Word up

Its all about Word at the moment. I guess their new versions hitting the streets are creating noise but it was interesting talking to Liam Flanagan at Tikit about the problems Word has. Based on binary code he says it was never designed for the size of documents that law firms have these days. Coupled with support staff having inadequate training and zero resources being dedicated to the application, it is in serious trouble in most law firms. He says "spaghetti code" is the problem and recommends the Chicago ER - a hospital for sick Word documents.

UK firms are starting to get the message with investment now trickling into Word and IT directors taking time out to attend Microsoft courses in the US.

Changing times in legal IT

New people are emerging in the UK legal IT world and they are cleverer than ever before. They are working out what we /you want and how to trot out compelling sales messages before we know whats hit us. Those dropping in from abroad have partnered with strong UK players (TimeKM with Copitrak) and those striking out in new careers like Paul Longhurst at 3Kites are also keeping their ears to the ground to gravitate in established US players like DTE and their time capture software DTE InHand.

In the past, UK law firm purchasers could say "why don't US vendors research the market and understand what they are doing before they waste our time with demo's?" Now this objection just got swept well and truly under the carpet.

As well as this another new show has popped up to compete with Legal IT Islington (the main UK trade show) which was purchased last year by Informa Group. Their first year in the saddle they've had a whipper snapper show (LawShow 2007) at their heels and this new group are keen to please. Despite lacklustre reports from their first shot at Birmingham last year LawShow 2007 are playing hard and worming into affections with ease.