Headline stories
 
Aderant & SAP bullish on market prospects
At their respective annual user conferences earlier this month, both Aderant and SAP came out with bullish statements in support of their systems and their potential impact upon the global legal IT market.

Speaking at the opening of Aderant’s Momentum conference at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, company CEO Mike Kohlsdorf said there was an “unique market opportunity” for Aderant because the company now had the best product strategy and roadmap in the business while all its competitors were struggling with “flawed products and/or faulty product strategies”.

So what is the Aderant product strategy? At San Diego, the company announced details of Aderant Expert Release 7.6 (codenamed Golden Gate because it will be a ‘bridge to the future’). This will be available from Q3 2008 as an optional add-on to the current Release 7.5 and features several new applications including Expert File Opening, which is based around Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation and helps automate client and matter opening processes; a new Vista-like user interface called Expert Assistant and a new off-line time capture/entry system.

All this was pitched as the foundation for release 8x (codenamed Titan) which is due out in late 2009 but with the important proviso that the database schema will remain exactly the same, so users will get all the benefits via an incremental upgrade rather than a major reinstall. According to Aderant’s SVP for R&D Mike Barry, Titan will include a new marketing/CRM module and a more advanced time and expenses system – both elements that will remove the need for many users to invest in 3rd party best of breed products. Barry told the Insider that although Titan would continue to build upon industry-standard Microsoft products, such Office, SLQ Server, .NET and WWF, it remained a selective strategy – only going with the technologies that added value – and involved a layered architecture so elements could be plugged in and unplugged as necessary.

Of course it is not unusual to hear vendors selling a good story – and Aderant’s salesforce are highly confident the next few months will not only see them winning new deals and more upgrades but also inflicting damage upon the Elite user base. What was interesting was the enthusiasm of the attendees at San Diego. All those we spoke to echoed the same sentiments, namely a sense of relief that after several years of uncertainty Aderant now had both a sound corporate foundation and a product strategy that made commercial and technical sense.

Next stop, the Messe Centre in Berlin for SAP’s annual Sapphire event and a preview of SAP’s all new offering for the legal market – the TCS Legal Management Solution. Although this has been developed from scratch by Tata Consultancy Services (it is not a revamp of either the Linklaters or Intalec systems) because it is based on the SAP ERP platform, it contains as standard many features other legal IT vendors struggle with (and which LITIG included on their list of must have features – see last issue of the Insider) such as e-billing and support for full multi-book, multi-ledger, multi-currency accounting. Despite being effectively release 1.1.0, this is a comprehensive legal PMS with industrial-strength financials and the scope to become a genuine enterprise resource planning system encompassing workfow and matter management, HR – including ‘human capital’ and talent management, plus CRM and client business development.

There is also an interesting time recording module, drawing on SAP’s track record in the financial services market; a new Blackberry integration with the SAP CRM; and the option for SAP users to operate within a familiar Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook) environment using the new Microsoft Duet integration application. Since the recent acquisition by SAP of Business Objects Inc, law firms also have the option of running the same business intelligence (BI) suite that is available with Elite 3E. (There are also a number of UK firms, including Freshfields, Herbert Smith, Ashurst, Pinsent Masons and Simmons & Simmons that, independently, have already invested in a Business Objects BI.

On the marketing front, both SAP and TCS are now talking to prospects about the TCS Legal Management Solution (there were a number of European and UK law firms attending presentations in Berlin) and there is the potentially attractive option for larger mid-sized firms of taking the system on an SaaS/managed solution basis.

When we met with Uri Fremder, the SAP senior director with responsibility for the latest legal market initiative, he said that after making an 18-month investment in the project, SAP was “here to do business, had a strong order pipeline” and anticipated securing three new deals within the next three months.

He added that this was a global initiative that would see SAP and TCS looking at both the North American law firm and inhouse legal/corporate counsel markets – particularly those corporations already running SAP. And, Fremder said he believed the product’s roadmap, including its ability to enshrine best practices for law firms, would help SAP clearly differentiate itself from the opposition – not least because the opposition were still primarily time and billing systems rather than true global ERP solutions.

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May's big deals

Druces LLP select SOS for PMS
Druces LLP has selected the SOS Connect system to replace its current legacy PMS. The 60 user site is scheduled to go live this September. SOS has also won an order from Withy King to implement Connect as the PMS to support the firm’s new Complete network of walk-in legal shops in the South-West. The firm, which also runs Elite practice management software, expects the 100 user SOS project to go live later this month.

Irish eyes smiling on Axxia
Dublin-based DFMG Solicitors has selected Axxia DNA from LexisNexis as the firm’s new practice and document management system.

Merger goes in TFB’s favour
With a view to consolidating all practice systems, following the merger of Forshaws LLP, a long standing TFB site, with IRIS AIM users Davies Ridgway, the firm reviewed both TFB’s Partner for Windows and IRIS Enterprise offerings before opting to standardise on the TFB practice and case management system.

Mountain eclipsed in two swap-outs
Two law firms – Charles Platel (40 users, Wokingham) and David Hurley Associates (25 users, Bournemouth) – are swapping out IRIS Mountain software in favour of a new PMS from Eclipse Legal Systems.

Ledingham Chalmers going with Phoenix
Aberdeen-based Ledingham Chalmers LLP has selected Phoenix Business Solutions to implement the firm’s new Interwoven Worksite document and email management system.

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Product launch of the month: Proclaim Lite from Eclipse
In its latest move to establish itself as the successor to Visualfiles in the case management market, Eclipse Legal Systems has released Proclaim Lite. This is a ‘distilled’ version of the full Proclaim system that provides fee earners with access to matter-specific tools, such as time recording, memo creation and bill production but not the workflows and document production associated with high volume, worktype-specific case management. Sales director Russell Thomson said Eclipse Lite was ideally suited to larger firms who, while not requiring the process-driven methodologies of traditional case management systems, were looking for a consistent matter management platform that could be used across a firm on a variety of worktypes including non-standard commercial projects.

Thought Leader: Consultants do offer value for money
by Andy Stokes, Group Manager & Consultant, Saturn27

The recent survey conducted by the Legal Technology Insider is a valuable guide for practice managers, financial directors and HR helping them to understand how much consultants charge and the various rates which exist for this work. In order to add further detail to the survey’s results Saturn27 would like to take this opportunity to provide some further thoughts and explanation regarding where those costs come from.

The fundamental question one must ask is what is the true value behind the rate? A consultancy is providing a business with a deliverable item and consequently firms should be prepared to pay higher daily rates for this rather than recruiting long term staff and incurring long-term costs. Long term costs are typically seen as overheads and one a business is constantly looking to reduce. External consultancy is generally being used for specific projects against which specific ROI is calculable.

These projects are often seen as transformational, valuable and may be also be accounted for as capital items. With increasing pressure on firms IT staff ‘overhead’ the recruitment of yet more staff is not an option whereas ‘one-off’ measurable projects are. The use of external consultants creates often much needed focus around a project – they ‘do’ rather than talk, mainly because it’s real money. External consultants add valuable experience and insight to projects – this is where the real ‘value add’ is created, as the clients may have developed a sense of tunnel vision in certain areas and a ‘but we’ve always done it that way’ culture.

Employing the services of an external consultant gives the firm far greater exposure to the operations of multiple legal practices than an internal, permanent employee and so project teams can work together to share knowledge and decide the best course of action in any given project with the external consultancy being used for knowledge transfer to existing staff rather than recruiting new staff. Much of the real expertise in legal IT is outside a law firm’s own technical knowledge and with technical expertise not necessarily being particularly well rewarded or recognised in law firms at present access to this skilled pool of expertise can prove to be an invaluable strategic asset. External consultants should not be viewed as undermining or replacing IT directors and their teams. Their role is strategic and measurable and is to define the IT goal and align these with the business. An external consultant will bring effective methodologies and outside experience to deliver a project in the most effective way which, when done well, will ultimately realise an effective and measurable ROI.

And so we come to the consultancy firm’s rate book. These rates are measured against skills and knowledge, against the market and against a project. Typically a consultancy will reduce its daily rate when being committed to a project for a minimum number of days. Reasonable expenses for travel, accommodation and sustenance are often added on. This may see law firms using the most local consultants in order to seek lower rates and expenses, or working with a business that has a network of regional offices to support them.

In conclusion, consultants are not going to give away skills and insight that deliver a measurable return but instead will apply reasonable and justified rates to their work. Investment in a good consultant can bring overall costs down and for this and all of the other reasons identified above it should be seen as an investment not an overhead to the business.

Going clean and green in Sheffield
Although the scientific arguments surrounding global warming are debatable (the cow next door makes a bigger hole in the ozone layer than my gas guzzler) increasingly corporate clients want to know about their law firms’ eco-friendliness – and if a firm can also save money, then it’s win-win all round. Verdiem, a company specialising in power management systems for PC networks, has just released data on the savings made by Irwin Mitchell since it began using Verdiem’s Surveyor system. Along with automatically shutting down PCs overnight, it also puts them to sleep (as distinct from running a screen saver in a locked mode) if they are left idle for 15 minutes. This is reducing energy consumption by around 34% per PC, equating to an annual saving across the firm’s PC fleet of 250,440 kWh of electricity and 107,686kg of carbon dioxide, as well as slicing around £15,000 off power bills.
www.verdiem.com

Say hello to Elise
Disclaw Publishing, the company behind the popular Emplaw employment law information service, has just launched ELISE – the Employment Law Internet Search Engine. Essentially ELISE is a federated search facility, powered by the ISYS search engine, that allows users to search outwards through not only Emplaw but also the ever increasing volume of reliable British employment law related resources available free of charge on the web. ELISE will be included in the professional version of the Emplaw service at no extra cost – the single user annual sub remains £499 + VAT.
www.emplaw.co.uk

Legal Inc in Graham Smith link
Legal Inc has announced the latest development in its end-to-end eCourt service, which includes IT infrastructure, electronic presentation, realtime transcription and now a link up with Graham Smith’s new Opus 2 operation – see Insider No.208 for first report. Lisa Burton of Legal Inc said Opus 2 would also provide the court reporting element of eCourt. Customers will have a choice of transcription software, namely the Transcend system and LiveNote, which was originally developed by Smith.

Readers' poll: is DDS an interim technology?
For this month’s Readers’ Poll we are asking whether digital dictation is a transitory, interim technology that will be rendered redundant by speech recognition software and/or by a growing generation of computer-literate lawyers who can do their own typing? You can find the link to the survey just below the search box on the Insider website’s home page and, as ever, all responses remain strictly confidential.
www.legaltechnology.com

Mason Hays take Solsearch
Top 10 Irish law firm Mason Hayes + Curran is implementing Solcara Solsearch to provide an integrated search facility across online legal resources in Irish, UK and EU jurisdictions, as well as the firm’s Interwoven DMS. In other Solcara related news...
• With the two suppliers already sharing mutual law firm customers, including William Fry and A&L Goodbody in Ireland, library software specialist Bailey Solutions has become a reseller for Solcara’s SolSearch system.
• Solcara has published a new white paper – called The Semantic Web and Federated Searching – that looks at the latest developments in enterprise search technologies. You can download a free copy of the white paper from The Orange Rag blog – see posting for Friday May 23.
www.baileysolutions.co.uk

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Other stories

Gone skiing
Relax, there are no mysterious circumstances surrounding Neil Renfrew’s departure from Tikit. In fact the date of his ‘planned exit’ was known as long ago as May 2006, when Tikit acquired the ResSoft business. We’ve spoken to the man, he wishes Tikit well but thinks his current lifestyle of devoting more time to skiing, golf, football and travel may be more fun than selling software to solicitors.

Not green enough
Has anyone else noticed that the organisations who send you emails with pious notes at the bottom urging you to ‘consider the environment before printing this message,’ are the same people whose messages always features big typefaces and pointlessly-wide line spacing, so if you do have to print them off, you waste far more paper than normal.

Buzzword corner: ecosystem
Once-upon-a-time IT systems suppliers were surrounded by networks of resellers, implementation partners and vendors of 3rd party add-on products. Now, they have ‘ecosystems’ – and are surrounded by networks of resellers, implementation partners and vendors of 3rd party add-on products. New word, same old, same old.

10 years ago today...
The stories making the news in the May 1998 edition of the Insider included the launch of NextLaw – Clifford Chance’s answer to Linklaters’ Blue Flag service, along with the launch of Butterworths Direct, the first acknowledgement by a major legal publisher that the future was online. Butterworths’ then electronic publishing systems director Ivan Darby went so far as to describe CDs as “interim technology” – a remark which at the time verged on heresy in publishing circles.
   
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News in brief
 
Paris Smith lock up with DeviceLock
Paris Smith & Randall LLP is implementing endpoint security on all its ports and devices (including providing protection for its Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices, as well as protecting against USB memory stick abuse) based on software from DeviceLock. DeviceLock endpoint security software is currently installed on more than 3 million PCs in 55,000 organisations around the world.
www.devicelock.com

e-know.net hosting Wolferstans
Managed services specialist e-know.net has secured a contract from Wolferstans to supply its complete infrastructure including communications, networking and software. As well as digital dictation and Sharepoint, the deal will also see the first hosted delivery of a LexisNexis Axxia DNA practice management system.

Total Blackberry cover from Total
Total Telecommunications (0845 070 5450) has become one of the first suppliers in the UK to be signed up as a reseller for the new RIM Blackberry Technical Support Services. This is an annual subscription-based, 24/7 support service, including software upgrades, for Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) users.
www.ttlonline.com

Interaction 5.6 out now
LexisNexis has released version 5.6 of its Interaction CRM software. New features include the ability to access Nexis news and business content; the production of ‘taxi reports’ and ‘push’ technology-based relationship reminders to encourage lawyers to contact their clients regularly.

Birpedia takes flight
Birpedia? No, it is not an ornithology guide but Bird & Bird’s latest knowledge management initiative – a new internal, online, interactive and multilingual glossary (or wiki). As with all Bird & Bird’s KM projects, this has been produced by the firm’s lawyers for the firm’s lawyers and, specifically, trainees.

BLP deploys TimeKM
Berwin Leighton Paisner has deployed Pensera’s TimeKM as its global time tracking system. BLP’s Director of IT Janet Day said there had been a ‘virtually 100%’ take-up of the system by lawyers.
• We’re hearing a lot of good things about TimeKM from other PMS vendors who see it as the successor to Carpe Diem.

Ochresoft offering online SDLT returns
Ochresoft Technologies has become the latest conveyancing case management systems supplier to offer an online Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) e-submissions facility, including forms 1, 2, 3, 4 and the generation of SDLT 5 certificates.
www.ochresoft.com

DocsCorp and DocAuto for alliance
DocsCorp has announced a strategic alliance with DocAuto, a developer of software add-ons for the Interwoven DMS. One consequence will be DocAuto phasing out its own MakePDF product in favour of DocsCorp’s pdfDocs, which offers a wider range of functionality.
• Docs before the eyes. The DocsCorp and DocAuto alliance should not be confused with the earlier announcement (see March Insider) of DocsCorp acquiring US redlining system supplier DocuComp.

Linklaters to accelerate WAN framework
Silver Peak Systems, a provider of WAN acceleration and optimisation technology, has won an order from Linklaters to supply its Silver Peak NX appliances to improve the performance of Citrix, VoiP and other systems across the firm’s global WAN. The Silver Peak technology, which improves WAN performance by eliminating the transfer of duplicate data, will be implemented by Silver Peal reseller Response Data Communications.
www.silver-peak.com

Optima Legal back up with Sungard
Optima Legal is using Sungard’s availability services to provide it with access to two disaster recovery locations in England and Scotland, with a total of 300 desk provisions. Optima Legal is the high volume spin-off from DLA Piper that recently merged with McKeags and Turner MacFarlane Green.
www.sungard.com

XMLAW now available in the UK
Dot Net Solutions (07900 404990) has announced the release of OneView from XMLAW, one of the original developers of information management systems for law firms based on a Microsoft Sharepoint platform. Dot Net is holding a half day seminar on OneView at Simmons & Simmons on 10th June. For details email sallyb@puretechmarketing.com

Virtual infrastructures seminar
Datashare Solutions are holding a technology briefing on Storage - the backbone to a virtual infrastructure at Lewis Silkin’s offices in Chancery Lane on 1st July. The event includes presentations by VMWare and Datacore. For details email matt.simmons@datasharesolutions.com

White & Case select ethical wall
White & Case is to roll out the Frayman Group’s CompliGuard Information Barriers & Ethical Walls software to protect sensitive information and reduce risk exposure by establishing, maintaining, monitoring and updating screens from a single point of entry to consistently secure content across multiple systems. As well as this ‘chinese walls’ system, Frayman Group also produce CompliGuard modules to handle lateral hire intake and records security and retention.
www.fraymangroup.com
     
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The Insider web site

For the latest legal IT news, jobs, events and information, visit the Insider web site - www.legaltechnology.com, described by The Times newspaper as "the definitive online resource for legal technology information". And don't forget our breaking news blog The Orange Rag.
 
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People & places
 
Informa’s Hulme now at CPA
Jason Hulme (who, as we reported last time, was leaving the IT events group Informa) has joined CPA Global as marketing manager for legal process outsourcing. (That’s the outsourcing of legal work to non-UK lawyers, as distinct from the outsourcing of IT processes.) Hulme will be working with CPA Global vice president Derk Kropholler.
jhulme@cpaglobal.com

MBA for Nixon
Congratulations to Viberts’ head of IT Jensen Nixon who has just been awarded an MBA, with commendation by Nottingham Law School. Nixon, whose final project was on the use of knowledge management in law firms, had Insider editor Charles Christian as his extended project supervisor.

Transam move
Transam Microsystems has moved to new offices at 51 Lloyd Baker Street, London WC1X 9AA. The switchboard number is 020 7427 2550.

SDLT developer now an MVP
SDLT.co.uk’s head developer Leigh Purvis is now an accredited Microsoft ‘Most Valuable Professional’ and has just returned from a Microsoft MVP global summit in Seattle.

Metastorm expands its presence
BPM specialist Metastorm has ‘expanded its global footprint’ with the opening of new offices in Sweden and South Africa. The move follows on from Metastorm’s acquisition of Process Competence last year, which gave it a Benelux presence.
 
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Digital dictation news in brief

Howrey LLP swap out G2 and Dictanet for Bighand
Howrey LLP is to swap out a G2 digital dictation system in its London offce and a Dictanet system in Munich in favour of the Bighand 3 system. The firm’s European IT manager Daryl Hogg said “The G2 system could not offer a long term, reliable dictation solution. We were losing dictations and transcriptions on a daily basis.” After selecting Bighand as the replacement in London, the firm also opted to standardise on Bighand in Munich.

DDS working lunch in Leeds
Voicepower (01943 468000) is holding a working lunch at the Metropole Hotel in Leeds on 19th June to provide local law firms with an introduction to digital dictation. The company will be showing systems from Winscribe and Philips, among others. To book a place contact Sonja Brown at sonja@voicepower.co.uk

DDS webinar diary date
WinScribe, in conjunction with the Insider, is hosting a free webinar entitled Emerging Trends in Digital Dictation on Thursday 26th June via WebEx. In this webinar you’ll learn from moderator Charles Christian about emerging trends in digital dictation, leveraging mobile devices to streamline dictation and business processes, and SaaS as an alternative to traditional software acquisition models. Watch the Insider website and blog for details or email events@winscribe.com for more information.
 
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Insider jobs of the week

Case Management & Workflow Consultants opportunities: Legal Accounts Trainer, SOS, Bath
Due to an increasing demand for our latest SOS Connect software, we have opportunities for case management /workflow consultants and also legal accounts trainers. Ideally, candidates for both positions will already have similar experience within the legal profession, although full training could be available for trainers/consultants from other backgrounds. Both positions involve delivering training courses to new and existing clients on implementing and using our latest software for progressive law firms. Therefore these roles are both varied and interesting. Candidates will need to be willing to travel as our clients are based throughout the UK and so a full UK driving licence is essential. In return, SOS offers an attractive salary package, a quality company car after probation period plus other benefits and the chance to join a successful and expanding software company which celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2008. Please email or send your CV to m.perkins@soslegal.co.uk

Full details on these and other vacancies can be found on the Insider jobsboard
 
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Contact us

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Publisher & Editor: Charles Christian | Tel: 01986 788666 | Fax: 01986 788808 | Email: news@legaltechnology.com

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