TikitTFB in partnership with Workshare, are pleased to announce Document Compare Live – a new Software as a Service for Document Comparison based on Workshare Compare Server technology. The service will be initially available to Partner for Windows users’ towards the end of July 2010. Document Compare Live is designed to deliver a more cost-effective and accessible document comparison service, allowing firms of any size to benefit from Workshare’s powerful comparison capabilities.

 

Currently, client firms can only take advantage of Workshare’s Document Comparison by implementing server-based or per user solutions. Document Compare Live will enable all 600 of TikitTFB’s clients in the UK, to quickly and easily compare Microsoft Word or PDF documents anytime and anywhere.

 

TikitTFB will be leading the development of the project. The initial release will provide a comparison interface linked from their existing Client Portal to a hosted version of Workshare Compare Server, based at their secure data centre in Fareham. Using their existing usernames and passwords, users will be able to fully utilise the service online without having to install any software on their servers or user desktops. Each client firm will have an account automatically set up with enough credits to run five free comparisons so they can evaluate the service. Subsequent usage will be charged on a per comparison basis and will be invoiced monthly in arrears. The subsequent release will see the service integrated within Partner for Windows, allowing clients to launch Document Compare Live directly from the caseflow they are working on, run the comparison and file the results back into the caseflow.

 

Adrian Jones, Product and Development Director at TikitTFB comments, ‘This project marks an exciting period for TikitTFB; we are making technology, that has to date been unattainable to some users, attainable, by eliminating barriers such as cost or insufficient resources to host software, via the SaaS platform. Our entire client base will be able to take advantage of this service without the need to deploy any software or upfront cost. We believe this service has great potential and could shape the way in which we, as a solution provider, deliver our solutions and services in the future.’

 

Frank Boening, VP EMEA at Workshare believes Compare is a perfect service for the cloud. ‘Many lawyers need Comparison but not all of them all the time. Document Compare Live, with its pay as you go model, puts the control and decision making back to the lawyers. It frees up IT from managing a desktop application but still ensures the same comparison technology used by a magic circle firm is available for a one off comparison at a very reasonable cost.’

HotDocs Limited (formerly Capsoft UK) today announced the release of the HotDocs 10 suite.

The company acquired worldwide rights to the award winning document automation and assembly software in November 2009 after purchasing the HotDocs business from LexisNexis.

Russell Shepherd, Managing Director of HotDocs Limited, said “The release of HotDocs 10 marks the first in a series of announcements which will create significant changes in the document assembly market.”

This latest version of the software has been specifically developed to support the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2010 and, in addition, will be Microsoft Silverlight enabled.

The most noteworthy changes to the suite involve HotDocs Server 10, the company’s innovative technology for deploying HotDocs document templates via the internet.

Many of HotDocs’ global customers utilise the software to generate simple or more complex documents, such as legal contracts and sophisticated loan agreements which can run to hundreds of pages with literally thousands of variables.

With the launch of HotDocs 10, the development team have integrated with Silverlight to offer customers a vastly improved product.

“The Silverlight integration is a giant step forward for three reasons,” explained Lowell Stewart, Director of Software Development for HotDocs.  “Firstly, interviews for server-based HotDocs templates can now be accessed using Internet Explorer or Firefox on Windows and Safari or Firefox for Mac OS. In the past, server interviews were limited to Internet Explorer.”

He continued: “Secondly, the new interviews have an updated look and feel – a fact which users should notice immediately.  Finally, and this one is the real game changer, new interviews will run ten to twenty times faster than JavaScript based interviews.”

Stewart’s enthusiasm for the HotDocs Server upgrade is echoed by Leonard DuCharme, US VP of Marketing at HotDocs, who said:  “The JavaScript based interviews were functional, but slow.  Silverlight dramatically accelerates the interview process, which improves productivity and ultimately saves money for the client.”

Shepherd continued:  “Since the takeover, our assessment of the overall market potential has been extremely positive – we’re of the opinion that the business has a much greater reach and potential than our original estimate.”

“Long established as the market leader in the legal market, HotDocs has also made substantial inroads into wholesale penetration of the US corporate marketplace.  We fully expect the adoption rate of HotDocs to vastly accelerate now that the business is in independent hands and is fully focussed on creating the very best document automation software company in the world.”

He concluded:  “Further developments from HotDocs will be announced over the coming months which will change the document assembly landscape still further-  this is just the beginning”.

Epoq Legal have today announed Directlaw, a virtual law firm platform lets law firms engage with existing clients online and draw in new clients via the web. It leverages the same technology that major brands such as Halifax and RBS are using to offer online legal services, levelling the playing field for solicitors to compete with new entrants to the market.
 
Using Rapidocs®, Epoq’s web-enabled document automation system, clients seeking any one of a wide range of services complete an interview online, and their answers automatically create a detailed first draft document for the firm to review, advise on and, if required, amend before returning it to the client – or seeing the client face-to-face.

This focuses the solicitor’s time on providing value-added legal advice, rather than churning out boiler-plate documents. This allows them to charge a good rate – albeit cheaper to the client than before – but because they have to dedicate less time to the matter, the solicitor’s hourly rate effectively goes up. DirectLaw improves efficiency by enabling firms to handle a greater volume of work. More...