The following is a press release from nFlow (19/11/06) regarding their selection as digital dictation provider at Porter Dodson Solicitors. Very interesting that a key element of the decision was based on the nature of the sales process and the expectations that this lead to regarding the on-going nature of any potential client relationship.

With the differences between system functionality and technologies not as significant as they used to be, the nature of the vendor relationship and the vendors approach to making your IT investment deliver business benefits is critical.

I always recommend that any technology purchasing decision is based on a combination of three factors:

1) how well the solution meets your functional requirements
2) how well the technology fits with your IT strategy and existing systems
3) the nature of the supplier - not just  their experience, stability, market presence and ability to support you, but critically how well you can build a long term relationship with them and work with them to get the full benefit from your investment.

It is interesting to see that as the many legal IT applications become more homogeneous (not just digital dictation but also case management,, document management etc) the weighting given to the supplier aspect of the decision is increasing and choosing a new system is increasingly about your choice of supplier rather than your choice of system or technology.

---Press release from nFlow as follows----

In just three weeks since the implementation of nFlow digital dictation software, multi-office law firm, Porter Dodson, has seen an eight-day typing backlog in its Family department reduced to a situation where there is now a capacity to take on extra work from other teams. The drastic improvement has already saved the need to recruit an additional secretary in the Family department and prompted the firm to rollout the software to its other departments.

Headquartered in Yeovil, with offices in Taunton, Bridgwater, Sherborne, Wellington and Dorchester and a staff of 180, Porter Dodson implemented the nFlow digital dictation software on a mixed PC and Citrix infrastructure across a number of offices. In addition it is planned to integrate the nFlow system with Porter Dodson’s Axxia practice management system to provide a fast and easy method of referencing dictations to matters.

Commenting on the project Porter Dodson It Manager Jill Wiseman says,

‘I looked at a number of suppliers, including the main ones and I have to say that I felt most comfortable with nFlow at the sales stage. There were no pushy sales tactics, just straightforward, courteous and friendly attention. For me this was a sign that the rest of the experience was going to be good. I am very pleased to say that they lived up to my expectations. The project has run extremely smoothly and the after sales support is excellent. When added to the drastic productivity improvements we have seen this is one of our most successful projects.’

Jill continues,

‘I know nFlow don’t currently hold the market leader title but in a market where the leading solutions don’t seem to differ that much I prefer the best service over market leadership status. In my experience you often find that companies with nFlow’s attitude end up becoming the market leader in time.’

Jill is known for her progressive interaction with technology providers through her active involvement in a number of customer focus groups, including the large Axxia Users Group where she is currently the elected Chairperson.

All agree that this has been an enjoyable project that has so clearly demonstrated the fundamental productivity improvements nFlow digital dictation software can make for a firm. nFlow adds that it has been a pleasure to again live up to their market differentiator by supplying a quality solution, professionally delivered and backed by the very best customer focused service.

Grundig have announced that they are going to showcase the worlds first wireless digital dication microphone at an exhibition in Chicago this week.



The system has a reciever which connects to the USB port and allows the user to move freely within a 33 feet radius. Audible and visible warnings indicate if the user moves out of range of the reciever.

Interesting article from Legal week on the changing role of professional support lawyers in a modern law firm.

Is this your next printer?



According to the BBC website Toshiba have developed a printer that uses "plastic" paper which can be reused hundreds of times. If you reuse each £10 sheet 500 times the running costs are comparable to a laser printer. However the printer is about 4 times more efficient in terms of carbon emissions than a normal printer and recycling is significantly reduced.

Increasingly, competitors, fraudsters and other predators devise new schemes to leverage a firms's brand for their own commercial gain.

While this is traditionally more of a problem for companies selling digital media (such as films and music), on-line retailers and providers of on-line services such as banks, it is something that all companies should be aware of as the prevalence of it will increase.

While many of the risks are not relevant to law firms,  some of them certainly are. The risks include:

Cybersquatting - this is basically using a brand/firm name within a domain name in an attempt to confuse customers by tricking them into thinking that they are using the firm's official website or to gain advantage from the reputation of the brand name

Traffic Diversion - unauthorised use of brand names in page titles, meta tags, hidden text and paid search engine adverts with the aim of skewing search engine rankings and/or diverting traffic away from the brand owners site

Brand dilution - unauthorised use of a brand name or logo on a site containing objectionable content such as pornography and possible also claiming to have a partnership or affiliation with the brand in question

Passing off - web sites deliberately pretending to be a specific legitimate company for the purposes of financial gain

Brand abuse - unauthorised use of firm names, logos and trademarks in an attempt to attract visitors to a site often for the purpose of selling inferior solutions

Piracy/Aution Fraud - this are more relevant to companies selling goods rather than services

Protest issues - rumours can start and spread very quickly on the Internet parituclalry through the use of blogs, discussion forums and news groups. A disgruntled customer or someone with malicious intent can severely damage the reputation of a company this way. It is important to know what is being said about your firm/brand on the Internet particularly if you are involved with publicly sensitive issues or issues where levels of personal resentment may be high.

A search on Google will reveal a long list of companies that will offer to help you protect your brand identity on the Internet. Many have developed specialist technology which will automatically monitor and scan the Internet for instances of brand abuse and inform you quickly and automatically when incidents arise.

A survey by the International Legal technology Association shows that many legal IT managers, particularly in smaller to medium sized firms, do not have the budget to provide the disaster recovery plans and facilities that they believe their firm needs.

It also show that although 50% of respondents have a disaster recovery plan in place, 44% have not tested the plan. This is simply nuts!

There is always a balance between how much a firm is able or prepared to spend and the level of resilience that can be provided for that amount. It is up to IT managers to make it clear to  partners what levels of risk they face, and what the costs are to alleviate that risk. The partners can then decided how much they are prepared to spend in order to minimise or alleviate that risk, and how much risk they are prepared to accept by virtue of not spending the money to alleviate it.

At the end of the day this is a business decision to be taken by the partners and not a decision to be taken by IT managers. Managers who feel they do not have the budget should make this clear to the partners and clearly define the risks that the lack of budget entails.

Adobe have announed the launch of  Adobe Document Center, a new hosted service that enables knowledge workers to better protect, share and track the usage of Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel documents as part of day-to-day communications and collaboration.

This new,  web-based service gives business professionals the power to grant and dynamically revoke access to documents distributed inside or outside of the firm, as well as audit actions such as opening, adding comments to, or printing those documents.

Adobe Document Center is designed for the professional who share or publishe business, time or version sensitive documents. For example, a  legal practice exchanging sensitive files with clients  can customize access settings, closely audit usage of their documents, and retain control over the files regardless of where they travel. Users also have the ability to set expiration dates on documents, supersede an older version once a new version is distributed, and revoke access after distribution. They even have the ability to track who has received the documents and what recipients have done, or attempted to do, with the files.

The ability to set expiration dates on documents is particulalry interesting. This means that if you send a draft or other document to a client you can put a date on it after which they are unable to view, print or otherwise manipulate it. This type of technology has been around for a while but has requried installation of complex and expensive software and licensing systems. The Adobe system makes this a whole lot easier and more cost effective.


Business professionals are able to add persistent protection and dynamic controls to files in several ways with Adobe Document Center. They can create PDF files with Adobe Acrobat® 8 software and, through a new, one-click connection to the service, easily apply security settings to those documents from within Acrobat. To protect Microsoft Word and Excel 2003 files, users simply install a lightweight plug-in that enables them to apply dynamic security settings directly from those applications, as well. Soon, users will also have the ability to convert files to PDF and apply security and control settings to them directly from Adobe Document Center.

To view and interact with documents controlled through Adobe Document Center, recipients simply need free Adobe Reader® 8 software to access PDF files and the same lightweight plug-in to access Word and Excel files. If an author has chosen to grant document access to selected individuals only, recipients will use an Adobe ID—quickly created via the Adobe Document Center site—to gain access to the files. An Adobe ID enables recipients to authenticate themselves with a password only known to them each time they view a document and helps ensure they are using an email address that matches the address indicated by the author.

Adobe is offering a free trial of Adobe Document Center until the end of the year for policy protecting an unlimited number of documents. The commercial release of Adobe Document Center is expected to be available in early calendar 2007 for a special six-month introductory subscription price of US$19.99/month, or US$199/year per user for upto 5 documents.

Adobe will have to change this pricing model if the service is to be a success. $19.99per month for 5 documents is simply too much to tempt users into subscribing. There needs to be a significant reduction in the monthly cost and/or a significant increase in the number of documents covered for this fee. Ultimately a number of different packages will probably be needed to cater for those that only use the service occasionally and those that are going to make use of it on a regular basis.

New to the Legal Technology Solutions website is an article on outsourced digital transcription services for lawyers.

This contains an outline of some of the criteria should be looking for and some of the questions you should ask when searching for an outsourced transcription provider.

You will also find a list of suppliers and other background information.

Tom Collins has written an interesting article on his blog regarding the current disquiet felt amongst Thompson Elite customers who feel under pressure to upgrade to the firms new 3E system which was officially launched in April 2006.

3E is a very powerful and sophisticated system and with its browser based interface, customisation options and business process automation tools, is something that many firms have been looking for for some time.

Amongst Elites' larger law clients the upgrade would in the past have been a logical progression assuming that they could deal with cost, pain and general hassle of upgrading their practice management system. Now however, there are other products on the block which are worthy of consideration both from other legal IT vendors and non traditional legal vendors such as SAP. Whereas Elite was the de-facto choice for many firms a few years ago this is no longer the case.

In respect of the small firms using Elite, many have yet to realise the full potential of the Enterprise product they are currently using. While 3E has many attractive features they will have to consider the benefits of any upgrade very carefully. In some cases the 3E system will be too powerful and to expensive to operate and they may look to some of the smaller vendors for a solution better suited to their needs and budget.

It is good to see that Elite are softening their stance in terms of standing by uses of Enterprise and reducing the pressure to upgrade. However, as Tom Collins notes in his article, over time customers will either have to upgrade or move away. This is true not just of Elite but of any major new software release.

There is an interesting article here  relating to the use of Web 2.0 technology (blogs, wikis and other social networking tools) at law firm Allen & Overy.

It always amazes me how many law firms skimp on the training for their IT systems.

Training costs, like project management costs, are often the first things that firms will try to reduce or eliminate from a proposal when choosing a new supplier or system.

In most cases this is a false economy. Poorly trained users are generally not as productive as their trained counterparts. By not training your users properly in how to use the technology in front of them you are simply missing opportunities for improving efficiency and productivity which can have a direct impact on the bottom line.

Part of the problem is that many people think of training as sitting in class rooms for hours on end being talked at. While this type of classroom training has its uses, there are many other forms of training that can be more effective at delivery the knowledge users need at the time they need it within the working environment.

For fee earners in particular these new approaches are important as they make much better use of the fee earners' time, reducing the amount of non-billable time incurred to a minimum.

These other approaches can include things such as:

a) e-learning systems
b) self paced learning materials either CD-ROM based or more usually Internet/Intranet based
c) integrating knowledge/training materials into the applications used
d) support from product specialists within the department/firm
e) bite sized training - providing key skills over time in chunks or on demand
f) coaching from internal specialists or external experts
g) highly customised training providing the key skills/information required to do the job rather than the more generic courses often used
h) New web technology such as blogs, wikis and other collaboration software that not inly imparts information to users but lets them share their experiences, problems and knowledge with other users within the firm

Another important aspect of training is making sure that users receive on-going/refresher training as the needs of the practice change and the systems become more advanced. You loose the benefit of training done up-front if you do not assist users to maintain and develop their skills.

Similarly making sure that news users are trained properly when they replace existing trained emplyees who have left is equally important. For exmaple, many firms implement case management systems with appropriate user training but over time these users leave and are replaced by new users who often receive only a minimal amount of handover instruction from their departing colleagues. They then struggle on, using the system without really knowing what they are doing and making mistakes in the process.

Larger firms will tend to have their own IT trainers and specialists in-house who can develop appropriate training and devliery methods. Smaller firms will need to work with suppliers and external specialists to meet their needs.

Open Text Corp who recently acquired leading legal document management provider Hummingbird plans to unveil today a product roadmap that the company hopes will convince large corporations to use its Livelink software to manage the lifecycle of content through out the enterprise. This is based around the new Livelink ECM 10 system although many of the new features will not be available until next year.

Full details here