Charging clients costs has always been a big part of a law firms business. Once a pen and paper standard it was revolutionised in the nineties by a snap-on cost recovery device on ‘copiers or MFP’s as those in the trade call them (multi function peripherals). The cost recovery sector understandably sat back on its laurels getting fat for a good while as law firms woke up to the benefits of auto charging. Cash registers rang merrily for law firms and vendors.
So no more pen and paper? Well not everyone bought in. You will always have the odd firm hanging on for grim death to old fashioned ways. And what is wrong with pen and paper anyway? Well nothing except no-one uses it now unless writing a nice thank you note or drawing a moustache on Jade Goody in Hello magazine. The vast majority of firms are one or two versions of cost recovery down the line. But the market wobbled a bit in the last year or two. Some nifty cost recovery vendors went embedded. (Went what?). ‘Ditch the device’ was the message. Bigger cost recovery players in the market were suddenly off their seat and goggle eyed. The race was on and cost software embedded into an MFP was the finish line. The result? The MFP and cost recovery vendors have gone into the blender as cherries and chocolate and
come out as cherry cake.
Law firms weren’t all smiles though. Why should we ditch our devices they said? We’ve grown so fond. But like domino’s, many are falling on the embedded sword. Which means another tech landfill site opens up to swallow many of our hard working but now nearly defunct hardware.
If we didn’t have the BlackBerry, the ‘copier/MFP manufacturers might be taking over the world soon. Our humble duplication servant has turned into a smart network consultant and
software hub set to converge and challenge devices who once sat neatly upon it. Think of
vendor eCopy who popped up quietly earning tens of millions with a new piece of scanning software. We could now scan a piece of paper through an eCopy device sitting on the MFP
straight into the DM system or to email and in fact send it directly to a client and store it in our mail box.
eCopy started out with an exclusive agreement with Canon, then realised they could sell heaps more by letting all MFP’s have it. They haven’t looked back since. It must be minutes before a MFP manufacturer makes a challenge on eCopy territory or eCopy ditches its screen device
and also goes embedded into an MFP. But MFP’s are bah humbug when you put it next to our
other fast learning friends the BlackBerry and handhelds. Fortunately for products like the
BlackBerry the MFP is a lot less portable. Although I hear MFP’s do have a good set of wheels.
The BlackBerry has grown up from a grey plastic shell feeding email into a super communication and connection device in around three years. In the last year it has seen real progress. The integration promises that weren’t always fulfilled are now real. It can connect you to important mother ship applications like your DMand time and billing functions. Which means the whole software world is now about to unleash itself on the BlackBerry and other handhelds.
One new application first off the block is ‘time capture.’ You may have seen the recent
announcement in Citytech which shouted ‘Linklaters buys Time KM.’ Time KM are a NKOB (new kid on the block) who seem to have come up smelling of roses. They got one of the biggest and most respected UK law firms to buy their product. They also have White & Case under their belt with another US law firm to follow. The software is web based and sits on the servers feeding into BlackBerries or other devices. It allows lawyers to use Blackberry or handhelds and skip around town doing time recording using their BlackBerry and a pushclick motion. The
software has alerts like ‘did you want to charge this?’ so they can finish a call or work on a
document in the DM and with no effort just click "charge time."
Time KM is partnering with cost recovery vendor Copitrak so I asked Stewart Hadley, Managing Director of Copitrak why. “Copitrak captures activities like copying, printing, faxing,
telephones, disbursements whilst TimeKM does the part we don't, nor ever will do which is capture time. There couldn't be a better association for us. Pensera also see Copitrak as an
organisation offering a great deal of synergy.”
The sell from the Time KM camp is that lawyers find it much easier to record their work and are less likely to have to be chased for timesheets all the time. They say it also helps with
client relationships because everything is itemised and can be analysed. So the offering includes more transparency.
So if Linklaters have signed up TimeKM, it generally means we, in the UK, think the product must be good. This is because Linklaters have shown that whatever decisions they’ve made seem to come good. The Time KM link up with Copitrak is also a feather in their cap. Copitrak are well known in the UK market and have a solid user base in many leading law firms.
Where a hitch may come for TimeKM is that they are up against Sage Carpe Diem resold by Tikit. Although Sage Carpe Diem doesn’t have BlackBerry capability it does have a stronghold of legal clients that will be difficult to unseat. It has rock solid loyal support in the UK. But shifting out Sage Carpe Diem is what TimeKM must achieve. Many say that TimeKM will find this a difficult road. The view is that anything that requires switching applications and training will have a strike against it straight away. Despite this Time KM have a couple of juicy deals in the bag. So if nothing else they must be very determined. Or perhaps law firms are more willing to ‘swop out’ (throw away and completely replace) than others think?
Moving on to the next product launching in this space is DTE InHand. It gives you another option if you aren’t keen to throw away investment in Sage Carpe Diem. DTE InHand is an Atlanta based software company reselling this product through Paul Longhurst at 3Kites in the UK. Paul is quick to say they have no interest in going up against Sage Carpe Diem and have
made sure DTE InHand integrates with it. The slight shadow for DTE is that it has a competing time and billing product in the US being sold against the likes of Sage Carpe Diem successfully. This will make it complex for Sage Carpe Diem or resellers to partner or promote DTE InHand in the UK.
I asked Stewart Hadley at Copitrak for his view on the competition to TimeKM. He says “We understand that DTE InHand has the mobility option and link to existing vendors like Sage Carpe Diem. We are confident that TimeKM offers a great deal more flexibility than just Sage Carpe Diem or Sage Carpe Diem and DTE InHand combined. It can stand up against these products.”
Whoever you favour the benefits of the BlackBerry time capture functionality are easy to grasp. It is all familiar technology and push-click. It is very likely to bring in more billable time because lawyers aren’t forgetting work or losing it on scribbled bits of paper. It should pay for itself very
quickly as more time is billed. One imagines it must help your position on the profit per partner charts too. As well as this lawyers are recording information in real time. As soon as it’s recorded it goes through to mothership accounts for billing, so work-to–billing-to-payment time
reduces.
So what is Citytech’s recommendation? If you can’t cope with ‘chuck out the Carpe’ and you
like the idea of push click billing on Blackberry and handhelds then the DTE InHand route is for you. If you don’t have Sage Carpe Diem or don’t mind reviewing a replacement then have a look at both and make your own mind up. I’ve had a look at each and agree they are all new, shiny and added value. The TimeKM offering is web based. The DTE InHand isn’t. Paul Longhurst says “the benefit of this is that lawyers can work on DTE InHand on the train without losing signal.”
The ‘time capture on the move’ breakdown
Carpe Diem is sold through Tikit in the UK.
Carpe Diem have substantial market share but haven’t got the BlackBerry functionality.
DTE InHand is new to the UK market but can integrate into Sage Carpe Diem to give the on-the-move BlackBerry pushclick recording functionality.
DTE InHand being sold by 3Kites. First pilot in.
TimeKM partnering with Copitrak. New to market but swung Linklaters which is an impressive
deal. Doesn’t integrate with Sage Carpe Diem seeks to replace it.
This first appeared in http://www.citytechmag.com/ in February 2007
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