InsideLegal

ABA TECHSHOW: What You Need to Know

In less than a week, the industry will converge on Chicago to take part in both our Ignite event, now called LexThink.1, and the ABA TECHSHOW that will be underway at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue. This will be our 13th year attending TECHSHOW and it is by far one of our favorites, mostly due to the team of thought leaders that volunteer their time to make it happen each year. This year, the show is being led by Chair Reid Trautz, the director of the Practice & Professionalism Center for American Immigration Lawyers Association. To keep up with the event, follow us at @InsideLegal or #abatechshow.

Obviously two standouts of ABA TECHSHOW are the educational sessions and the Expo Hall. I can say that we've already received some releases on product launches and upgrades that will be worth hearing about. Stay tuned for more information. If you haven't already registered to attend ABA TECHSHOW, you can print this form to register onsite. In the meantime, here is a look at this year's festivities...

Ignite Law - now called LexThink.1

This will be the third year that we have produced, along with Matt Homann of LexThink, this unique event where industry thought leaders have 6 minutes and 20 slides to present on their topic submitted earlier this year. All speakers submitted a topic and we opened up for online voting from the industry to determine which presentations they wanted to hear. Thanks to our Platinum sponsor, Clio, the event is free to attend, but you must register here. As of now, we are sold out, but if you are interested in attending, register to get added to the waitlist as we are attempting to add seats now. You can review the agenda here.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago, Continental Ballroom, Wednesday, March 28th, 7:30-10pm, Follow on Twitter - #IgniteLaw

ABA TECHSHOW/RocketLawyer Reception

Wednesday night festivities will begin with the ABA TECHSHOW/RocketLawyer reception directly before Ignite Law beginning at 6pm. In addition to some networking, RocketLawyer will be leading "an interactive event for entrepreneurial lawyers" as explained further on their Facebook page.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago, Continental Ballroom, Wednesday, March 28th, 6-7:30pm 

ABA TECHSHOW App

Planning for ABA TECHSHOW can now be done entirely from your mobile device or tablet with the ABA TECHSHOW Conference App. It's available for download on an iPhone/iPad, Android or BlackBerry device, and allows you to carry all of ABA TECHSHOW conveniently. Full Conference attendees have been assigned unique codes to access a secure Attendee Schedule that enables you to bookmark sessions so you know where you want to be and when. During the session, view the Conference materials within the Conference App so you can follow along with the speakers as they share their knowledge of legal technology. Once you make your way into the EXPO Hall, use the complete listing of exhibitors to find your way around and decide who has the product/service your firm needs. 

Welcome Reception in Exhibit Hall

Another event back by popular demand is the Welcome Reception being held in the Expo Hall. Join your colleagues and friends to discuss the programming from day one of ABA TECHSHOW during the Welcome Reception on Thursday. Experience exceptional cuisine and tasty beverages at the Hilton Chicago and maybe you'll make a few new friends while you're there.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago, Southeast Hall, Thursday, March 29th, 5:30-7pm 

5th Annual Beer for Bloggers

For the fifth year, the ABA Journal and Kevin O'Keefe with LexBlog are hosting their Beer (and wine) for Bloggers event this Friday evening. Everyone is invited, blogger or not, lawyer or not, attending TECHSHOW or not. It’s been a great event for those in the legal profession and those serving the profession to get together.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago Lakeside Green Lounge in lobby, Friday, March 30th, 5:30-7pm 

Taste of ABA TECHSHOW Dinners

Don't miss out on these dinners. It's a great way to either meet with a group of pople to discuss a certain technology or meet a specific group of people. Here's how it works... Pick a technology; pick a Chicago restaurant; or pick a host. No matter what you pick, the choice is yours with the Taste of ABA TECHSHOW. Registrants have the opportunity to participate in this Dutch-treat event where we make dinner reservations throughout the city of Chicago and each dinner is based on a technology topic with a host in the field. Most of the Dinners are sold out, but there still are a couple open. 
The Skinny: Thursday and Friday night, Review & register here  

Ben Stein Keynote

It will be hard to top their keynote of last year - Harvard's Larry Lessig, but Ben Stein definitely one not to miss! Ben's career accomplishments include working at the Federal Trade Commission, lawyer and speech writer for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and now, ABA TECHSHOW Keynote Speaker. 
The Skinny: Friday, 12:45-1:45pm 

Guidance Software to Acquire CaseCentral

Guidance Software, Inc. has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held CaseCentral, Inc., a leader in the electronic discovery (e-discovery) market for Cloud-based review and production software.

   

According to the press release:

"This acquisition will extend Guidance Software's market leadership by delivering a complete e-discovery platform addressing the e-discovery needs of corporations and government agencies. The combined product portfolio will deliver to customers increased efficiency and automation, as well as lower risk for e-discovery activities. The integrated solution will span from legal hold to identification, collection, preservation, processing, first pass review, and, now with CaseCentral's market leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, best-in-class early case assessment (ECA), review and production capabilities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Guidance Software will acquire CaseCentral for upfront consideration of approximately $17.1 million, consisting of $8.3 million in cash, $8.3 million in Guidance Software common stock, and the assumption of $0.5 million of debt, net of cash. Depending on CaseCentral’s SaaS revenue growth, Guidance Software may pay up to an additional $33 million in cash over the next three years. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during the first quarter of 2012. Guidance Software expects the transaction to add approximately $10 million in SaaS revenue in 2012, and to be slightly dilutive to slightly accretive to 2012 non-GAAP EPS and accretive to 2013 non-GAAP EPS."

You can read the letter to their clients from Guidance President & CEO, Victor Limongelli here.

LegalTech New York 2012: Day Three Recap & Our LTNY Photo Album

InsideLegal's LTNY 2012 Album

LegalTech New York 2012 ... day three ... less meetings, less sessions, less time on the exhibit floor but not any less activity and the same high caliber of networking as earlier in the week. Wednesday started a bit slower with a lot less traffic in the Bridges Bar (8/8:30ish) surely due to late night vendor parties.

We kicked things off with a brief catch-up with Law Technology News technology editor Sean Doherty who seemed genuinely excited to be honing his focus on product reviews and 'under the hood' sort of tech reviews. Sean and his handful of freelancers are targeting an average of 1.5 reviews per week beyond the 'Testdrive' column which appears 6 times per year as part of LTN. While the reviews are a mixed bag, Sean mentioned looking at the vast array of practice management solutions as a next focus area.

Adriana Linares, our longtime friend and the most dynamic legal trainer we've seen, has announced the launch of the LawTech Training Center in Winter Park, FL (outside of  Orlando). Adriana has been working with law firms for more than 14 years and has created the LawTech Training Center to bring her services to law firms - from solos to large - in the Central Florida area. Part of Adriana's mission is to make people comfortable enough with their technology to let it work for them. As she says, "Training is the #1 reason for successful software implementations and the lack of it is the #1 reason for failure." If you are in need of training for yourself or your staff, don't hesitate to contact Adriana (who also offers webinar training) who covers Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, Email & Domain Management, as well as many legal software programs. Adriana also hosts both the Law Practice Management Job Board and the Legal Technology Job Board. 

Andy Adkins was attending LegalTech NY this year in a new role in...well, a long time. Last year, Andy joined Steptoe & Johnson, a law firm with over 200 attorneys, as CIO. We chated with Andy about his new role as 'purse string holder' for the firm's tech spend which lead to a conversation about relating IT 'pains' to staff and partners. Case in point, Andy who has been looking at new email archiving solutions, first had to relate the stroage 'problem' to his folks in terms they would understand: "When we were discussing the volume of space that email backup takes I used the following comparison- the entire printed collection of the U.S. Library of Congress is 10 terabytes, 1 Terabyte = 50,000 trees made into paper and printed, and our firm is currently at 2 terabytes and growing.

Prior to joining Steptoe, Andy's career spans more than two decades as a consultant, author and executive.  He was one of the first consultants in the country devoted solely to legal technology and specifically practice management solutions, helping law firms and governmental offices automate numerous processes. In 1997, Adkins established the Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. 

Next, we met up with Ari Kaplan, legal speaker, author, and ghostwriter, who has spent the last year promoting this book, "Reinventing Professional Services: Building Your Business in the Digital Marketplace". Dubbed as the 'Tony Robbins' of legal, Kaplan excudes enthusiasm when discussing new business development for legal professionals, the relevance and use of social media as well as the value of personal interaction and follow-up. If you have not met Ari, check out his website or catch him at one of his many speaking gigs.

Coinciding with day 3 of LegalTech was the publication of KMWorld's February issue which included a feature on KM innovators in the legal field. We had a chance to chat with Bradford & Barthel's (B&B) Eric Hunter, one of three law firm leaders profiled, and past contributor to InsideLegal in the area of cloud computing, Google Apps deployment, and innovative KM via collaborative cloud deployments. We have been helping Eric and the firm publicize technology and change management innovations for the past few years and have seen interest in cloud and social media integration grow exponentially. What started as a legal 'interest' story has evolved into a business growth and client service story and caught the attention of non-legal publications such as KMWorld and others. This week, Eric was in New York to participate in ILTA's Advanced IT programming, co-presenting with several of his ILTA colleagues on 'Six Technologies You Should Know About'. 

Over lunch we met with Randi Mayes, Peggy Wechsler and TJ Johnson of ILTA. Their next event is ILTA INSIGHT UK that will take place in London, May 8-9. There is no registration cost for delegates from ILTA member law firms and law departments. This year's show is being expanded from one day to two and will be featuring a full exhibit hall being managed by LegalTech. Also, they are expanding their SharePoint Symposium, being held June 12-13, to have an exhibit hall as well (exhibit info here). This event will feature two days full of educational and networking opportunities for professionals working with SharePoint in their firms or law departments. 

We ended our afternoon once again roaming the vendor floor and chatting up several exhibitors. While the overall consensus was that traffic and technology interest was up this year, the inability to know precisely how many attendees make their way to LegalTech events has resulted in frustrated vendors and marketing executives. When exhibitors are paying a base price of $6,450 per booth - not to mention the thousands of dollars in event costs, travel and staffing - they have a right to know how many people are attending and most every other show discloses that information. This frustration beckons the question when (if ever) legal conference organizers will be held accountable for attendance numbers and other demographic statistics via a show audit.

Speaking of audits and accountability, InsideLegal has launched the 2012 Legal Vendor Marketing Survey aimed at providing legal marketing and spending benchmarks that are commonplace in other industries but that don't exist within the legal community. Knowing what vendors are spending on marketing and getting a better feel for what marketing strategies work and why is vital in developing a sound marketing effort. Our original survey (in 2008) received responses from 92 legal vendors and we'd love to exceed that this year. Everyone that completes the survey will receive the final results report as well as the results from the 2008 survey.

As we survive another Groundhog Day, we hope lots can be learned from the 31st LegalTech Conference. LegalTech NY 2013 will be held January 28-30. On to our event Ignite Law 2012 (now called LexThink.1) and ABA TECHSHOW 2012 ... 

Check out InsideLegal's other LegalTech NY 2012 posts:

LT NY preview (incl. exhibitor landscape)

LT NY Day 1 recap (incl. ILTA Advanced IT track coverage)

LT NY Day 2 recap (incl. ALM Blogger Brekafast 'blog role')

       

LegalTech New York 2012: Day Two Recap

Day two of LegalTech NY 2012 consisted of more meetings and more catching up with industry personalities and friends. Tuesday's annual ALM Media breakfast kicked-off with a roll call of ALM publication editors and writers in attendance including Robin Sparkman, The American Lawyer; Michael Moline, National Law Journal; David Snow, ALM’s executive editor; Monica Bay, Law Technology News; Anthony Paonita, Corporate Counsel; Evan Koblentz, Law Technology News (breaking news); Sean Doherty, Law Technology News (product reviews) and several other ALM Media staff and contributors. The big news included ‘year one revisited’ of LTN’s online re-launch as well as the results of the LTN Technology Vendor Survey which included 82 legal technology vendor responses. Similar to our review of LegalTech's 2012 vendor exhibitors, the highest vendor responses came from the eDiscovery and litigation support arena (88 percent).

Next up ... the Bloggers Breakfast - The annual bloggers breakfast gave us an opportunity to meet some of the profession's leading bloggers including: 

• EDD Update (eDiscovery)& The Common Scold (general legal tech) - Monica Bay
• Lawsites (web site reviews) - Bob Ambrogi
• InsideLegal (Insider's guide to doing business in legal technology)- JoAnna Forshee & Jobst Elster
• The Intersection of Law Firm Technology and the Real World (legal financial management best practices)- Jim Hammond
• eDiscovery Daily Blog (eDiscovery) - Doug Austin
• Legal Sanity (legal business, career & marketing) - Arnie Herz
• Shear on Social Media Law (social media law)- Bradley Shear
• Legal Research & Writing Pro (small firm professional developement) - Lisa Solomon
• Lexician (legal project management) - Steven Levy
• e-Discovery Beat (eDiscovery)
• Legal Productivity (law firm efficiencies) - Larry Port
• New York Personal Injury Law Blog (PI law)- Eric Turkewitz
• Next Generation eDiscovery Law & Tech Blog (eDiscovery)- John Patzakis
• Virtual Law Practice (virtual/eLawyering)- Stephanie Kimbro
• Small Firm Innovation (small firms)- Gwynne Monahan

Intelliteach - We spoke to Lance Waagner, CEO of Intelliteach, the only outsourced help desk vendor that caters exclusively to the legal profession and law firms. Intelliteach is a clear case of doing one thing and doing it well, which is based on Lance's background as a law firm CIO searching for this service before starting his own outsourced service desk company 13+ years ago. We found, as usual, Lance is leading the way with both an expansion into Hong Kong as well as the vendor's recent ISO 27001 certification. The Intelliteach Hong Kong office will be opening in Q2 and it was fascinating to hear of the journey it has taken to prepare for the opening - from the cultural training involved to the staffing and logistics. Intelliteach's ISO 27001 certification is an information security management systems standard and makes them one of only a few vendors to receive this certification.

Canadian Lawyer: We caught up with Gail Cohen and few of the Canadian Lawyer folks to learn that online content for Canadianlawyermag.com has been vastly expanded to include an impressive lists of columnists and the new Legal Feeds blog. In addition, we received a heads-up on InHouse, Canada's only publication dedicated to the inhouse/corporate legal market.

Affinity University - We met up with legal technology consultants Debbie Foster & Steve Best of Affinity Consulting to learn about their online legal-specific training program, Affinity University. Focusing specifically on real world tips and tricks, their certified experts provide training on popular Practice Management, Time/Billing/Accounting, Document Management, Productivity Software and even Microsoft Office. Classes are one hour and also available on demand to fit your schedule. 

Ross Kodner/MicroLaw - Industry veteran Ross Kodner was also in town for LegalTech and we caught up with him. His firm, MicroLaw, Inc., has provided legal-exclusive automation consulting, law office management consulting, technology “visioneering”, legal PC systems design and planning, specialized lawyer and law firm staff training and support to over 675 law practices throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Ross leverages events like LegalTech to catch-up with vendors and educate himself on products and services his expanding client base may need or look to invest in.

Charles Christian - We met with Charles Christian and his Marketing Director (and wife), Jane Christian, to learn more about his conference coming up March 15 in London. The event is a joint effort with Netlaw Media and, according to the website, "LawTech Futures 2012 is a futuristic one day conference and exhibition which will bring together some of the most highly respected professionals from both the legal and commercial technology worlds to examine and explore the new range of systems, processes and platforms that will drive law firms and legal businesses into the next decade and beyond." 

One more day to go...

LegalTech New York 2012: Day One Recap

LegalTech was off to a great start today. We spent most of the day reconnecting with various legal editors and technologists and discussing the continued growth of eDiscovery vendors and sessions as well as looking to answer the oft posed 'what's new this year' question. At first glance, the iPad as the centerpiece of a growing trend of firm 'BYOD' strategies is definitely gaining momentum. Based on attendance and buzz during the morning's 'iLove for the iPad: Tips, Tricks and Apps' Session, demand for more apps and more best practices is extremely high. Brett Burney, one of the session's presenters, 'Macs in Law' blog owner, and frequent iPad trainer and CLE presenter, mentioned that he has been scrambling lately to work with local bar associations to keep up with requests for iPad training.

While we spent most of the day in meetings, we did visit/run into a few folks on the exhibit floor: 

Aderant - As you can imagine, the last few months have been quite an adventure for Aderant with the acquisitions of CompuLaw, Deadlines.com, Client Profiles and RainMaker. Here at the show they were unveiling the new look and branding of Aderant as well as the release of Aderant 8.0, the first major release of the company's flagship practice and financial management system since 2007.

MyCase - We ran into the guys from MyCase who were working the show from the crowd this year after launching as an exhibitor at LegalTech NY 2011. They are looking to make a big splash at ABA TECHSHOW and if history is any indicator of future results they won't disappoint.  

Legal IT Professionals - We caught up with Rob Ameerun, the founder of the popular Legal IT Professionals website, to discuss the growth of the site and the popularity of his recurring and guest columns. Rob operates out of the Netherlands so it's always nice to see him make the trip stateside, especially during the New York winter months.

 

Day one wrapped up with another star studded ILTA Advanced IT track spotlighting "Six New Technologies You Should Know About." Presented in 10 minute segments, five ILTA firm IT Directors/CIOs and Kraft Kennedy's CTO discussed technologies and concepts that law firms of varying size and complexity can put to use. Scott Christensen, Director of IT, Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, introduced the idea of business recovery 'as-a-service' as a cost effective and immediate means to meet DR/BC goals. Cloud based disaster recovery solutions can provide on-demand self service, increased scalability amounting to savings and ROI figures around 60%. Scott concluded with a vivid and a propos analogy: "Cloud computing can be compared to water from the tap instead of pumping your water from your own well; you can use it when you need it, save resources, energy and money by turning it off when you don't need it."

Jim McCue, IS Manager, Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, discussed the expansion of video conferencing beyond the conference room and unto popular mobile platforms and devices. Citing recent ILTA Technology Survey statistics revealing 41% of firms with 50-149 attorneys are not leveraging video conferencing, McCue pointed to trends such as the consumerization of IT; client restrictions on travel and portability options as reasons adoption should spike. His main tip when looking to leverage portable VC options via iPhone, iPad, and Androids was to choose the best possible bandwidth (aka, wifi when remote) option and control the video endpoint if possible. Other topics included next generation VPNs; Riverbed data consolidation and cloud strategies; Kraft Kennedy's deployment of Microsoft Lync 2010 as a single interface that unites voice communications, IM, and audio, video, and Web conferencing; and last but not least, Eric Hunter's vision of moving the law firm, in his case California-based Bradford & Barthel, to 100% web through the deployment of Chrome OS and leveraging the single log-in intranet desktop.

We'll be sure to provide more insight and highlights from day two. Talk soon. 

LegalTech New York 2012: Breakdown of Vendors

OK, so last year's (3oth) LegalTech New York event continued the trend of being dominated by eDiscovery everything. Let's take a look at this year's event...

Those of us who have been attending LegalTech New York for more than the last decade (this will be our 13th year), or even the past five years or so, have seen a major shift in LegalTech's exhibit hall - namely the drastic vendor landscape shift from a broad collection of technology and service providers to what these days is a eDiscovery/litigation support dominated world. While the need for applications and services required to manage the litigation lifecycle and accommodate the various phases of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) is undeniable, what has suddenly happened to all the other technologies that were previously touted as 'mission critical'? Perhaps the cloud buzz will help revive some of this 'old school' buzz as core technology vendors are looking to deliver said solutions via the cloud. 

Speaking of eDiscovery, here are some stats based on a five year show review (these numbers were pulled from LegalTech show guides):

• LegalTech NY 2012 = 45% eDiscovery (223 vendors; 100 eDiscovery)
• LegalTech NY 2011 = 43% eDiscovery (237 vendors; 103 eDiscovery)
• LegalTech NY 2010 = 42% eDiscovery (229 vendors; 96 eDiscovery)
• LegalTech NY 2009 = 35% eDiscovery (263 vendors; 91 eDiscovery)
• LegalTech NY 2008 = 29% eDiscovery (262 vendors; 76 eDiscovery)

The eDiscovery theme continues as it relates to educational sessions and pay-to-play opportunities (i.e., sponsorships) as well - 55% of the sessions and tracks contain eDiscovery and related topics and 70% of all educational sponsors (excluding association sponsors such as ARMA, ILTA, etc.) are eDiscovery or litigation support vendors (compared to 53% and 73% respectively in 2011).

Cloudy Futures?! Last year, we figured cloud computing would be the next big thing taking hold of future event agendas and sponsorship dollars. After taking a closer look at the 2012 agenda and exhibitor list, the offering still seems a bit slim (only 14 vendors touting cloud services will be exhibiting) despite the fact that cloud computing has now made the agenda with a 'cloud computing' educational track on Tuesday, January 31. Maybe the cloud strategy is to stay lean and mean when it comes to traditional trade show exhibits (i.e., 2011 'darlings' MyCase and RealPractice are not on the exhibitor list this year) but use non-conventional approaches to gaining public/prospect support. After all, selling a cloud deployment goes way beyond a 45 minute feature/function product demo.

Speaking of cloud, here are some other themes & trends we'll be paying keen attention to this week:

eDiscovery: The current buzz seems focused on predictable pricing/predictive coding and offering firms and companies a complete picture of total costs as they tackle complex litigation. We should see this message resonate this year while hopefully vendors, analysts and commentators will band together to continue educating the masses on 'where do I start?' and 'who do I call?'. Last year's 'eDiscovery for Dummies' booklet compliments of RenewData will hopefully make the rounds again.

Integration: 'Seamless' integration can make and break a successful software roll-out ... the same holds true for M&As. How are vendors like ADERANT integrating their new assets like Client Profiles, CompuLaw, Deadlines.com and RainMaker into the broader fold? Nearly four months have passed since HP's acquisition of Autonomy. How has this transaction affected the legal profession? What are the large firm legal clients saying? Has HP clearly articulated its legal strategy? Many vendors are being pushed to 'web enable' and 'SaaS' their applications and solution sets; how are these new web apps integrating with their clients' existing technologies and systems? How are firms integrating Office 2010 and how are users dealing with the associated changes and training challenges? 

Client service: The theme of our Ignite Law 2012 event (now called LexThink .1) is focused on 'serving clients better'. Whether you plan to submit a talk (open to all as of January 30), attend or watch the 6 minute Ignite videos post event, the idea of client service is one that resonates across the legal profession. Now that the economy has settled a bit and firms are loosening the tech purchasing purse strings, especially for core software and hardware purchases, client interaction, collaboration and overall service become paramount. What vendors are focused on clients in particular?

Cloud 2.0: When InsideLegal first surveyed ILTA firms about their use of and plans for cloud technologies in 2009, only 9% indicated they were actively deploying cloud solutions. While we have come quite a ways since then, and spent a lot of energy educating each other on security risks, capabilities, as well as limitations, the success stories and headlines of increased user adoption are still few and far between. The time for 2.0 - going beyond stemming security fears and showing true value - is here.

Back to the basics: While strolling around Manhattan this weekend, a moving truck caught my eye. With a tagline of 'movers, not shakers' the folks behind this very clearly articulate their goal of moving stuff (without breaking it) but more than that, let you know that while it may not be flashy it will get done right...at least that is what I read into it. The point ... it's 'back to the basics' for technology vendors; show your clients and prospects how you can deliver on what you promise, don't obscure the big picture with glitz, but execute efficiently and true to your word.

What percentage of revenue do legal vendors spend on marketing? 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey Now Open

What percent of total revenue do legal vendors spend on marketing? What about your competitors? How does your budget compare?

You can read the results to that question from our 2008 legal vendor survey here, but better yet, you can complete the 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey (takes approx. 10 minutes) to find out how your marketing budget compares to other vendors, what your competitors spend on marketing, where they advertise, what market research they value, etc. In exchange for participating, you'll be the first to receive the full results report upon survey completion (for free) and we'll also immediately email you the complete 2008 survey report with data from 97 legal vendors to review in the meantime. Here are the details...

Since joining legal in 1999, we had searched for industry marketing and spending benchmarks that are commonplace in other industries that don't exist within the legal community. Knowing what your peers are spending on marketing and getting a better feel for what marketing strategies work and why is essential. For that reason, in 2008 InsideLegal conducted its inaugural Legal Vendor Marketing Survey that covered marketing budgets, the marketing mix, public relations, market research and the relevance of specific legal technology events and it yielded 97 unbiased and independent responses. We now feel the vendor community is ready for a follow-up survey - especially considering the major economic downturn we experienced. We encourage all vendors interested in getting better data surrounding their marketing and PR efforts to complete the survey and get engaged in the ensuing conversation. 

With that said, we are currently inviting legal technology vendors (CEOs, VPs, directors, marketers, managers and anyone with keen insight and understanding of their corporate marketing strategy and plan) to complete our 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey. We received 97 responses to our 2008 survey and we'd love to exceed that. The 42 questions will take participants 10-13 minutes to complete and all respondents (with completed surveys) will receive the final results. All results are kept completely confidential. In addition, upon completion of the survey, we will immediately send you the results report from the 2008 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey. Take the time and complete the survey now and you'll have that information before LegalTech New York next week. The 2008 survey included the following, and much more, from a wide mix of legal vendor respondents:

• % of revenue spent on marketing
• what publications they advertised in
• reviews on the top legal conferences
• top categories of marketing spend
• market research recommendations

Here is a glance at the 2012 InsideLegal Vendor Marketing Survey questions:

• Marketing Budgets: How much are you spending on marketing efforts and how does this compare to other vendors?
• Marketing strategy: Who do you market to? What are your key marketing objectives?  What aspects of your marketing program have you outsourced?
• Marketing Events: How do you rank/rate the big legal events such as LegalTech and ILTA? Does your company host a User Conference? 
• Advertising: Where do you advertise? What is the mix of print vs. online?
• Public Relations: What is your media relations approach?  What is included in your (and your competitor's) PR plan? 
• Market Research: Who uses research to support marketing and sales efforts? What type of research proves most effective? What industry surveys do you and your competitors follow?

 

The Legal Vendor Acquisitions Continue...ADERANT Announces Another Purchase

At the ILTA conference a little over a month ago, financial practice management provider ADERANT made quite a stir with their acquisition news, purchasing both CompuLaw LLC, (calendaring and court rule automation) and Client Profiles ('end-to-end' case management software for small to medium law firms) including their CRM4Legal product.

 

Then, on October 3, Elite announced that they acquired FWBS, developers of MatterCentre and MatterSphere tools with a strong presence in the APAC and EMEA regions.

 

Well, the legal technology vendors remain on an M&A roll ... As of this morning, ADERANT has announced the acquisition of RainMaker Software, financial and practice management software for mid to large sized law firms.

The M&A 'arms' race used to be limited to West (now Thomson Reuters) vs. Lexis, with the occasional eDiscovery vendor thrown in, so this recent trend definitely mixes things up. Add to that, record M&As on the law firm side (Altman Weil just reported a 78% increase from 2010), and this might just be the best time to own a business card and stationary printing business.  

How Efficient is your Law Firm Help Desk? The 2nd Edition Guru Guide Tells All

Business audits and financial check ups are an important component of not only corporate life but also law firm operations. Gathering business intelligence about law firm clients, firm profitability, new business oppoortunities and the like is increasingly becoming a legal executive priority. What about as it relates to user support though? Most of the time efficiency starts and stops with your employees and their ability to swiftly and cost effectively serve clients. When is the last time you asked them about the firm's helpdesk (aka service desk) and its ability to minimize technology or workflow-related downtime and get users back up and running and focused on billables? In many scenarios, a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy exists, but in many others it has been 'don't ask, because we don't know'.

Last year, Intelliteach, a legal technology vendor and only dedicated law firm helpdesk outsourcing provider, developed the User Support Guru Guide, a PDF report that takes a close look at legal service desk metrics and key performance indicators that will help law firms, corporate legal, legal technology vendors and anyone in the space operating a helpdesk better manage their operation.

Introducing ... the User Support Guru Guide, 2nd Edition 

The data and statistics included in the 2nd edition Guru’s Guide represent over 1.2 million service desk tickets closed across a variety of law firm sizes, locations, and hardware and software configurations during the period of January 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011. The new Guru Guide report includes the following:

Top ticket categories: Over 43% of 1.2 million service desk tickets logged are specific to various versions of Microsoft Office, 22% of those pertain to Microsoft Outlook. 14% of all helpdesk calls are regarding various firm document management systems.

Conversion & upgrade impact on the service/helpdesk: Conversions cause a significant increase in volume and add additional strain to existing resources, systems and service quality. Based on Guru data, ticket volumes increased by 42% during firm-wide upgrades (average tickets per user per month increased from 2 to 2.85 during rollouts) and took an average of 90 days to return to pre-conversion levels.

Live rates: Pre-conversion, the overall live rate is 93%. If staffing is kept the same during conversions, the live rate drops by 25%. On a related note, “average wait time in the queue” jumps from 10 seconds to 81 seconds.

Tickets by origin: How are users reaching out to the service desk? 70% used the phone and 27% sent an email describing their technology issues, however it seems email is far less efficient for both the user and the service desk: 86% of live (phoned-in) service desk tickets are resolved in that first contact whereas only 7% of email tickets can be resolved in one single contact. Data indicates that, on average, tickets created via email have a lifespan 6 times longer than those originated by phone.

Tickets by weekday: Based on 1.2 million analyzed tickets, Tuesday sees the highest call volume (20.52%) and Friday (16.81%) the lowest.

The complete 16-page Guru Guide can be downloaded here and additional service desk specific data and analysis can be accessed on Intelliteach's Guru webpage.  

September Issue of American Legal Technology Insider is Released

The September issue of the American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi) newsletter from editor Charles Christian is out now and you can download it below. If you aren't already on the subscription list, email your contact information to altisubs@legaltechnology.com. American Legal Technology Insider is available free of charge as a PDF. 

September Issue of American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi)