Legal IT vendors threatened as company chief targets mid-sized firms on back of new systems and historic publishing relations to offer package

LexisNexis is to re-brand itself as a 'solutions' company, and is seriously considering venturing into practice management for mid-sized firms and other areas traditionally the preserve of established IT systems vendors.


'Solutions provider' is a catch-all that translates, for LexisNexis, as getting the different departments of the firm to talk to each other, and to see future customers as potential 'partners'. But what it means is that the company wants to target law firms with a newly interconnected suite of systems while building better overall relations with those firms.


This mission is being led by LexisNexis's recently installed UK managing director, Josh Bottomley, who gave his first interview to the Gazette. He said LexisNexis wants to move beyond software products for the biggest firms, and build on the relationships it has through its information and publishing business.


'One area that smaller practitioners need is a cost-effective and reliable solution across the areas of document management, billing systems [and] customer relationship development to help the fee-earners be more effective,' he said. 'Wouldn't it be great if we could provide a combination of expertise and available technology that allows a small practice to feel that they have the resources and wherewithal to be competing with a much larger practice?'


This vision could be a real threat for some legal IT vendors. It also displays an appreciation of what the IT industry learned years ago - to sell a service primarily and make products the linchpins in that relationship.


LexisNexis has connected some existing and a couple of new products together, allowing them to swap data properly. What this looks like to the user is a connected set of systems that includes knowledge management, alerting, client relationship management, media monitoring, search and taxonomy, an information-sharing system, and case management with the addition of VisualFiles' Manila.


For now, large firms are being targeted. But to some vendors the most threatening plan might be the inclusion of a practice management system. LexisNexis US bought the practice management system Time Matters last year, and Mr Bottomley said he is 'thinking about whether we want to create something similar in the UK'.


There is certainly room for LexisNexis to flex its muscles, said Simon Young, a member of the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide panel. He said its plans would for now most likely benefit firms with commercial or institutional clients, 'where knowledge of the client's world and markets, and the ability to deliver services with the degree of sophistication which such clients increasingly expect, are paramount'.


He said a post-Clementi venture might work better if LexisNexis got properly involved with firms, even sharing the profits of increased business or efficiency. This may or may not happen, but a new, resourceful player has entered the arena.