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I am what one of the people commenting on this piece describes as a "parasitic hanger-on (Lexcel Consultants, etc.)" i.e. I am a Lexcel consultant and assessor.

Before I developed 'parasitic' tendencies, I worked in law firms as a volume residential conveyancer. One of the practices I worked for began using a conveyancing support system way back in the 1980s - they were forward thinking about the benefits. The concept of 'bolting on' a web-based collaborative system to their case management system in the 2010s will not faze them much, if at all.

As a Lexcel assessor, I visit a large number of practices each year. Many have no software-based workflow support and depend wholly on word processing software and creating paper files - others operate in a virtually paperless environment where the 'file' is an electronic one and I review digital files during the course of an assessment. They are relatively few and far between, it has to be said.

Apart from the 'daily grind' of running a large volume of conveyancing files in a previous life, I've also worked for software suppliers and implemented case management systems. My guess would be that only around 20 - 30% of practices that introduce computerised case management actually do it well. There is resistance to effective implementation at all levels. Technophobes; those wedded to paper; senior partners who don't think it's 'quite the thing' for them; failure to grasp the functionality offered. The list goes on.

Any initiative to develop a collaborative 'deal room' environment in which to 'house' conveyancing transactions is going to have obstacles put in its way by all and sundry. As can be seen from many of the comments posted here, the greatest obstacle is probably going to be 'cultural' (sorry, 'consultant speak' creeping in).

As someone who has sat where many of you sit, i.e. with tens of residential conveyancing files to progress, I would welcome a chance to see what Veyo can do. It won't be perfect at launch - software systems rarely are - but if it can go some way to satisfying the 'thirst' for information that often seems unquenchable in some chains - good on it.

During the course of the assessments I carry out, I review the complaints position of each practice. Most complaints are about a lack of costs information; delay and not being kept informed about progress. Obviously, many of these complaints are not justified - they are about perception of a given situation rather than the reality of it.

According to some comments, Canada and New South Wales have successfully used similar systems for around a quarter of a century. Conveyancers should be prepared to give Veyo 'a break' - it might just be a vehicle to spread the efficient dissemination of information and reduce the number of client complaints based around the hunger for information.