Cambridge and Northampton-based Hewitsons has invested £500,000 in Evolution Client Server, a system from AIM that incorporates practice management, accounting and automatic time recording. The system is designed to assist the firm's marketing activity by incorporating a search facility that can easily access information.


Gepp & Sons in Essex has also invested £150,000 with AIM Technical Services in an upgrade of its Evolution case and practice management systems. A new Windows 2003 server Cluster will improve uptime for essential applications.



London-based Tarlo Lyons has invested in the OpenHand system that gives solicitors remote real time access to e-mail, calendar, contacts and tasks over any mobile device, using virtually any network, so that it can be used worldwide. For extra security, data is stored on the OpenHand server rather than the handset so that there is no danger of confidential information being exposed if a handset is lost or stolen.



North-east personal injury practice Gorman Hamilton has invested £120,000 on ProCLAIM case management software from Eclipse Legal Systems. The software will initially be rolled out to 75 users in the firm's Newcastle and Leeds offices. The firm has purchased a new Compaq file server to accommodate the ProCLAIM database.



Specialist property firm Forsters in London has rolled out Imprint software from Landscape, to help it complete stamp duty land tax returns. The system lets fee-earners and support staff complete the returns on their desktops, calculating the tax while still keeping a full audit trail. The draft returns can be e-mailed to clients to be checked and signed.



National firm Beachcroft Wansbroughs has rolled out SRC's Winscribe digital dictation system to its London offices following a successful pilot by the Bristol commercial property team. The pilot began in October 2003 with 30 fee-earners and 20 secretaries, with a further nine fee-earners soon added due to the improved team working and a drop in document turnaround times.



Nine new firms have taken up the BigHand digital dictation system: Kent-based ASB Law; Brabners Chaffe Street in the north-west; Davenport Lyons in London; Hempsons in London, Harrogate and Manchester; Keeble Hawson in Leeds and Sheffield; KSB Law in London and Hertfordshire; Michelmores in Exeter; Pitmans in Reading and Prettys in Ipswich.