Law Firm Software Recognised in National Competiti

Press Release from HM and Associates
18 June 2007

Law Firm Software Recognised in National Competition

A software programme implemented by Queenstown company HM Associates has been recognised by a prestigious and long running national software awards programme.

Computerworld Excellence Awards 2007 named HM Associates ActionStep programme among three finalists for the Excellence in the Use of ICT in a Small Business section.

Queenstown lawyer Michael Holloway and Queenstown software developer Ted Jordan are the brains behind the effort to implement the ActionStep software in a law office environment.

The pair says that the innovation behind ActionStep was the desire to take the burden of running IT infrastructure out of the law office.

"Many businesses find IT infrastructure a terrible headache to manage. They deal with 'islands of automation' as opposed to a comprehensive cohesive system which is simple to manage,," says Mr Jordan

Mr Jordan says ActionStep changes that by providing all functionality in a single application to simplify running a business.

"If you can get a browser cranked up, ActionStep allows you to run your business from anywhere," he says. "It has been built to use all the capabilities of the internet as they currently exist - many of which weren't available 5 years ago. Your business information is stored on a central server and you just log in from anywhere to work. It means you don't need your chunky desktop or super charged laptop. Any old machine that can connect to the internet will do."

Mr Holloway says his quest for a better way began with an internal audit of his law firm and how it compiled and stored information. That audit showed client information had to be individually inputted into several different programmes and applications.

"And it was all different! There was client information in the Trust Account programme that differed slightly from that in the business accounting programme (Quickbooks). Then people's Outlook would have different details, as would the document production programme. Lawyers want more time on the golf course, not hours in front of a computer reconciling software."

The programme he went on to implement with Mr Jordan provides an end to end solution where all information is only entered once and then workflow is simplified through a clever management system.

"It streamlines business, makes the ability to practice law more efficient and completely simplifies work flow. In the old system, it was very difficult for one person to pick up where another has left off. With ActionStep, when you open the programme it shows everything that's gone on in a file, making delegation far simpler. There's an automatic audit that holds all file notes and makes them easily and instantly viewable."

The pair claims that apart from the system's organizational merits, it's also cheap to install and run.

"It's extremely efficient. The applications work better and cost less than ever before. Most small businesses will have a server system that probably cost $7K - $10K to set up, then the cost of software licences for every computer that accesses the server, then annual IT support costs of $10K - $20K . With ActionStep, you don't need any of that. Just an internet connection, a browser and $60 per month for a license, plus some training and configuration costs to get going," says Mr Jordan.

The pair is delighted to have made the finals.

"It's thrilling to see this become a reality in front of our eyes. We've been working on it for some years and now it's ready to go to market," says Mr Holloway.

The awards have 12 categories and as a finalist, ActionStep stands alongside some of the most innovative software development in the country.

In the Small Business section of the awards, HM Associates ActionStep is up against Canning & Associates for its remote rural office using wireless broadband and Vadacom for Sugar and VadaXchange. The winners will be announced at a gala presentation dinner on Friday 27 July in Auckland.

The 2007 Computerworld Excellence Awards marks the tenth anniversary of celebrating the achievements of New Zealand's ICT users.

ENDS

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