Independent UK document production provider Novaplex is bringing new comparison software to market following two years of development and collaboration with ten early adopter law firms.
Founded in 2008, Novaplex offers the likes of template management, document restyling and document metadata cleaning, but has to date been missing the comparison capability that firms usually need as part of their document production toolset.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider, Novaplex’s chief operating officer Ben Mitchell (pictured below) said: “Compare is an important missing piece because there is a set of applications and technology that law firms tend to procure together and like to source from a single vendor. This Compare release is the culmination of significant investment from Novaplex, because developing comparison technology is complicated. It’s two years of work to bring this product to market and it now means that Novaplex has that full set of drafting applications that law firms are looking for.”
Comparison software is complicated because there are so many nuances and because accuracy is key. Mitchell said: “You have to cater for all the little facets of changes that need to be found and accurately reported on. There is so much granular detail, and you need to be able to spot changes in comments, or in the footer, or in tables, and you really need developers who understand Microsoft Office and the composition of Office documents in great detail.”
You also need end user feedback and Mitchell says: “To help us along the way we have had 10 firms on an early adopter program for the last six months as we got ready for launch, providing us with feedback on accuracy, which has been invaluable.”
Document production is a space where pertinent questions are being asked about what the post-Gen AI future looks like. Mitchell said: “Generative AI does present some capabilities in the document comparison arena but not anywhere near the level of accuracy that law firms need when they are comparing entire documents. It will give you an indication in some circumstances, but if you’re looking for a granular, detailed comparison of one document to another, you need something capable of much more.”
He adds: “AI presents exciting capabilities and ones that we will also be looking to leverage, but it’s not a replacement. Most firms are coming to the realization that AI can’t do everything. It provides exciting enhancements and can look across a collection of documents and come back with insights, but you can’t get it to show you all the differences between versions eight and nine of a contract, when you need to make sure there’s not a comma out of place.”
Mitchell joined Novaplex in October 2023, having previously worked at SaaS practice and case management vendor Tessaract. Before that he was vice president of global commercial operations at document production vendor DocsCorp, which was acquired by Litera in July 2021.
He told Legal IT Insider: “After a period of consolidation we are helping the market get back to having a choice.”
Noveplex was founded by CEO Michelle Langton. Its customers include BDB Pitmans, Browne Jacobson, Irwin Mitchell, Bech Bruun and Al Tamimi.
newsroom@legaltechnology.com