SAP wins Linklaters ERP deal
After months of speculation, Linklaters has confirmed that it has awarded the contract for its next generation practice management systems infrastructure to SAP. Although virtually unknown in the legal market, SAP is the third largest software company in the world and this contract adds credence to the argument that major league global law firms have outgrown the capabilities of traditional legal software suppliers and now need industrial strength ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems.

Linklaters will be implementing the mySAP.com software which will, in due course, replace the incumbent ResSoft PMS system. A Keystone plus Oracle Financials combined solution was one of the offerings rejected on the final Linklaters short list.
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MIL name goes in merger
Is the UK legal systems market about to rationalise? One of the sector's older names MIL (Management Interface Ltd) is to disappear from the scene following the company's merger a fortnight ago with Greenwich-based SoftDesign Services Ltd.

SoftDesign's sales & marketing manager Phil Heath told the Insider that as part of the deal, the merged business would not only support existing MIL customers on an "as is" basis but was also keen to continue distributing the MSS AlphaLaw range of software to law firms.

In terms of what it brings to the party, while the SoftDesign (020 8293 3123) name may not be that familiar in legal circles, the company has actually been providing what it calls 'managed IT services' - including outsourcing, facilities management, consultancy, systems integration and bespoke programming - to solicitors practices and barristers chambers for over 20 years. One of its flagship customers is Vizards Wyeth, which has been using SoftDesign to manage and support its IT systems for the past six years. www.softdesign-services.com

Legal IT best show in 5 years
Last week's Legal IT 2002 exhibition in London is already being described by visitors and exhibitors as the best legal technology event the UK has seen in five years. Although visitor numbers - just over 2200 - were only 4 percent up on last year , almost without exception exhibitors were reporting that the people visiting their stands were good quality and in the market for new systems.

Legal IT 2003 will take place at the same venue - the Business Design Centre - on 12 & 13 February. The date has been moved back one week to avoid overlapping with LegalTech New York.
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Decision day for legal IT events ?
Today (13 February) could be decision day for the future of legal IT events in the UK as the Legal Software Suppliers Organisation (LSSA) meets with representatives of Cordial and Imark, the UK's two main exhibition organisers, to discuss plans for future events.

What concerns suppliers is not just the growing number of events fighting for their time and a share of their marketing budgets but also the fact that visitor numbers seem to be falling as the market becomes increasingly cannibalised.

For example this year is currently scheduled to see four national exhibitions plus at least 10 other conferences and events offering niche or mini-exhibition facilities. October is a particularly busy month with four events in the space of just over a fortnight, including one clash of dates.

LSSA is not disclosing its intentions at this stage but with many suppliers saying they want just one big London show and one smaller regional event, it remains a possibility that LSSA will opt to endorse one organiser's events and leave the other jilted at the altar.
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Fat lady not yet singing for Keystone & Solution 6
The merger talks between Solution 6 and Keystone Solutions are grinding on, with Keystone last week issuing the following statement to the London Stock Exchange: "Discussions (with Solution 6 Holdings regarding a possible merger of some of the subsidiaries of Solution 6 with Keystone) are progressing well and further announcements will be made as appropriate."

But, while the word in London is the two companies have already entered the due diligence phase, with a possible deal being struck by March - and Keystone staff exchanging their City address for a season ticket on the Underground to Solution 6's offices in Ealing, the response in Australia seems to be rather more cautious. In fact last Friday Solution 6 group company secretary Steve Alperstein faxed out a statement warning that "we are discussing joint business opportunities with Keystone but advise that no agreement on any potential structure or pricing has been reached between the parties."

There again, mindful of the prolonged and ultimately doomed merger talks it had with Elite in 1999/2000, Solution 6 is probably only too well aware of the dangers of prematurely celebrating a deal.

Keystone has also reported that "while there have been delays, negotiations on the contract (with Clifford Chance) are progressing satisfactorily." Keystone is part of a consortium with Oracle Financials to supply the firm's new global practice management system.
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The Legal Technology Jobs Board
If you are a legal systems supplier or a law firm looking for IT staff, including positions in management, development, sales, support and training, you can post your vacancies free of charge on the Legal Technology Insider web site. Email job details to: news@legaltechnology.com

Suitors line up for Freelawyer
Judicium Ltd, the company that developed and owns the Freelawyer legal advice and law firm referral site, says it has been swamped with enquiries since it announced it was putting the site up for sale on the basis of an exclusive annual licence.

Currently the site, which uses expert systems to help members of the public identify the legal issues they face, allows users to get free legal information and to contact a number of law firms if they want to take matters further. However, as Judicium CEO Leon de Costa explained: "We have developed a number of other projects that are keeping us busy and feel the site is better suited to benefit a single law firm, one that is technology literate and wants to establish itself immediately as the dominant legal player on the internet. It will have exclusive use of the site and can alter it to suit whatever purpose they have in mind."

Negotiations have already begun with one Midlands firm but Judicium say they have been surprised by the level of interest shown by non-law firms. Or as Judicium's Alex Mehta puts it: "As competition within legal services intensifies and diversifies, its almost salutary how many non-lawyers are getting involved. I guess there is a real difference between doing law and winning new legal business, with lawyers perhaps less suited to the latter."

Freelawyer consistently makes the top 5 of Legal Technology Insider's Hit list rankings of the UK's busiest legal web sites.
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SCL AGM says OK to major changes
Last week's annual general meeting of the Society for Computers & Law saw the organisation approve a discussion paper from joint chairman Harry Small and Laurie West-Knights QC containing plans to restructure the SCL to make it a more effective and dynamic organisation. In effect the proposals, which still need to be formally sanctioned by an EGM in March, will strip out a layer of red tape - the old SCL council - so the people interested in helping the SCL can put their time to the best use rather than waste it discussing minutiae at endless committee meetings. And about time too.

The SCL has also published its accounts for the year to 31 March 2001. After last year's blip, which saw the Society report a £30K loss, the organisation is back in the black with a profit of £22.6K and just over £90K of accumulated funds in the bank. And this is despite the fact the SCL was much more active, including totally redeveloping its web site, during this period.
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News in brief

ROI finally recognised as a serious issue
Are law firms finally recognising the importance of trying to measure their expected return on investment (ROI) before they embark upon an expensive IT project?

From conversations the Insider has had with both systems suppliers and finance houses, it does appear that the penny is finally starting to drop, particularly among those larger firms where the recent downturn in commercial business has seen finance directors gaining more influence at the expense of IT directors. However, according to Jonathan Smith of Siemens Financial Services (previously Schroder Leasing) there are still far too many smaller firms rushing into expensive IT upgrade projects without adequately considering the business case or else seeking to justify it on vague, wishy-washy grounds such as "it will help us provide a better service for our clients".

Smith says instead of worrying about how much the system is going to cost, a firm should ask "how much is it going to save us?" and "how much extra money will it help us earn?"

In an interesting footnote, the CEO of one systems supplier said legal IT consultants were partly to blame for the widespread ignorance of ROI issues because they focussed exclusively on system selection and price rather than the business benefits of IT.
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CMS in BPM workflow deal
Solution 6, the company behind the CMS Open PMS software, last week announced a global distribution deal with Teamflo (an offshoot of Scottish legal systems developer Infographics) that will see Solution 6 resell Teamflo's new FloSuite workflow/BPM (business process management) products into the legal market.

FloSuite, which is built on Microsoft's new .NET platform, will help provide CMS Open users with case and workflow management systems that are fully integrated with their practice management software. Russell Wood of Teamflo said a major attraction of FloSuite will be that new workflows can be defined by users in Microsoft Visio, thus avoiding the need for any scripting or programming.

Solution 6 has also signed a reseller agreement with PYA InfoSolutions to sell PYA's Practice Intelligence system as an add-on to CMS. PYA's product is in effect a legal management information system (MIS) based on Cognos reporting software.
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Brands on the run at Pericom
Pericom, which despite having only entered the legal market a couple of years ago already has one of the fastest growing law firm user bases in the country, has indulged in a well needed rationalisation of its product names and branding.

Out goes the wordy Paragon and FWBS Epitome OMS brand names and in comes the Pericom Practice Management System and Office Management System. (The latter is in effect a document and workflow management system.) Explaining the changes at a recent legal users' open day, Pericom chairman Ron Cragg said the objective was not name changing for its own sake but to focus on the business solutions the company could offer and avoid confusing sales prospects as to who Pericom was and what its products could do.

In addition to its Milton Keynes (01908 265533) head office, Pericom's legal division now has offices in York, Yeovil and Fareham. David Amies, whose CTS business was acquired by Pericom, has joined the company's board as a director. Felicity Duff, who previously worked on web site projects for Pericom, has joined the legal team as a regional sales manager.
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Copitrak cracks Magic Circle
Perseverance has been rewarded. After a five year campaign to re-establish the product in the UK, Keith Child's Copitrak business has won a major order from a Magic Circle firm (we are not allowed to publish the name) to install its cost recovery systems at the firm's new office building. The deal also anticipates Copitrak replacing the cost recovery systems from arch-rival Equitrac that are currently installed in the firm's existing offices. Copitrak is also in the final stages of negotiating deals with one other Magic Circle firm and a top 20 practice.
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Award for Insider web site
The Legal Technology Insider web site has been rated 'Site of the Month' by the influential US portal Internet Tools for Lawyers.
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People & Places
Dr Colin Paice, of professional negligence specialists Henmans, has been elected the new chairman of the Solicitec User Group.
iManage is claiming a major coup with the recruitment of Mahshid Rafizadeh, previously director of professional services at rival DMS supplier Hummingbird, as iManage's new director of customer excellence for the EMEA region.
John Keane, widely rated as one of the best salesmen in the market, has returned to Valid Information Systems (previously Ymijs) to head up sales of the company's R/KYV system into the central government sector. After leaving Valid in 1997, Keane was with CMS (now Solution 6) and most recently Belgium based Falcon/Anubex.
Grant Mackie has been appointed general manager of Legal Document Management Ltd (LDM). He joins the company from Hays IMS.
Following the recent appointment of Eliza Hedegaard as legal account manager (see last Insider) Workshare Technology has further beefed up its sales operation with the appointment of Clive Lamb as its new sales & marketing director.
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Wragges wring a little extra out of systems
Although there are complaints that there are currently no 'killer apps' to excite the IT legal market, one benefit has been to concentrate law firms' attentions on getting the best out of their existing systems rather than chasing after the latest gimmicks.

A good example of this can be seen at Wragge & Co, which has just invested in a new suite of business information and analytical tools to speed up the production of reports drawn from data within its practice management system. Wragges is using the Seagate Information Reporting Solution, a web enabled version of the Crystal reports product, supplied by Seagate distributor Contemporary PLC. The system allows users to access reports direct to the desktop via a browser or convert them into an Excel or Word file for emailing to clients.

Head of strategic development Derek Southall said it was part of Wragge & Co's policy of building a solid infrastructure to make the day-to-day aspects of running a firm easier. In the case of the Seagate system, the ROI was the time saved with reports that used to take hours to prepare now completed in minutes.
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Bar systems news

Linetime debuts Debtime sequel
Linetime has launched the successor to its still widely used Debtime Unix-based debt collection software. Called Debtime SQL, the new system is a Windows 32-bit application running on a SQL Server platform. Linetime chairman John Burrill said that in common with the original Debtime (still used by the DSS in Newcastle to process nearly 250,000 debts a year) the new SQL system was developed from the outset as a dedicated debt collection product, as distinct from being based on generic case management software. West country firm Clarke Willmott & Clarke is currently piloting the Debtime SQL system.
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New system for solo firms
Opsis Practice Management Solutions (formerly Solace Legal Systems) has launched Millennium Solo, a new accounts system designed for the single user. The software is fully compliant with the Solicitors Accounts Rules and is supported by illustrated manuals, plus free upgrades, training and telephone support. Solo is supplied on a simple self install CD and Opsis is offering the option of direct debit instalments to spread the cost.
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LSSA XML policy on its way
The Legal Software Suppliers Association is expected to publish a strategy paper by its XML working party later this week. The paper will be published on the LSSA web site and in the next issue of the InsiderÕs companion ezine Legal Technology News. www.lssa.co.uk
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Legal IT 2002 exhibition review - the big launches
Appropriately enough two of the biggest launches at last week's Legal IT 2002 Exhibition in London were from two of the market's biggest players - TFB and Axxia. Both are designed to make life easier for fee earners but there the similarity ends as the two companies have devised entirely different solutions.

TFB was previewing its new MaRTHA (Mobile RemoTe Handheld Access) concept intended to provide fee earners with access to case and practice management information when they are working outside the office. Significantly, MaRTHA does not rely solely on a conventional modem and phone line or ISDN link but is instead looking forward to the newer wireless protocols, including 3G, GPRS and Bluetooth.

TFB already has two MaRTHA products on the stocks. These are: the Pocket PC, which allows users to capture a snapshot of current matter, client, billing and diary details on a PDA, via a point and shoot infrared link, to take with them to meetings. TFB see this proving popular with partners who do not want to lug a laptop around with them to meetings. Pocket PC is available now.

The second product - Partner Remote (available from April) - uses server-to-laptop synchronisation technology to check out a full copy (via SQL Server RAS) of the required files to the remote user. These can be viewed and amended and then checked back in to update the master copy on the server.

Over on the Axxia Systems stand the flagship launch was the new browser based PKC (Personal Knowledge Centre) system. On the face of it, this is just a web enabled version of the now familiar fee earner desktop but underneath the surface it marks a sea change and the start of a true server/browser alternative to client/server technology. So, no Windows, no Citrix just HTML and Java. Interestingly PKC is based on JZEE protocols rather than Microsoft .NET, which Axxia believe is still too novel to be stable (a sentiment echoed by other exhibitors at the event).

What can you do with PKC? Eventually, everything you can currently do with client/server - Axxia are pitching the product as a full interactive business intelligence portal providing access to financial, case and marketing information - but without the need for the latest Windows PC and fixed network bandwidth. In terms of current functionality, Axxia will be offering time recording via PKC from the spring, with matter enquiries and key performance indicators available later this year.

Still on the browser interface front, Pilgrim Systems used the event to launch its LawSoft Web Client. Like the Axxia product, this provides a genuine interactive alternative to the Windows desktop however Pilgrim is keen to stress that Web Client is more than just a web-enabled version of LawSoft. Because the Web Client is based on Active Server Pages and MS Com objects technology (once again not .NET) the system is sufficiently open and customisable that it can form the basis of an inhouse intranet or an extranet portal for clients. It is also compatible with third-party APIs, such as Hummingbird, and is hugely scalable. The first Pilgrim law firm site using Web Client went live last week.
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Legal IT reviews in brief

Eversheds to get secure email via the web
Eversheds is rolling out a new managed authentication service that will allow staff to access the firm's email system securely from any location via a standard web browser. Eversheds has introduced the system so staff can access the service while on the road, on secondment, at client premises or working from home. Once the email system is bedded in, the firm will extend the system to include remote access to documents and its intranet.

The authentication service, which was supplied by Signify and is based on RSA Security's SecurID system, uses a special 'token' as an alternative to the rather lower level of security offered by conventional passwords. Users must present two forms of identification before they can access the Eversheds' email service. There must be something only they know, such as a PIN number, plus a unique one-time passcode that is automatically generated by the Signify token - which could be incorporated in a key fob or via mobile phone or PDA.

Money claims go online
The Court Service last week launched Money Claim Online. This is a web based debt recovery service intended to address the problem that where the sum involved is small, the bureaucracy and inconvenience associated with commencing conventional court proceedings may lead some people not to bother to pursue a claim. But now, according to Court Service chief executive Ian Magee, where the debt claimed is for a fixed amount of less than £100,000 and undefended, claimants with access to a web browser will be able to recover the money from their home "without ever stepping inside a county court". Initially the service will be targeted at individuals and small law firms however it will be expanded later this year to provide integration with computerised case management systems. www.moneyclaim.gov.uk
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Leases online via the BPF
The property industry organisation - the British Property Federation - is offering members the opportunity to download and use standardised short term commercial leases. The leases are delivered via Business Integrity's DealBuilder document assembly system and the service is hosted on Tarlo Lyons' secure web server. The new service, which Business Integrity won in competition against a rival Capsoft/HotDocs bid, replaces a CD based service previously offered by Sweet & Maxwell. www.bpf.propertymall.com
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Online news in brief

Legal Technology Events Diary

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