CHARLES CHRISTIAN’s LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WHAT’S HOT (AND WHAT’S NOT) IN LAW OFFICE SYSTEMS ➦ Warren believes the new exhibitors ALL CHANGE will create an interesting change of em- In this AT phasis at the show, with a shift towards edition… the increasingly vital topic of digital THE BARBICAN communications, including the Internet American legal When the UK’s leading legal techno- and intranets. supplier group logy event – the Solicitors & Legal Truemist are also introducing a facing collapse… 2 Office Exhibition – kicks off at number of other innovations this year, London’s Barbican Centre in June, the including improved facilities for exhibitors Elite in banking show will witness one of the biggest and a conference area where seminars deal with Royal shake-ups in its 14 year history. and workshop sessions can be held. Bank… 3 Within the last few weeks Quill Changes are also being introduced to the Computer Systems, MSS Management regional Software for Solicitors show, Flurry of activity in Support Systems, Timeslice and Videss with the autumn Midlands and Northern voice technology Computer Systems have all confirmed events being combined in a two day market… 4 they will not be attending the 1997 event. exhibition at the Manchester G-Mex This is in addition to AIM Professional Centre in October. MSS and Dickson and Access Legal Systems, who Haslam show the announced they were pulling out last ☞ Comment… So why are the likes of way with remote year, and major suppliers such as Miles Quill, AIM. MSS and Norwel no longer systems for the 33 and Norwel who ceased attending in going to the Barbican? High Street… 5 recent years. One reason is clearly cost. John However David Warren, of the Wilde of AIM makes no secret of the fact Butterworths event’s organisers Truemist Professional, he believes the money spent on a technology wins is unfazed by this, pointing out that presence at the Barbican could be put to award… 6 the cancellations have merely made room better use in other forms of marketing for the record number of companies activity, such as the regional seminar Legal IT Diary queuing up for a space at the show. programme the company has been Dates… 6 These include major names, such running since the autumn. as British Telecom, Reuters and Xerox, as According to Wilde, it cost AIM US intranet for well as a growing number of overseas £463 for every new business lead inhouse lawyers on companies, such as World Software and generated at the Barbican in 1996 way to UK… 7 Corprasoft (see separate story on page 7) whereas with the seminars “the cost is from the USA, and Falcon Software (no about one tenth of that”. Latest legal WWW relation to the old barristers system - see There is also a growing belief that sites… 7 page 2) from Belgium. with an increasingly sophisticated market Other new faces include TikIt, – many law firms are now on their third And don’t forget to Trace Solutions, ITC, Michael Software or fourth generation of IT systems – and visit http://www. and Waterlows. The American PC Docs increasingly complex products, the mass cloudnine.co.uk group, which last year took over UK marketing approach of exhibitions is no distributor Quintec, is also promising to longer appropriate and needs to give way have a major presence at the event to to more selective and even one-to-one promote its CMS Open system. ➥ methods. …continued on page 4 ➥ Issue No 35 ❶ 24 March 1997 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA AMERICAN LEGAL ➦ NALV’s current chairman is now looking for suppliers “willing to volunteer SUPPLIERS GROUP their time in addition to their money” to FACING COLLAPSE help reorganise the association. The ten year old National Association David Goldstein’s verdict is that of Legal Vendors (NALV) in the USA is “NALV was a great organisation and it did facing collapse in the wake of falling a lot of good, especially for startups like Laserform membership and a financially ourselves. Its motives were pure. And,“ he joins “open” disastrous joint initiative with the law adds “Hopefully LSSA (the Legal Software group practice management section of the Suppliers Association, the UK equivalent Laserform Law American Bar Association (ABA). of NALV) can learn from some of our is to adopt the At the peak of its success in the mistakes and try to avoid them.” Integration early 1990s, NALV had more than 225 Partner software members but by last year this had fallen ☞ Comment… LSSA must be doing standard for its to less than 100, with the result that its something right as the latest edition of Kestrel Accounts 1996 operating budget was down over the ILCA’s Legal Software Suppliers Pocket system. The 55% on what it had been in better years Guide contains entries from four standard, originally and the three conferences scheduled for companies who incorrectly claim to be developed by this year have been “postponed”. LSSA members. Solicitec and According to NALV’s former The four are Select Legal Systems, Solicitors Own secretary/treasurer David Goldstein, the DPS, Perfect Software and Solace Legal Software, provides president of ProSoft Corporation – best Systems. LSSA secretary Roger Hancock an “open” or known in the UK for the Carpe Diem says Perfect and DPS should be given the common interface system – the association’s heavy reliance benefit of the doubt as there may have for developers of on membership dues has always been a been a genuine misunderstanding. Never legal accounts and problem. With hindsight this makes him the less all four have now been sent case management wonder whether the US legal supplier LSSA membership application forms. ❐ software. community is large enough to support an organisation of this kind, as at its height its membership only comprised about ACE BAGS FALCON SITES 20% of the companies in the market. In the last issue, LTi reported that some The problems really escalated of the users of the Falcon barristers Double top however when the NALV became involved accounts system were unhappy about for Dart in the TAP2 (The Automated Practice/The sale of the company to rival Bar software John Howell & Co Automated Professional) initiative with supplier Meridian Law and complained in Sheffield and the Association of Legal Administrators they had been “left in the lurch” David Gray & Co in and the ABA. Since then Applied Computer Newcastle are to This was a portable “law office of Expertise, the largest player in the Bar install the DART the future” display occupying 2400 market, has announced that two former practice manage- square feet of space that was designed to Falcon sets - Jeremy Gibbons’ chambers ment system as be taken to US legal trade shows and in Southampton and those of Steven part of their conferences, including LegalTech and the Hadley in Paper Buildings in the Temple – migration to a new annual ABA meeting. Unfortunately the have declined to move from Falcon to Windows NT and cost of operating TAP2 – one source Meridian and instead ordered the new Microsoft Office ‘97 claims it was as high as $100,000 a show Windows version of ACE’s Infinity system. computing – far exceeded the funding available. ACE managing director Rod Voyce environment. The TAP2 project also prompted believes most Falcon users are still disputes over sponsorship and is thought considering their options and that others to have generally soured relations will switch to the new ACE client/server between suppliers and the NALV, as well Windows product in preference to the as adding further strains on finances. ➥ Meridian system. ❐ Issue No 35 ❷ 24 March 1997 LEGAL TECHNOLOGY iNSIDER NEWS ➧ VIEWS ➧ MOVES ➧ DEALS ➧ DATA ELITE IN BANKING ➦ member of the Legal Software Suppliers Association, which requires its LINK UP members to have advised all users of Elite Information Systems and the proposals for dealing with the Year 2000 Award for Royal Bank of Scotland last week problem by the end of this month. ❐ Goddards announced a joint initiative to bring Theodore Goddard integrated electronic banking into has won a com- the legal market. COMPUTER CONSULTANTSÉ mendation in this Under the deal, Royal’s existing THE DEBATE CONTINUES year’s Investors in Roylink system is being integrated with Responses to the LTi survey on legal IT People Awards Elite’s financial management software so consultants are continuing to roll in, as for the firm’s that all incoming and outgoing CHAPS are general comments from readers. Tomorrow’s Office payments can in future transfer funds Independent consultant Graham project. directly to and from client accounts. Irwin had this to say: “You quote one Elite sales manager David Thorpe supplier who says he groans every time he This was a series of says the advantage of this method over learns of another failed salesman or IT training workshops the conventional approach of a cashiers manager becoming a consultant. As a designed to department using a stand alone CHAPS consultant I cannot take part in your reappraise the way terminal, is that it avoids the duplication survey, but I hope I may make one or two in which lawyers of data entry that occurs when CHAPS observations – I’m sure all professional use information transactions have to be rekeyed into the consultants would agree with them. technology to work client account ledgers. “Those who work or have worked with support staff The Roylink/Elite integration will for the big consultancy practices have and was launched also allow users to conduct direct online usually been trained in consulting skills, at the end of 1995 bank reconciliations.