The trend for adopting accounts and financial management systems of US origin is catching on amongst City firms.

Is it a passing fad or do US legal systems really offer something that home-grown software lacks?One firm which has recently followed this route is Clyde & Co.

In autumn 1992 the firm wanted to replace its old accounts computer with a more modern system.

The hardware platform was selected before the appropriate software was chosen.

The firm's chief accountant, Peter Penrose, says this apparent heresy was committed because, as an international firm, Clyde & Co has offices all around the world, including two in South America.The firm's plan is eventually to create a global network, with the same systems in use in every office.

So, for example, a lawyer flying out to Venezuela and then on to Hong Kong would be greeted in those offices by exactly the same information systems as he or she was familiar with in the firm's Eastcheap office.It was therefore essential that Clyde & Co did not choose software running on technology which was unobtainable in either Brazil or Venezuela and thus the hardware platform had to be chosen first.

Only two suppliers fitted the bill, IBM and Digital, and this, in turn, restricted software options.

IBM eventually won the day with a system running on the RS/6000 Unix platform.An invitation to make a presentation went out to Los Angeles-based Elite Data Processing Inc along with requests to seven or eight well-known UK suppliers.

Clyde & Co had heard of the US company through Allen & Overy, which at that time was known to be planning to use an Elite system as part of its own Apollo office automation project.The initial presentations were followed by more formal invitations to tender (ITTs) and eventually there were just two companies left on the shortlist - a UK supplier and Elite.

IT manager Andy Wrightson visited Elite's headquarters and a number of the larger of the company's 250 plus users in the USA and, a few weeks later, the contract was awarded to Elite.Mr Wrightson says the firm did not deliberately set out to buy American but Elite offered Clyde & Co the best value in terms of functions available, price and delivery dates.Having used the same UK supplier for the last 12 years, the firm was happy to consider buying British again but, according to Mr Wrightson, several suppliers ruled themselves out of contention by ignoring the brief at the original presentation or rapidly revealing that they had insufficient knowledge of the needs of international law firms and how they operate today.

'Too many of them seemed to adopt the approach of just wanting to sell us the hardware now and worry about sorting out the software later,' says Mr Penrose.By contrast, Elite's president, Alan Rich, immediately grasped the broader business issues concerning the firm.

Mr Wrightson recalls being particularly impressed by the way Mr Rich was able to produce on screen, in a couple of minutes, a month-end report that, at the time, took Clyde & Co several days to prepare.Inevitably there were some shortcomings: ledgers were based in US dollars, there was no VAT element and the records did not comply with the Law Society's Solicitors Accounts Rules.

But there were also weaknesses in the UK supplier's system, particularly in handling overseas work and conflicts of interest.

And even here Elite won out as it was able to give - and adhere to - far shorter deadlines for completing the modifications than the competition.

But surely all those modifications cannot have been cheap? In fact, according to Mr Penrose, even taking into account the changes made for the English market, the Elite system was still 'considerably cheaper' than the front-running UK system.What about support facilities, which, even after Elite opened its London office, are still largely dependent upon staff in the Los Angeles office, 5500 miles and eight hours time difference behind the UK?It was a problem that initially concerned Mr Wrightson but thanks to modem/on-line support links, the time factor actually works to Clyde & Co's advantage.

'If we call Elite with a problem by 4pm London time, their engineers can work on it during our overnight period, so that when we come back into the office the following morning, the bug has been fixed.'Another option would have been to work with a UK supplier, either on its own or in conjunction with a consortium of other City firms, to develop a system which contained all the features the firm required.

Mr Penrose believes that such a proposal would be a non-starter from the outset.

'A modern computer system is a tool for management, it is not a toy to play with.

Clyde & Co is a solicitors' practice: we are not in the business of pioneering new IT.''It's the "jam tomorrow" approach,' concludes Mr Penrose.

'I could not go into a partnership management committee meeting and say: "Let's spend a lot of money and in a couple of years' time we may have a really good computer system." Instead, they need to know what the system will do, when it will be delivered and how much it will cost.

By going the IBM and Elite route, we have been able to deliver the system on time and on budget.'