The
latest version of the Timeslice LAWMAN system is a fascinating
product, in that it successfully pulls together elements of
two of the leading trends in modern legal software design -
the integrated solution and the best of breed solution, to deliver
a truly comprehensive and complete case and practice management
system. A case of not so much best of breed, as best of value.
Rather more importantly, this approach also means LAWMAN is
able to offer a level of functionality that many other systems
can only dream of achieving - all of which, in my opinion, goes
a long way towards making LAWMAN one of the most seriously under-rated
products available in the legal IT market today.
To place these comments in their proper context, let’s start by looking
at the integrated system versus best of breed debate...
For the best part of 20 years, legal software design in the
UK was dominated by two main product concepts. These were: the
primarily back-office legal accounts, billing, administration
and practice management system; and the front-office fee earner
support, workflow and case management system. From the late-1980s
and early 1990s onwards however, as the central client and matter
database became the core element within more and more legal
IT systems, it became |
increasingly
the norm to turn to just one supplier for both these elements
and to buy them as an ‘all under one roof’ integrated solution.
Well at least that was the theory, but in reality some of these systems
were rather less integrated than they could have been and rather more
worryingly, there was a steady stream of complaints from users that too
many of these systems were actually quite patchy offerings. In some
instances it would be a strong accounts system let down by a weak case
management module, whereas with others, it would be a combination of
good case management, saddled with poor practice management.
Add in a further complication - that by the mid-1990s many firms were
also wanting to include other elements into their office automation
equation, such as document management and marketing systems - and you
had fertile grounds for the emergence of a serious alternative to the
integrated approach, namely the best of breed solution.
In effect this is the mix and match option. If you wanted to
have Supplier A’s practice management system running in conjunction
with Supplier B’s case products, Supplier C’s document management
and Supplier D’s marketing or CRM software, then |
providing
all the elements were sufficiently ‘open’ in their design, you
could. And indeed since the mid-1990s, the best of breed approach
has become almost de rigueur among larger, top 100-sized law
firms.
Of course there was a price to pay and many firms have found that the
cost of going best of breed has been an enforced reliance upon external
systems integrators and consultancies, as well as their own inhouse IT
departments, to provide the glue to integrate and hold together the
different elements that now make up their IT infrastructure. And,
although we may not quite have gone full circle, to a point where best
of breed sites are actively swapping out their systems and replacing
them with integrated solutions, there has definitely been a realisation
over the last couple of years that the best of breed route is not as
straightforward as it might at first appear and may not be a viable
option for many firms.
Given this background - and it must be stressed that this is a
contentious subject, with strong advocates and critics of the different
approaches on both sides - Timeslice enter the picture with a solution
apparently offering the best of both possible worlds.
With LAWMAN, if you want a fully integrated system that is ready-to-run
out of the box, then you can have it.
|
