Gamble could pay off as City firm becomes only the second top-100 practice to roll out system

In what constitutes the first buy of its kind in the UK, City-based Holman Fenwick & Willan (HFW) has bought a version of SAP's enterprise resource planning system to help run its business.


Commentators say this represents a risk for a law firm that is significantly smaller than the kind of business that would normally buy this type of corporate software.


But there are also potential gains for HFW, including being only the second top-100 law firm to take on SAP, and the first to buy a new version of the system set up by SAP reseller Intalec. SAP software normally connects all departments together, replacing stand-alone systems such as HR systems, and will also link HFW's nine overseas offices from Paris to Hong Kong to Melbourne.


Until now, only City giant Linklaters has taken on SAP. But Marcus Bowman, a partner at HFW and a member of the team that took the decision to go with the specially adjusted version of SAP, was bullish about the move.


'SAP's a huge organisation,' he said. '[It's] a company that can provide software for businesses [so varied they] have got to be doing something right.'


It is this success in the business world that Mr Bowman said HFW is tapping into. 'We're not much different from any other big high street business. We're just another business capturing data.'


This view of a law firm being mightily similar to any other business is close to advice handed out by legal IT commentators such as Professor Richard Susskind, (see [2006] Gazette, 13 April, 14), who predict law firms will have to become efficient in the same way that, for example, retail companies have in the post-Internet age.


However, this does not mean gains are guaranteed or that the move will be easy or simple. Even Mr Bowman admitted that the time-scale for implementation of the system, which the firm hopes to have up and running by the end of this year, may be optimistic.


But he said HFW had weighed the choices for upgrading its systems carefully. 'We had the patience to look at it properly. Although we're first in the line, I regard us as being no more guinea pigs as the 20th buyer of [Thomson] Elite.'


Rolling out a big system such as SAP represents a risky move for a smaller firm, according to Neil Cameron, a legal IT consultant and ex-barrister.


'I would have expected the SAP solution, whether Intalec or otherwise, to slowly bounce down the top 200 law firms, jumping about ten or 12 firms at a time, until the smaller firms [saw it as attractive],' he said. 'But it's sort of rushed down to HFW - that's a hell of a jump. That's just risk. Sorry, but there's no other way to say it. Even major practice management system providers have made assumptions in the past with their software about how law firms ought to work [and it's come back to haunt them].'


Mr Cameron said the move would pay dividends if all works well, but remained reserved. 'They may have the last laugh,' he said. '[But] Linklaters can afford a gamble ... can Holman Fenwick?'