Laserform Group announced last week that it had purchased the rights to the HRnet personnel and human resources (HR) management application from Augment Systems in a 'six-figure deal'.

The group has also set up a subsidiary company, called Laserform HR Systems, to market and support the new software and announced its first customer - the London commercial practice Kendall Freeman.



Charles Christian: law is a 'people business', yet human resources and personnel are often under-resourced

On one level this is an interesting example of a legal IT company diversifying into new areas of activity. When Laserform was founded 16 years ago, it focused entirely on electronic legal forms before moving into case management software and more recently becoming a Law Society Software Solutions guide-listed supplier of practice management systems.


Indeed the group's chairman, Barry Hawley-Green, has already said he plans further innovations and acquisitions over the next couple of years.


However, there is another side to the story, namely that, as a result of the HRnet deal, Laserform has become the first mainstream legal systems supplier to address what has previously been a weak point in the IT and practice management infrastructures of most law firms.


Firms currently spend tens of thousands - and in some cases hundreds of thousands - of pounds on accounts, practice, case and document management systems to look after their billing, client, matter and document records. Yet their HR and personnel departments are frequently under-resourced, having to make do with inadequate IT systems and, as a result, are haemorrhaging money in all directions. This is particularly ironic as all law firms are ultimately 'people businesses'.


For example, secretarial and support staff turnover in many London firms is in the region of 20% per annum, which means that with a staff of just 100 (not big by today's standards), the recruitment fees alone for replacing 20 staff are going to be in the region of £80,000 a year, while the true cost - taking into account the disruption, hiring temps, induction and training - is going to be much higher.


The cost-benefit justification for HR systems therefore boils down to the argument that if personnel department staff could be freed from some of the laborious, administrative chores associated with their work, they could then take a more proactive approach to other issues.


For instance reducing staff turnover to just 15% would save £20,000 a year, every year. And 'yes', HRnet also handles CPD administration, a task which in larger firms can easily occupy one person full-time.


Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide