Extranets to become focus of IT strategy
Legal Week
August 02, 2000 at 08:03 PM
3 minute read
Client extranet services are the focus of many online initiatives by major firms – and even chambers might soon be getting in on the act.
Clifford Chance is set to launch a "major expansion of NextLaw [the firm's online service] and a new extranet service" for its clients in September, according to IT manager Paul Greenwood. NextLaw was launched in 1998 and the firm announced a 'second phase' development of three knowledge-based online services in June. The third phase of product, expected in the autumn, aims to deliver a "broader range of online services".
Reynolds Porter Chamberlain is "half-way through the rollout" of Interaction, an off-the-shelf client relationship solution, said Lea Thompson, an IT consultant working at the firm. Thompson said the main concern was to get the system up and running as quickly as possible. "The project began in February, and now the first users are accessing information from six or seven different sources," she added. "Eventually, Interaction will enable us to provide case management information externally, via an extranet."
Liam Flanagan, marketing director of Tikit, which sells and installs Interaction in the UK, said: "Reynolds Porter Chamberlain is buying the product because of its marketing applications." But Flanagan predicts the full extranet service will not be available to clients until "some time in 2001″.
Masons is set to roll out a client extranet service powered by a content management system, or portal, from iManage. "The key issue as far as client service is concerned is the ability to collaborate and communicate effectively," said Kevin Connell, IT director of Masons. "Our portal will create and manage content so that it can be published to a website such as Masons.com, Out-law.com or a client's extranet site," he said. Out-law.com is a specific Masons initiative, geared to dotcom companies, start-ups and new media organisations. The uptake of its services in the month following its launch exceeded all expectations. Connell added: "What we plan to do in due course is to have iManage manage the content for Out-law." According to Connell, Masons chose the iManage system over its rivals, including Hummingbird, because of its flexibility, ease of customisation and "because we can get it up and running and be collaborating with clients swiftly".
KCH Barristers in Nottingham is the first chambers to develop an e-commerce framework that takes its website beyond "simply providing a brochure on the web", according to practice director Caroline Royston. The site encourages existing and potential clients to contact individual barristers direct by e-mail and to request estimates for work.
"It also provides an online enquiry form for clients to check the availability and book their chosen counsel outside working hours," she explained. "The Bar is in the position that solicitors were in three years ago – we have tended to lag behind on the client care side."
But the booking facility is not yet integrated with the chambers' diary system because of budgetary restraints and the need to change barristers' working culture slowly.
Royston predicts that a London-based chambers could launch such a client extranet within the next year.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllSkadden to Close in Shanghai and Make Cuts to China Corporate Practice
DWF Group's Canadian Firm Set to Add Fourth Office With 16-Lawyer Montreal Team
UK Law Firms Face £75M Money Laundering Investigations Alongside Russia Scrutiny
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1The Law Firm Disrupted: Playing the Talent Game to Win
- 2A&O Shearman Adopts 3-Level Lockstep Pay Model Amid Shift to All-Equity Partnership
- 3Preparing Your Law Firm for 2025: Smart Ways to Embrace AI & Other Technologies
- 4BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 5A RICO Surge Is Underway: Here's How the Allstate Push Might Play Out
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250