We’ve got an interesting mixture on new product launches and upgrades today including software to build marketing pitches from Iphelion + Google Calendar integration from LexisNexis + digital signature enhancements from ARX CoSign + new conveyancing applications from ETSOS and Zylpha (Zylpha only announced this product 30 minutes ago) + a new version of Total Office from Aderant + a preview of a new data analysis tool for Elite 3E users from Wilson Legal Solutions which makes its public debut later this month.
UK: Iphelion has launched PitchPoint, a new client pitch preparation system for law firms. According to Iphelion managing director Andy Driskell, “We realised that all legal marketing departments, irrespective of the size or type of firm, share a common need to produce well-researched, professional and persuasive pitch documents that stand out from the crowd and impress clients.”
PitchPoint organises information on a firm’s experience, fee earners and testimonials and makes it easily accessible to marketing people and other staff. Information held in existing practice management and CRM systems can be imported into PitchPoint, so creating a repository of information that can be shared across the firm. PitchPoint also includes pitch generation software that takes the hard work out of creating professional pitch documents that can be designed inhouse. PitchPoint has been designed for mobile working over VPN and so can be accessed on tablets, smartphones and notebooks as well as desktop PCs.
COMMENT: Pitch creation seems to be an application just waiting to happen. There’s been a gap in the market since Elite folded up its old Hubbard One division and since then the only other contender on the scene is Enable’s PitchPerfect system. There is a subtle difference between the two products: PitchPerfect works within Microsoft Word whereas Iphelion PitchPoint works within Iphelion’s Outline template management system and can then be exported to Word or Excel. Here’s a link to the company brochure.
US: LexisNexis Legal & Professional, has announced that LexisNexis Firm Manager has a new feature that provides automatic synchronization with the Google Calendar calendaring application. The Firm Manager Sync feature is bi-directional, meaning if an update is made in the Google Calendar application – it is also automatically reflected in the Firm Manager calendar and vice versa. The feature also works both for calendars in the Google Apps for Business program, the fee-based productivity suite from Google Inc and the free version of the Google Calendar calendaring application. LexisNexis research suggests the Google Calendar application is the most commonly used web-based calendar among independent attorneys and especially solo and duo law firms. The team is planning to add additional synchronizations with other commonly used calendars later this year.
US: ARX has released the latest version of the CoSign digital signature solution and the CoSign Web App, as well as a new CoSign Signature API. Improved security features that meet all the requirements for receiving the Common Criteria EAL4+ rating. With these features, CoSign becomes the first remote signing product to comply with the newly enacted European eIDAS (Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions in the Internal Market) regulation.
The new version of CoSign Web App adds the ability to digitally sign Word and Excel documents online in their native format without the need to convert them to PDF files. The new version also includes the ability to use it at the point-of-sale so that one-time signers, such as customers, clients and patients, can apply their graphical signature using a touch screen or tablet. The organization’s employee or agent then seals the document by applying their own digital signature.
UK: Conveyancing technology specialist ETSOS has announced the launch of its next generation ordering platform for the commercial property sector. The platform is claimed to be the first of its kind to offer full screen mapping, a significant advance on other market offerings where small scale mapping functionality hampers ease of use, speed and accuracy. Users can also elect to receive back 1:2500 scaled maps that are fully Land Registry-compliant. Another enhancement is the bespoke portfolio facility. Aimed at customers with high volume developments, ETSOS can upload plots to the system on their behalf; this is a free service, with only the required searches being charged for and should dramatically reduce the administrative burden associated with large-scale, complex conveyances. Commercial customers will also have instant access to a range of related property products, including company searches, EPCs and title insurance.
UK: Staying with conveyancing, Zylpha today launched a new module that automates the online property registration process for conveyancers using the Electronic Document Registration System (e-DRS) for the Land Registry Business Gateway. The e-DRS enables conveyancing practices to communicate securely with the Land Registry’s systems via the internet. By using the Business Gateway conveyancers can reduce the cost of registration fees payable to the Land Registry. Zylpha’s automation of the registration process for Lexis Visualfiles and SolCase case management users enables them to reap the full benefits of e-DRS. The automated process greatly speeds up registration and reduces the cost on average by up to 50% per application. There is also a significant increase in the accuracy of automated applications made. Zylpha is planning number of webinars on how this module benefits users.
US: Aderant has announced the latest release of its Aderant Total Office (formerly Client Profiles) case and financial management system: version 9.1 SP5 (service pack 5). This release features integrations with Microsoft Outlook Tasks and the legal docketing software Aderant CompuLaw court rules database, plus many other enhancements.
US: Ahead of this month’s Thomson Reuter Elite VANTAGE worldwide user conference, Wilson Legal Solutions has announced the introduction of the Wilson Analytics Professional solution, which enables in-memory analysis and queries of Elite 3E data. Wilson Analytics Professional helps law firms convert complex and detailed transactional information into KPIs that can be easily visualized and consumed. Law firms can use the software to aggregate and analyze 3E data for fast, secure, and lightweight access using standard Microsoft products such as Excel, Power Pivot, and Power View. Additional features of the software include the Wilson Partition Manager that enables incremental updates to the aggregated 3E data.
“We live in an increasingly digital world. Law firms, like many businesses, need to develop a Big Data strategy to make use of high-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety data. Law firm decision makers need direct access to their data to query and analyze it. And they should be able to access it wherever they are – on the road, at a client site, and in court,” says Greg Murphy, senior director of Wilson Legal Solutions.
Wilson Legal Solutions will display the software in its booth at VANTAGE 2014, taking place June 23 to 26, 2014 at the Marriott Marquis New York. The software will also be featured during an educational session entitled Access, Analyze and Visualize Elite 3E Data during the conference. For details visit www.wilsonlegalsol.com/uc14