The Orange Rag www.legaltechnology.com February’s big deals Burges Salmon select Elite 3E Burges Salmon has selected Thomson Elite’s 3E as its new integrated practice and financial management system to replace its old Norwel PMS. The firm’s finance director Simon Russell said “We feel we are buying into a future of enhanced functionality and a higher level LexisNexis and quality of management information.” IRIS wins Minster site acquires Axxia Minster Law is to swap out its Eclipse case After a couple of months of not entirely inaccurate rumour, management and Paragon accounts LexisNexis chose the eve of this year’s Legal IT Show to software in favour of an IRIS Legal Office announce its acquisition of Axxia Systems, one of the (aka Videss) integrated practice and case market’s best known and longest established suppliers of management system. Minster Law case and practice management systems. Axxia will now (originally Corries) is the UK’s second join the LexisNexis UK practice management solutions largest personal injury claims firm and, as division, which also includes the Visualfiles business that part of its Horizon Change programme, was acquired in the summer of 2006. plans to double in size over the next three years. The £400k deal will see the IRIS According to Axxia managing director Stuart Holden, who solution deployed across the firm’s 400 will be remaining with LexisNexis as commercial director, strong workforce in York and Wakefield. a big attraction of the deal was to become part of the “brilliant” strategy Lexis had created for its legal software Macfarlanes to roll out SRC Winscribe portfolio. This included the fact it ensured Axxia users had In one of the biggest DDS deals in recent a secure future because Lexis wanted to take the Axxia months, Macfarlanes is to roll out SRC DNA PMS product forward. ...continued on page 2 Winscribe digital dictation to over 350 users. The firm, which is replacing analogue tape, selected SRC after users First win for new Pilgrim system were given half a day to test Winscribe Pilgrim Systems new Lawsoft Office ‘next generation’ case and Bighand systems side by side. and practice management system (see page 4 for more details) has won its first order from Leeds-based Lupton Wiggin and Silkin pick Skywire workflow Fawcett LLP. The system, which includes CRM and Wiggin LLP and Lewis Silkin have selected document management, allows users to enter data directly Skywire Software’s BPI for Legal workflow through their favourite Microsoft Office applications, system to automate business processes including Outlook and Word. Luptons are replacing an old including new matter and new hire intake. IRIS AIM Evolution Classic unix-based system. Skywire acquired BPI developer Whitehill • Ellis Jones, a 120 user firm in Dorset, has selected Technologies last year. Saturn 27 will Pilgrim Lawsoft as its new PMS, workflow and CRM oversee the implementations at both firms. platform to replace its existing Cognito software. www.skywiresoftware.com Legal Technology Insider (206) Febuary 2008 2 Browne Jacobson to Bar vendor also enjoys migrate to FWBS Browne Jacobson has confirmed that it is the ‘IRIS effect’ to migrate from a Visualfiles Solcase case Last month the news was all about suppliers of law firm management system to an FWBS Matter systems winning business from IRIS users but it appears the Centre platform. The deal, which is the Bar are also unhappy. Reports suggest two sets have largest FWBS UK law firm win to-date, already stopped using their ‘new’ systems (co-developed will also involve FWBS integrating their on the same .NET platform as IRIS Mountain Connected) software with the firm’s Interwoven DMS, and switched back to their older Meridian software. InterAction CRM and Tikit Firmware PMS. Meanwhile Bar Squared (0845 0091180), the main competitor in the Bar IT market, has seen its busiest year Browne Jacobson’s head of IT Peter Birley to-date, securing 21 orders from barristers sets for its Lex said this would be a long term process as chambers management system. The wins encompass a the firm would not simply be transferring number of Mountain swap-outs, including Park Court data from one case management system to Leeds, One Inner Temple and Citadel Birmingham. another but would instead be taking the opportunity to review and re-engineer all Kaim Todner Solicitors, who have 110 users across five its business processes. Birley added that offices, are now running Bar Squared’s Edict browser the FWBS technology approach was a based diary management system. This has Outlook and better fit with the firm’s Microsoft + matter Blackberry integration, so appointments booked within the centric +.NET strategy. system are automatically forwarded to Blackberry users. • Browne Jacobson also piloted Visualfiles www.barsquared.com M2 but never implemented it. FWBS sales & marketing director Mark LexisNexis acquires Axxia Craddock said his company was moving Continued from front page... The Orange Rag blog for 5th away from its original integrated approach & 7th February carries the full text of the formal LexisNexis to one of forming alliances with other statements however probably the key element is the new suppliers – including Interwoven, practice management group will be able to offer a broad DocsCorp and Bighand – whose products range of integrated and open/point solutions, including had a “wow” factor. Axxia PMS with integrated case and Axxia PMS with Visualfiles systems through a unified salesforce. The group will also retain its relationships with 3rd party suppliers, Blog traffic up 30% such as the long standing Visualfiles partnership with SOS. Latest figures show visitors to The Orange Rag blog increased by 30% in the six On the people front, Kate Holden has been promoted to months to 31st January 2008, with last senior vice president for global practice management month (January) seeing a record number of solutions, with overall responsibility for the legal software 13,000 distinct hosts served and just over portfolio. As already mentioned, Stuart Holden is 130,000 page views. We’ve also added a remaining with the business, working with operations new widget to the blog (you can find it at director Dan Marshall, who is currently based in the the foot of the left-hand column and in a Visualfiles Leeds office. Doug McLachlan of Axxia will be similar position on the Insider website) retiring from the business later this summer. (Visualfiles that provides the geographic locations of founder Neil Ewin has already retired.) And former Lawyer the last 100 visitors to the blog. At the Group managing director Rachel Lesiter, who can take time of going to print we are apparently much of the responsibility for dragging the Lawtel service big in Hong Kong and Romania. (now part of Sweet & Maxwell) into the 21st century, also www.theorangerag.com joins the senior management team. Legal Technology Insider (206) February 2008 3 Civica – still here and News in brief focused on users Dickinson Dees present Citrix We haven’t heard much from Civica in the private practice To support its growing number of fee legal sector for about 18 months, so when a new order earners who need to work remotely or via announcement arrived this month, we followed it up. mobile links, plus the opening of satellite According to Pam Kendrick-Astle, the managing director of offices, Dickinson Dees’ inhouse IT team Civica’s legal business, the supplier is fully committed to (headed by IT director Simon Earnshaw) both the private practice and local authority legal sectors, has implemented a new version of Citrix with “business going forward in line with expectations.” Presentation Server on a Microsoft Kendrick-Astle added that while the company had not Windows 2000 Server platform. The Citrix engaged in any major marketing campaigns (as a matter of move has given staff access to their corporate policy it has not been involved with either the desktop environment from any location Law Society’s Software Solutions Guide or the Islington (mobile staff have laptops fitted with 3G Legal IT show since 2006) it had been focusing on the cards) and supports the firm’s Microsoft needs of existing users and developed a thriving Office XP, Winscribe DDS, Interwoven consultancy service handling both compliance/risk DMS plus case and practice management management and extranet portal projects. applications. In terms of recent business, Francis Wilks & Jones, which It’s got to be Perfect for Simmons has offices in London and Birmingham, has replaced its Perfect Information (020 7892 4200) has existing PMS with Civica’s Galaxy Legal system. And, won a three year contract from Simmons Sheltons in Nottingham and Terrells in Peterborough have & Simmons to supply it with PI Filings and both recently upgraded to Galaxy from older Civica Qnix PI debts, Perfect’s databases of company systems. On the local government front, both Dudley MBC filings and fixed income securities. and Plymouth City Council have selected Civica to supply www.perfectinf.com case management with integrated time recording and billing. And, East Ayrshire Council and Rochdale MBC DocBuilder for lawyers have selected Civica’s debt recovery software to improve IOS (020 8249 6530) has launched revenue collection and reporting. DocBuilder, a new document assembly • The sales contact for Civica Legal is Susanne system that can speed up document Hodgkinson on 01384 453400. www.civica.co.uk creation by making it easier for users to locate the information needed to assemble consistently formatted documents. IOS Law London in three weeks says it reduces risk, as fewer elements are Along with a large number of technology exhibitors, this left for users to remember to change, and year’s Law London event (which opens its doors at does not require users to have IT skills.