Charles Christian has acted as Consultant Editor to the Institute of Legal Cashiers & Administrators’ latest edition of its Guide to Solicitor’s Computer Systems, which list details of 16 leading suppliers.

The Guide, first issued in 1995, is available free of charge to the Institute’s 2,800 members and gives advice and tips on the best way to select and implement a computer system.  It lists full contact particulars, product information and supplier details of the accounts, financial management and practice management systems offered by 16 of the UK’s leading legal software suppliers.

In his opening article, “Setting Technology In Its Strategic Context”, Charles Christian retells the old joke that asks what is the difference between the legal technology market and the movie “Jurassic park”?  The answer is that one is an expensive high-tech adventure playground populated by dinosaurs, and the other is a movie by Stephen Spielberg.  He goes on to make the point that lawyers have spent the last 30 years investing large amounts of money on I.T. systems that most of them could ill afford for no apparent purpose or benefit.  It is the hope of both Charles and the Institute that the new Guide will go some way towards ensuring that history does not keep repeating itself.

Among the issues discussed in the Selection Process section are change management, measuring return on investment, getting the price right, and the key points of implementation.  A vital key to success, according to the Guide, is having appropriately qualified staff to operate and manage the new system, particularly in the area of staff’s knowledge of the Solicitors Accounts Rules.  A schedule of education courses run by the Institute is included which, it says, should be an essential prelude to any new computer installation if the staff are to get the best out of the latest technology.

For details of the Guide and the ILCA training courses and qualification process, please contact the Executive Secretary, Margaret Macdonald, at ILCA, Marlowe House, 109 Station Rd., Sidcup, Kent DA15 7ET telephone 020 8302 2867 or visit their web site at www. ilca.org.uk