Lexis Nexis aquire UK's Axxia - how things will shape up - a note from Lexis Nexis

Lexis Nexis present answers to your questions

The strategy

How will the company be structured post-acquisition?

Axxia will join the UK Practice Management portfolio, part of LexisNexis’s Global Practice Management solution line.

Kate Holden will oversee the Global Practice Management portfolio with Edouard Tavernier driving the strategy. Stuart Holden will continue to oversee the Axxia portfolio working with
Dan Marshall, who will be directing all operations across the UK Practice and Productivity
Management business.

Will Axxia be run as a separate business or integrated with LexisNexis?

Axxia will be fully integrated with the LexisNexis business within the next six months.

What is LexisNexis’ mission?

To help our customers to become more efficient, productive and profitable through the provision of integrated workflow-based solutions enhanced with relevant content.

Why has LexisNexis acquired Axxia?

LexisNexis is committed to delivering a solutions strategy offering product and service combinations that address customers’ specific needs and fit into their existing workflow, to enhance productivity and profitability.

As the leading integrated solutions and back office provider for medium-sized law firms, Axxia
has an installed customer base of 220 law firms and over 20,000 users. This makes it an extremely attractive proposition for LexisNexis to combine with its existing portfolio for medium-sized law firms. The acquisition of Axxia will accelerate the delivery of content-enabled workflow solutions for medium-sized law firms.

What will happen to the Axxia corporate brand? What will happen to other brands, such as dna* and Artiion?

To provide the most consistency and clarity in our communication with customers, the company will immediately fully align with the LexisNexis corporate brand.

Axxia will become the umbrella name for a product family within the UK LexisNexis Practice Management portfolio. Product brands acquired from Axxia will include the Axxia name (for
example, "Axxia Artiion", “Axxia dna*). The Axxia product family will be treated in the same
way as the other product families within LexisNexis UK - Butterworths, Tolley, Visualfiles etc.

Does LexisNexis plan to acquire other companies?

We are committed to providing our customers with leading practice and productivity management solutions and will continue to explore all avenues that may help us achieve this
goal.

LexisNexis acquired Visualfiles more than a year ago. Isn’t Axxia operating in the same space?

Although both businesses serve similar organisations, the product portfolios at Axxia and Visualfiles are extremely complementary. Both Visualfiles and Axxia hold leading positions
with their respective offerings. Visualfiles has a first class reputation for its case management
software in both mid and large law and Axxia’s key strength lies in its integrated front and back office solution. With both Visualfiles and Axxia in the LexisNexis stable, we can offer our customers an unparalleled wealth of knowledge and experience across a broad range of markets. This will significantly strengthen our ability to deliver the leading portfolio of integrated and open solutions that satisfy the widest range of customer needs.

Does this acquisition change existing relationships with 3rd party suppliers?

No, we are delighted to be in a position to offer our customers the widest possible choice. Our policy of developing both integrated and open solutions means that we will continue to work
with a wide range of suppliers to satisfy the differing needs of our customers.

Products/technology

What will be the technology platform resulting from the combination of Axxia, LexisNexis and Visualfiles?

LexisNexis currently operates many different technology platforms through which we deliver a
broad range of solutions and capabilities to our clients. As we develop new solutions within our Practice Management portfolio, we will work closely with our clients to select whichever technology platform is most appropriate for their particular needs whilst ensuring that our underlying architectural decisions adhere to key principles:

• Ability of our solutions to integrate with a broad range of 3rd party systems

• Use of mainstream, future-proof technologies

• The provision of a clear evolution path for existing LexisNexis customers

Over time, the mix of technologies we use will evolve to suit the changing needs of the market. Rather than be led by technology, we will be driven by an overriding desire to deliver compelling solutions that genuinely improve the productivity and profitability of our customers.

How will the product portfolios be integrated over time?

LexisNexis will accelerate the execution of existing product roadmaps whilst over time developing a range of new offerings through the combination of LexisNexis and Axxia
capabilities. Integration between Axxia and LexisNexis products will take various forms, from
the launch of standalone product modules to the development of fully integrated suites of back office and front office solutions. Examples of such integrations include:

• Strengthening the integration between Visualfiles case management solutions and the Artiion back office system
• Developing integration between dna* and best of breed LexisNexis applications (e.g. InterAction)
• Combining dna* with LexisNexis Legal and/or Risk & Compliance content to create distinctive value propositions for legal practitioners

Customer Support

What support benefits can customers expect from the combination of Axxia, LexisNexis and Visualfiles?

We aim to deliver “Best in Class” in all aspects of the customer experience and will strive to
continuously improve all aspects of our customers’ contact with us – content, user interfaces,
customer services, billing, etc. We are determined to accomplish unparalleled support and delivery and have committed significant investment in order to achieve this.

Both LexisNexis and Axxia have developed solutions that, following the initial system implementation, enable business users without an IT background to create and maintain
complex applications with the minimum of tuition. This approach protects customers’
investment and maximizes profitability.

On a broader level, both LexisNexis Visualfiles and Axxia share a passion for innovation and
a commitment to developing and delivering customer-driven solutions.

Will there be any changes to my account manager?

We will evaluate the ways we interact with our customers on an ongoing basis to ensure we are delivering the highest quality relationship management. Customers will be notified if there are any plans to change the way their accounts are managed.

Whom should customers call for product support?

We will be working to quickly align our infrastructures, including our customer contact points.
Meanwhile, customers should continue using the existing contacts, and we will ensure enquiries are dealt with by an advisor who can handle their issue.

Whom should customers call for invoice, statement or payment queries?

We will be working quickly to align our billing infrastructures, but at present customers should
continue to use their previous Customer Support team. Any changes to the contact points will
be communicated to customers in advance.

For further information, please contact your account manager or for integration enquiries:

Gunes Sahillioglu
LexisNexis
gunes.sahillioglu AT lexisnexis.co.uk
+44 (0) 77 99 62 16 89

Saturn27 launch

An independent consultant, not aligned or reselling any vendors products, launches in London. (Saturn27).

Santa and the tech vendor

Whilst talking to vendors at Legal Tech NYC 2008 and hearing their stories, which are re-told with vigour and enthusiasm each year, I was struck by how similar this moment was to our early childhood. As your Mom told you about sleighs, reindeer and Santa, your friends in the playground dis-illusioned you and called you a fool for believing in such silly things. Over the years vendors have had their up and down cycles with R&D, but inevitably bounce back and each time they ask us to 'believe' again (and again), that software like Santa will make all your law firm dreams come true.

We want to believe: we like our vendors, but I guess, it is up to you to decide if you believe in Santa or what your playground buddies say.

Tech-philanthropy

Client Profiles, who are Atlanta based, are soon to launch the CP Foundation and aim to 'partner' with law firms to raise $2.5 million for charitable causes including education programmes in Georgia. Their drive will be to do deals with law firms with a negotiated percent going to their CP (Client Profiles) Foundation.

Running the CP Foundation as a not for profit, Whit McIsaac the CEO of Client Profiles, plans to raise the quality of Georgia education and its ranking, which currently sits at number 49 out of 50 compared with Atlanta which is ranked as one of the top spots in the country for education.

Client Profiles is already working on software deals with clients at discount costs to help Californian lawyers working with death row inmates.

Whit was inspired after hearing a CSR talk at Clifford Chance, who are following or mirroring their clients, like UBS and Credit Suisse in matching funds that employees give to charity to help their local communities.

Client Profiles grew 29% in 2007 and Whit believes their Microsoft alliance has helped them really reach the top. "They have 20,000 sales people and 4,500 partners." He points out, highlighting their capacity for sales. Client Profiles have made great strides in the UK market also recently partnering with well known reseller and consultant TFB.

http://www.clientprofiles.com/

Also see my article on http://www.probono.net/ on this or the Microsoft professional site.

The soft economy

George I. Rudoy, the Director of Global Practice Technology & Information Services, who by his own admission has a long job title, works at Shearman& Sterling LLP in New York. Just back from San Francisco, he has a schedulethat would barely allow most of us to breathe. Speaking at Legal Tech next week, he says his theme will focus on the newage of legal technology. “We might already be in the middle of it,” he says laughing. The new age for legal services and law firms will or has arrived because there is a realization, he says, that technology is an absolute must in law firms. “It’s not just your generic technology like DM or emailsystems, but more specific technology for the business of law.” George saysthere is a new notion. “People need to be both technologists and businessanalysts, as well as understand end deliverables. We came up with the ideaof the Head of Practice Management, which fits with some firms but notothers, so it may get refined.” He thinks there is much more to it than isolated litigation support, library or KM functions. “It’s a combined effort of technologists, ex-legal assistants who became technologists and‘recovering attorneys'. These individuals appreciate the challenges and thedeadlines and tend to be more outward looking.” George paints a scenariowhere lawyers won’t have to search for solutions by contacting different departments around the firm, but instead have someone like the Head ofPractice Management analyze their business problem, develop a strategy,coordinate departments, and carry out the solution. “Tell me what service or solution you want and I will translate that into a vision.” He confirms.“It’s not just about a liaison; it's more than that. We sit in with theattorneys and attend their 'business pitch' meetings to highlightcapabilities like speed of service, deliverables, and cost management toclients. Attorneys are comfortable with the idea that we participate incase discussions, and it gives us an opportunity to give each case theproper assessment and consult on the use of technology it requires.”George says he would typically expect to deliver ‘the full servicepackage.’ “Although the idea isn’t new, I believe we, the technologists,should work very closely with the legal assistants. Some firms evendecided to merge the technologists and legal assistants under the umbrellaof Practice Management. At the end of the day, we must be a businessorientated group that is strongly aligned with marketing and business development initiatives.” He says the idea is picking up steam, and more firms are appointing directors or chief executives of practice management.At this time, he says there are no more than ten such people in the world,with only four or five being officially recognized as Heads of PracticeManagement. I asked if it means the techies should get MBA’s, but hedoesn’t think it is essential. “We are business savvy and earn our workingMBA’s by being close to the economy of the law firm.” He suggests the realskill is in being able to understand how to help a client beyond supporting a case. “You can see how it is put together. I go along to client pitchesthese days and have an opportunity to tell our clients that Shearman attorneys are much more efficient and effective in delivering their legalservices because they are strong users of technology. No two pitches arethe same so I focus on understanding the client's unique business needs toget their full attention.” George says this is a good way to differentiateShearman & Sterling from other firms competing in this space.George believes today's legal technologists even have an opportunity toprovide some of the solutions for the economic problems currently beingexperienced in the USA. “It’s more than evident that we are in the middleof a recession. We’ve already seen an AmLaw 100 law firm recently lay off asignificant number of attorneys, and the others will most certainly follow.The more progressive thinkers have already started to downsize, which couldprove to be crucial. In past down cycles, the litigation and bankruptcycase load arrived to balance the books. However, this time it is nothappening yet, or, according to some sources, will not happen at all. The government is in rescue mode, so not only is transactional work down butthe bankruptcy work isn’t appearing, and companies save money and settlelitigations rather than go to trial.” This highlights how difficult it may eventually get for law firms. “The current economic conditions might influence the way that legal services are delivered, as well as the degree of technology used to augment these services in order to stay competitive.It will influence not only the choice of internally used products, but also creates an interesting environment for the industry vendors. We can make adifference with clients with improved technology, but vendors are going tohave to be sensible; they can’t just keep raising their prices. "If I have a department of twenty people and little work in the pipeline, the first answer isn’t to lay off staff that took significant resources to hire. We may get a new case the next day but I can’t buy all the necessary softwareon the fly. However, if I have a relationship with a vendor who could workin the way most suited for case needs and be hired for the duration of thecase, then that is what I am going to do.”George doesn’t hold out much hope that the question of technology helpingattorneys during difficult economic times will get much air time at LegalTech and other Legal Technology events because he says it takes time formajority of people to catch on. “I spoke about Unicode compliance andcross-border document collection challenges for more than a year beforeothers picked up on the notion.” He stresses the point. “But I hope this one will be recognized fast - technology will help firms in tough times. It will help win and keep clients if you can say you apply technology againstthe practice of law to stay effective and efficient, especially in fiscally challenging times.”

Open Text v Interwoven

These days in UK legal the facts speak for themselves: Interwoven on numbers has won the sales battle of the DM/ECM and Geoff Hornsby is officially a David Beckham “golden balls” style superstar. Even the president of Interwoven happily talks of his success.

In an article I wrote some time ago for Citytech, Interwoven was winning the race for having been consistent in supporting legal, which can not be underestimated: good vendor relationships matter, as does consultancy and solid sales support.

So, why the heck should we get involved with some more vendor DM/ECM hustle as OpenText (formerly Hummingbird) insist on tempting us with their slick software ways and interesting interfaces away from Interwoven? Well if you haven’t realised already, everything changes. Staff come and go, branding and websites look like dogs dinners after a couple of years and more and more organisations are in buyout mode: your boss today, may not be your boss tomorrow (so no point sucking up to them too much).

In our modern day, which will undoubtedly look prehistoric in years to come, we must understand that software isn’t an heirloom to be handed down over generations. It’s a temporary state that provides excellence and good effort at that slot in time. The minute something new is developed like email replacing the phone call and fax replacing the telex, its time to march forward and listen to new stories. Making the most of your software and current purchases is fine but there is a point where you just have to say “telex go to that landfill site and create a hole in the ozone layer (or recycle thyself).”

Whether you are looking at a DM/ECM purchase or not and many of you at the top end won’t be for a couple of years with so many new Interwoven sales on the books, there is an undisputed growth in the desire to have this type of software. Interwoven sales stats showed a 25% increase in a recent quarter of completely fresh deals. Never been seen in legal before and not gravitated. That means that IT Directors are spending, if not at the top end then moving down a bit to mass-market, mid tier and smaller firms.

So there is lots of business sloshing around and some of you do need to know which way to turn. I’m afraid the answer is not easy.

Current management thinking, says that organisations will have to shape up to face the future. Considering both OpenText and Interwoven, each have positioned themselves well. Interwoven is the leaner, meaner, marketing machine, able to react on a dime and provide what you want. OpenText are going for 100% market share which is said to be a sure-fire way to win by ensuring you grab all customers before anyone else can.

Speaking to Open Text they hypnotise you with sensible explanations. Its hard not to buy into the philosophy. Their reason for buying Hummingbird was simple they say. “It brought two markets to us: government and legal. We realised the nuances in each vertical market were important and knew it was essential to have the particular expertise within. Acquiring this information, allows us to translate products into useable software.”

They also says that the fit was perfect in that Hummingbird did well with Canada, Australia and UK government and Open Text did well with the US government. It seems for some time the Hummingbird customer share had been coveted in the Open Text camp.

The approach is pragmatic. “Its going to take time to get our house in order but that is what we are concentrating on first. Our responsibility now is to current customers and to make sure they are happy and are behind the direction we are taking. After that, when our install base is behind us, then we will be targeting new customers aggressively. We have world class support and developers to maintain market share and a 95% client retention rate.” Said a now former staff member.

I asked what they thought made a successful software company. He said it was a combination of things: Opportunity; being ready for opportunity; relentless focus on a market; extraordinary development and support staff and focused management.

Of the merger the commentator said. “This merger will give customers real benefits as we go deeper into R&D. We are significantly larger now which will give us enormous leverage.”

Interwoven of course, do not agree.

Max Carnecchia is President at Interwoven and no-one can dispute that his eye for a hire and staff motivation must be top tier. With a background in electrical engineering he has spent the last five or so years on the customer side of the business. It is obvious he is a gifted man manager: you don’t get rocketing sales with unhappy and de-motivated staff.

He is resolute in saying that “the customer drives everything.” He is closely in touch with his workforce and knows that their Gear Up conference doubled in size this year and that Geoff Hornsby, their sales supremo, is on a roll. I quiz Max Carnecchia about his average day and he says confidently that he spends “25% planning and 75% working with teams and keeping lines of communication open.”

The next big thing for Interwoven in this space is the “corporate legal department.” As in-house counsel wise up to technology, Interwoven see an easy extension of their expertise into the notoriously ill equipped in house counsel territory. Ben Kiker is set to help this push, he sits as Senior Vice President controlling the marketing function. (Neil Araujo, founder of iManager which was bought out by Interwoven, is in his team). They also have their Universal Search functionality, which they are confident is going to sweep the board with Oscar style success.

His background encompasses a mortgage call centre and then substantial time in the CRM space. He takes his job very seriously and believes Interwoven have one of the strongest brands in legal.

So Interwoven v Open Text? As you can see, I am not giving you much help, in fact firmly sitting on the fence. Interwoven say “look at our proven track record with legal”; Open Text say “We own Hummingbird and now Open Text in this space, things are going to get much more interesting.”

Whatever happens, both sides agree that relationships are everything. Both are very keen to say that its all about the customer and seem prepared to bend over backwards to deliver software that suits you exactly.

Its clear, Interwoven are sitting pretty. They already have deals in most of the key UK legal firms and now extending their client base into corporate legal consolidates this.

Open Text are battling with a merger; making staff redundant and putting themselves up against Interwoven who are a proven, slick machine running at full speed. At best that looks a difficult place to be.

So what does do OpenText think about this stiff competition? “I’d be surprised if Interwoven were still around in a few years time.” They said.□

The low down

Open Text is easily twice the financial size of Interwoven. It opened its doors for business in 1991. For the quarter ended September 30, 2006, Opentext expects to report revenue between $99 million and $101 million. The Hummingbird. transaction was valued at approximately US$489 million. Nine of the top 10 global law firms and 65 percent of AmLaw 100 firms now own these products (Hummingbird and Opentext). After acquiring Hummingbird they have a workforce of 3,500 people but plan to reduce this with a 15% head-count redundancy programme.

Interwoven has achieved their success in one decade. Interwoven revenues for 2005 totaled $175 million. Interwoven customers include 9 of the top 10 global companies and 64 of the top 100 US law firms. They started the company in 1995.

Chewing the ECM gum

Strangely there is still some confusion about the two competing DM/ECM companies in legal. Trying to get direct comparison’s on the two (or in fact others) isn’t always easy.

Buying software is a worrying experience. No-one wants to make a mistake, so confidence is something that software companies need to build, like governments campaigning for your vote. There are expensive teams of people ensuring you get lots of good news, have the right spin and people standing up to be counted (testimonials/case studies).

Interwoven say: look at our market share and look at our recent success in legal. They also say: Why have large UK law firms like Simmons & Simmons dropped Open Text in favour of Interwoven?

Open Text say: concentrate on the products - they will stand the test of time. Open Text has a 95% customer retention rate and positions itself against meatier players like IBM/ Filenet.

I say: The spin here is really about UK legal and Geoff Hornsby (Interwoven sales) who is definitely basking in the ECM sunshine. However all software needs replacing at some stage. Both companies will have to deliver consistent products or the balance can shift either way. As Cathy Wallach, President at EncoreTech said in a Citytech interview: “the use of each software goes in waves of popularity.” Over time like stockmarkets, blips iron out.

OpenText say

“More on more applications will merge and be built on top of each other. The main players will be IBM/Filenet, EMC/ Documentum and we are the third and already have 50% market share.”

OpenText pitch

John Shackleton is President and CEO of Open Text. He joined in 1998 and has a background that encompasses Oracle and Sybase and also on the management team of the first ever DM company Viewstar.

Hot shot clients on board already: “The merger of Hummingbird and Open Text has resulted in a leading independent ECM vendor that is one of the top three vendors in this rapidly consolidating market,” said Sue Hall, CTO, Baker & McKenzie and co-chair of Open Text Legal CIO Advisory Board. “This brings exciting possibilities for legal customers both in terms of products and services. I am looking forward to working with Open Text management to help deliver solutions that meet the needs of the legal market.”

Open Text statistics: Open Text supports approximately 46,000 customers and millions of users in 114 countries and 12 languages. For the quarter ended September 30, 2006, Open Text expect to report revenue between $99-101 million.

Interwovens thoughts

Neil Araujo who runs Interwoven’s, VP of Legal Services Marketing says he sees Opentext as “a Swiss army knife, with multiple blades, tin openers and cork screws. You need it if you are going camping but perhaps not if just cooking a meal.” Of the best campaign he has ever run in legal he says “switch to Interwoven” was the most effective. Of other marketers he praises ‘Apple’ and Denton Wilde Sapte. He says “people just love Apple” and “Denton Wilde Sapte really got their message across – if you want this type of law, ring us.” He sees their success in clearly identifying what they are about. Neil wrote the first few versions of the software. He says that the forward motion for Interwoven is to make the IT experience for lawyers/attorneys much simpler.

He believes that customers don’t like being sold to and that you really only want to see them when your need arises and not before. He thinks that all vendors in this space have functionality, performance and stability but that Interwoven are better at performance and stability.

He confirms the biggest change their industry ever saw was brought about by the email.

Interwoven movers & shakers

Max Carnecchia
President

Ben Kiker
Senior Vice President

Neil Araujo
VP Legal Services Marketing

Major event to meet heads of accountancy and law firms plus global banks, London May 8th 2008

Citytech a market leading legal tech publication has a sister publication called Citywealth that runs events that have become legendary for attracting ‘stellar’ audiences and for providing Five star comfort and entertainment for important accountants, lawyers and attorneys, wealth managers, private bankers, consultants and advisors and rich list guests. A mix of sophistication with cultural themes, Citywealth events encourage attendees to linger, something that no other publishing and events company serving the industry has managed on such a scale. This year numbers are set to exceed the four hundred mark and guests will be some of the biggest glocal names in the world - UBS, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Citigroup who are the major purchasers of technology in the world and referrers of billionaire clients and for those seeking affluent individuals (like lifetyle companies), attendees are very wealthy individuals themselves (c£1-5million). The Citywealth Top 100 lists are now in an advanced stage, with those listed for 2008, shortly to be notified that their slot is assured. Many have left the list this year, new entrants have arrived. The nail biting tension begins, culminating in our flagship event “The Zoo Do.” Tickets are limited, please book now to secure your spot.

See our events on the website http://www.citywealthmag.com/

Contact ljarvis at j-p-c.tv for sponsorship information which starts at £7,995 + vat to invite select guests on a table of ten and includes advertising by web and in the programme on the night. Overall sponsorship is £50,000 + vat and includes a two minute speaking slot.

The search gold rush

John Tredennick a Denver, Colorado, US based tech entrepreneur spent twenty years of his working life as a trial lawyer at Holland & Hart.

Doing a UK visit at the moment, he is keen to look at Europe because his current clients, who are corporates involved with mergers and acquisitions performing extensive due diligence, are increasingly asking for an EU data centre, as their business sprawls across the world. This is something that will resonate with most UK law firms, who tell any US lit’ vendor who steps on UK shores “we need data held here, not in the USA.”

John, who founded the business in 2000, is seeing a marked increase in due-diligence-style search requests from corporates who are keen to understand any liabilities, particularly environmental, in an age where this is of increasing concern to governments and the public and legally he says “could end up ripping a company apart.” He is also getting frequent requests for merger and acquisition, due diligence reports and ‘second request’ reviews which allow the US government to do a deeper drill down should a ‘first request’ not satisfy them.

But his order books weren’t always so bountiful. Receiving backing to the tune of $1million in 2000 and with a staff of six, his board asked for a review of the company and the future of search from experts. The feedback was terrifying. “Shut it down, there is no money in that business.” John says it was a pretty difficult time. “Search wasn’t a big deal then. I had $200,000 left in the bank, wages to pay and the future looked pretty bleak.” Fortunately his backers weren’t pushing for closure, so he knuckled down and time brought some big contracts to the company, but he says with a shrug of his shoulders and a frank smile. “I can’t say I knew it was definitely going to happen.”

Now an author of note with books, magazines and articles under his belt, John says Catalyst has picked up fifty sites with ease following their partnership with Fast who offer hosted, search software which he says uses multiple servers for searches with anything up to five hundred terms. He tells us why they are better than others. “Old search engines were built in the seventies, then in ‘98 Google landed with new architecture. Fast, who are Norwegian, were born ten years ago and similarly built their business with new ideas and architecture.” He adds an example of their power. “The Library of Congress had five exabytes in 2004 but Fast scanned ten exabytes that year alone.”

John, who is a great story teller, says Catalyst has fifty staff in Denver and eighteen in Bangalore who he confirms have a strong bond with the US office. He thinks the edge his company has over others is the speed and language capability which spans eighty different types. “We’re getting more and more foreign documents to review, including Korean recently which meant reviewing character styles.” He says. “In the past vendors used to grab a dictionary, scan the lot, then work from there and most software can still only do one language search each time and can’t recognise differences in character spacing. We can do twenty queries a second compared to twenty minutes with one search elsewhere. Fast do bigger stuff than Google: they handle 32G compared to 1G worth of data.” He adds that Autonomy is the closest rival but thinks Fast are better for straight, rather than conceptual search.

As Catalyst have come to the UK with a solid business stream from US companies expanding onto European shores, battling increasing US regulatory burdens and ongoing data rises, it looks as though John and his near seventy strong international team, can now sit back with some satisfaction, benefiting from being one of the few who strike gold in the multi language, high speed “search gold rush.”

www.catalystsecure.com

Trilantic litigation support talk about eMailThread

eMailThread – Reduce the volume of eMails to be Reviewed

eMailThread, unlike other technologies, uses the content of emails to determine the thread which allows the legal review team to focus review efforts on the last email in the thread. By analysing the content, you can be sure that the “inclusive” email contains the information from all the previous layers in the thread negating the need to review the other mails.

www.trilantic.co.uk

3E or not 3E?

There’s a rumble in the legaltech jungle at the moment and 3E is on the drums. There has been lots of good feedback and a few “its amazing” comments and lots of deals but this has been followed by a backwash of “oh but we don’t want to have to chuck our current stuff away” type feedback. So for a while I’ve been chasing a demo and chance to hear what the score was in the Enterprise v 3E match.

According to Kaye Sycamore who heads up the Thomson Elite sales team and was recently promoted to overall boss, Thomson has employed an army of R&D techies on 3E and by all accounts this has cost a small fortune.

3E does simple stuff like clip into Outlook and SharePoint and wasn’t really worth getting screen shots for, because these days you almost don’t need to bother. Its all much more intuitive and a lot of software seems very similar to me. Click here for this, click there for that and lots of dedicated areas and slice ‘n’ dice options. Naturally I’ve oversimplified but you get what I mean, plus you can do what you like with it, with drag n’ drop customisation, so it will just look how you want it to look anyway.

About the criticism being levelled at 3E, Kaye Sycamore says this is not the first major change or leap that Thomson Elite have ever made and suggests that the “noise” in the sector is unnecessary. She says “this is a fifth generation system; we’ve had many big generational shifts spanning twenty years.” She admits that they’ve always previously developed on their existing platform but adds “there have been so many major technological developments in the last five years that we had to make the decision to stay with our current legacy system - Enterprise - or break free to create more benefits.”

Kaye says firmly “we aren’t asking any existing customers to migrate; Enterprise is going to continue side by side with full Elite support and backing. We want new customers and new markets and that is what 3E has been developed for.”

Whether this is a new plan or not, I don’t know, but I guess the furore has emerged because 3E salespeople have been in to see existing legal Enterprise customers to show them their new app’.

It’s a difficult sell, in that, if you just bought a new car and then get a leaflet about an improved one, you are either going to be a bit annoyed or bonkers to upgrade…unless some other big change occurs at the same time. A bit like trading your 4x4 jeep in for a little electric car. The reason would be blindingly obvious, you are saving the environment.

I think the reasoning behind the new 3E app.’ is similar to that. Technology has just moved on. It isn’t only Thomson Elite saying ‘we are changing for the better’; its everyone. Suddenly Interwoven have full functionality on the BlackBerry ®. We all get sms from Addison Lee, the taxi firm and you can get karaoke on your iPod (iKaraoke). Technology got much better, very quickly basically.

In my book their move makes sense. Why wait until Enterprise is falling over like our subway system and costs money to patch and takes long periods offline to fix? They can get something else running side by side like Richard Branson did with the railway. Taking time to update and look after existing stock but all the while bringing online a speedy new option at the same time. Kaye says “we are offering the best of both worlds.”

I guess if any of the above worries you then its time to look at your contracts and speak to Thomson Elite but with an £8 billion balance sheet, they really do have the greenbacks to do what they say.

Pissing you off as well doesn’t seem to me to be a very clever option. They are a market leader, have been for years so why would they shoot themselves in the foot by getting all dodgy on the support?

I think the only issue is keeping up with the Joneses. Someone got a new system before you: so why not work out if you can live with that? The other problem may be for the competing vendors in the sector. The new 3E ‘sell’ is decidedly combative. The main message from Team Elite is that you can migrate from whatever you currently have (not just 3E) and Thomson Elite will work out your connectors, click ins and middleware. If you want to migrate they will convert data and do configurations. Basically they are keen.

So onto SAP.

IT directors say that the new 3E project is pushing them to review SAP. If they are going to go to all the trouble of changing their whole system, then they may aswell look at the market options thoroughly. With a big campaign just started on telly in the UK “SAP isn’t just for big companies, its for SME’s (small to medium size enterprises) too. It would seem to be pushing itself back into our frontal lobes. Kaye is quick to respond “We are offering a global business solution. SAP are invisible in the USA and Asia Pacific, they have Germany and some of Europe and that’s it.” She does concede though that SAP functionality has turned heads. Kaye says “We’ve listened and taken law firm comments into account.” Hinting that 3E have covered every objection and you won’t be yearning for that SAP demo anymore. Kaye continues “law firms want global financial software and need to control risk long-term. If the market is marching forward, we want to lead.”

The development of 3E took three years and a hundred people on their engineering team to bring to market. Key performance indicators are entirely customisable with their ‘timekeeper’ functionality and its made to be essentially what you want.

I ask about the trends Kaye is seeing in law firms: any time n’ billing hot tips? Apparently not. Kaye says “its very different in every firm - some want lawyers to see all their financials and some don’t.”

Focusing back onto 3E, the message that becomes loud and clear is that their new offering is pure ERP. It is for the law firm with multiple offices, who doesn’t want disparate data or systems. Its for firms who want one view of the financial position for staff wherever they may be located around the world or different national locations. Kaye regularly says “the data I’m showing you is sitting in Los Angeles,” to demonstrate this point.

She says “you can look at individuals performance, view particular departments or look by client. Stats are real time or near real time depending on how the firm wants it. New information can feed into the system every minute or every week.”

Views consist of ‘billed, collected and written off’ and all is context sensitive. Reports are report-ready with different drill down. There is also a query option within 3E to put notes on files and send them to action queues of someone else in the legal chain. For money laundering you can add pdf’s of passports and link these to your DM.

A phrase that popped up was “self service”. Rather than having staff waiting for chunks of information they are sourcing it themselves. Kaye adds “its all about speeding up the process.”

I decide we have hit another SAP moment and ask her to defend the comment that software has got a little too much functionality these days, suggesting that a return to simplification may be around the corner. Kaye disagrees: “people need to grow into software, it needs to last the distance. There should be more than you need on offer. 3E has multi currency selections; can check up on lawyers and can compare lawyers and there is a ‘secure module’ for the uber bosses to see confidential areas.”

Having heard a lot of about customisation being easy but suspecting its all slick, sales patter, Kaye obligingly clicks to the back end and switches between screens and she drags off a couple of columns then clicks back to show they are gone.

I wonder about implementation times and this triggers some advice. She says: “So many firms go for a ‘big bang’ approach, wanting it all out of the way in one go. This inevitably takes between nine to eighteen months. (Small firms 9, big firms 18). We are proposing a phased implementation with individual pushes which may take up to six months at a time.”
She cites Team Elite clients Lovells and Weil Gotschall as taking eighteen months.

Kaye continues “its all about less human involvement in cash cycles.” I asked if she thinks law firms are faster at billing these days. She comments “some are and some aren’t.” I push for a tasty example but don’t get anything more.

Getting back to the technology and why Thomson Elite chose such a hard path for themselves, Kaye takes a deep breath and reconfirms: “technology is just so much faster these days with much less code. In previous software we would have had 5,500 lines of code now this is replaced with 500 and we have modernised using Web 2.0 techniques.

As Kaye globe trots a lot, I wondered which country was winning the tech’ dominance race? Was it still Australia, UK then USA? Kaye says “its very hard to compare country by country. Each has its own requirements. Australia is very competitive: there are only five big banks and two big airlines so they need to get a lot out of their tech’ purchases; the US is litigation focused which brings its own specialist needs and the UK similarly has its own economic factors.”

I enquire about market feedback and so far, Kaye comments “we are very happy. People see the benefits of re-architecting and take up is looking good.”

In my view most vendors are experts and offer a broad view of the legal world which you would do well to tap into. I ask what the problems are for law firms in taking up software projects. Kaye comments “for most firms, its their capacity to change. Also some law firms lose sight of what they are doing with a project and forget their objectives. She reiterates “it is important to phase introduction and implement progressively.”

As to business trends, Kaye comments “Most are looking at international growth and more efficiency. Also for us the buyer has moved seats. We used to speak mainly to FD’s but the decision now lies with IT directors.” As to why this might be Kaye confirms “its more a business system now, not just about the finance department.”

Wrapping up, I ask Kaye what she would like the legal market to know. She says “its about the three E’s: embedded business processes; enabling your firm to be its best and allowing you to be everywhere with one single, global financial system.

As to developments at Thomson Elite. Kaye finishes “In the past we’ve been perceived as the UK branch of a US entity but the changes that have taken place in the last twelve months have changed us culturally. We now see ourselves as a large, global software team.

So 3E or not 3E? I think it’s the vendors who should be worried, not you the law firm clients.

3E is built on Microsoft, Sequel server and .NET.□

Reprintable paper

One of the law firms sent me a link to this article to fuel the fire on the old paper debate. Will we ever give it up or will it remain our friend through thick and thin?

The law firm person commented

“We've been saying for some years that with the rise of electronic information that paper is dead. The announcement by Toshiba of reusable paper may well lead to one of us checking our pulse for a premature diagnosis.

Potentially, if it really works properly and takes off it could cause no end of ructions from a legal perspective. Imagine the scenario "You can't prove that I wrote the blackmail note because I've printed over it" You can't prove that you made manuscript notes on the contract that made it watertight because its been overprinted"

"No, we don't keep any records, the company policy is that we overprint our documents after 6 months"

Reading the article on the PC Pro site it seems this is akin to a prototype: nice idea but can it really work?

The jury is out and even Toshiba after negative press have gone for a low key launch and are phasing it into countries rather than going for a global launch.

One imagines it’s a ‘green’ idea but as our law firm commentator pointed out, it rather changes the direction of the paper/or not paper debate.

Interestingly, all the multi function peripheral manufacturers (photocopiers to you and me) and cost recovery people are going the ‘paper will never end’ route. They believe everyone has been saying it for so long that the desire to print will remain and is set for serious growth.

Introduction to TAPI and USB Handsets

In future releases of Windows 2000 operating systems, Microsoft is planning to provide built-in support for USB-connected handset devices. Support will initially be targeted for USB composite devices that implement audio functionality compliant with the USB Device Class Definition for Audio Devices, Version 1.0, plus a human interface compliant with the USB Device Class Definition for Human Interface Devices (HID), Version 1.0 and Version 1.1.

Such devices will be supported by enhanced TAPI functionality and by TAPI-enabled applications such as future versions of Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing software.
NOTE: All features are in a planning stage only, and Microsoft has not committed to delivering these features in any form in any particular release of any product.

Windows 2000 includes TAPI 3.0, a set of services and APIs for building telephony applications. TAPI 3.0 allows applications to make use of telephony infrastructure for both call control and media streaming in a device-independent, language-neutral manner. In addition, TAPI 3.0 includes native support for IP telephony protocols.

To encourage the development of USB telephony devices and to facilitate adoption of PC-based IP telephony, Microsoft is planning to add support for USB-connected handsets to Windows. The purpose of these devices is to improve the user experience for PC-based telephony by presenting the user with a familiar audio streaming and call control interface. Experience has shown that many users prefer a phoneset-like interface for making telephone calls because of the familiarity, simplicity, privacy, and protection from echo that such an interface can provide.
Optionally, a phone keypad on the device can provide familiar dialing capabilities. Devices without a phone keypad are also useful; dialing can be accomplished using voice recognition, TAPI 3.0 directory integration, or the numeric keypad on a PC keyboard.
www.microsoft.com

Tikit and TFB partner with Corebridge

If Tikit and TFB have signed Corebridge then this app’ is coming to a desk near you (UK) very soon. Best to be prepared.

You may be thinking “oh, seen all that before” type of thing and I do remember there was a rash of telephony type people swilling around in the market a few years ago (many of whom have since disappeared). This seems to be in the same general ball park but is more developed. Rather than just allowing dialling from your computer it actually brings up documents across various different software applications.

As we all know Tikit are quite sniffy about who they partner with. It is an acceptance badge to have Tikit signed up already.

So what is it? Well its software that integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. At its heart the app’ has a meta directory which gathers basic contact information. This is synchronised with multiple databases and directories.

Which means when calls arrive key data is found before the phone rings and launched for the person answering the call. If there is a bad debt it can re-route callers to accounts. (Only for the very brave that one I would say). Both Jenny Peart, Marketing Manager at Corebridge and Sarah Cox in the same role at TFB confirm that individual rules for each firm can be set up.

Corebridge say very bravely that their technology will have as much impact as email. Also that implementation times are three to five days on a single site.

TFB who offer case and practice management software called ‘Partner for Windows’
Launched their partner programme about six months ago and since then have been ‘ironing out creases’ and lunching law firm purchasers in the UK to promote the product.

Jenny Peart gives us her take on the software “if you are sitting in your office it will auto-launch applications. Law firm clients using it can see who is phoning but will it also bring up relevant casefiles. And it also tells you if your clients are on ‘stop’. You can automatically route callers accounts payable. Essentially you set up the rules you want to achieve your aims.”

One message that Jenny says repeatedly is that “it doesn’t change the way anyone works. Jenny continues “It slots in between apps and telephones which links through TAPI- enabled technology. It doesn’t change systems, it just enhances them.” (See later note from Microsoft on what TAPI enabled means). Continuing Jenny says “the Corebridge server sits in the middle and acts as an interface between the two. In our view it just makes people faster.” Then adds “Its not data management, it just flags it up, but if you pull up five apps and start to see disparate data you will obviously be able to correct this.”

Jenny continues “What we are hearing more, about is convergence. Corebridge does not only doesn’t change anything but all the systems you put in place for particular reasons will work better. “

So down to the tacky question of cost. After a bit of thinking Jenny says “You can come on board for as little as £50 per user. We have a matrix of cost breakdown which is published on our brochures.”

Corebridge the company – the low down.

Jenny says “The CEO Dr Francis Zadan, had the foresight back in 2003 and realised the potential to work more effectively. He is a major shareholder.”

Corebridge have fifty employees

Background of Jenny Peart, Marketing Manager from Corebridge: Been with Corebridge for six months. Her main experience is in product management and product marketing but she also did consulting for Centrica (energy company) and Intuit (business and financial management software). Jennifer also has some twelve or thirteen years of telecoms and ISP experience.

Main areas of Corebridge business currently are: Recruitment, finance and investment banking. Legal is a new push with TFB and Tikit as core partners.

Main benefits of using Corebridge: Can log all time spent on emails for time and billing. Can see correspondence on email, phone, mobile, pda, CRM and case management.
In terms of contact lists you can, click on telephone numbers and the software dials it.

Clients so far: Investment bank in Hong Kong. Further announcements due out shortly.□

www.corebridge.com

Technology training? On a need to know basis

Many pioneers throughout history have been ignored. Their inventions, idealisms or artistic endeavours discounted or under appreciated during their life times. We are sometimes embarrassed to be wrong or stand up and say something that others with stronger opinions disagree with. However, history is a great story teller. It allows time to unfold truths that aren’t always visible to us at our position in time. Training is almost in this camp. Like a warm cup of hot, sweet tea, it sits in the background – often taken for granted. Where ‘intuitive software’ wins its sales war by “cutting down training costs” with ‘ease of use’, many maintain that a little more investment and attention to training is the birth of those eureka moments for techno-phobes “I get it!” can be a building block to help staff work faster and provide hands on help for others. It reduces desktop support, frustration and ultimately moves law firms toward quicker software integrations in future. Arguably by skimping on training, you keep your firm handcuffed to the past.

In technology we mostly talk excitedly of the “next big thing.” Many people are keen to identify the problems of the future and be respected and revered as a trend setter or product spotter.

For others it is refreshing to step away from this industry froth and talk of “maximising purchasing investment” or concentrating on internal mechanisms without the noise of new product salespeople, financiers and the media clouding judgement. The latter group is almost Swiss in its attitude - steady and slowly wins the race.

For those involved with training, change in the technology industry happens as Cathy Wallach of EncoreTech puts it “in incremental shifts.” In essence applications such as Word, Interwoven and OpenText remain much the same but economic and software developments bring improvements and additions.

Specialising in document management Cathy works with her co-founder, Stacy Gittleman, who was the first trainer working with her in her previous entity Perfect Access Speer (sold in 1998). Working across the USA, clients range from firms such as Clifford Chance to big corporates like Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley brought EncoreTech in to learn proprietary systems, write up manuals and then train them.

Surprisingly e-learning has not made much impact on the training business. Its used mainly to give students a quick heads up before EncoreTech hit the classroom. Cathy says these days the emphasis is on quick training or “what do you need to know training” so their emphasis is on being ultra prepared, getting it right and having a one-stop project manager for each client.

Other ongoing clients include Debevoise & Plimpton, McCarter & English and Cadwalader with two to three month training projects usually on the cards and big EncoreTech teams parachuting in, to get the job done.

But training is not all fabulous big contracts, there is a known under investment that pervades the corporate and SME world that mainly centres around smaller firms. Cathy says “the big firms talk to each other so they know they need training. In smaller firms they work so much on their own that they can’t understand the impact of an assistant spending ten rather than four hours on trying to fathom out how different document formatting works. Training increases productivity enormously.”

Getting clients mainly by referral, EncoreTech do the rounds at ILTA and LegalTech but say their plan is to stay at a level of around twenty five trainers to keep the business controlled and high quality. She comments “Stacy and I have both been in the training business for more than twenty years and we know its hard to maintain quality when you stretch to a hundred people.”


http://www.encoretech.com/

Bill Kirby, tech consultants, ten point plan for aligning IT strategy

Ten point plan for aligning IT with business goals


1. Commit money to unforeseen costs like necessary project management, business process review and training. Most projects fail or are less successful because of lack of ongoing investment in training and project management. Once the big bucks are spent many don’t want to spend more but it’s a mistake. Project management and training are not free and they represent the glue that holds your bricks together.

2. Have a clear, written business strategy for the firm.

3. Have a business plan that states the path “from now to then” within the business strategy

4. Share this fully with the head of IT and expect a matching strategy and phased implementation programme in return. Ensure you all understand it and have agreed ways to measure success or failure. For instance: lawyers spend less time phoning desktop support equals fee earning hours improve or: lawyers give better advice/win more clients because knowledge on offer is now real time and not out of date.

5. Benchmark /network with similar firms for ideas/knowledge/peace of mind/to ensure your budget is in line. Set aside budget for this to attend conferences or meet colleagues.

6. Do think about what business returns are expected for the IT investment proposed. Do you expect ten more clients if you install this software? Is this enough to cover costs first year? How will the software achieve this (automated processes, information portal to save lawyers being engaged with clients on menial tasks or information).

7. Ensure there is a communication methodology within the firm that makes this clear to all (intranet, regular meetings, monthly report).

8. Agree to measure IT performance with set criteria ie how effective IT desktop support is (ie number of complaints), delivering applications on time and within budget and look for a simple measurement for ROI (for instance year on year profits or incoming clients (where did they come from – website can be measured for instance and is an increasing source of new business).

9. Don’t be afraid to ask questions so that you build realistic expectations about what a proposed system can achieve. Ask: ‘will it do this?’ ‘Will I be able to do that?’

10. Focus on improving core applications that assist the business, don’t be distracted by fancy ‘bells and whistles’ that deliver no long term business benefit and eat up IT budgets.



Bill Kirby works at Professional Choice Consultancy

MOSS 2007 - It’s all in a handshake isn’t it?

Throw away your text books, stop going to seminars. The confusion is over. SharePoint can be sorted out with a firm, corporate handshake.

Its my business to try and understand the rudiments of legal tech offerings and sometimes it takes a while. You do what? It plugs in where? You are the greatest, most innovative software company ever seen?

Although MOSS (see explanation for what it is below) is taking rather a grip in law firms now, if you don’t get MOSS, you aren’t the only one. Sometimes as Citytech has discovered, IT directors really want to understand and buy from vendors but they might just not ‘get it’ or have the time to spend ‘getting it.’

So who’s doing what? Well it seems for the most part (from information from Tikit) that firms are liking the fact that intranets and extranets can be managed automatically through Sharepoint. If statistics are to be believed then up to around ¾’s of most intranets have out of date material on them. I imagine this doesn’t apply to those of you who’ve already invested in ‘search and delete’ style applications. You can sit smugly and view the inefficient kingdom below you. In addition although business intelligence is making waves, its not freely available within law firms so Sharepoint offers all that on a plate in an easy to use, one, two click, kind of viewing. For instance client rings lawyer ‘hmmm, you’ve overbilled me’, lawyer clicks into Sharepoint, inputs client name, client records come up and he/she can click again and see who worked on the matter, see who billed what and why, with no further involvement from finance or IT or asking a secretary to get back to the client.

I’ve had a look at the demo and its very intuitive, we will all know how to use this except our gran, who is too busy eating Jammy Dodgers and drinking cups of tea anyway. So top tip: if you are wondering what the hell to do with your intranets and want better ‘drill down’ info available to fee earners then this could be the application for you. The unusual thing about the financial information offered to the user is that they can check up on their own billable hours. No more surprises from management “Watson can I see you in my office.!” Fee earners can see what they’ve billed that month, for whom, compare with previous months and get a real feel for how they are doing internally before any trouble hits. A little bit of self management heaven.

There is also a self service HR section and I hear one big law firm has taken this up. Staff have an area where a bank of forms sit to allow them to fill in holiday or sick forms and ping them off for collation and automated record keeping.

If you are starting to get any creeping impressions that there is a lot of cross over with other applications then you are not far wrong. It seems all software suppliers have something that criss-crosses on someone elses turf these days and Microsoft Office Sharepoint is no exception. The general response to this doubling up is that you still need the Lexis Nexis InterAction, the OpenTexts, Interwovens, the Metastorms… well just about everyone else if you plan to do more complex work. Sharepoint are mainly offering an ‘ease of use’ interface with simplistic tools like DM which are perhaps useful if you don’t play in big boy vendor land.

The search gold rush. The 80 /20 rule.

Up until now most of us have been told about ‘searching’, in fact we may almost be obsessed. Its not about searching we hear, its about finding. Then its not about finding, its about finding what you want. Now its only about searching for things you don’t know about, which apparently is about 20% of all the items you need. The idea with Microsoft Office Sharepoint is that we mainly know where stuff is, so we want it it to be around two to three clicks away and then instantly viewed.

So now if you want to sound bright, ‘with it’ and generally techno savvy you need to say: “80% of all searching is really just about navigation.” Is it a eureka moment? I’m not sure but it certainly seems a step somewhere.

There are some key areas: financial, people and documents are your core and they leak into the intranet for staff to review everything necessary to complete their work and similarly can flow into the extranets or onto the internet for clients to have access to mini billing areas or knowledge.

The good bit. There is some free software called WSS in the whole deal (check still available) that allows you to create these billing areas or client rooms willy nilly. Apparently it’s a hook to get you interested. I have to say rather than a hook its more like a serious competitive advantage tool particularly if you get in early. I completely love the idea that I can click onto my lawyers website and see what, when, who, how in real time and without any fuss. This stuff is now not just for the big boys: anyone can get involved. Uses so far include one firm bringing seventy applications down into just a handful through use of this technology.

The main drive from Tikit is the reduction of time wasting and bringing together disparate data. Although others have this, also said this, like Solcara (less bespoke) it seems that the Handshake part of the outfit does really enable this to happen and with the easy recognizable template for users (modeled on law firm websites) its going to be difficult to ignore and might even catch on.

If we can only work out what its all about. If still unsure see me after class.

So what is the Tikit pitch?

Drag and drop functionality
saves a lot of copy and pasting.

Reduces “brain drain.” (☺)

Don’t be put off because you think its an enormous project, you can tackle small things at a time like a ‘desperate’ intranet site.

Increases fee earner access to real time financials

Intranets were the number 1 reason people were buying this but expansion is now rapid with a lot of buy in from law firms - particularly Lewis Silkin in the UK with a more complex DM project that says no to OpenText/Interwoven and yes to SharePoint on its own. Another reason is building a financial intranet on the back of the knowledge one. □


What is MOSS?

Sharepoint or as it’s now called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) has been around for a while but despite seminars and lots of ‘oh my god, it’s the Next Big Thing’ type of information, unless you see a demo you will probably be a bit puzzled about what it is so don’t be worried if you still haven’t got a clue. Its essentially an interface (or one button or one initial screen) that clips onto some middle software like Handshake which then clips onto or ‘talks to’ your essential tech software like Lexis Nexis InterAction, OpenText (formerly Hummingbird) or Interwoven, Thomson Elite or Aderant to deliver all your current applications through a simple icon on the desktop. Within Outlook for instance you can have a Microsoft Office Sharepoint button that connects to everything without the user needing special skills and their view is not the InterAction or Thomson Elite view, it’s the Sharepoint view. The Sharepoint part is that its all blindingly obvious for fee earners: if they know how to use Outlook then they can navigate all the stuff they need for client billing, contacts, knowledge and even have their own little world that provides a unique space for their type of news, matters and office announcements. (You set rules to achieve the look and feel required).

Points of note.

Its not the same as OpenText or Interwoven Sharepoint: their Sharepoint integration only brings their software to the party. You need Handshake (who are reselling through Tikit in the UK) to connect to all your other applications like Lexis Nexis InterAction, Thomson Elite and the other main players.

Who is the star in the Microsoft Office Sharepoint, Handshake, Tikit trio?

Its hard to say, Tikit for being influential in the UK and clever enough to explain it and sell it to you? Microsoft Office Sharepoint for developing such an easy interface and perhaps for coming down off their hobby horse and really working with legal vendors? Or Handshake for developing some communications software that just worked it all out for everyone?

Probably they all get equal votes but Handshake is undoubtedly garnering some serious respect for developing software that has brought to life the Sharepoint concept. In my view companies working on bridging applications are the ‘ones to watch’ for they are beginning to rule the world.


www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

Sci tech trends in Japan

This is a really cool site - particularly as we move into a robot automation age.
http://web-japan.org/trends/07_sci-tech/index.html

They have stuff like this
THE WORLD'S THINNEST TV
The Age of Organic Electroluminescence Dawns
http://web-japan.org/trends/07_sci-tech/sci071205.html

And this
PC CONTROLLED BY USER'S EYES
New System Developed by Japanese Professor
http://web-japan.org/trends/07_sci-tech/sci070316.html

Ladies love legal tech

I adore legaltech and the people within it. My career spans media that includes The Times, The Sunday Times, The Financial News, The Legal 500, Legal Business and the late In Brief Magazine (RIP). Now running my own junket - JPC which includes Citytech, I do it because I loves it (very Gollum) not just a little bit but a big bit and although I've worked in many sectors, I rank legaltech as an all time favourite. Why? It’s rammed full of party people, who make the best of life. They share their enthusiasm with everyone and are highly sociable creatures always ready to laugh and tell a joke or cheer everyone up. They can talk for hours about topics that include sentences like “You need ECM, not DM with CRM and BPM.” They are always fighting to put their credit cards down to pay for drinks bills and are the most deeply loyal set of people I have ever met. Karen Jones as herself and Citytech Editor declares her ongoing adoration of legaltech and its wonderful population. Here is what other tech ladies think. Victoria Shortt, PR at Samsung: “I‘ve been working in the tech industry for five years now as a PR consultant and have worked across a broad range of tech clients including Interwoven, O2, Jobsite and now Samsung. I love working in the tech industry because its such a fast paced environment. I enjoy taking dry and sometimes overcomplicated tech stories and making them interesting. DM, ECM and WCM are all great but how do they actually benefit the end-user? That is what is interesting about tech for me – not being bogged down in details or jargon but how technology can actually add value to someone’s working day. The biggest achievement for me is probably taking a former client Interwoven to the number one spot in terms of press coverage – beating some significant names in the business whilst we were at it. I think the reason we did it was that we believed in their products as much as they do – 47 out of the Top 100 law firms can’t be wrong. The best thing about being a woman in the tech world is blowing apart people’s preconceived notions of women in business.” Thereza Snyman, IT Manager, Boodle Hatfield: “I’m an ex South African, ex lawyer, ex property developer, ex industrial relations student, always fashionista, I fell into legal tech after my MSc in Industrial Relations at the LSE... and was desperately looking for a job (in HR). As an ex-lawyer with a fair bit of self-taught tech nouse at that stage (and thanks to my mother's insistence, keyboard skills), the most obvious means of putting cat-food in my cat's bowl was to temp as a legal sec while the job-hunting process followed its painful course. A temp assignment just after the millennium landed me with a small city firm, looking to expand....and who thought that someone as wacky as me could possibly make a contribution to their support structure. They offered me a job as Office Manager - which I accepted. As it turned out (a classic case of the half-blind leading the blind), I was gradually sorting out most of their IT problems. After about 8 months we put the IT responsibility on a slightly more formal footing. A few networking courses later, I realised that I had found my mission in life (or at least, this part of my life.). Nearly seven years later, I am IT manager for Boodle Hatfield, having graduated from managing none but myself (both helpdesk and strategic planner) to managing a team of 6; from contending with one piffling NT4 server to overseeing gleaming racks with 30 powerful beasts humming away. What do I love about legal tech? The problem solving, of course and dealing with the lawyers, bless them (used to be one myself). But above all the fact that each day is a challenge, always shifting, always changing, always something new to learn.... (am cursed with an extremely low boredom threshold. No risk of being bored in legal IT). Whilst I have a string of degrees - all my official qualifications are unrelated to IT. It has been learn-on-the-job throughout, with a few courses thrown in here and there over the years. I don’t have a single biggest achievement - every solution found, every problem solved is an achievement. But perhaps, on a personal level, the achievement was to start out at a 40 user firm and inspire enough confidence in a 200 user firm to offer me the position of IT manager - and to have lived up to their expectations. As for winning out over the (male) competition - well, in landing my current job in November 2005 I obviously did. What the anorak brigade have to realise is that IT is no longer a macho stronghold. Technology is as much about people, about managing expectations, managing change, ensuring "best fit" with the business environment. And that is (amongst other things), the lipstick brigade is so very good at. Melanie Farquharson, consultant at 3Kites, started working in legaltech five years ago without any technical qualifications. After fourteen years as a practising lawyer and six years as a partner at London law firm, Simmons & Simmons, she came to the conclusion that ready access to knowledge and greater efficiency in the way that lawyers work could dramatically improve the service they provide to their clients. Melanie left front-line lawyering and became the firm’s head of professional support at the beginning of 2001. Climbing a steep technological learning curve in her knowledge management role, she was quickly converted to the view that the market and the impact of technology would require the legal profession to change and that technology could be the key to success as well as the driver of change. Recognising that a law firms’ natural pace of change is glacial, she has nevertheless in a quiet way been pushing the boundaries, promoting tools to help lawyers manage matters more effectively, and regarding the reinvention of wheels as a heinous offence. Her enthusiasm for the positive impact that technology can have on the profession has grown over the last few years through, or perhaps despite, involvement in various projects both internal to the firm (such as the implementation of a worldwide practice management system, involving finance, CRM and workflow in 20 offices) and client facing (including a refocus of the firm’s online legal resource, http://www.elexica.com/ and involvement in the Banking Legal Portal project with four magic circle firms and a collection of the world’s largest financial institutions). Seeing things from the lawyer’s perspective has enabled her to push simple ideas that can really work for the fee earner – like the link on each page of the firm’s CRM system to a tailored summary of business information about each client entity, drawn in real time from external sources (using a specially designed OneSource ‘tearsheet’), with the help of which the lawyer can use those few moments before a meeting to get right up to date with the client’s affairs. Bringing about change in a law firm is always going to be an uphill struggle and isn’t the best way to be popular, but Melanie manages still to be respected and listened to both by her partners and by the IT professionals she works with. Her secret satisfaction? Standing up in front of a room full of (mostly male) partners and telling them that they are wasting their money on technology unless they recognise that its benefit will only come from allowing it to change the way they operate. Space tourism? Bring it on. Christine Tomas, LDM. LDM celebrated their tenth anniversary with a supersize bash at The Royal Exchange in London. The reason I love technology? How can you not? Technology has changed the way people do business more than any other factor (could you imagine life without mobile phones, email or even fax or telex machines?!). To dismiss technology is to not conduct meaningful business these days. Not all lawyers use technology the same way - some love it, others loathe it, some understand it, others just want it to work. More importantly, not all technology was created equal. I help level the playing field by finding the most suitable technology for lawyers. I’ve been working with the legal tech industry for over ten years and managed international on-site projects, scanning over a million pages across ten sites over three continents in six weeks with less than one week’s notice. Would I be a space tourist? I like to call it home. I am a Legal Technology Consultant with LDM. I jumped on a plane, crossed the Atlantic and voila! No really, I grew frustrated at being locked up in document review rooms for days on end. I had to find a more effective solution and a one way ticket to freedom. Hence, I jumped on the technology bandwagon and never looked back. My experience managing electronic and paper disclosure exercises and implementing legal technology solutions from both a top 10 law firm as well as a vendor perspective has been invaluable. Being a techno-geek at heart (albeit in lipstick and heels) as well as understanding lawyer's requirements has placed me in a unique position. How did I get through the winning line first before male counterparts? Being organised and cutting to the chase whenever possible. A clear answer and an intelligent approach is key to my success. For other top tier ladies in legaltech, check out Citytech’s global tech leaders list http://www.citytechmag.com/graphics/globaltechleaderstop100.pdf WE NEED YOU: BLOGGERS LISTEN UP! Citytech is finalising its 2007 list of global tech leaders and it includes BLOGGERS! Email me your suggestions and we will add them to our pot for review.

The ABC on London tech vendor: Axxia’s DNA

In the UK, Axxia with their product DNA is up against the likes of Thomson Elite 3E, Aderant, and CS Group (CS Group are a UK software venture capitalist who own AIM, Videss and Laserforms - all bought out in the last two years). Axxia historically offer case and practice management software and have a strong time & billing component aimed mainly at mid tier firms. (Think of it like an all day travelcard rather that a one way ticket).

Stuart Holden, Managing Director, Axxia says of their product which launched just over a year ago. “Its taken three years of commitment and investment to bring our dedicated legal, ‘DNA’ product to market. We liken DNA to SAP – it does everything a firm needs rather than buying separate silo’d bits like CRM or billing then glue-ing them together.”

Stuart says he was delighted to see my 3E article recently in Citytech. He believes there’s been a general lack of debate about law firms and their approach to technology which has led to a sleepy market. He thinks with 3E stirring things up with a new approach is just the kind of thing that will help law firms realize they are at the dawn of a new age. Stuart comments “we’ve been out there talking about law firms needing to change for a while but only a few are picking up on this. In my view adapting to change is going to be an essential element to enable them to stay in the increasingly competitive legal game.”

Although time and billing has always been a strong component of Axxia’s offering, Stuart says DNA is more than this now. In his view their offering is aligned to SAP (a European vendor who dominates in Germany and non-legal in the UK) rather than running up against the likes of stalwart vendor Thomson Elite 3E. Stuart says “3E handles part of what a law firm does and handles it well. DNA handles the whole lot: time and billing, CRM, DM, practice and case management.” He sums up “DNA offers everything that interfaces with what the lawyer needs to do.”

Stuart continues “Its took us three years and a lot of thought to develop DNA and we do feel we’ve got it right and can steal a lead on the competition.” He adds “The way lawyers deliver law is changing; already we’ve seen the competitive-end legal markets like conveyancing commoditise which means firms have had to adapt their business to more demanding, cost sensitive clients. We’ve monitored this progress for some time now and developed DNA to mirror this business revolution.” Although Stuart hastens to add “We don’t preach, we know all law firms rely on individual strategy. As an example CRM may need a different approach for every practice area.”

Stuart sees billing as a high spot that will present challenges and growth for firms and says
“The larger law firms are most interested in DNA – the ones who’ve written down most of their processes and are gearing up for increased profitability.” But adds “For the moment we aren’t selling into the multi jurisdiction operations but are talking to large national firms in the UK and Australia.” He continues further “We are also turning heads in progressive mid size law firms. They’ve realized if they can put change through the firm and enablers to make it work for them then both will act as a major benefit over competitors.”

Asking about Thomson Elites 3E which started over (different product to their legacy Enterprise app.’) he agrees 3E have a valid argument that software has moved on considerably and would only mean compromises if they didn’t make the break. He comments “the pedigree of their enterprise product goes back many years but even so, from a theoretical point and depending on what they are working with, you do have to start again at some stage. It is the right thing to do. The only problem is migrating users.”

He continues “We took a different approach, partly because our design wasn’t at the end of its lifecycle. Also because our users depend on a workflow process using many areas of our software together As an example if you consider Pannone or Weightmans who use workflow throughout their firm: lawyers/attorneys and back office, if you say tomorrow lets pull the plug, change the whole thing and expect it to work, its not going to happen. Maybe in the back office it would be ok - its painful but do-able but when you have everyone connected to it, you will inevitably get problems and downtime. For this reason we felt we had to design in co-existence. So when firms are rolling out they can stay on their existing workflows, phase it in and unplug the old when they are ready. Stuart comments “Its slightly different with time and billing silo’d software because firms can unplug and switch the next app.’ in, because its mainly back office focused.”

I mentioned that Thomson Elite 3E said that decision making for their product was starting to shift to IT Directors (over the FD). Stuart says “We generally talk to the whole management team which includes FD, IT, Managing Partner and CRM head because clients are realizing that the decision is multi faceted.”

I wonder at this stage about connectors to other software like Lexis Nexis InterAction (which is heavily invested in many law firms) particularly as Axxia is saying ‘you just need us now.’ He hesitates saying “DNA is a web services app’ so will connect to any CRM /DM but we think there are more benefits to using DNA than silo’d app’s.” He continues “We work with the Microsoft suite which is also a SAP model. We don’t write bits of it our self and interface so can’t segment it unlike best of breed. (Editors note: Large app’s like Interface InterAction/3E stay like this because law firms can go deeper into applications – it gives more developing capability). Stuart elaborates “Our background with applications has also been manufacturing which means we link every process. We see legal in the same way ie with areas that should blend together.

I mention the new wave of thinking ‘phasing’ rather than ‘big bang’ implementations and wonder what Stuarts views are: “There are several reasons for phasing: firstly firms want to see benefits for going through the pain. In my view it’s a sensible way of doing things.” He continues “Axxia have very slick implementations with three to four months for PMS (practice management software) and for case it could vary but would usually be a month to two months.” I comment on their phenomenal speed and Stuart says. “Our view is if we get it in quickly, then clients can tweak it and do their own thing rather than us spending hours consulting. Ultimately its down to our design. Although DNA is similar to say Visualfiles, in terms of the complexity of what could go into it, our experience says, keep everything very simple. Don’t try and design an ultimate, just let clients build upon it.” He adds “We could have done something much more combative and competitive but don’t think there were many that could have written with the straightforwardness of DNA.”

So the acid question. Who’s buying it? Stuart says “We’ve got DNA in part rolled out to six or seven firms and one firm with around 150 users is in its last phase now.” He continues “We are seeing a lot of activity in non legal like government for managing processes and dealing with compliance. Gordon Brown wants to lose civil servants so is making them more efficient with automation.”

I ask how all the players in the market will shape up with so much competition. Stuart believes that some companies will fight on price with no real product development but agrees with Kaye Sycamore, who just got promoted to a big boss role at Thomson Elite 3E in saying “you need to buy something you can grow into in future not something that is about to retire. If you buy older systems not built on new, faster platforms then you are likely to have to repurchase again in the foreseeable future”

Axxia is a privately owned software company that was bought out by the management including Stuart some years ago which publishes financial results every year. Stuart says “having worked in big groups delivering quarterly results it is a relief to publish annually. He says “to be able to put a strategy together for five years and really work it and for us the launch into Australia too is something we wouldn’t have necessarily achieved. The freedom from this constraint allows us to do a better job.”

And will they sell to any of the VC’s stalking legal? Stuart says firmly: “We are not for sale.” He continues, “What we are and what we’ve invested will not reflect any valuation. We aren’t positioning for exit we want to ride the next wave of success which we see in our sights within three years.”

And the market as a whole? Stuart says “there is lots of change which is creating a lot of buzz and Thomson Elite’s 3E is helping. We feel IT selling has gone very consultative now. When we drill into issues they normally become very complex. So we treat bigger picture rather than symptoms.” He continues “3E is helping us all sell the concept of workflow and nailing down processes which is creating the needed debate in law firms.” He adds “As well that what other companies like CS Group have done, is create uncertainty. If you are AIM or Videss users (both case/PMS vendors pitching mid tier bought out) you have had to swallow change so its gotten people thinking. Aim users were very loyal to Aim and were very difficult to convert. The uncertainty of the buyouts has created opportunity.” He continues further “We have good product strategy, we are cash rich, profitable, have loads of users and are in an enviable position.”

VC (venture capitalist) stalkers in the sector are sniffing around vendors worth around £5mill. I dig to see if I can get a valuation on Axxia. Stuart is number shy but says “we are not in the CS Group buying space they would have to pay more than £10million.”

Stuart is very optimistic about Axxia’s future. “We are always more successful when there is an aggressive market out there.” He says, then adds combatively “Let the best product win.” He believes that the main four players, (Axxia, Aderant, Thomson Elite 3E and CS Group) are really shaking things up.

Although Stuart compares DNA to SAP – both having a broad product, covering all areas, like HR, CRM and time & Billing he says that SAP have brought their legal product to the market from a very complex enterprise solution. He says “They’ve scaled it down into an SME product” but he believes, Axxia, Aderant and others understand legal nuances more. He continues “There are some comprises SAP can make, but there are a lot they can’t. He interjects “I expect we have an advantage over SAP but SAP will find its niche. Those buying it in after having had legal specific software will lose legal specific functionality.”

I give Stuart his opportunity to tell us why you should buy DNA. He smiles and says “its different and unique. What we’ve done for the first time is take what the legal market is asking for and added from outside industry what they will need in future years. Order processing, planning, identifying where work is coming from and business process which will be very important. Law firms do need to change and work in future will be very process led.”

He continues “Business agility is the buzz.” I ask what that really means. He confirms: “Ability to respond to compliance and increase in legislation.” Then adds “we all have to respond to change however it hits us even if just because we’ve designed a better way to do business. Tech agility is about being able to do it in an energising way to ensure you aren’t outwitted or crippled by the process.”

Moving on to general views. I mention Clementi which is a UK law change which the press are saying will result in the ‘death of the smaller law firm.’ It deregulates law firms here saying that any company can now offer the same service ie hire a team of lawyers and deliver law and allows support staff into equity structures. I wonder if this is really true and if in fact ‘tesco law’ providers will just create new business markets not yet seen? Stuart thinks and responds “the counseling aspect is missing from the ‘tesco law’ idea.” Then adds “Computers can replace the way lawyers operate but can’t cope with the emotional decisions that keep deals on track.” He continues “A firm in Australia is looking at franchising their software to other lawyers. It would mean if you walked into a high street, firm he could use software expertise from a bigger firm which would help small firms compete.”

On after sales service? Stuart has a novel approach “I think clients should phone up and get through to someone, we have log webbing for problems, we don’t have automated messages on phones we divert to a human.” He continues “Service is coming back into fashion - internet purchasing works well when it works. Touch points (where clients interact with your firm) will be very important.”

And a last word on business agility: “Everyone accepts its, not the big firms which will snack on the small, it’s the quick who will win the race. If you can’t change quickly you will get left behind. Axxia is leading by example. We are changing the culture of our company as we go into high impact sales and putting staff into training programmes. We’ve also hired a non exec onto the board to bring in external expertise.”

He finishes “Clients will determine everything and what change is required. Law firms will decide winners and losers. Law firms are slow to want to change but when they decide to go for it they are quick.”□

Want the low down on Thomson Elite 3E?

What is Elite 3E?

Launched in April 2006, Elite 3E is an advanced browser-based business optimisation platform that offers powerful core financial and practice management features, including built-in collaboration, automation and a rapid application development environment (Software Factory) in one integrated high-performance system. Elite 3E uniquely empowers law firms to create the processes they want and need as opposed to requiring firms to follow rigid, preset processes.

Independent view of 3E?

By all accounts the people demo-ing or using this product are impressed with the capability and change-ability.

What are people moaning about? You have to throw your current Thomson Elite stuff away and start again.

What do Thomson Elite say about this? "Software code has come on so much in the last few years we couldn't work with legacy code any more. It was time to move on."

Who’s buying 3E?

Al Tamimi & Co., one of the largest law firms in the Middle East selected 3E. With a diverse client base ranging from international banks, trading establishments, charity organisations and multi-national corporations, the firm needed a flexible system that would extract specific data for strategic planning and other activities.

The corporate stuff: Law firms across three continents have adopted Elite® 3E as their next-generation financial and practice management software. As the client list continues to grow, Thomson Elite maintains its aggressive development of 3E.

The pitch: “3E’s sophisticated capabilities and flexible platform set the new standard in advanced technology that can be deployed by legal and professional services firms to improve their efficiency and competitiveness,” said Jitendra Valera, international vice president, Thomson Elite. “Solving the complexities of conducting business on a global scale is a hallmark of 3E. It’s exciting to see both new clients and longtime Elite Enterprise users leading the way in adoption of this innovative platform.”

What are clients saying? “We are very impressed with Elite 3E for both the investment and thought that has gone into its development,” said John Matthews, the firm’s financial manager. “We are confident that it is the right solution and provides the flexibility needed for a practice of our range and ambition.” Al Tamimi & Co.

Whats new? 3E Collections Offers New Action Calendar and Control Panel. The Control Panel provides collections managers unlimited flexibility in determining how overdue invoices can be aggregated, assigned, scheduled and collected.

Additional new v.2.0 features include the following:

A smart tag feature that allows users working in Microsoft Word documents to quickly navigate to the appropriate 3E screen by using recognized terms that are already set up in 3E (such as client or matter name).

Built-in auditing tools that can be turned on, as needed, to monitor 3E activities, such as timekeeping and client or matter contact changes.

Data-level security that allows record owners to hide sensitive matter files from designated users to avoid conflict of interest.

http://www.more3e.com/