As the Christmas countdown begins and the mulled wine (ok just wine) flows, we bring you news of a new version of cleanDocs; a new 64-bit version of Workshare 9; a partnership between NAVEX Global and Baker & McKenzie; a post-merger IT overhaul for Royds Withy King; a Belfast launch for LEAP; expansion in Asia Pacific for Neota Logic; and a spotlight on the latest post-Brexit news.
Comparison and Metadata
DocsCorp has announced the release of a new version of cleanDocs. The update offers a new right-click workflow for users of OpenText eDOCS; better handling of hidden rows, columns and sheets in Excel; improved user-controllable PDF security options and correction of mismatched number/order of Outlook attachments.
DocsCorp president and co-founder, Dean Sappey, said: “I am particularly pleased that our commitment to continuing enhancements has delivered the ability to easily secure PDFs to ensure they are not tampered with when they leave the organization. Emailing Excel spreadsheets has typically been a large source of data leakage due to hidden columns of confidential data that the user has forgotten about. cleanDocs’ new ability to watch for and alert users to these areas of the spreadsheet has closed a big security hole.”
Workshare has announced the release of a new 64-bit version of its Workshare 9 solution. The leading comparison and secure file sharing platform is now compatible with Microsoft Office 2016 64-bit and will provide better performance for customers working on large files.
This new release of Workshare 9 is now available to all existing customers and can be downloaded from the Workshare download center within their account.
Matt Roberts, Workshare 9 product manager, who led the release said: “Looking after so many customers can be tricky – everyone has their own environment and systems. We were getting more and more requests for 64-bit, we wanted to make sure we were supporting all our clients’ requirements.”
To download Workshare 9 64bit click here https://my.workshare.com/#download
Compliance
Ethics and compliance software and services company NAVEX Global has entered into a partnership with global law firm Baker & McKenzie.
Initial areas of focus will include Baker & McKenzie vetting NAVEX’s global compliance training courseware for legal accuracy and comprehensiveness, and providing insight on the implications of new legislation affecting compliance programs.
In addition, the firms will collaborate on the development of sample policies and other resources which illustrate best practices in compliance program implementation.
“Organizations big and small are looking for better ways to manage compliance programs in a globally intelligent manner,” said Chris Morton, SVP marketing & corporate development, NAVEX Global. “Baker & McKenzie and NAVEX Global share the perspective that clients need holistic compliance solutions, and we are excited to demonstrate the benefits of this collaboration to clients.”
Post-merger IT investment
UK Top 100 law firm Royds Withy King has undergone a major IT infrastructure upgrade, orchestrated by Commercial IT Services, to facilitate post-merger growth.
The merger of Withy King and Royds created a £33m practice with 450 lawyers and support staff across a network of offices in London, Bath, Oxford and Wiltshire. Data and email accounts for the 80 Royds staff were migrated to Withy King’s remote data centre, creating an immediate need for increased digital capacity.
Back end capacity has increased from 1 Gigabit to 10 Gigabit and the latest BladeSystem server technology and I/O acceleration technology from HP has been installed.
Core applications centralised at the data centre are underpinned by VMware hypervisor to ensure smooth operation. And all 80 Royds staff have been provided with Citrix virtual desktops.
Head of IT at Royds Withy King, Dave Eagle, said: “Mergers are renowned for causing a headache from an IT perspective, but we worked proactively with Commercial IT Services from the outset to ensure this wouldn’t be the case.
“As a top 100 law firm that prides itself on being ahead of the curve, it is vital that our systems are robust and reliable. Within two months of the merger, our systems are fully integrated, resulting in optimum efficiency and productivity across all sites. We’ve invested in an intelligent infrastructure that suits our requirements today and has the flexibility to meet our needs in the future.”
Billing and case management
Cloud-based small firm practice and case management system provider LEAP has opened an office in Belfast’s James Street South, Northern Ireland.
Keith Armstrong, new business product manager for Northern Ireland at LEAP, who is heading up the Belfast office, said: “It’s fantastic that LEAP software is now available to firms in Northern Ireland. Not only has LEAP customised the software and forms to take account of the differences of the Northern Irish legal system, but being located in Belfast means that we are on hand to visit and support our clients where necessary and provide that all important personal service.”
Appointments
Neota Logic has expanded its operations in the Asia Pacific region, appointing Brad Rosairo as the vice president of business development, Asia Pacific.
Rosairo, who will be based in Melbourne Australia, joins Neota Logic from Sage Publishing, where he served as managing director for the introduction of the Corwin Australia’s digital products and onsite professional services for the education sector and government departments.
Previously, he was the executive director of sales, Asia Pacific for ProQuest LLC, an information services and SaaS company where he held a leadership role for over 12 years.
Brexit legislation spotlight – patents
Amid all the uncertainties surrounding Brexit, the UK Minister of State for Energy and Intellectual Property last week confirmed that the UK intends to proceed with its participation in the Unified Patent Court (UPC).
Baroness Neville-Rolfe said that the UK intends to ratify the UPC Agreement despite the result of the UK’s EU referendum, which had caused progress in the development of the new system to be halted.
The London-based UPC will enable patent holders to enforce their patents in a single court covering most of Europe, as well as access cheaper Unitary European patent protection.