IT services guide to suppliers on the Web

An on-line IT buyer's guide for lawyers was launched last week, offering a 'simple way for lawyers to locate suppliers of legal services and systems'.

The guide has been launched by the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA), which claims to represent companies installing 70% of all legal systems now in use in the UK.

The LSSA Legal Technology Solution Finder provides a summary of what products and services are available in the IT world for law firms.

It is broken down into sections - for example information about IT suppliers with links to their Web sites, and details of different products and brand names.

The site, which is free to use, lists products into five categories and offers browsers a breakdown of the suppliers' target markets - showing which companies will only supply to certain markets.

Legal IT expert Charles Christian, who developed the site jointly with LSSA, said there is a growing market for on-line resources.

'We expect a high demand for this resource - we have no direct competition as other sites are slightly different.'

He added: 'With more and more law firms launching their own Web sites, this is definitely a growth industry.'

LSSA chairman Neil Ewin said: 'Legal software suppliers have been concerned for some time about the lack of a guide to the legal technology systems available - so we decided to produce one ourselves.' The guide is available at www.legaltechnology.org

Victoria MacCallum