The Canadian Perspective on What to Expect in 2013

March 1st, 2013 → 7:14 am @ Ari Kaplan

I spoke with Cynthia Nerland, the Business Development & Communications Manager at Dye & Durham Corporation, a British Columbia-based legal support services firm, about her expectations for the Canadian legal market in 2013.

Among other developments, Nerland predicts a rise in the number of international mergers.  She cited the 2012 combinations of Canada’s Fasken Martineau and Johannesburg-based Bell Dewar, as well as SNR Denton, Salans LLP and Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP effort to form Dentons, as evidence of this trend.

She advised that to prepare for these changes, legal support services providers need to be mobile and leverage multiple platforms. Nerland also expects more lawyers to blog and engage in social media to raise their profiles in the recovery.

Listen to our interview below:

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The Dynamics of Multi-lingual E-Discovery and Predictive Coding

February 14th, 2013 → 6:47 am @ Ari Kaplan

During this year’s Legal Tech New York conference, I had the opportunity to interview Naritomo Ikeue and Sunil Mudunuri, President & COO and Senior Manager of Marketing & Business Development, respectively, for UBIC North America, Inc., the maker of Lit i View, an e-discovery tool that evaluates English and Asian-language characters, encoding schemes, and native file systems.

We discussed the global landscape for electronic discovery and multi-lingual predictive coding, among other topics.

Watch our interview below:

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Will 2013 Be the Year of the Cloud?

December 5th, 2012 → 10:25 am @ Ari Kaplan

As we approach the new year, there are various topics that capture the imagination of the professional services markets, with cloud computing often leading the list. I spoke with Ron Collins, the President and founder of Toronto-based Gavel & Gown Software, the developers of the popular practice management tool Amicus Attorney, about the company’s recent release of Amicus Cloud.

We discussed Gavel & Gown’s motivation to introduce a cloud offering, how it differs from the desktop version, its unique features, and customer reactions, among other topics. Listen to Collins share his views on the adoption rate of cloud-based products in 2013:

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Reinventing the Bicycle

October 30th, 2012 → 7:21 am @ Ari Kaplan

I read this article – Cardboard Bicycle Can Change the World – about Izhar Gafni, an Israeli inventor seeking to produce a mass market bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard, and it highlighted how to reinvent a consumer staple using modern techniques.  With the potential to revolutionize transportation in some of the world’s most remote regions, it is an interesting example of incremental innovation.  Watch him discuss his creation below:

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New Press Leads Service Focused on ‘Women’s Interests’ May Impact Your Reinvention

October 4th, 2012 → 7:15 am @ Ari Kaplan

When I was in Australia for the ALPMA conference, a colleague told me about SourceBottle, a popular press leads service based in Australia that has been operating in the region for a few years. I discussed the value of such services in Reinventing Professional Services, and SourceBottle founder Rebecca Derrington explains in this blog post why she has launched the free sourcing tool to support women’s interests in the US and Canada:

In North America, existing PR connection tools cover any industry, from technology to healthcare to financial services and education. But when you consider that 85 percent of consumer purchases in the US are made by women, awareness of the ‘sheconomy’ means more products and services are being developed that cater for female consumers, more marketers are focusing on reaching specific female demographics, and more bloggers and journalists are covering topics related to women’s interests.

That’s why I felt there was a need for a journalist-to-source tool that was exclusively focused on topics around women’s interests, including beauty & fashion, business, home & lifestyle, health, parenting and relationships. And that’s what SourceBottle for North America does. It doesn’t duplicate what already exists. Instead, it’s tailored specifically and only for journalists and bloggers who need sources for their stories on women’s interests, and for PR pros who represent expert sources (male or female) who can provide insight on these topics.

Try it out and let me know what you think.  Watch the video below for further insight:

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3-D Printers and Reinventing the Production Cycle

May 2nd, 2012 → 11:30 am @ Ari Kaplan

I read this article in Fast Company about Brooklyn-based MakerBot Industries with great interest (not just because I am from Sheepshead Bay), as the idea of publicly available 3-D printers (albeit at a price of $1,749 each) captures the very essence of reinvention.  The ability to create prototypes and small-scale models has the potential to launch an entire generation of visionaries.  The article by Rob Walker details the company’s rise, profiles its founder, Bre Pettis, and offers this glimpse into how the printers work.

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Why Contract Lifecycle Management Matters

February 17th, 2012 → 6:50 am @ Ari Kaplan

During Legal Tech New York 2012, I had the chance to speak with Tim Sparks, the CEO of CLM Matrix about contract lifecycle management.  He noted that the company’s Matrix software solutions are uniquely designed for Microsoft SharePoint, automatically draft contracts in Word, and dynamically create essential workflow.  Watch our interview below:

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The Rise of Meaning-Based Coding and the Changing Landscape for Information Governanace

January 30th, 2012 → 7:17 am @ Ari Kaplan

In anticipation of Legal Tech, I spoke with George Tziahanas, the senior vice president for legal and compliance solutions at Autonomy.  We discussed the rise of meaning-based coding, the convergence of Stratify and Introspect, and the changing landscape for information governance. Listen to our interview below:

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Fixed-Fee Document Review and the Automation Revolution

January 26th, 2012 → 4:48 pm @ Ari Kaplan

In anticipation of the upcoming Legal Tech New York conference, I spoke yesterday with Steve Harber, the President and co-founder of DiscoverReady, a leading provider of e-discovery services.  Steve and I have been discussing fixed-fee document review services and innovations in automated review for a few years.  He shared his views on how the market has changed, as well as key trends for 2012 and beyond.  Listen to our discussion below:

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Fixed Fees and Efficiency Trends in Document Creation for 2012

December 9th, 2011 → 7:15 am @ Ari Kaplan

Following my presentation over Thanksgiving at the 2011 BigHand User Conference, I spoke with Richard Newton of Business Integrity, makers of ContractExpress.com, about content creation and related document trends for 2012.  He noted that fixed fee arrangements have been prompting firms to streamline manual processes and focus on automation in document generation, particularly in the legal, banking, real estate, finance and employment fields.  Watch our interview below:

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