DocsCorp has acquired UK-based document assembly vendor verowave technologies, with the verowave platform (verodocs, verosheets, and veroslides) to be integrated into the DocsCorp document productivity suite and re-branded as veroDocs.
verowave, founded in 2015 by Scott Hews, enables the creation and population of templates and customised documents without the need for soft coding. It is resold by Phoenix Business Solutions (now Morae Global) and integrates with iManage and NetDocuments. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, DocsCorp co-founder and CEO Dean Sappey said: “We started talking to Verowave around 12 months ago to see how their product works and who their customers are. Their main partner is Phoenix, which is a good partner of ours too and they’ve been involved in the conversation and given us a lot of feedback about what they think of the product.” He adds: “A big part of the acquisition is that we will be selling the product to the US and Australia, where it hasn’t been sold to date. Once we start showing it to customers it’s really going to turn some heads.”
Verowave enables users to build template management apps that will appear within the DocsCorp toolbar. Sappey said: “This is a full assembly engine so rather than using complex macro in Microsoft Word you can use a document assembly app that’s built around the law firms own documents.”
Sappey said that the acquisition has been driven by client demand, commenting: “Products that are built using macros or older technology are hard to maintain and clients want an integrated set of apps from DocsCorp. A lot of products need a legal expert and someone with programming skills, which is hard to find and for a small firm incredibly expensive. But the new Microsoft office technology allows you to build apps and makes things much simpler, and that’s what verowave does. It’s much more modern Microsoft technology that means fee-earners don’t have to be a programmer.” The initial target market will be large law firms with multiple locations that require uniform templates.
Hews will continue to lead the development of the product and DocsCorp is joined by long-established legal tech Microsoft Office specialist Clare Waller, who is building a consultancy team around the new product. Waller is known for her work at Tikit, where she worked with the house style manager products, establishing Word legal standards and encouraging the use of standard styles.