We’ve had an opportunity to speak to Alan Fraser, the new General Manager of LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions. Fraser, who took over from Tim Cheadle at the beginning of August, is probably best known in the legal market as the former CEO of Workshare.
Fraser told us that he was “very excited” to be taking on the new role at LexisNexis, as it would allow him to draw upon his previous experiences of working for large corporations and working within the legal IT space. He said a further bonus was to be working in the UK again – he lived in London in the 1990s – and added that his family is currently in the process of relocating to the UK.
Turning to his new role with LNES, Fraser said he was not in favour of setting targets for his first 100 days or anything like that. “You don’t set targets before you get involved and get to know a business!” Instead, he said his number one priority was to learn everything about the business – and its customers. He added that during his first 18 months with Workshare, he visited 256 of that company’s customers at their offices to discuss their experiences and issues.
Fraser said it was likely to be towards the end of the year before any changes to strategy were announced (which is another reason why this year’s Enterprise Solutions User Conference has been rescheduled from this November to next March) but he felt there were three constituencies that had to be addressed. The first was LNES customers needed to get value for money from their investments in LexisNexis systems and that their expectations had to be managed, with full transparency. The second was LNES employees needed a clear roadmap for the business and its technologies. And the third was LexisNexis (and its parent Reed Elsevier) also needed a return on its investments in the Enterprise Solutions business.
Finally, Fraser said his experiences with Workshare had made him “appreciate the power of the legal IT community. It is unique in business as to the way users share ideas and experiences – and provide feedback and input to suppliers.”
