| Headlines
Price
wars hit digital dictation market
With competition heating up in the digital dictation systems market, as
more and more new entrants try to grab a slice of the cake, the first
signs of a price war are beginning to emerge with the prices falling from
over £1000 per seat 12 months ago to under £300 a seat today.
And, with at least one more overseas DDS supplier set to enter the market
this autumn, the prediction is that prices could be as low as £100
per seat by Christmas.
Two of the biggest cost cutters are DigiVoice (0870 770 1717), the UK
distributors of the DigiScribe system, and iDOiNK Technologies (01473
405000) with their VoiceFLO product. DigiVoice, which has just won a major
contract from a Yorkshire firm, is currently running a promotion for 5-to-25
user firms of £395 per seat including hardware, software and support.
For larger sites the price falls to £295 per seat.
Meanwhile iDOiNK (pronounced eye-doh-ink) is offering a special promotional
deal of £175 per seat. Commenting on the price, the company's head
of marketing Lesley Huskisson told the Insider that with all digital dictation
systems offering broadly the same functionality (or as Huskisson put it,
taking a leaf from Gertrude Stein, "a DDS is a DDS is a DDS")
any new supplier entering the market "had to look at ways of differentiating
themselves from the competition. We decided to do it on price."
Huskisson added that, unlike some suppliers who might only have one source
of income from selling digital dictation into the legal market, because
iDOiNK had other products in other markets, it could afford to charge
a lower price without hurting either product development or its customer
support services.
Most suppliers are keeping tight-lipped about the impact of the price
war but the Insider knows of one site where a DDS supplier had to cut
its price from £900 to £275 per seat to win the order. And,
in another recent tender, one WinScribe reseller told the Insider they
were certain they had won the deal when they quoted £20,000 against
a competitor's price of £30,000, only to see the contract eventually
awarded to another supplier who quoted £14,000.
Law Society
starts application process for 2004 guide
The Law Society of England & Wales has started the application process
for systems suppliers wanting to be included in the next edition of its
annual Software Solutions Guide, which is due to be published in spring
2004. The application period opened on 14 July and closes on Friday 5
September.
The guide is open to all suppliers of accounts and practice management
systems selling to English & Welsh solicitors practices however applicants
must go through a rigorous vetting procedure - this includes extensive
market research into the views of their current users as well as an examination
of their accounts records and financial health. The application forms
can be found online at www.it4law.co.uk
Sweet &
Maxwell move to search based charging
Sweet & Maxwell is moving towards a fresh pricing model for its Westlaw
family of online information services. The company's new director of its
legal online business unit Jitendra Valera (JV) told the Insider that
whereas US law firms charge everything back to the client, including legal
research, in the UK subscriptions to services like Westlaw are almost
inevitably treated as a cost and added to the library’s overheads.
According to JV, market research suggests the real issue for UK firms
is not the price but the chargeability of the research, because the pricing
models for online services vary from cost per case, to cost per view and
cost per printout. To avoid this confusion, Westlaw is introducing a new
pricing model based on the cost per search, which JV hopes will become
the "single currency" for all legal research. Backed up by better
reporting, so it is easier for firms to allocate research work to individual
matters, JV believes this will "encourage more firms to adopt a charge
back mentality for content, in the same way as they already do for disbursements."
Pilgrim back
in profit after its "annus horribilis"
Pilgrim Systems is back in the black for the first nine months of its
2002/2003 trading year and expects to report a profit when its current
fiscal period ends on 30 September. What makes this data all the more
newsworthy is that it follows on from the worst ever trading period in
the company's 25-year history when it posted a loss of £850,000
for its year to September 2002.
Pilgrim chairman Jim Cummings described the period as "our own personal
annus horribilis" when a series of factors coincided to knock the
company back. These included a recruitment drive ahead of expansion and
IPO plans that did not materialise, two very large orders being put on
ice when the firms in questions' own circumstances changes, and restructuring
and redundancy costs. In addition, during this same period, and by way
of further adding to its overheads, Pilgrim also actually increased its
spend on new product development by 15% to just over £700,000 or
36% of revenues.
Pilgrim CEO Benny Placido admits the company did not anticipate the depth
and duration of the post-Y2K recession and says that although there is
significant new business out there "it just takes a lot longer to
complete than ever before". However Placido believes "there
is an upside to all this and the slow down in new implementations allowed
us to focus heavily on providing new services to our existing customers.
We also refused to reduce investment in product development. Instead we
increased it, adding functionality in CRM, time recording and billing,
with the result that LawSoft is now one of the most powerful and functionally
rich systems in the market today."
Turning to the current trading year and future prospects, according to
Placido this is "bouncy back year" with orders coming in from
both new business - including one still to be announced major deal from
outside the traditional law firms' sector - and Pilgrim's existing user
base. And all won without having to make the same 40% price cuts one of
Pilgrim's competitors has recently been offering.
"This year," says Cummings, "is a better year. We're focussed
on our core business and it is paying off, with our strongest pipeline
for new orders since the late 1990s." One factor Cummings attributes
to this return to form is a change in the company's approach to sales,
with far greater emphasis now placed on consultancy oriented sales where
the focus is upon the business benefits and ROI rather than technology
innovation. Pilgrim has also set up a dedicated case and workflow management
division, headed by Martin Siddle, and anticipates some major announcements
about this side of the business in the coming few months.
Cummings says that with hindsight, Pilgrim's poor figures were a direct
result of the company's ambition. Cummings believes too many legal IT
suppliers are happy to run a ‘lifestyle business', spending just
enough of their earnings on R&D to keep the company ticking over while
the rest provides directors with a comfortable standard of living. "At
Pilgrim our strategy was different. We wanted to create a bigger boys
business that could tackle Elite and Solution 6 on their own terms. We
had a setback but we are now back on track for expansion in 2004."
The Insider also spoke to Pilgrim's institutional investor Aberdeen Development
Capital, which has a 20% holding in the company. Aberdeen's Stuart Overend
told the Insider that not only were they fully behind Pilgrim but were
prepared to increase their investment should the opportunity arise.
Overend added that Pilgrim was to be congratulated for not taking the
easy option of trying to make their figures look better by cutting their
R&D expenditure. "By continuing to invest in the LawSoft product,
they are creating value." Overend suggests that far from realising
savings, legal IT suppliers who slash their R&D budgets (and some
spent as little as £25,000-to-£50,000 on R&D last year)
are unwittingly engaged in value destruction.
Hummingbird
buys Valid for £18 million
Hard on the heels of last month's acquisition of Kramer Lee for a reported
£4 million, Hummingbird has now bought Bill Cannings' electronic
document & records management company Valid Information Systems for
£18 million. Formed in 1989 - and originally called Ymijs - Valid
and its R/KYV software has evolved from a relatively simple DIP (document
image processing) system into a compliance and records management system
that is widely used by major corporations as well as central and local
government authorities and related governmental agencies.
Commenting on the deal, Hummingbird chairman & CEO Fred Sorkin said
"With Valid joining the Hummingbird family, we are now one step closer
to becoming the leading provider of government solutions globally. In
the UK alone, there are over 1.2 million government seats that require
records management compliance within the next two years. With the Valid
acquisition, Hummingbird is now well poised to take advantage of this
market opportunity."
Hummingbird acquired the shares of Valid for an initial consideration
of £10 million in cash and an additional consideration of £8
million payable over two years, based on performance targets. Valid will
operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Hummingbird, continuing to support
and maintain all customer implementations. Hummingbird will continue to
sell the Valid products in the UK without interruption. The existing Valid
management team and employees will remain with their current responsibilities
and positions.
In related news, Valid (020 8215 1414) has added a standalone workflow
design toolkit to its core R/KYV v9 product. The new module, which has
a drag & drop interface plus Java script error checking, is designed
to allow both non-IT business managers and IT staff to create document
based business processes.
Integrating
document capture with DMS
Intech Solutions (a new face to the Insider) has supplied an integrated
document capture system to Lewis Silkin. Although the firm already used
a Hummingbird DMS to manage documents created in Microsoft Office, it
also wanted a system that would allow staff to capture externally originated
documentation without reorganizing the way they worked. IT director Jan
Durant subsequently selected Intech's File-it Image Capture system. This
uses scanners linked to the firm's LAN by Axis network document servers
- a cheaper alternative to dedicating a PC for scanning in each workgroup.
Users enter client/matter numbers at an Axis box and File-it then scans
the document and files the image in the DMS. For details call Steve Whitfield
of Intech on 020 7553 2581.
PortBlue brings
expert systems to KM arena
Expert systems were last seriously in vogue in the legal world in the
1980s (which is when a still young and fresh faced Richard Susskind first
cut his teeth - see Expert Systems in Law, OUP, 1987) but apart from popping
up in some rule-based document assembly systems, such as Linklaters BlueFlag,
they have generally faded from the scene. But, is this about to change?
Recently Paul Dimitruk, the founder and CEO of the PortBlue Corporation
(in the 1980s Dimitruk was the partner-in-charge of the London and Paris
offices of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher) was in London to talk about PortBlue’s
Knowledge Capture Tool (KCT) and the way it can be used "to elicit,
capture and disseminate the know-how of recognised experts". According
to Dimitruk, the traditional weakness of all expert systems has been the
time and costs involved when it comes to capturing the expertise of the
experts, particularly when the main business drivers are to build such
systems quickly and inexpensively. PortBlue's approach, in the words of
Dimitruk, is to "turn knowledge into software" by allowing people
without programming skills to develop web-based modules that capture and
codify complex know-how and decision making processes.
Essentially PortBlue eliminates the amount of custom software development
that needs to be done, removes the knowledge engineer's dependence on
software programmers and allows the knowledge engineer to generate a fully
fledged expert system application in real time in front of the expert.
The net result is instead of each stage in the process involving delays
while the expert's input is incorporated into the system, this can be
done almost on the fly, thereby making better use of the expert's time
and reducing the number of appointments (as well as the inevitable delays
associated with gaining access to busy experts) that need to be made with
them. In projects already undertaken, PortBlue has shown its potential
to reduce total development times from months to weeks and in some instances
from days to hours.
To-date PortBlue's work has primarily been with defence, security and
law enforcement agencies in the United States, including the new Homeland
Security anti-terrorism bureau, however last month it signed a deal with
the Practising Law Institute (PLI) in New York to develop a continuing
education and practice development system for US patent lawyers. Dimitruk
sees the PLI deal moving PortBlue in a new direction as it can take someone
from learning something to actually doing it. More pertinently, it sees
PortBlue addressing precisely the same type of issues law firms face when
it comes to developing their own inhouse knowledge management systems,
namely when you only have limited access to a high value expert how can
technology help make the best use of their time.
With PortBlue still evolving - development plans for 2003/04 include making
the process simpler and faster - Dimitruk is keen to hear from any companies
interested in partnering KM-related projects for the UK legal market.
www.portblue.com
GlenLegal organisers
hope to buck the trend
With many conference and event organisers currently struggling to attract
the audience figures they enjoyed a couple of years ago, Informa/IBC Global
Conferences believe they will buck the trend with this October's Legal
IT Forum at the Gleneagles Hotel. Programme director Simon Dieppe told
the Insider that with still 12 weeks to go, delegate numbers were already
ahead of target, including an influx of bookings from European firms,
"and we are having to be increasingly creative to come up with new
sponsorship packages to meet demand." Dieppe added that although
there will be more than 50 speakers taking part, over a third are new
to the GlenLegal event, so audiences will not be faced by the same old
people talking about the same old topics.
GlenLegal's continued success probably owes as much to its format as to
the content of its sessions. It offers a different type of venue to the
usual, sad conference hall. There are a choice of streams - organised
by subject matter and practice size. There are plenty of genuinely informal
networking opportunities. And, as almost every session involves bite-sized
presentations by multiple speakers and panel discussions, you avoid the
'death by PowerPoint' scenario of one speaker droning on interminably
as they plod through their slides. For the latest programme visit www.legalitforum.com
CLT drops annual
IT conference
Central Law Training (CLT) has become the latest organisation to be hit
by the apparent decline in the legal world's enthusiasm for conventional
IT conferences and exhibitions. Citing the low number of delegates that
attended the event earlier this month, CLT has announced that it has "no
plans to repeat its annual IT solutions conference next year" however
it will be running other conferences on practice management related topics.
BigHand launches
into the Scottish market
BigHand (020 7793 8200) has made its debut in the Scottish legal market,
securing an order for its TotalSpeech digital dictation system from Morisons.
The firm, whose initial objective was to reduce the number of temps it
employed and improve document turnaround times, has already rolled out
TotalSpeech to 67 users in its Edinburgh, Glasgow and Livingston offices.
Although Scotland does have one local supplier (the WinScribe reseller
Voice Technologies selling to law firms - its flagship site is Shepherd
& Wedderburn) in the light of the comments made about differentiation
in our lead story in this issue, it was interesting to see Morisons' systems
manager Andrew Getley's reasons for going with BigHand. "We knew
that digital dictation was the logical direction to choose in order to
leverage the benefits of our new computer infrastructure and improve the
workflow between offices. Hence the only choice was between suppliers.
The primary differentiator in favour of BigHand was the direct supply
chain, which means that, as developers, they provide us with the expertise,
code access and technical input we could not have received elsewhere."
Secretaries
and dictation - just take down the facts
With so many firms currently investigating ways of cutting their secretarial
overheads by implementing digital dictation and, in some instances, outsourcing
the whole transcription process to UK-based or even offshore locations,
we thought it would be useful to dig out some facts and figures relating
to the costs and work practices of conventional (ie non-digital) secretarial
staff.
How much does it cost to employ a full-time secretary inhouse? Taking
into account salaries, benefits, tax and national insurance, plus the
IT systems they use and the office space they occupy, the true cost of
a secretary ranges from about £45,000 a year in central London to
£25,000 pa in the provinces.
Research conducted in both the US and UK suggests that in the average
law firm, the average secretary produces just 1.5 documents per hour.
And, perhaps even more surprisingly, it appears that the average document
is just 41 lines long, amounting to 2 minutes 30 seconds of dictation
by a fee earner. Or, to put it another way, using traditional ways of
working, the average secretary transcribes documents at a rate of about
one line, or 12 words, per minute, so each document costs a London firm
£18.50 a pop in typing time alone. (On out of London rates the figure
falls to closer to £10.30 per document.).
Clearly secretaries are employed to do far more than type but these figures
suggest that in most firms secretarial resources are not being used as
productively as they could and even small increases in efficiency - whether
from inhouse DDS or Voicepath style outsourcing services - could yield
benefits ranging from cuts in the budget for temps, 'floats' and overtime
to improved fee earner-to-support staff ratios.
Pillsbury
Winthrop to roll out OpenSource
US top 30 law firm Pillsbury Winthrop has begun implementing the OpenSource
document analysis system as part of its KM infrastructure. Clients will
also have access to it via an extranet link. As reported in our LegalTech
New York review earlier this year (see Issue 144) OpenSource is a web
based analysis and collaboration tool designed specifically for lawyers
working on lengthy contracts. OpenSource vice president Eva Mineva said
it had the edge on its nearest competitor Workshare Synergy because, along
with the benefits managing document changes in a collaborative environment,
its automatic analysis and hyperlinking facilities create what is in effect
a knowledge management system for contract precedents. Pillsbury's chief
information officer Warren Jones saidOpenSource "was the only solution
we found that could analyse both third-party paper based agreements and
internally drafted materials as a collection."
www.opensourceinc.com
Tikit
bullish on future prospects
The AIM listed Tikit Group last week published an update on current trading
trends for the first half of the year ending 31 December 2003. With its
talk of "current trading strong" and the "outlook very
encouraging", Tikit's announcement is likely to cause dismay among
some of its competitors who have been reporting stagnant trading conditions.
In his statement Tikit chairman Mike McGoun said trading during the first
half had "been robust, with demand for higher margin consultancy
and support services continuing and the order book for these services
remains strong. As a result Tikit has had an excellent first half of the
year with sales and profits showing significant growth from the corresponding
period last year and ahead of budget expectations. Entering the traditionally
stronger second half, the outlook for the group is very encouraging."
Tikit’s interims will be released on 11 September.
Two
new papers from the LSC
The Legal Services Commission has published two new advisory papers. The
first is a guidance for suppliers regarding completing Family Mediation
returns. The LSC has clarified some points in the guidance for completing
monthly returns however no substantive changes have been made to the contract,
forms, codes or other requirements. The second is the LSC proposals to
amend the Criminal Contract in response to the LCD's (now Department for
Constitutional Affairs) own recent consultation paper. The paper indicates
that the single fixed phone fee for police station work will be extended
to all suppliers as part of the proposed changes. Any questions relating
to these papers should be directed to Tim Collieu, head of CDS Supplier
Management (020 7759 0458).
Cripps
Harries Hall looking for new head of IT
Kent-based Cripps Harries Hall - is looking for a new head of IT to replace
Tanya Collett, who is leaving the firm later this summer. Current projects
include digital dictation and a new HR database and one of the first projects,
slated for 2003/2004, that the new head of IT will need to tackle is a
new practice management system. Collett is moving to Masons to take up
a project management role. Full details of this and other vacancies can
be found on the Insider jobs board at www.legaltechnology.com
Secure
email - is SSL set to beat PKI approach?
Although most of the waves currently being generated in the UK secure
email systems market are as a direct result of the fierce competition
between Meticulus, with their RedLetter software, and DespatchBox with
their rival DDX product, there is another issue bubbling under the surface
involving security standards.
Currently PKI (public key infrastructure), in which the actual message
is encrypted, has the reputation for being the most secure system. Unfortunately
it also has the reputation for being the most onerous in terms of administration
because it requires the maintenance of 'pairs' of keys - the sender's
public one and the recipient's private one - for every set of users. This
explains why one 100-user Scottish law firm was recently quoted a price
of £60,000 a year for a PKI-based secure email system. And also
why Nicholson Graham Jones said one of the advantages of DespatchBox DDX
- which is not based on PKI - was it allowed firms to exchange encrypted
emails "without the need for a costly PKI-style user authentication
model."
Both DDX and RedLetter use variations of server based security (or SSL
- secure sockets layer technology) in which the transmission channel rather
than the message itself is encrypted. In contrast to PKI, SSL has the
double benefit of being both very simple to implement and requiring no
additional software to be installed on the recipient's desktop. So where
does that leave PKI? In its latest research notes, the Gartner Group warns
that "PKI generally had failed to deliver on its promise" and
"will continue a near-term decline".
So
much for the summer
This is the last issue of the Insider newsletter before the Long Vacation,
which we will be spending, anorak style, on a redesign of the top 100
chart and Solution Finder features on the Insider web site. We are back
in September and in between there will be two editions of the Newswire
plus, as ever, any breaking news will immediately be posted on the www.legaltechnology.com
web site. Have a good break - and if you must take your laptop to the
beach, remember to keep the sand out of the disk drive.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
News
in brief
New
service from Calvis
Property software specialist Calvis has launched a managed document scanning
service for the real estate and legal sectors. Called REDScan, the concept
is to provide law firms with a speedy way to search for and retrieve information,
without having to go through the long winded process of locating the original
hard copy documents. The cost of the service depends on the size of the
project with prices quoted on a job by job basis. Calvis, best known for
its involvement with the PISCES XML initiative, is also a Hummingbird
partner.
www.calvis.com
Peterborough
aims to evolve
Peterborough City Council has contracted AIM Professional Systems to supply
and implement a new Evolution case management, time recording and invoicing
system for its legal division. The decision to order AIM was fuelled by
a need to replace a legacy application with a new system that could support
invoicing for chargeable work for both internal and external clients.
Users will have an Outlook interface to the system and the legal division
also plans to roll out AIM's Post Room utility (which supports the electronic
processing, management and retention of documents) at a future stage.
Cartmells
upgrade with AIM
Cumbria’s largest law firm - and long time user of AIM software
- Cartmell Shepherd is about to roll out the Evolution integrated case
and practice management system from AIM Professional (01482 326971) as
part of a major revamp of its IT infrastructure. The firm has been running
AIM software since 1987 when it installed the Charter II system.
Eight go with
Pace Pro
Pace Professional Systems (08000 837651), which was formed last year by
Ronnie Paton and Derek Bruce on their departure from Pilgrim, now has
eight reference sites in Scotland for its PacePro accounts and practice
management system for small firms. The firms are Cairns Brown, Craig Wood,
Allan McDougall, Douglas McVean, Shaun Pringle, MacAndrew Jenkins and
Cooper & Hay. Pace is currently negotiating an English distribution
deal for the PacePro system.
www.paceprosystems.com
Silkins roll
out CallXpress
Lewis Silkin has completed the roll out of a CallXpress integrated messaging
system, which the firm will use to provide fee earners with greater flexibility
for accessing email and voicemail from different devices and locations.
The system was supplied by Kommunicate (01962 835000).
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Voice
technology news in brief
First DDS win for Tikit/DictaFlow combo
Speechly Bircham has become the
first major firm to select the DictaFlow system as its digital dictation
workflow solution since DictaFlow developer nFlow appointed Tikit (020
7400 3764) as the product's exclusive reseller. Following the completion
of a pilot project which is now underway, the firm anticipates rolling
out the system on a practice-wide basis to 170 users later this summer.
Tikit will also be working with Speechly Bircham on the integration of
DictaFlow with the firm's document and practice management systems.
Winscribe forum now online
Users of the WinScribe digital dictation system can now share their views
with other users via an informal online forum. For more details email
UKWinscribeUserGroup@groups.msn.com
Array mikes now available
Volexia (01246 267710) is now marketing Acoustic Magic's VoiceTracker
array microphone as an alternative to handheld and headset mikes for users
of speech recognition software. An array mike sits either on top or just
in front of a VDU monitor and gives the user greater freedom of movement
when dictating. VoiceTracker has been approved by Dragon and IBM for use
with their speech recognition systems.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
People
& places
Richard Booty joins Solicitec
Richard Booty has joined the sales team at Solicitec. Booty joins after
three years with IBM, prior to this he spent 10 years with Axxia Systems,
where he was rated by the competition as Axxia's most effective salesman.
Booty's initial role will be to sell Solicitec's Visualfiles case-to-KM-workflow
management system into larger City firms. Commenting on the move, Booty
said "In my three years with IBM, it has been interesting to watch
the league table of movers and shakers in the legal supplier community
change with a refreshing pace. Traditional sole suppliers are perceived
to have stood still and even lost share whilst best of breed suppliers
such as Solicitec, Elite & SOS are moving in for the kill. I am looking
forward to accelerating Solicitec's rising fortunes and to further cement
its position as the supplier of choice."
Entrepreneur of the Year
Congratulations to Mark Riddick, the CEO of NLIS Searchflow, who earlier
this month was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the National Business
Awards in Brighton. In a conveyancing search services versus sex aids
and naughty knickers battle, Riddick beat Jacqueline Gold, the chief executive
of the Ann Summers chain, to win the award.
Promotions at TFB
As part of TFB's 'client facing initiative' the company's support manager
Miles Osborne has been promoted to the TFB senior management team. And
Adrian Jones, who comes from the Avenue side of the business, has been
promoted from commercial manager to the newly created post of product
& development manager within TFB's R&D department.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Recruitment
news in brief
Phillips
joins Graham Gill
Wendy Phillips, previously with the LFI Longbridge
group, has joined the legal recruitment consultancy Graham Gill. One of
Phillips' and her colleague Tamara Beasley-Suffolk's main responsibilities
will be the creation and development of a dedicated legal IT division.
The Graham Gill consultancy has recently moved to new offices at 63 Lincoln's
Inn Fields. The phone number is 020 7430 1711.
www.grahamgill.com
Utopia strategy wins prize
Craig Coverman's recruitment services company Eutopia Solutions (020 8387
4060) won the Growth Strategy of the Year Award at the recent National
Business Awards in Brighton. The judges' panel said Eutopia, who beat
an online betting exchange, an internet service provider and the Just
Deli catering company to win the award, had shown "agility in meeting
the needs of customers and adapting to a changing market place".
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Keep up with the news
Keep up with the latest
news between issues of the Insider by subscribing to our free ezine the
Legal Technology Insider Newswire. It is delivered direct to your desktop
as a plain text email. To be added to the distribution list, send a note
of your email address, including the word ‘News’ in the header,
to news@legaltechnology.com
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Security
news in brief
Monitoring
server events
Legal database specialist ClaimBase (01708 736660) has won UK
sole distribution rights for the EventSentry server management system
which allows firms to automatically monitor the event logs of multiple
servers. ClaimBase technical director David Copper says EventSentry is
particularly useful for firms providing extranet access to their systems
as it can notify them of login and user authentication problems as well
as any attempted security breaches. Prices start from under £100.
www.claimbase.com
Red
Letter day for Unix
Meticulus Solutions has announced the availability of its Red Letter secure
email system on the Unix platform. Previously delivered as a Linux appliance
it is now also available as standalone software for the Sun Solaris, IBM
AIX and HP-UX operating systems. Meticulus CEO Ivan Harris said the Unix
version was introduced for larger firms where the IT department wanted
to be closely involved in the detail of system implementation rather than
simply purchase an appliance.
www.redletteremail.com
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Intranet
& extranet news in brief
New
contender in the intranet ring
InPress Marketing (01488 73737) is the latest entrant into the intranet
solutions for law firms market with ISES. Christopher Bose of InPress
says the USP of the ISES system is its ability to provide users with a
single gateway to all their databases, including legacy systems, regardless
of structure and content. InPress also provide design, development and
implementation services for firms wanting database-driven, dynamic content
web sites.
www.intranet-portal-solicitors.co.uk
Web enablement at Goldcrest
DataCare Solutions (0870 7578100) has designed an extranet for Kent-based
licensed conveyancers Goldcrest. Goldcrest uses Laserform's case management
software to drive its conveyancing work and DataCare has provided the
web enablement side of the service, including online quotations and a
facility for customers to log in to monitor the progress of their property
transactions.
www.goldcrestconveyancing.com
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Legal Technology events diary - advance planner
18.08.03 – 21.08.03, Boca Raton
Annual LawNet event.
www.peertopeer.org
16.09.03
& 17.09.03, New York
LegalTech Fall.
www.legaltechshow.com
18.09.03, London
The e-Loties awards.
www.inbrief.co.uk/eloties2003/
25.09.03 & 26.09.03, London
The Law Society's annual conference.
15.10.03 & 16.10.03, Leeds
The Legal IT Leeds exhibition.
www.legalitshow.com
15.10.03 – 17.10.03, Gleneagles
The 'GlenLegal' Legal IT forum at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland.
www.legalitforum.com
27.10.03 – 29.10.03, Barcelona
The Hummingbird European & Legal CIO Summit.
www.hummingbird.com/summit
04.11.03 & 05.11.03, London
LegalTech Europe at the Royal College of Surgeons.
www.legaltechshow.com
13.11.03, London
The Loties awards.
www.inbrief.co.uk/loties2003/
13.11.03 – 15.11.03, Barcelona
The Lawyer Group's European Legal Summit.
www.thelawyer.com
28.11.03, Manchester
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers IT fair at the Crowne Plaza.
www.apil.com
20.01.04 & 21.01.04, London
New UK legal IT event - details to be confirmed.
02.02.04 – 04.02.04, New York
LegalTech at the New York Hilton - the leading US legal IT conference
& exhibition.
www.legaltechshow.com
11.02.04 & 12.02.04, London
Legal IT 2004 at the Business Design Centre, the UK's main legal IT event.
www.legalitshow.com
01.03.04 & 02.03.04, Amsterdam
The Ark Group's Lex Connect.
www.lexconnect.com
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
Looking
for IT staff?
If you are a law firm or legal systems vendor looking for IT staff, including
positions in sales, development, web services, know-how, library services,
support, management and training, you can post your vacancies free of
charge to the Jobs Board on the Insider web site. Email to jobs@legaltechnology.com
For details of the latest vacancies visit www.legaltechnology.com
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................top
ISSN
1740-8474 (Online) Copyright © Legal Technology Insider 2003. All
rights reserved. Published by Legal Technology Insider Limited. No part
of this publication may be reproduced without consent. While every effort
is made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication,
no guarantee is expressed or implied and the Publisher does not accept
liability for any loss or damage that may arise from any errors or omissions.
Please note that web site addresses can change. All brand names and trademarks
are acknowledged. Privacy policy: We do not sell or disclose the names,
addresses or contact details of our subscribers.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
©
2003 Legal Technology Insider | Site designed by Wirebox
Designs
|