Featured in the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide 2007
Winner of the Institute of Legal Cashier's survey of user satisfaction 2007
Member of the Legal Software Suppliers Association
Technology For Business (TFB) has been at the forefront of the legal IT market for 30 years and is one of the market leaders. The company has offices in Fareham, Leeds and Bellshill (Glasgow). TFB offers an advanced and successful case and practice management system, Partner for Windows which can be tailored to each individual firm’s requirements whether large or small. This, combined with the TFB’s dedication to customer care and range of additional products, sets them apart from other suppliers and reinforces its market strength. It is further complemented by the Partner Program which was devised to offer clients additional products that can be seamlessly integrated into Partner for Windows, including telephony integration (Corebridge), digital dictation (DictaNet), document archiving and storage retrieval (ZyLAB), document comparison (Workshare) and several others.
See also notes on Legal IT for software distribution in Ireland.

Thompson Moore Associates (TMA) provide "SiMS", a comprehensive practice management system written using PROGRESS, the most widely used embedded relational database in the world. A flexible and powerful central registry is supplemented by full accounting and time-recording capability, effective marketing support and a raft of reports as standard. Much of the software is written with fee earner use in mind and has been developed with the input of lawyers and key support staff. Well established - trading since 1984 - TMA have a relatively small but prestigious client-base. They have spent much of the last couple of years developing the system with these key clients but are now looking to approach the market with their latest level of software and a condensed version targeting the smaller firm. TMA consider themselves to be the best kept secret in the Legal market!

Thomson Elite is a software product and services company, now part of the Thomson Group, providing integrated solutions to the financial, legal and professional services market. Elite's products are focused primarily on time tracking, billing, internal accounting and other administrative functions including marketing, records management, case management and conflicts of interest prevention. The system is used by 50% of the UK's top 20 law firms. There are more than 850 sites in 35 countries, including more than 80 in the UK and Europe. According to the Legal Technology Insider survey Thomson Elite is the leading Practice Manager supplier with 25% of the top 250 legal firms in the United Kingdom using the system. There is a relationship with Visualfiles, to provide "best of breed" case management. There is now also a product called "Out of the Box" for smaller firms.

Tikit is a leading provider of IT solutions and support services to the legal and accounting industries, working with 90 of the top 100 UK law firms and over 250 accounting practices. Established in 1994, Tikit has headquarters in London and further offices throughout the UK and in Madrid and Paris. Tikit has recently taken over TFB - see entry under TFB above.

Timebase, marketed by Tricostar (see below) is a product specifically designed for local authorities. With around 50 local authorities using the system, it is the leader in this particular field. The central Timebase product provides real time and retrospective time recording and provides extensive reporting facilities. Timebase v 10 is a subset of Tricostar Legal (again, see below) and comes packed with 4 matter management licenses and so can be extended simply to include matter management.

Member of the Legal Software Suppliers Assocation
Timeslice Ltd longstanding Docklands based suppliers to the legal profession since 1975, offer software called LAWMAN, the latest version of their Practice Management Software. The new system incorporates all the features of previous versions of the software still used by a number of major firms, now in a modern Windows NT, SqlServer, VB technology platform. Features include comprehensive Client Matter database, Billing, draft Billing, Batch and Digital time recording, integrated ledgers as well as catering for recent requirements such as Money laundering compliance. Users can access the system via a 'Fee Earner 'style desktop with full integration to other commonly used software i.e. word, outlook, excel. The system also offers internet integration with a client access via a security controlled web portal.

TrackYOurMove.com is a service provided to firms of solicitors which enables their clients to track house moves on the TrackYourMove.com site. From the point of view of the client, it provides real-time case updates by email or to a mobile telephone.

Transact Direct provide econveyancing solutions to meet the requirements of conveyancers, institutions and the public. The entire conveyancing transaction can be conducted from start to finish over a secure web site including search instructions, missives or contract negotiation, document preparation, report ordering and communications. They also provide a library of up to date conveyancing styles that can be accessed and produced in Word format. There is no need for the firm or institution to set up a system on their own or to provide capital investment; they use the service on a pay-as-you-go basis. Participating firms provide their clients with a unique user ID and password which takes the client to the firms' own system menu and secure area on the transact website which can be "branded" as the firm desires. The client can then access their matter for full reports. The system uses Solicitec Solcase Online software and Transact Direct is run by a group of directors of Solicitec and partners and key staff from Scottish firm Peddie Smith Moloco.

Tricostar are the producers of Timebase, which has been used to Time Record in the public sector for the past 19 years. It was the first product in the public sector to introduce real time, time recording and time recording for PDA’s. Today it is being used by over 45 local authorities for Time Recording, Case Management and Court Bundling. Timebase is one of the most configurable products available today – available for professional services departments whether recording time against activities for individual files (e.g. legal services) or recording the same activities and tasks against multiple client departments or cost centres (e.g. finance or IT departments). The same applies to Court Bundling for legal departments & Court; the system can be used where other departments need to prepare Document Bundles of all types. Each department can retain secure access to their data and reporting but consolidated data across the whole organisation can be extracted for corporate reporting. The application can work from within Outlook as well as in a separate browser. It can work from any IE browser or PDA and even off line on a laptop. All workflows can be user generated and it uses simple "drag & drop" to create workflows and to move documents around.
Note - a legal award won by Suffolk County Councils is good news for their case management software company, Tricostar
Suffolk Councils at County, Borough and District level, have worked together to develop a series of shared legal services and have won a Public Servants of the Year award for the level of services to the local community. Tricostar have provided their web-based Time Case Management software across these councils to provide a uniform technology backbone.

V
Valid Information Systems - their Litigation Support software (called R/KYV) is the most widely used in the UK and they also offer document management software, both networked and Intranet based.

Videss has been acquired by Computer Software Group.
Videss Videss is a well established supplier of legal IT systems, having 25 years of experience in working exclusively with solicitors. Based in Bradford with a branch office in Swindon, they have almost 10,000 individual users of their Legal Office integrated Practice and Case Management software. Clients vary in size from 600 user, multi-branch sites, through to Sole Practitioner level. They offer a complete one-stop IT solution, providing software, hardware, installation, training, Help Desk support and a full 'Facilities Management' service. Legal Office integrates with Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook and includes database, accounts, time recording & billing, case management, diary management and management reporting facilities. The software can be web-enabled, allowing secure remote fee earner access and client access to selected live matter information. Their recently released v10 represents the next generation of legal process management software and has been developed for the modern integrated law practice/departments and mobile lawyers. Built with flexibility at its centre, the single database underpins every business application you need to run a practice, from accounts, time recording and case management to appointments, scanning and digital dictation. Their recently redesigned website offers 'Tours' of Personal Injury and Conveyancing case management systems.

Virgo Accounts, from Irwin Associates is a comprehensive yet easy to use, single-user accounting system. It complies with the requirements of the solicitors accounts rules for England and Wales and meets the requirements of Legal Aid franchising. The software comprises client and office accounting and time recording, as well as comprehensive reporting and enquiries, and the facility to export details to spreadsheets, word processing or database packages. It is a character-based system that operates under MS-DOS or any Windows system. Cost of the software can be as little as 199 plus VAT.

Visualfiles has now been bought by LexisNexis and is known as LexisNexis Visualfiles
Member of the Legal Software Suppliers Assocation
Visualfiles Legal Solutions (previously Solicitec) was formed in 1985 to develop and market legal case management systems. The company has grown steadily and is now recognised as the leading supplier of case management systems in the UK with an impressive client list covering the whole spectrum of the legal profession with over 18,000 users in more than 400 sites. Visualfiles Head Office is based in Headingley, north of Leeds, with an additional office in Southampton. They have over 120 employees with a wide range of professional services work experience and qualifications. Visualfiles is an advanced knowledge management system which allows many different ways of looking at the data relating to "entities" and crosses the line from software to knowledge management.

VLI Ltd specialises in providing law firms with practice, case and document management solutions that integrate with websites and back office applications in a single unified platform. Web-based products include easy-to-use interfaces that securely provide accurate, real time information whenever and wherever needed. vli introduces the correct mix of people and products to provide a fully integrated and scalable solution that will improve the efficiency and profitability of the law firm. Clients include Stewarts, Rooks Rider and Batchelors.

W

Software Contents page... or Lawyers home page.

Comments or queries? Or a new software company to add? email delia@venables.co.uk