Management MattersThis column is now into its third year and feedback is still good. We would still like to receive observations and ideas for futureissues. Please mail Bill Kirby at billkirby@professionalchoiceconsultancy.com or the publisher Julia Baskerville atj.baskerville@btconnect.com

20 the MessengerFeature

Bill Kirby is a director of Professional Choice Consultancy and ManagementServices Consultancy offering advice to firms on all things IT from strategy,planning, effective use and outsourcing continuity and DR. He can be contacted at billkirby@professionalchoiceconsultancy.com

WARNINGS

One - Back in the November issue I gave a warningabout the state of the back up and business conti-nuity and DR of firms and that it is important not totake assurances at face value.

However, in the interim can I strongly suggest thatevery firm carries out an internal audit/check to ensuretheir systems are as they believe them to be? Whetherthey are managed by your own teams or through amanaged service/third party maintenance company.

During the balance of October, November and earlyDecember I am afraid that I have come across andheard of further examples of pending catastrophe.Also if you have “back up” at work that is not compli-ant business continuity.

Two – For the last few years we have also com-mented upon Accountabilities rather than being “re-sponsible for” and this includes billing, timerecording, WIP management, Working Capital man-agement, restructuring, efficiency and new businessgeneration. Again these Accountabilities in a num-ber of cases have just not been seen through. It isno longer an automatic assumption that the bankwill up the overdraft to cover a peak in negativecash flow. Straight away please go and check thatbilling is being pushed and that WIP and disburse-ments are under control. Not getting the cash in(potentially going bust) is one issue; paying tax onWIP that is overstated is another one.

THE CONFUSING SYSTEMS MARKET – a light in the tunnel?

In this column we have written quite extensively aboutconsolidation amongst practice and case managementsystem suppliers and the impact that this has had on lawfirm clients. Iris with multiple acquisitions (Videss, AIM,Mountain, Opsis and Alpha Law), Thomson Reuters (Elite,Pilgrim, FWBS) and Lexis Nexis (Visual Files/Solicitec andAxxia). This obviously unsettled the market has causeddelays in delivery of products and a diminution of cus-tomer care and has allowed the independents to flourish(SOS, DPS, Proclaim).

New Man at Lexis Nexis

At the end of November I had the opportunity of a oneto one session with Alan Fraser the new General Man-ager of Enterprise Solutions at Lexis Nexis. He joined inAugust 2012.

Alan is probably best recognised in the legal sector forhis time as CEO of Workshare, so he has both industry-specific experience and broad experience across busi-ness disciplines and diverse corporate structures (public,private, start-up, turnaround, growth) in the high-techspace. “After Workshare, I retired, but when the opportunityto join LexisNexis came along, I was excited to get back intothe legal vertical. The high value of the LexisNexis brand inthe legal industry was a big driver,”

I have met with a number of managing partners thatAlan has been to see since joining and he has travelledextensively to meet with customers for open exchangeof views and opinions. “Technology is viewed very differ-ently by law firms today compared to five years ago. Today,technology is not seen as a key differentiator, but rather as afundamental business requirement. Partners and senior ex-ecutives are involved in the selection process, not just ITheads.”

Despite the voiced frustrations of many old Axxia andVisual Files clients Alan considers that 2012 was a suc-cessful year for LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions. “Strategi-cally the division has stayed on course, but has rethoughtand revised some of its approaches to ensure a positive out-come, for customers and the organisation”.

I was encouraged in not being promised road maps but amuch more realistic view of delivering first. Also at leastlaw firms in Manchester by reading this piece will have afairly realistic view as to what is going on.

Project Nimbus (codename), the division’s new businessmanagement system (BMS) that includes practice and fi-nancial management, has been a major focus area for En-terprise Solutions in 2012. “The business has three earlyadopter customers commencing implementation of theNimbus solution in March 2013. The company is also work-ing to secure three more early-adopter customers in the firsthalf of 2013 and another three in the second half”. As abusiness man Alan recognises that Law firms are trans-forming themselves into enterprises – they are recruitingmore CIOs and COOs typically seen in mainstream busi-ness. “They are also changing their business structures.These changes require technology suppliers like us to

change too. We need to become more commercially astuteand provide products that address their needs. We aretherefore offering Nimbus and this LexisNexis – Microsoftcollaboration is a game changer in legal IT,”

Part of the problem of course is that law firms need thetechnology solutions now.

Nimbus is intended to be an enterprise-level BMS that isexpressly designed for the legal sector. Underpinned byworkflow, Nimbus enables law firms to step outside thefunctional silos and operate as single, integrated busi-nesses with cross functional workflows. The fact that thesolution is powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX is of greatvalue to law firms, given that Microsoft is the technologyof choice in the legal sector. “Historically, the legal indus-try has lacked the ability to attract the very large softwareproviders to invest in this market. Through our partnershipwith Microsoft, we are taking very sophisticated technology,adding value and delivering a solid BMS to the industry.”

Of significant note, Microsoft is substantially investing inthe Dynamics platform on an annual basis. This not onlymakes Nimbus practically future proof, but also law firms’investment in the solution. LexisNexis is just one of nineglobal independent software vendors (out of the thou-sands of independent software vendors working withDynamics AX today) to have attained Microsoft’s pre-ferred partner status for the development of a next gen-eration, vertical business management solution.

Alan also informed me that, strategically LN has decidedto discontinue further developmental investment in Lex-isNexis Streamline, its business process managementplatform.

Instead, LN is redirecting investment into the well estab-lished case management product – Visualfiles. In 2012the adoption of Visual Files grown, crossing the 25,000 li-cences mark with strong interest from property law andinsurance firms. A new product roadmap will be an-nounced in March 2013 – major enhancements including.NET integration capabilities, new user interface optionsand training and certification and more are expected. Forcustomers, this revised strategy is great news as in the fu-ture (should they so desire) transition from Visualfiles toNimbus will be fairly straightforward due to the seamlessintegration capability of the two systems. LN will con-tinue to support all its Streamline, Axxia and SolCase cus-tomers now and in the future; and invest in creatingpathways for clients to transition to the next generationof platforms based on their business needs.

In its portfolio LN also has the CRM solution InterAction(used in a good proportion of large firms) “continues tosee robust growth in the UK, but also in South Africa, APACregion and South America. The solution is gaining tractionin the private equity and venture capital sectors too. Simi-larly, adoption of business intelligence solution Redwood ison an upward curve in the UK, driven by the need to demon-strate profitability to investors and business partners.

It is an interesting time. Alan is different to other leadersin the software market. We shall see what kind of differ-ence he can make.

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