Based in Cape Town, Hofmeyr is the largest law firm in Southern Africa. The recent merger with four other law firms, Herbsteins, Gihwala Abercrombie, Cluver Markotter, and Walkers, created the need for a nationally integrated information and financial system.
Situation Analysis
Hofmeyr employs approximately 400 people. While most employees are based in Cape Town, Hofmeyr is based in Johannesburg.
Hofmeyr needed an invoice and disbursement control system to record fees and the amounts disbursed on behalf of each client. The company also required a flexible contact system to enable it to keep better track of all its clients and avoid conflicts of interest between clients.
Having established a relationship with Vircom through LexTech, Hofmeyr asked this national Great Plains VAR to provide a solution.
Legacy systems were assessed and found to be inadequate and incompatible. Most existing systems were unable to integrate and take advantage of current technologies such as e-mail and the Internet. Significantly, they were not all Y2K compliant.
Legal professionals needed access to current work at their desktops, thus decentralising functions which had previously been performed centrally in accounts. These professionals also needed to be able to remotely access information on notebook PCs through the Internet and capture vital timesheet information.
Immediate requirements focused on the invoicing and disbursement control system. An outdated time-sheet system was being used to record the hours spent by employees on any given matter and disbursements were often recorded late, resulting in incorrect billing. Many expenses and time charges were not billed at all due to inefficiencies in the system. This made performance comparisons difficult and productivity and profitability suffered.
The Solution
Vircom proposed a comprehensive solution including Dynamics C/S+ ( for SQL Server. Vircom`s skilled staff also developed a specific solution that allows Hofmeyr to capture the number of hours its professionals spend working on any particular matter, either from the office or through the Internet. Developed using Visual Basic, the solution is called FutureLaw. It is currently also being marketed to other law firms.
In addition to its time-billing application, FutureLaw is also capable of tracking the firm`s contacts, and relating these to each other and to matters currently being dealt with by the firm. This allows anyone in the company to have up-to-date access to the firm`s current clients and ensure that they avoid any conflicts of interest, which may occur in taking on another client. It also uses a sophisticated search engine which allows for multilingual and aliased searches.
FutureLaw is able to produce an invoice for the client, based on information gleaned from the input of hours spent on each case. The user does not to have Dynamics on their desktop to perform this task, although the information is automatically posted to Dynamics.
Additional functionality specific to legal accounting requirements was developed using Dexterity (Dynamics` local development environment). While FutureLaw keeps a record of the unbilled amounts for a particular client, Dynamics keeps a record of the amounts owed by each client to the firm. Performance reports can therefore be generated by client, office, fee earner and branch. Integration occurs in the business objects managed by Microsoft Transaction Server and on the SQL server database.
The system is Y2K compliant and can be integrated countrywide through the use of Transaction Server. Citrix or Terminal Server may be used for remote users who wish to access Dynamics directly.
Benefits of integration
By recommending Great Plains Dynamics C/S+ ( for SQL Server as the financial system, Vircom can ensure the integration of it`s own product, FutureLaw, and the transactions for the resulting data from the financial accounting system. Dynamics C/S + is a financial application that has proven itself to be a technological leader for a number of years, ensuring that the solution for Hofmeyr can be maintained on current technologies.
The current financial systems will be replaced in all of Hofmeyr`s offices countrywide. The MIS will be Y2K compliant and ensure uniformity of accounting practices and performance measurement. Initial testing indicated a 100% performance increase over a traditional client/server application run over a 64k leased line.
Solution details
Software
The following software was used to meet Hofmeyr`s requirements:
MS SQL Server 6.5
Visual Basic 6.0
Dexterity
Dynamics CS+ (for SQL Server
Microsoft Transaction Server
ASP Pages (for the internet timesheet capture)
Hardware
Compaq 6000 dual Pentium 400 Xeon
512mb memory
Raid 5 SCSI Compaq Hot swap drives
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