CHARLES CHRISTIAN’s LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WHAT’S HOT (AND WHAT’S NOT) IN LAW OFFICE SYSTEMS

NT FEVER AS ➦ other firms that had only recently moved into a Windows 3x environment. BERWINS PUTS Windows NT also made an impact on this year’s Solicitors & Legal Office IT ON DESKTOP Exhibition at the Barbican, with not just It looks like 1996 will be remembered the big suppliers, such as Axxia Systems as the year the legal market finally and AIM Professional, talking about their embraced Windows NT, both forthcoming NT launches but also a IN THIS as a server and as a desktop platform. growing number of smaller suppliers now EDITION… In addition to NT clearly being “flavour committed to this route. This month sees of the month” at the recent Barbican Hereford-based Pracctice commence live Avenue back on the Exhibition, the last few days have also beta testing of its Windows NT upgrade at right road ? … 2 seen two major NT-based orders being two of its user firms. placed. Jobs crisis ahead Fareham-based solicitors Blake ☞ Comment… Ten months ago Dundas for legal IT Lapthorn has just signed a £60,000 deal & Wilson in Scotland rejected Windows sector ?… 3 with Lawtech for the supply of the NT as its practice wide platform because Windows NT version of The Beaver of doubts about performance. Today it GroupWise set for Corporation’s Arms debt recovery system. seems no-one can get enough of NT. And autumn launch… 4 This was promptly topped by its not just in the legal market. For Mercury Computing winning an order, example, Norwich Union has embarked OS/2 and the officially described as “worth in excess of on migrating 3500 PCs users from DOS, “skinny” client… 4 £500,000”, from Berwin Leighton who will Windows 3X and OS/2 platforms to be installing a network of 400 Pentium Windows NT workstations. IT for the switched 133MHz PCs running Windows NT Work- Chris Cann of Morgan Bruce, one on sole station on the desktop. Initially the firm of the first firms to commit to NT in a big practitioner… 5 will be running NT 3.5.1 but will move to way, says an incidental benefit they NT Workstation 4.0 once final beta discovered with NT as a server was that it IBM overhaul testing is complete. enabled them to continue using the speech Berwin Leighton, which uses the existing link between the Swansea and recognition… 6 Unix-based Norwel practice management Cardiff offices, whereas if they had stayed system for core administrative operations, with a Unix/ platform, they would Susskind’s vision is also installing the Microsoft Office suite have needed to spend some £150,000 of the future of and Exchange email products, along with upgrading the comms hardware. ❐ the law… 6 document management and imaging from Lava Systems. Microsoft targets Mercury Computing’s commercial IBM OS/2 FINISHED ? the intranet… 7 director Alby Smith said the move made a The Corporation, the new owner of lot of sense as Berwin Leighton had WordPerfect, has announced it will no LINK upgrade previously been running ICL OfficePower longer be supporting IBM OS/2 as an delays… 7 on Unix and so could now “leapfrog the operating platform for what once was the competition” by going straight to NT on legal world’s favourite wordprocessor. the desktop, an option not open to ➥ For full story see page 4… ➥

Issue No 17 ❶ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

AVENUE BACK ON ➦ integration with Avenue products and believes the Oyez forms to be technically THE RIGHT ROAD ? the most sophisticated on the market. SELF After spending the last two years in ASSESSMENT the doldrums, Avenue Legal Systems ☞ Comment… Through its Kestrel IN 1997 ? has bounced back on form as one of accounts and Intelliforms systems, Laser- With self the English market’s “top five” legal IT form Law is now effectively a competitor assessment for tax- suppliers with the launch of its next of suppliers like Avenue. MCS has also payers looming in generation Wisdom system. dropped Laserform and others are under- 1997, legal Building on the original “Time for stood to be reviewing their position. systems house Windows” onscreen time recorder and Wisdom was developed by Avenue Professional Tech- last year’s FREDA (front end desktop from using Powersoft’s PowerBuilder applica- nology (☎ 01634 Avenue) concept, Wisdom is an all-new tion development tool. Although not so 815517) can now client/server system based on a relational well known in the UK, in the USA Power offer a range of tax database, which the company sees as the Builder is a head to head competitor of calculation successor to its Solomon II product. Delphi and Visual Basic. software to run in The system has a consistent PowerBuilder will support a wide conjunction with graphical user interface which can be range of ODBC compliant relational data its Seriatim and customised to meet the needs of individ- bases although the default choice is Quaestor accounts ual users by the addition or removal of Watcom, which was recently renamed packages. application modules. Sybase SQL Anywhere. Avenue offer this, These are denoted by Windows as do Access Legal Systems, which has Professional Tech- icons or “buttons” at the bottom of the also recently redeveloped its products nology this year PC screen and also reflected in the around a relational database. ❐ celebrates its 10th product’s pricing structure. Rather than year in the legal IT the more common arrangement of rigid business. “licence breaks” based on the number of SHELTONS GO FOR QNIX concurrent users, Wisdom’s price will be Nottingham based Sheltons has placed a based on “the number of buttons per PC”. contract worth £180,000 with Sanderson Wisdom is already available on GA (☎ 0121 359 4861) for a practice wide GOING FOR Windows for Workgroups and Novell office automation and financial manage- GOLD platforms, while the Windows NT and ment system. The first phase will see PC Elan Software’s Windows 95 versions are undergoing final local area networks installed in the firm’s GoldMine work beta testing. five offices, as well as the branches being groups contact According to Avenue (☎ 01489 linked by a WAN. management 885888) sales director Michael Belas, the In the next phase Sheltons will system is now legal IT market is finally recovering some install a new accounts system along with available for of its old buoyancy, with Avenue itself Qnix case management and time record- Windows 95. New seeing a 30% increase in new business ing software. The firm is already trialling features include over the last six months, compared with the Qnix conveyancing module. ❐ Internet the same period last year. integration so As well as having the new Wisdom users can send and product in its portfolio, Avenue has also POSTAL STRIKE MEASURES receive email. The been appointed the first UK dealer for Although this week’s threatened strike by UK distributor is Oyez Legal Software’s electronic forms. UK post office workers should not have AVG Sales (☎ 0171 Although Avenue was initially attracted effected deliveries of the current issue, 454 1790). to Oyez because it was unhappy with the should the strike escalate, wherever direction its existing electronic forms possible LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER supplier Laserform was taking, technical will be distributed by DX or fax. Fax director Kevin MacDonald has examined recipients will also be sent their normal the software from the point of view of ➥ copies when the strike ends. ❐

Issue No 17 ❷ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

JOB CRISIS ➦ them feeling highly frustrated,” says Atherton. “In fact several IT managers we LOOMING IN LEGAL originally approached about vacancies in IT SECTOR ? their own practices have subsequently Within the last ten days four of the indicated they are unhappy and are also UK’s leading legal technology suppliers looking to move on.” have announced that they either have or are about to recruit extra sales and ☞ Comment… Nothing more clearly support staff. But with a growing demonstrates the shortage of suitable numbers of law firms also looking to candidates than the current two-way LEGAL IT recruit both senior and junior level IT traffic between law firms and legal IT DIRECTORY staff, are there enough candidates to suppliers. For example one of Axxia’s new OUT NOW go around? LTi reports… staff, Helen Billing, is a legal executive The third edition of AIM Professional has recruited who previously worked for a firm of The Legal Tech- four additional sales staff. Avenue Legal solicitors. Whereas over at Jeffrey Green nology Directory is and The Beaver Corporation are currently Russell, their IT manager Alison Sykes now out. It looking for additional sales staff who has a track record in legal IT with contains details on have experience of the legal market. SOS suppliers ICL, Star and Admiral Legal. ❐ 40 of the leading is advertising for four new staff sales and suppliers serving support staff. And Axxia Systems, which the legal IT market has recently appointed Bill Kirby (ex- MCS CLIP MURPHY’S WINGS in England & Wales. Wellman Group/ Newbury Data) as the Following proceedings in the High Court Nearly 10,000 company’s new sales director, has already in London, MicroComputer Services has copies have already recruited one additional sales executive secured an undertaking from former been distributed to and is now looking for two more. salesman Stephen Murphy not to law firms. Extra Meanwhile on the other side of “market, sell or help to develop for Applied copies are available the fence, legal headhunters Longbridge Computer Expertise… software which at £10 each from Consultancy (☎ 0171 726 4011) has just competes directly” with the DPS range of Marketeer on ☎ opened a new division to provide perma- case management systems. 0181 742 3388. nent and contract IT staff for law firms. The move follows Murphy’s recent Headed by Mark Atherton, the appointment as sales and marketing ☞ Publication of division will initially target “Top 100” manager at ACE, prompting MCS fears the English Law firms in the London area with a view to that Murphy would use his inside know- Society’s rival meeting their needs for both strategic ledge to help ACE compete against DPS in Information Tech- advisors at a senior level, as well as more the case management market. nology Directory junior staff involved in the day-to-day The undertaking is effective for a (price £34.95) is running of law firm IT operations. period of nine months from the 4th June now scheduled for Atherton believes the demand for but ACE managing director Rod Voyce mid-July. such a service is set to grow as the IT says the impact will be minimal as it was planning and operations requirements of always intended that Murphy’s primary law firms become increasingly complex. responsibility would be for sales of the He also says this is an area of Infinity practice management system. recruitment where technical skills are not enough as suitable candidates for higher ☞ Miles 33 intends to fight the legal level posts also need diplomatic skills. claim recently brought against it by The “Candidates coming straight from Beaver Corporation (see Issue No 12 for industry or the commercial world can find first report) for £14,500 relating to unpaid it hard to adapt to the legal environment bills and interest. A spokesman for Miles where personalities and partnership said: “it is not a case of we can’t pay but politics frequently override conventional that we won’t pay. There are bigger management structures. It can leave ➥ contractual issues at stake”. ❐

Issue No 17 ❸ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

GROUPWISE 5 FOR ➦ Among law firms, the one major practice still committed to OS/2 on the AUTUMN LAUNCH desktop is Nabarro Nathanson, while Novell has now commenced the final elsewhere the only other vocal supporter beta testing of its GroupWise 5 email is Sherwin Oliver in Hampshire. WORD NOW and groupware system. The company OS/2 does still play a role as a DOMINATING says it “remains on target” to begin server although increasingly it is being WINDOWS deliveries in the autumn. replaced by Windows NT Server in the WP SECTOR The biggest difference between the back office and relegated to less mission Latest statistics new system and the older GroupWise 4.1 critical applications, such as a fax server. from independent is it will now contain a fully integrated Perhaps more worrying are the market researchers version of the SoftSolutions document number of users who have recently Romtec show that management software. abandoned OS/2 in favour of Windows for the period Novell say the product has been 95. Reasons cited include complaints January to March re-designed so the “Universal Mail Box” about its “unreliability”, “excruciating 1996 Microsoft element of GroupWise becomes the slowness” and incompatibility with third Word had an 80% central desktop environment for people party products. With the plug now pulled share of the who make widespread use of internal on WordPerfect, OS/2 looks like it has Windows word email, so that “users now have one point reached the end of the line. processing market. from which they can create, view, edit Or has it? This compares with and manage information, as well as com- In the course of the WordPerfect a figure of 64% for municate and share that information”. ❐ presentation, Dr Cowpland also unveiled the same period Corel’s plans for the Internet and the last year. Romtec development of Java-based applications, say WordPerfect is OS/2 FINISHED… in addition to the company’s existing now down to OR WILL SKINNY CLIENTS DOS, Unix, Mac and Windows lines. an 8% share. SAVE THE DAY ? Using the company’s new Barista ➦ continued from front page… Speaking at platform independent Web publishing Microsoft Word a conference in London last week, Corel system, Corel intends to develop a Java marketing manager president Michael Cowpland said OS/2 version of WordPerfect Suite which will Joan Cummings was being dropped because the company have the same functionality as the new says she is felt it no longer had a future as a desktop Windows 95 version but be accessible by particularly operating system although he conceded it any Java-enabled browser running on a pleased with the may still have a role as a server. client PC (including OS/2) attached to “significant In support of this decision, he the Internet or a corporate intranet. amount of growth cited the fact Lotus had reported that Corel describes the concept of within the UK legal sales of the OS/2 version of SmartSuite linking PCs to the Net or an intranet in sector during the accounted for just 0.1% of total sales of this way as a “thin” or “skinny” client, as past 12 months, that product. it requires far less server support than on with interest from a conventional client/server network. firms of all sizes”. ☞ Comment… LTi has recently been Michael Platt of Solicitors Own investigating the popularity of OS/2 and Software says that the developers of the Recent converts found that Cowpland’s analysis of the Progress database at the core of SOS include sole practi- situation is not unreasonable. systems are also investigating the role tioner Richard Best Only one legal technology supplier skinny clients can play in office systems. to Titmuss Sainer – London Bridge Systems – still actively Decheret which has supports OS/2 but this company has al- ✍ Technical Note… Corel has also said 250 users on ways been close to IBM (it also supports it will continue to support the DOS 5.1, Windows 95. AS/400) and with extensive interests 5.1+, 6.0 and 6.1 versions of WordPerfect outside the legal market cannot be and that new Macintosh and Unix classed as a typical supplier. ➥ editions will be released later this year. ❐

Issue No 17 ❹ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

➦ Excel, PowerPoint, Calera’s WordScan ME AND MY PC Plus OCR software and Delrina Winfax The last edition reported on former Pro. The firm is currently in the course of SCL chairman Jimmy Mackintosh’s transferring to Gavel & Gown’s Amicus involvement with the new Troika Attorney for PIM and time recording func- trust accounts software. Though tions and is using Laserform Law’s ELECTRONIC previously a partner with a large Kestrel package to handle legal accounts. EVIDENCE London firm, he has always been an ROADSHOWS advocate of the use of IT by small In terms of specialist legal support The IT division of firms and here he tells LTi how his applications the firm is running Laser- the BSI (British own practice, Mackintosh & Co in form electronic forms and – no surprise – Standards Richmond, approaches technology. the Troika trust and probate system from Institution) DISC Mackintosh describes his practice FinApps. Currently being evaluated are is mounting a as comprising two people and a dog – Pilgrim System’s LawSoft case and series of one day himself and his practice manager/ document management system and the seminars to personal assistant/wife. QuickWill expert will drafting software promote and from Information for Lawyers. discuss the What is your main PC hardware set up recently published today? A 486DX 33MHz PC with 16Mb of Information needs. For keeping up-to- BSI-DISC Code of RAM, a 340Mb hard disk (doubled with date with the law, Jimmy Mackintosh Practice for the Stacker to an effective 740Mb, with CD- uses a number of index services provided Legal Admissibility Rom drive, SoundBlaster sound card and by Legal Information Resources (these of Information Colorado 250 Mb tape streamer. His run under Idealist for Windows) along Stored on Electro- practice manager has a 486DX 66MHz PC with online systems such as LINK, nic Document with 8Mb of RAM and a 405Mb hard disk. CompuServe (also for Internet access), Management His main printer is an OKI Doc-It and Tolley’s TaxLink for tax legislation Systems (PD 0008). 3000 all-in-one-box printer/fax/scanner and case summaries. Speakers include /photocopier. There is also a MultiTech Bird & Bird partner 14,400 bps modem although a move to a Mobile computing. When out and about Graham Smith on faster modem or ISDN is a possibility. Mackintosh carries a Hewlett Packard the impact of the Omnibook “sub-notebook” Windows PC Civil Evidence Act And tomorrow? Mackintosh says that if running the Microsoft Office suite. ❐ 1995. he was buying new PCs now he would opt for 100MHz Pentiums with at least The seminar fee is 16Mb of RAM and a 1Gb hard drive. By IS THIS YOUR COPY £165 + VAT but coincidence he does have a “spare” PC of OF THE iNSIDER ? there are discounts this configuration which is currently If the copy of LTi you are reading is not for members of being “lent” to the children. your copy, you could be missing out. By sponsoring receiving it second, third or even last on organisations. The Which operating system do you use? the list you are not getting the benefit of venues are Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 the latest, fastest news only found in Manchester 26th plus MD-DOS 6.2. LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER. Make sure June, London 2nd you get your own copy – on the day of & 19th July, and What are the main applications you publication – by taking advantage of our Birmingham 11th run? Wordprocessing, accounts, spread- Additional Subscriber offer. July. For details sheet, comms, diary/contact list plus a If there is already a subscriber in ☎ 0181 996 7408. number of specialist “practice support” your office or organisation, you can have packages. your own copy for only £55 per year (£65 overseas). Complete the form on page 8 or What are your main software applica- send your business card and quote tions programs? Microsoft Word 6.0,➥ “Additional Subscriber”. ❐

Issue No 17 ❺ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

IBM SPEECH SYSTEM ➦ notes – to documents waiting to be GETS MAJOR processed.) Users can now dictate either OVERHAUL directly into an application (Version 3.0 is IBM has given its speech recognition fully compatible with Microsoft Word 7.0 products a major overhaul with the but can also accommodate older products launch of VoiceType Dictation 3.0 for such as WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS) or via BARBICAN Windows 95. The new system will be the IBM Voice Pad/dictation window. NUMBERS UP available in the UK from mid-July and The new software costs £555 Truemist, the along with a number of significant (compared with nearer £825 for Version organisers of the technical enhancements, also has a 1.3) and existing VoiceType users can recent Solicitors & more attractive pricing structure. upgrade to Version 3.0 for £79. ❐ Legal Office The new system, which is only Exhibition, which available on the Windows 95 platform, is this year was described as an “addition to the Voice THE FUTURE OF THE LAW IS opened by “self Type family” and IBM will continue to TECHNOLOGY confessed techie” support Version 1.3.2 for Windows 3x Delivering the 1996 Society for Computers Cherie Booth QC, and OS/2. But, unlike its predecessor, & Law Lecture at The Royal Society on report that over version 3.0 does not require a dedicated Wednesday, Richard Susskind said that 6500 people sound card and will run on the MWAVE over the next quarter of a century the visited the event, or SoundBlaster cards found in most legal world be dramatically transformed This represents a modern Pentium PCs. (The recommended by technology as we move from a “print 3% increase on the configuration is a P90 with at least 24Mb based” culture into a “fully fledged IT 1995 attendance of RAM.) based information society”. figures. Truemist Although still only catering for Despite scaring some of the said that by the discrete rather than continuous dictation, audience with his suggestion that in the close of the event the big breakthrough with Version 3.0 is future solicitors and barristers would only a handful of that it is speaker independent. IBM says disappear and be replaced by “legal infor- the 100 + stands it can achieve 90% accuracy for 80% of mation engineers”, Susskind, a special remained unsold the population from the outset. If the adviser at Masons and Visiting Professor for 1997. “enrolment” procedure is used, accuracy at Strathclyde University’s Centre for levels can be increased to 95% and above. Law, Computers & Technology, painted ☞ The regional The system comes with a 30,000 an optimistic picture, with the demand Software for word basic vocabulary and the size of the for legal services actually increasing as Solicitors show additional vocabulary has been increased technology helps open up an as yet starts its 1996/7 from 2000 to 27,000 words (☞ IBM say untapped “latent legal market”. programme in this is far larger than most people will “In the future all lawyers, without Birmingham (26/27 ever need but have included it to meet exception, will be using the global September), user requests! The special legal language information superhighway”. But he also followed by Leeds model from the earlier version will also warned the next few years could be a (26/27 November) run on the new product.) “confusing transitional period” as we and Bristol (5/6 Other changes include “deferred struggle to overcome “the technology lag”, March). For details and delegated” correction to give users typified at the moment by systems that call ☎ 0181 742 more flexibility when correcting and threaten to swamp users with more and 3399. editing documents. (☞ The “delegated” more paper and data. function allows a secretary to access the files across a network, which seems to be ☞ The themes covered in the lecture are taking the product down the same digital explored more fully in Richard Susskind’s dictation route now being followed by new book The Future of Law, which is Philips, as does the ability to add “wave published by Oxford University Press in files” – the audio equivalent of Post-it ➥ July, price £19.99. ❐

Issue No 17 ➏ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

COMMUNIC@TIONS ➦ Internet Plus – has been widely welcomed as an initiative that will FUTURES increase the speed and capacity of the Net Web site operators are welcome to create in the years to come, it is important not hyperlink jumps to the LTi site at to overlook some of BT’s more immediate http://www.cloudnine.co.uk/cloudnine/ projects. BT Managed Network Services has just launched “Managed Dial IP”, a fully- NOW MICROSOFT TARGETS managed network access intranet service, THE INTRANET to meet the needs of IT departments In a period of six months Microsoft has facing increasing demand for corporate NEW EDITION moved from being overtaken in the intranet solutions. BT believes its ability OF INTERNET slow lane of the information super- to deal with the problems associated with GUIDE NOW highway to being once again leader of providing remote access to telecommuters AVAILABLE the pack. And, having got its Internet and mobile staff will be of major interest. Delia Venables’ act together, last Thursday Microsoft The new service, which has Guide to the unveiled its plans for the business already been tested internally by around Internet for intranet market. 1000 BT staff, provides a nationwide 28.8 Lawyers has now According to Bill Gates, from the Kbps speed connection service, with ISDN been revised and end of this year Microsoft will be able to access scheduled for the end of 1996. ❐ the pricing deliver “a comprehensive set of products structure changed and services that seamlessly integrate to accommodate desktops, LANs, client server applications, BUT LINK HITS A DIVERSION the bi-monthly legacy systems and the public Internet to ON THE SUPERHIGHWAY Internet create dramatically more effective The launch of Link 96, the major upgrade Newsletter. The corporate computing systems”. to Legalease’s Legal Information Network price of the New products previewed included originally scheduled for this month, has “combo” bundle, Microsoft Office 97 – a new version of been temporarily delayed because of comprising the the front office suite that will include problems over the choice of Web browser Guide, a set of Web technology to make it easier to work software. tutorials and one with intranets. Microsoft Outlook – a Originally it was planned to year’s subscription new desk top information management include a copy of Netscape Navigator with to the newsletter application to help users communicate the Professional and Corporate versions of (6 issues) is £100. and collaborate on intranets. And, the Link 96 but because of difficulties over next versions of the Windows NT Work- licensing, it has now been decided to For details call station and Windows (codenamed move to Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, ☎ 01273 472424 Windows 97) operating systems, which which is now in the final stages of beta or check http:// will be integrated with the Microsoft’s testing. Legalease anticipate Link 96 will www.co.uk/legal/ Internet Explorer Web browser to provide now be available in July. ❐ welcome.htm a consistent desktop interface to PC applications, the Internet and intranets. Microsoft is also going to add Web FOUR OUT OF FIVE AIN’T BAD publishing and site management software In a recent review of law firms with sites to the Windows NT Server system. ❐ on the World Wide Web, New Media Age magazine put four English firms among the top five sites. AND SO DOES BT In first place was the US firm While last week’s announcement by Schneider Kleinick Weitz Damasker & British Telecom and US communications Shoot followed by Bird & Bird, Jeffrey group MCI that they were to collaborate Green Russell and Denton Hall with on a project – codenamed Concert ➥ Nabarro Nathanson in fifth place. ❐

Issue No 17 ❼ 17 June 1996 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA

Alexis Byter’s ➦ were invited to sit down in a little theatre area – and then watch software COMPUTER LORE being put through its paces by a pimply Are the people who buy legal software youth in an ill fitting suit. getting smarter – or dumber? Discuss… For some exhibitors it worked. Wandering around the recent Axxia went away singing the event’s Solicitors & Legal Office Exhibition at the praises. Whereas others just went away. LEGAL Barbican in London made me realise AIM Professional has vowed never to TECHNOLOGY how, over the last decade, exhibitors have darken the Barbican’s doors again, iNSIDER become so much more sophisticated in believing it can spend the money on more For editorial their approach to such an event. effective marketing activities, including & subscriptions… Gone are the scantily clad (and running regional seminars. Ferndale House totally clueless) “personality girls” of yore. Ironically one of the more North Lopham And the quest for marketing leads has got outspoken critics of the way IT is sold to Diss, Norfolk a little more subtle than being asked by a solicitors is himself a solicitor. Nicholas IP22 2NQ pimply youth in an ill fitting suit to “put McFarlane-Watts, whose Professional Dx: 42519, Diss your business card in a box and you may Productivity Solutions company has been ☎ 01379 687518 win a bottle of scotch”. active in this field for nearly a decade, is Fax: 01379 687704 I suspect we will also never again not only fed up with exhibitions but the Email: jcxtian see the likes of the marketing mastermind whole sales process. @cloudnine.co.uk who once dreamt up the “dare you plunge “Solicitors complain legal software your hand into a tank of piranha fish to is too expensive but they still expect you Editor: pull out a Rolex watch” stunt. In fact this to travel the length and breadth of the Charles Christian wasn’t quite so successful as he hoped as country to make endless presentations to pimply articled clerks in ill fitting (and partners. And then the firm sends you a shortly to be very ragged-sleeved) suits 60 page invitation to tender. They want a Don’t miss the were queuing up from early in the Rolls Royce sales service but are only next edition No 18 morning to have a go and it cost the prepared to pay Skoda prices.” out: 1st July. company a fortune in watches. McFarlane-Watts’ theory is that if This year’s favoured tactic was the solicitors really want cheaper systems, “theatre style” presentation where instead they must be prepared to accept lower of having a gaggle of visitors clustering cost sales methods, such as buying around a computer screen watching through mail order. software being put through its paces by a What, no pimply youths in ill pimply youth in an ill fitting suit, they ➥ fitting suits? It will never catch on. ❐

ISSN 1361-1240 © CloudNine Technology 1996 all rights reserved. Reproduction without prior consent is forbidden. This newsletter may not be photocopied etc within the terms of any licence granted by the Copyright Licensing Agency. The information contained in LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER has been carefully compiled from sources regarded as reliable. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy no guarantee is expressed or implied as to its validity, the Publisher cannot accept liability for any loss or damage of any kind which may arise from any errors or omissions. All trademarks, product and brand names etc are acknowledged and recognised as belonging to their respective owners. LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER and LTi are trademarks™ of CloudNine Technology. LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER is only available on subscription. UK rate: £95 for 24 issues pa - discounts for bulk subscriptions, site licences also available. (Overseas £125 - payment by International Money Order or bankers draft in £ Sterling drawn on London.) To subscribe complete & return this form to: CloudNine Technology, Ferndale House, North Lopham, Diss, Norfolk IP22 2NQ or DX: 42519, Diss Name...... Title...... Firm/Organisation...... Address...... Post Code...... DX No:...... Tel No:...... I enclose my remittance of £...... (cheque made payable to Cloudnine Technology) Send receipted invoice...... Please invoice me...... Purchase Order Number......

Issue No 17 ➑ 17 June 1996