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Bates and Partners has offices in Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea and London with affiliate offices around the M25. The firm is well established in Southend and has a good reputation for commercial and residential conveyancing among other disciplines. We have 9 partners and around 75 staff.
We use the e-conveyancing program from SellersLink, called ConveyanceLink. It handles all our residential conveyancing matters and has been installed within the Practice since March 2002. SellersLink specialise in conveyancing software.
It took us about 3 months from installing the program to completing our “letter bank”. We have added new templates as and when they are required. SellersLink have always been on hand to assist in adding new letters and documents as files progressed. An administrative user with some PC knowledge can easily add the templates - we do not have an IT department.
The online tracking facility is fully integrated into the case management program and therefore requires no additional effort. I actively promote the online tracking to both individual clients and local estate agents. It was in fact a local estate agent who introduced me to the program in early 2002, as he wanted to offer the facility to his clients.
Contained within the program is a “progress log page”. Users of the program mark off specific tasks as they are done and the program automatically completes the date. This progress log can easily be accessed by any user and provides a helpful snapshot of the client’s file both for internal use and to discuss case progress with a client over the phone. This also forms the basis of the information that is published on the web.
We send our updates to SellersLink twice a day. We have a 56K modem at the moment although we are moving soon to ADSL. However, even at present, the update only takes around 30 seconds. Web updating is managed by SellersLink and does not require any further effort from us.
No security issues or Data Protection Act conflicts are encountered, as file progress does not mention property or client specifics. Each new file generates a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) given only to the client and relevant estate agent. Therefore the information only has value to the client or estate agent who can match their property with the UPRN when viewing web progress.
The program has been installed in Southend at no additional cost to us from a hardware or software point of view. SellersLink levy a charge for every file that is loaded onto the conveyancing program. As we have a number of offices within the firm using the program, we have achieved the maximum discount available and therefore pay £12.50 plus VAT per matter. This includes the case tracking facility.
For this we make extensive use of the document production facility, the billing templates and the electronic link to NLIS. This fee also includes all System support and telephone assistance for user queries and there are no additional annual licences. Their pricing is totally transparent, a refreshing approach from a software company! I think this approach has enabled them to win many new clients and the program is outstanding value.
Matthew Clark, mac@batesandpartners.co.uk.
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