Linklaters, DLA manage change

Two top-ten City firms have started 2002 by making major investments in document management and client relationship management software.Linklaters has adopted Deal-Builder, the newest offering from Business Integrity, whose IntellX document automation system was nominated for the Society for Computers and Law's recent annual award.

DealBuilder enables lawyers to generate legal documents from automated master documents.

It converts those master documents into Web-based questionnaires, which the user completes to generate a specific contract.

The package fits in with Linklaters' own legal product, Blue Flag.Linklaters said it picked DealBuilder because it promised to save time and cut the number of mistakes made through staff physically altering and updating paperwork.Patrick Hynes, Linklaters' head of IT, said that while document automation was not a new concept, until recently the time, costs and inaccuracies involved outweighed the potential benefits.

This is despite the time-consuming and error-prone process of editing master documents by hand.

'DealBuilder changes the game, enabling us to automate documents easily and quickly, but above all with complete accuracy,' he said.Meanwhile, DLA has bought InterAction, a relationship management product from Interface Software.

The system will serve as the firm's relationship intelligence hub, delivering information on people, companies, relationships, experience and expertise.InterAction will be integrated within the firm's internally created Web-based fee-earning environment, called Gemini.

Gemini is a browser-based portal platform that fee-earners use to access and manage all fee-earning-related data and documents, including financial details, client and matter documents, and, now, contact and relationship data.

Fee-earners will not know that they are accessing the new information from a different application.Daniel Pollick, DLA's IT director, said the firm was looking for a fast solution which could manage information across the firm's 12 offices.

'Relationships are critical in all aspects of our work, from business development to delivering high-quality client service,' he explained.'The ability to quickly and easily access relationship and contact knowledge is of strategic importance to this firm as we continue to grow.'Paula Rohan