South West law firm Stones Solicitors LLP has selected SOS Connect integrated case and practice management software from Bath-based Solicitors Own Software (SOS). This comes as a result of the law firm’s strategy to focus on business agility and efficiency. SOS Connect, which will be rolled out to 115 users across its Exeter and Okehampton offices is part of a £250,000 investment which has already seen the introduction of server virtualisation and integration with outsourced back office services.

As well as offering high quality services to businesses and private clients across the South West, Stones Solicitors LLP has established a national presence through its specialist teams dealing with foreign travel insurance claims and social housing.

SOS Connect will help the law firm achieve its strategic goals. Chief Operating Officer Adrian Richards said: "Stones reacted very quickly at the first signs of recession by rationalising offices and then adopting a new business strategy. The focus was on achieving agility to adapt the business in response to pressures the legal market will feel from the consequences of the Legal Services Act. We recognised the need for very slick IT systems to maximise efficiency”.

The firm undertook a review of several of the leading legal software products and ultimately selected SOS. “We were impressed by the functionality of the software and in particular the knowledge demonstrated by the project team. It was clear to us that it could be instrumental in helping us meet our need to make fundamental changes to our operating practices that formed an essential part of our strategic plan,” said Richards. “We liked the look and feel of the product and felt comfortable about developing a long-term relationship with SOS, which is very important to us.”

The integration with SOS Connect will enhance further the work that has already been undertaken in streamlining the back office procedures as well as the development of workflows and standardised business process. As Richards continues: “SOS Connect will allow our lawyers to be lawyers, by taking away routine administration and letting them concentrate on providing legal advice but without taking away their individuality. Above all clients want value for money. SOS Connect will assist us in making us attractive to clients on both pricing and efficiency in service delivery.”

SOS Connect is expected to go live for document, case, matter and email management, time recording, billing and legal accounts, marketing and business reporting in the autumn of this year.

David McNamara, managing director of SOS Connect commented: “I am delighted that the prowess of the SOS team shone through in this negotiation and that Stones Solicitors can see the potential of SOS Connect to modernise their business and provide an easy to adapt environment to meet changing future needs.”

West Country-based Everys Solicitors has started to reap the rewards of integrating case and practice management since going live with SOS Connect from Bath-based Solicitors Own Software (SOS). Managing Partner James Griffin said;” We have already increased capacity across most departments and are working smarter. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of efficiency benefits, improved service to clients, including on-line services, and improving our competitiveness.”

Last summer Everys selected SOS Connect to replace an IRIS system as part of a £500,000 investment in new IT, communications and telephony systems. Everys, is a well-established family firm with 63 lawyers whose slogan is “legal expertise for everyone”. Established 250 years ago, the firm has a very progressive outlook, recently opening branches as diverse as Dubai and the new livestock centre at Junction 24 on the M5, as well as having eight offices across East Devon and in Taunton, Somerset.

SOS Connect was chosen after an in depth evaluation of the legal software market place. Managing Partner James Griffin said: “When I took over as managing partner in 2008 I realised there was room for improvement in our use of technology for case management and the integration with the accounts, to streamline performance. The need to become more competitive was also spurred on by the changes in the legal services world that the Legal Services Act would bring.”

SOS Connect was chosen to replace the previous IRIS/Videss system, introduce case management for the first time and be the vehicle for providing a consistent, standardised, multi-disciplinary service from all offices.

Claire Lovett, Head of Residential Property acted as the full-time project manager for the 3 - 4 month implementation which kicked off in late summer 2009. This was the largest project of its type undertaken by the firm and the decision was taken to take a big bang approach to going live rather than an phased implementation.  “SOS aided our understanding of  the size of the project and their experience was very useful in helping us to plan and manage the project and in pre-warning us of the likely pitfalls. I acted as a single helpdesk point for people to turn to with queries and SOS provided me with excellent hand-holding support.”

Case management technology was new to many at the firm and the plan was to roll out common business processes, a reasonable level of case management (for later customisation and tweaking), as well as the accounts and switch off the old system on the go-live date.

Training turned out to be the one area that with hindsight would have been handled differently. As James Griffin said: “I should have placed a greater emphasis on training. It’s not that the new SOS system is complex, in fact it is highly intuitive and people were picking up the system quickly, but when you switch over you are immediately operational on the new system and training on the job is not something you want to be doing. We spotted a training need and asked SOS for immediate help over a weekend. On Monday morning I had the four extra trainers I needed and I was very pleased with the response from SOS.”.

Part of the training issue was due to the different levels of experience within the company of using case management systems. However as Claire Lovett further explained: “Even with hindsight we wouldn’t have done anything very differently. Of course we had the option to move the go live date, but we bit the bullet on the day and we knew there would be a bit of pain, but it was definitely the right decision. It was tough for the firm to make such a big investment at a time of economic recession and we didn’t want to lose the momentum or enthusiasm of everyone for the new SOS system or delay the anticipated benefits. “

Everys made use of SOS data conversion services to transfer and translate the data from the Iris system onto SOS Connect and the new system went live, on time, in November 2009. It was also on budget save for extra training costs. The benefits started to emerge quickly. “We saw the benefits in up-to-date accounts and real-time client information pretty quickly,” said James Griffin. ”Most departments are reporting that they have got to grips with the system and finding that their capacity has been increased. We have got the case management basics live and now each department is working on adapting the work flows to their specific operations and rolling them out as standard processes at the multiple sites. The automation of many of the probate and estate account processes for private clients is due to go live imminently.”

Delivering clients certainty of costs has always been a guiding principle at Everys and with the automated time recording and full integration of client cases with the accounts Everys is able to monitor the relationship between fixed fees and actual costs incurred, and keep an eye on profitability. Standardisation of business processes across the whole multi-site practice is another major advantage of the new system. Claire Lovett comments: “SOS Connect has helped us to put in place really clear procedures for everyone to follow. This enables us to maintain the advantage of operating multiple offices and providing services in the community while retaining control and enormous flexibility in terms of cover. I can instantly see from the centralised system what is happening, everywhere.”

The new system enables the firm to ensure that during holiday or sickness times a lawyer in a different office can pick up on a case and continue to serve the client. Similarly lawyers have the freedom to work with their caseloads from any office and remotely. The system is streamlining operations and changing the way everyone works. “Fee earners and lawyers have great interaction with the system and the real-time integration is a great time-saver,” said James Griffin. “For example a digitally dictated letter is integrated with time recording, the accounts and the case file so that when the secretary comes to type it up, the letter is automatically populated with the recipient’s details, greeting etc and the billing information is updated.”

He continued: “If you are not being proactive in today’s legal services landscape then you will fall behind. As we move to a real-time operation with vastly improved management information I am confident that SOS Connect will continue to support our goals of achieving a highly reliable, efficient and cost-effective service to clients. Next we are looking at providing clients with on-line access to track case progress and also in linking in our Dubai office which we are expanding. We will continue to move forward as a progressive law firm.”

When firms stored all their documents in paper files, the cover sheet attached to the front of the file or notes scribbled on the front cover recorded useful information about the file. These notes varied but usually included key details of the matter including the main contacts involved, telephone numbers and files access details etc.  This gave lawyers who were involved with the matter a simple way to quickly understand the current standing of the matter.  The move to electronic document storage has brought a number of benefits but one area which hasn’t survived the transition from paper file to electronic version is the file cover sheet.  Many matter partners miss this simple summary.  Tikit FileNote provides a solution to this by allowing an electronic version of these details, which can be accessed and updated using Outlook.  Tikit FileNote is able to offer an instant summary of a matter’s status to anyone who has security access including:-

·          File notes

·          Key Dates

·          Matter Activity

·          Graphical View of Workspace Security

Mark Garnish, Head of Development at Tikit says “We believe that FileNote is an important addition to the functionality offered by Autonomy iManage. I am particularly pleased because it has been designed following ideas and contributions from clients.  I am also excited about the opportunities for further expansion of FileNote including financial, billing and contacts information. All of the FileNote connectors have been written as Web Parts so they can be used in firm’s intranets and SharePoint portals as well”.

Although Tikit FileNote is launched today we are delighted to be able to announce that four large firms with over 4,000 users between them have already committed to implementing it.  One firm who has already made the commitment is Taylor Wessing.  Following an extensive review of working practices the firm adopted an e-filing strategy 18 months ago.  Significant benefits were quickly realised including efficiency gains, remote access to files, business continuity, cost savings and client service.  Tim Hyman, IT Director exains “Autonomy iManage is the clear market leader and provides a robust and functional electronic repository for our matter filing.  Whilst the filing and searching tools work well, our lawyers have identified a number of functions that haven’t quite made the transition from the paper file to the e-file.  With Tikit’s FileNote we are able to plug some of those gaps utilising the ‘white space’ currently associated with a Matter workspace.  Tikit have effectively bought the old file cover sheet back to life creating an obvious home for key matter information previously hidden”.

Wilkin Chapman LLP, the largest law firm in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire with 32 partners and 254 staff has contracted with Linetime for their Liberate case and practice management system.

Liberate will be replacing Iris (Aim Evolution).

Wilkin Chapman’s Chief Executive, Julia Whittaker states “We selected Liberate so that we can move forward with the provision of effective and efficient legal services to our clients. We are merging with Grange Wintringham Solicitors with effect from 1.8.10 and look forward to the implementation of Liberate for practice management, case management, time recording, cheque requisition, case tracking and on-line billing.

There is now a significant implementation and training programme in place and we have been impressed with the flexibility and professionalism demonstrated by Linetime”.

London-based, new start-up Matrix Legal has turned to Virtual Practices for hosted legal case management software and accounting services accessed over the Internet, as the cost-effective solution for its IT and legal book-keeping needs.

Matrix Legal aims to be modern, dynamic and unconventional in its thinking to deliver high quality advice particularly in its speciality areas of commercial property and corporate work as well as residential property. The firm handles most of the caseload via email, telephone and letter, and makes use of serviced offices, instead of operating from fixed premises, to maintain competitive and fixed prices wherever possible. Part of the impetus for breaking out on his own was the Legal Services Act, as founder Tariq Mubarak said: ” The Act creates greater transparency, openness and competition in the marketplace. I felt that the time was right to set up a new kind of firm where we maximise IT services to reduce our overheads, and provide top quality client service.”

Already familiar with SOS Connect from his previous employer, Tariq Mubarak quickly understood that using the software as a service through Virtual Practices would avoid a heavy, upfront investment in IT. However although he started his IT evaluation with a demonstration of Virtual Practices, he also thoroughly surveyed other case management options in the market, including IRIS hosted services. The selection period lasted several months before returning to Virtual Practices for a reminder demonstration. “Virtual Practices was very appealing,” he explained, “as the flexibility it delivers fits in with my ‘almost’ virtual business model. We also don’t need to worry about business continuity or disaster recovery as in the event of a problem we would be back in business within hours, rather than days or weeks.”

Another criterion for choosing Virtual Practices was that it is a division of Solicitors Own Software, which has remained fiercely independent despite the massive consolidation of legal industry software suppliers. “This independence is important to me,” commented Tariq Mubarak, “as I have seen many instances where users were left with a defunct system, after support has been withdrawn. I have plans to grow the business either organically or by acquisition and I want to keep the virtual IT model, so the scalability of Virtual Practices was also a decisive factor.”
 
Matrix Legal began using the software service for case management in January 2010 and three months later at the beginning of the financial year also opted for Virtual Practices’ legal cashiering on-line service which takes care of the accounts and complies with all statutory regulations. “Virtual Practices showed great professionalism and I took comfort from their obvious in-depth experience during the set up period. I went live with case management within two weeks,” said Tariq Mubarak. “The support, overall service and response to queries has been very prompt. It is nice to have a first line of protection especially in terms of keeping the accounts correct and keeping abreast of changes to the rules. Having that knowledge to fall back on is like having your own accounts department.”

Virtual Practices offers a 24 x 7, available anywhere service, on a pay per user subscription basis. It is powered by SOS Connect, a complete suite of applications including document, case, matter and email management, time recording, billing and legal accounts, marketing and business reporting. The legal book-keeping service is also provided on-line and ensures that the accounts are kept up-to-date by qualified cashiers and comply with Solicitors Accounting Rules (SARs). This frees up precious fee earner time for building the business.

Matrix Legal is allowing a three month period to get used to the system and then plans  to start customising the software and automate as many processes as possible for greater efficiency.

Stephen Parry, business development director of Virtual Practices said: “We are experiencing a great increase in demand for Virtual Practices. I believe that our successful record and the combination of fully featured case and practice management software together with the legal accounts service sets us apart. We are absolutely in tune with the ‘virtual trend’ in the market and its needs.”

At last week’s worldwide partner conference in Chicago, Tikit were awarded the EMEA Partner of the Year by Autonomy iManage.

This continues Autonomy’s recognition of Tikit as their top partner stretching back to the awards starting in 2004. The award is given to the Autonomy iManage partner who consistently achieves excellence in selling, implementing and supporting the WorkSite family of products in Europe.

The award was presented to Tikit representatives Miles McGoun, Senior Account Manager and Jason Scott, Senior Technical Consultant who attended the conference. - “Our team is thrilled about the tribute of EMEA Partner of the Year award, we consider this award recognition of all the successfully completed implementations and of the development of further enhancements."
Gareth Thomas commented – “As Miles said at the event our team is thrilled about the tribute of EMEA Partner of the Year award. This recognises Tikit’s effort and expertise in winning WorkSite projects within the UK and European legal market. We have the experience, skill and pedigree to ensure our iManage clients are able to truly realise the benefits of an electronic matter file and the knowledge and approach to support our clients as they extend their use and adoption of Autonomy solutions”.

Nottingham-based firm, Marchants Solicitors, has become the latest FoxPro client to sign up with TikitTFB, after choosing Partner for Windows in favour of the upgrade being offered by IRIS.

 

Like many FoxPro clients, the firm decided to review market alternatives prior to support for the FoxPro system withdrawing in July 2011. The 25 user firm had only been utilising accounts and client and matter creation in FoxPro, and were billing for crime work manually. They have chosen Partner for Windows to improve their case management capability using the systems advanced workflow, document and email management functionality. This will allow the firm to create bespoke workflows, enhance document creation and storage, and automate their criminal billing processes, creating significant efficiencies within the practice.

 

Mike Cummins of Marchants comments, ‘We needed to move up a level or two with our use of IT and the withdrawal of support for our FoxPro System was an obvious trigger to look for something fresh. We liked what we saw with Partner for Windows and it ticked all the right boxes. It will help to develop how we leverage IT to our advantage and as a result we expect to see an improvement in our accounting and time recording capabilities, file and case management, and the production of management reports.’

 

In other news, three more firms have chosen Partner for Windows as their preferred case and practice management system in the past month. These are HR consultancy hr180 based in Yorkshire, Pembrokeshire firm Darwin Bowie and Property Lawyers Direct based in Leicestershire. In addition, London-based JD Law LLP has recently gone live with their Partner for Windows system.

Jacksons LLP based in Newcastle and Stockton-on-Tees has selected LawSoft from Pilgrim Systems as its next generation Practice Management System. 

 

After assessing their incumbent supplier’s latest product, the firm decided to migrate from LexisNexis Axxia to LawSoft. The firm had been with Axxia for over 20 years so it was not a decision taken lightly. In effect Jacksons have placed their faith in a fresh system and aim to develop a relationship with another company that will last just as long, if not longer than the one that is now coming to an end.

 

The firm’s Managing Partner Nigel Kidwell stated, “We have taken a long look at the available options having decided some time ago to update our software system and looked at a number of suppliers.  We have had a long association with Axxia and I am grateful to them for their support over the years.  We were though impressed with the completeness and accessibility of LawSoft and the approachability of Pilgrim's staff; the pride and passion for their product is apparent.  LawSoft is widely used amongst practices we know well and the feedback we received was, without exception, highly complimentary.  I look forward to a long and productive relationship with Pilgrim."     

 

Colin Kennedy (Pilgrim COO) said, “We are delighted to be working with Jacksons. It was apparent that Nigel and his team went through a similar thought process to many other people that we are currently speaking to. There is no doubt that Pilgrim is becoming the logical partner of choice for firms that want a complete solution without sacrificing the quality of any of the core modules therein.”

Jackson Brierley Hudson Stoney (JBHS) is the latest long-term Solicitors Own Software customer to switch to SOS Connect for case management as well as upgrade to the latest version for a fully integrated practice, case management and legal accounts system. The aim is to drive costs down from running two different systems, save time by introducing consistent practices and serve clients better with a more streamlined operation.

The Rochdale-based firm, which has a 300 year history provides specialised services for both business and private clients within a medium-sized general practice. Clients include companies, banks and building societies, clubs, charities, partnerships and private individuals. In 2008 the firm acquired A H Sutcliffe & Co and part of the reason for SOS Connect is to create standardised business processes across the firm. More...

Dorset based firm, Dickinson Manser, have signed an agreement with TikitTFB to replace their existing Axxia system with Partner for Windows. More...

Pilgrim Systems today announced a partnership with IT solutions provider K-Cloud and 2e2, a leading provider of mission-critical IT services, to deliver comprehensive and robust solutions to UK law firms. Pilgrim already has experience of the Software as a Service model with clients such as MBM Commercial already onboard. The partnership with K-Cloud and 2e2 forms the next step in Pilgrim’s SaaS strategy and offers mid-size law firms a market leading service. More...

A new breed of law firm where the high overheads of the traditional practice are shunned for a streamlined, technology-led operation has resulted in an upsurge in demand for Virtual Practices,   legal software accessed as a service over the Internet. More...