ILTA Vendor Program Recap #1: ILTA Vendor Business Meeting & ILTA Technology Purchasing Survey Overview

Posted on September 8, 2009 by InsideLegal

For the sixth year, InsideLegal partnered with ILTA to produce its annual ILTA Vendor Education/Media program at the Annual ILTA Conference.  This year's topics included:

  • ILTA Vendor Business Meeting
  • 2009 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Overview
  • Thought leader & industry expert panel discussions:
    • Utilizing Social Media to Maximize Your Company’s Message
    • Working with Legal Technology Media
    • Working with ILTA (outside of the Annual Conference)
    • Advice for Selling to Law Firms in the Down Economy

We'll be posting a recap of each of the sessions, with this first post covering the ILTA Business Meeting led by Peggy Wechsler and the InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey presented by InsideLegal's Jobst Elster.

ILTA Vendor Business Meeting
The ILTA Business Meeting was led by Peggy Wechsler, ILTA's Program Director, who welcomed the vendor audience to ILTA 2009.  She again thanked the vendors for supporting ILTA and kicked off the meeting by introducing several key ILTA staff members that were in attendance:

  • Ken Hansen (ILTA Vendor Coordinator)
  • Anne Flippin (Managing Editor – ILTA's Peer to Peer Magazine & ILTA's whitepaper series)
  • Maureen Babcock (ILTA Conference Co-Chair)
  • Randi Mayes (Executive Director)

Peggy then discussed the main initiatives for the ILTA conference this year – going green and virtual outreach of the conference.  To continue in their mission to produce a "greener" conference, all program guide information was paperless this year and sent as e-files before conference.  Also, there was a section to recycle badges and conference bags at the end of the event.  ILTA also made the conference easier to access for those members not able to attend by offering ILTA TV by ii3, which had live broadcasts from the event.

Attendance was another hot topic with ILTA feeling the hit that has affected the attendance numbers of other industry events.  ILTA did offer a few programs to assist firms that were not otherwise able to send members due to budgetary constraints.  They offered one day passes and a registration for local firms that could attend during the day.  The total attendance on the firm/member side was
around 850 while vendor attendance totaled 1,400. 

InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey
Next on the agenda was an overview of the 2009 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey presented by Jobst Elster of InsideLegal.  Jobst covered the main changes to the survey this year including:

  • Expanded survey pool to include firms with 50-99 attorneys – sent to total of 730 firms, ranging from 50 – over 3,000 attorneys, yielding 115 responses (17% response rate)
  • More detailed breakouts of technology purchases – past & future (i.e., included questions about purchases that were held over from last year, and in which cases vendor selections had already been made)
  • Added questions about social media/cloud computing/SaaS
  • Separate section on how firms are approaching IT spending/technology purchasing amidst the economic downturn as well as a closer look at firm-vendor relationship

You can view the complete survey at InsideLegal and download the audio file of the program below.

        Download MP3 of Survey Overview

Stay tuned for our next posts where we will cover the panel discussions from the ILTA Vendor Program. 

Posted in ILTA, Market Research, Surveys | Leave a comment

New Legal Technology Show “LIT-Con” Next on the Agenda

Posted on September 4, 2009 by InsideLegal

With another extremely productive and very successful ILTA '09 Conference under our collective belts, we want to re-focus attention to an upcoming ILTA/ARMA International co-production focused on risk mitigation and management for the legal IT target audience. The first annual Legal Information Technology Conference 2009 (LIT-Con) – "Managing Risk Through Information Management: Current Challenges in the Legal Environment", will take place October 15-16, 2009 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. LIT-Con is being held concurrently with ARMA International's 54th Annual Conference & Expo in Orlando. LIT-Con attendees will have access to an Expo floor packed with more than 150 exhibiting companies, education, activities, and unmatched networking opportunities!
  
WHO: LIT-Con is designed for legal IT, conflicts professionals, records managers, litigation support, legal administrators, and anyone else whose role includes mitigating risk in the firm or legal department.

WHAT: Managing secure, compliant, and accessible organizational and client data is a responsibility that falls to everyone in the firm or legal department. This groundbreaking conference offers the comprehensive set of tools needed to collaborate in an efficient and effective way to create integrated risk management programs. Session highlights include:  'Risk Management in today's law firm'; 'Litigation Readiness: The Impact of the Records Management Program'; 'Information Governance'; 'Data Leakage Prevention', and 'Mitigating the Risks of Unified Communications'. Click here for a full session schedule.

WHY: Ethical, legal, and regulatory compliance, evolving technologies, lawyer mobility, and the current "challenging" economic environment are just a few of the issues organizations face in assessing and mitigating risk at their firm or legal department. LIT-Con will: educate attendees on the latest risk management policies, processes, and technologies; provide subject matter expertise in the areas of information management and governance, risk management, and litigation readiness; and supply 'best practices' for collaborative risk management practices.   

For more information on LIT-Con

For more details about exhibiting at LIT-Con or sponsorship details

For more details about registering for LIT-Con 

For general information about ARMA International, contact ashley.flynn@armaintl.org.

InsideLegal is proud to be the premier legal media partner of LIT-Con 2009.

Posted in ARMA/LIT-Con, Events, ILTA | Leave a comment

Legal Media Profile: Anne Flippin, ILTA’s Managing Editor

Posted on September 4, 2009 by InsideLegal

Recently, InsideLegal had a chance to catch up with Anne Flippin, Managing Editor of ILTA’s Peer to Peer magazine and whitepaper series, and get the inside scoop about her first 3+ months on the job. Here’s a roundup of our conversation:

Background: Pre-ILTA, Anne worked as a journalist for 15 years with her last job serving as the tourism edition editor for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Describe a day in the life: While Anne admits there’s been a steep learning curve for all things legal IT, she is very much encouraged by the open line of communications she’s encountered, not only from ILTA members but from vendors as well. Most of her day is spent working on various editing projects, talking with members about future content and fielding calls from vendors about editorial guidelines and pitch opportunities. In her spare time, she does a lot of self-educating by reading popular tech reads such as CIO Digest and Computer World.

Biggest eye-opener: Her biggest ‘wow’ moment has been realizing how intelligent, trend setting and innovative many of her ILTA colleagues and members are.

Advice for vendors/authors/content contributors: Have a clear vision of the issue(s) you are writing about, and have an organized way of presenting your argument or article. Based on their line of work (e.g., exposure to sales), vendors are better at talking about the issues, while ILTA members are motivated to write, but don't know necessarily what to write about. This is where Anne can help guide a certain train of thought or help organize ideas to provide a content blueprint.

What’s next with ILTA publications? Based on the success of the digital versions of Peer to Peer magazine and especially the whitepaper series (which is now exclusively provided in PDF format and online), the publication group is working on creative ways of incorporating rich media (video and audio) into these. Anne mentioned a few examples of this already, but is very open to hearing about more innovative ways to make the member publications more interactive and engaging.

You can reach Anne at anne@iltanet.org or (512) 795-4675.

Posted in ILTA, Media, People | Leave a comment

2009 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Released

Posted on August 25, 2009 by InsideLegal

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), and InsideLegal.com, an online legal community providing an insider’s guide to doing business in legal technology, today released the findings of the 9th annual ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey (Survey). The 2009 Survey, focused on feedback from 115 ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys, covers IT budgeting, technology purchasing patterns, selection criteria and influencers, technology trends & IT challenges, and state-of-the-economy questions. Survey findings and analysis were presented as part of InsideLegal.com’s ILTA Vendor Education & Media Program in conjunction with ILTA’s Annual Conference August 23-27.

 

2009 Survey highlights include:

  • Budget cuts in 2009 are severe: Only 15% of survey participants spend more than 4% of total firm revenue on technology vs. 28% in 2008. However, economic recovery is closer than many might believe with 14% of respondents claiming their firms are already on the way to recovery and 47% stating firm financials will be on the upswing within the next 12 months.
  • 2008 saw major hardware projects rolled out with at least a 40% implementation rate (based on all survey responses) for server upgrades, desktop hardware, virtualization, laptops and printers/multi-function devices (MFDs).
  • 75% of all 2009/10 planned purchases are for technologies that were put on hold or deferred from last year.
  • ILTA’s Peer to Peer magazine is 2009’s publication favorite with a 95% read rate among respondents.
  • Technology blog readership is still below 50% but LinkedIn, as a social media tool for firms, is well entrenched.
  • According to ILTA respondents, virtualization, cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are among the ‘hottest’ future technologies.
  • Email management continues to be IT’s #1 challenge, this year followed by staffing concerns and managing firm growth.
  • Majority of IT decision-makers say getting discounts/price cuts is the best way their vendors can work with them in the downturn. 62% indicated they have received specific vendor ‘economic stimulus’.

2009 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey

 

Press Release on Survey

Posted in ILTA, Legal Industry, Market Research, Surveys, Thought Leadership | Leave a comment

ILTA Vendor Education/Media Program – Produced by InsideLegal.com

Posted on August 7, 2009 by InsideLegal

For the sixth year, we at InsideLegal.com will be producing the Vendor Education/Media Program at the Annual ILTA Conference (August 23-27).  If you will be attending ILTA and have not already signed up to attend, please do so.  Again, we want to thank ILTA for making it possible to provide additional valuable education for vendors onsite Monday, August 24th in meeting rooms Potomac 1&2…

ILTA Vendor Business Meeting & ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Results – 2:00-2:30 p.m.
This session will include an opportunity to meet the ILTA staff, to receive updates on conference activities, find out about future conference locations and get an update on general ILTA programs.  We will also be doing a short presentation on the findings of the 2009 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey.  Take a look at the 2008 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey to get an idea of the information we'll be covering and stay tuned to InsideLegal.com for more information.

ILTA Vendor Education Program – 2:30-4:30 p.m.
We are offering 4 sessions, with each panel consisting of 3-4 faculty – ILTA staff, ILTA officers and recognized industry experts.  Once again, one of our goals this year is to make sure the program is applicable to established vendors who may have attended all past events as well as new vendor attendees.  To participate, please RSVP for each attendee with their name, company, title and email address to JoAnna Forshee.

The 4 panels will cover the following topics:
• Working with ILTA (outside of the Annual Conference)
• Advice for Selling to Law Firms in this Economy (Economic Impact & Doing More with Less Marketing Budget )
• Utilizing Social Media to Maximize Your Company’s Message
• Working with Media

ILTA Vendor Reception – 4:30-5:00 p.m.
Join us following the program for an in-room networking reception affording vendors the opportunity to mingle with other attendees, participating media, and the panelists. 

Again, please make sure to RSVP for each attendee with their name, company, title and email address to JoAnna Forshee.  Thanks again to Peggy and ILTA!

Posted in Career, Events, ILTA, Marketing, Vendors | Leave a comment

ALTi Celebrates 1 Year in Publication

Posted on August 6, 2009 by InsideLegal

The American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi) recently celebrated its one year anniversary with the publication of it's 12th issue (see below) and the interest is growing rapidly.  Only one year into publication, the circulation has topped over 18,000.

ALTi comes from the same publishing stable as the UK’s market leading newsletter Legal Technology Insider and follows the UK formula of treating vendor and industry news as real news, albeit with a strictly North American flavor. ALTi is the brainchild of Charles Christian who is the Editor and Publisher of Legal Technology Insider (in its 12th year) as well as The Orange Rag breaking news blog. Charles Christian has been described by The Times of London as "the definitive online resource for the latest news about legal technology".  ALTi focuses on the large firm North American market.

If you haven't subscribed already, send an email to sign up to receive future issues of ALTi delivered to your email free of charge.  Also,  if you are interested in advertising, you can get information at ALTi's site or contact Charles Christian. 

ALTi's Editor Charles Christian will be a panelist in the Media Program that InsideLegal produces for ILTA at the upcoming Annual ILTA Conference so make sure to attend the event on Monday, August 24th.

Download ALTi#12

Posted in ILTA, Publications | Leave a comment

2009 InnovAction Award Winners Announced

Posted on August 6, 2009 by InsideLegal

For the fifth straight year, the InnovAction Awards have recognized outstanding innovation in the delivery of legal services, demonstrating to the legal community what can happen when passionate professionals, with big ideas and strong convictions, resolve to create effective change.  The InnovAction Awards were initiated in 2004 by the College of Law Practice Management, an organization formed to honor and recognize distinguished law practice management professionals.

The receipient of the award was The New Family Organization which was selected for its Family, Justice and Law initiative. "Advocate Irit Rosenblum broke fresh ground defending a universal right to family as intrinsic to the practice of law. Rosenblum pioneered a new sphere of legal rights surrounding the family based on the conviction that the rights to marry, divorce, have children, bequeath and inherit assets, and conduct family life are human rights and must be attainable to all regardless of faith, nationality, sexual orientation or status. She founded New Family to fill a critical gap in the practice of law in Israel: to attain the right of every individual to establish a family and to exercise equal rights within it. For the two million people in Israel who are subject to discrimination due to family status, New Family’s achievements have been invaluable."

For the first time in 2009, there was also an InnovAction Honorable Mention which was awarded to Practical Law Company, Inc. for creating efficiency for business lawyers.  "Practical Law Company (PLC) is changing the way business lawyers work. It employs attorneys with significant experience practicing with the world’s leading law firms and legal departments (e.g., Davis Polk, Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell, Pfizer) to provide practical, up-to-date resources that help business lawyers practice more efficiently and provide greater value to clients. PLC provides the practical, generic level of information needed by all business lawyers that allows them to get up to speed quickly, stop reinventing the wheel, and focus on client- and firm-specific work. It launched its first US services in December 2008 to wide market acceptance. PLC began in the UK in 1990."

The awards will be presented on Saturday, September 26, at a special session during the 2009 Futures Conference held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the College of Law Practice Management in Denver, Colorado.  For additional information on the 2009 award recipients and the nomination process, visit InnovAction's site.

InsideLegal.com is a Friend of InnovAction.

Posted in Industry Awards, Legal Industry, Thought Leadership | Leave a comment

Sign Up to Attend the ILTA Conference and Receive Complimentary Membership For the Remainder of 2009

Posted on August 6, 2009 by InsideLegal

The theme for ILTA's 2009 Annual Conference – Leading Technology | Optimizing Value – conveys two messages: It will be the premier place for ILTA decision-makers to come together to share their experiences as technology leaders to talk about how they best use leading technologies, and we'll all learn how to best optimize the value of IT in law firms and law departments, a particularly important focus in our current economic climate. The theme helps direct the conference educational program and the networking events of ILTA '09. The conference will be held at the Gaylord Resort in Washington DC, August 23-27. It includes 26 educational tracks and 192 educational sessions.

Due to unprecedented economic conditions and resultant constraints on expenses, ILTA is offering an incentive for non-member entities to join the association through the conference date at no cost, if they are sending at least one person at the full price of registration to the event ($1,025), either as an attendee requiring lodging for the week or under the “day tripper discount” ($750), if the attendee is in the DC area.

In that entities coming in to membership will require a review to ascertain qualifications, they must email Grace Palma, Membership Services Coordinator, or call her at (512) 795-4669 to apply for membership. Eligible entities include private law firms, law schools, corporate law departments (for corporations whose primary market is not legal), and government law departments. This offer, good until August 24, will provide all the benefits of membership to the entity at no cost beyond the conference registration fee. The membership will expire at the end of 2009, though the entity can renew for 2010 by paying the appropriate membership dues.

Don't miss out on the ILTA Conference! 

Posted in Career, Events, ILTA | Leave a comment

Ten Rules for Conference Vendors from Matt Homann

Posted on July 30, 2009 by InsideLegal

Just in time for ILTA, below is a list of ten rules for conference vendors from LexThink's Matt Homann.  How many of the rules does your company break? 

1.  If the only way you can sell your value proposition is with a white paper, you don't have a value proposition.

2.  You do not earn my attention by giving me a pen. You earn it by solving a problem I can't solve without you.

3.  The more your booth looks like everyone else's the more I think your product does what everyone else’s does, too.

4.  Don’t get offended if I don’t believe your product will do what you promise.  I’ve been burned before by people who sounded and looked a lot like you.

5.  Everyone working your booth should have a 7 word answer to the question “What do you do?”  The first three words of that answer should be “We help you…”

6.  The number of words on your booth is inversely proportional to the likelihood I’ll read any of them.

7.  These five words should NEVER appear on your booth: Trusted, Leading, Innovative, Premier, and Unique.  If they do, you probably aren’t.

8.  Dump the booth babes.  If I can’t trust you to make good decisions about your marketing, how can I trust you to make good decisions about serving me?

9.  Your product’s benefits are not as different from your competitors’ as you believe them to be.  Instead of selling me “unique” features, sell me outstanding service.

10.  Capture my attention before you capture my contact information.  A one-dollar USB drive in exchange for a year of emails and telephone calls is not a fair trade.

You can view the rest of Matt's "10 Rules" Posts here.

Posted in ILTA, Marketing, Vendors | Leave a comment

Legal Technology Vendor Sales Associate Position

Posted on July 28, 2009 by InsideLegal

Looking for a great career opportunity where your sales achievements will be appreciated and recognized?  Established in 1990, and headquartered in Atlanta, Client Profiles is a provider of Case and Financial Management software solutions to the legal community.  The company is preparing for an aggressive expansion into new geographic markets.  Our sales and marketing model has been well defined and successfully tested in a number of remote markets.  During the next several months, the company will embark on a carefully defined expansion effort to introduce our products to law offices throughout the county.

At Client Profiles, we have the products, the development team, the client base, the industry recognition, and an impressive listing of references. HOWEVER, we are in need of a few highly motivated software professionals to propel the company to the next level.

If you have a successful sales background and are interested in an exciting career within the legal software application market, working with a fast paced, rapidly growing, energetic company, we would like to speak with you!

Candidates for these positions should posses the following characteristics:

  •  3 to 5 years of software sales success
  •  Highly motivated self starter
  •  Excellent written and verbal communications skills
  •  Ability to demonstrate sophisticated software at all levels
  •  On-line web based software presentation experience
  •  Consultive approach to sales qualification
  •  Capability to deliver results with a solution based selling approach
  •  Thorough knowledge of current technology
  •  Experience with database marketing techniques
  •  Understanding of industry standard sales database software
  •  Proposal configuration and pricing preparation
  •  Ability to effectively handle all stages of the sales cycles
  •  Outstanding closing skills

The ideal applicant will be extremely smart, well organized, disciplined, capable of “thinking on the run” and one who does not require constant supervision.  These sales professionals need to be flexible and willing to take on a wide range of sales and marketing responsibilities.  

At Client Profiles, our company culture is based on a family-like atmosphere, where everyone pulls together in a team environment.  Everyone works very hard, steps-up to handle the task at hand, and offers unparalleled support to co-workers.  We are conveniently located in Atlanta off Northridge Road and GA-400, just a few blocks from the exit.

Come join us at Client Profiles and become part of our team. We offer an outstanding compensation plan, including a competitive salary, commissions and team bonus, as well as benefits.  Please forward your resume and earnings requirements to: Recruiting Director, Client Profiles, 1215 Hightower Trail, Building A, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 30350, Email: recruit@clientprofiles.com, Fax: 678-585-0698.

 

Posted in Career | Leave a comment