By Legal Futures’ Associates Select Legal Systems
When the Directors of Select Legal Systems, Mike Craven and Steve Dixon first established the business in 1993, they made 4 key promises to clients and prospective clients. Their legal practice management software system for law firms, LAWFUSION, would be (1) FLEXIBLE (2) INTUITIVE (3) EXCELLENT VALUE FOR MONEY and (4) have OUTSTANDING SUPPORT. Over 25 years later, they are proud to be able to say they both still stand firm on all four of these promises today.
Focusing on point (3) EXCELLENT VALUE FOR MONEY for a moment – this has probably been the least-mentioned of the four, in terms of the company’s marketing and sales collateral. However, it has come to light recently that this is of great interest to law firms.
From day one, the Directors set the price of LAWFUSION at what they believe to be a fair price for a quality product. It is not priced at the top end of the market, and due to its many law-firm specific modules with comprehensive functionality it is not at the basic level of the market either. It asks a fair fee for a software suite that competes well with the best in the industry. Most importantly, LAWFUSION prices increase only at the rate of inflation referring annually to the ‘Retail Price Index’ (RPI) as supplied by the Office of National Statistics for a consistent guide for setting fees.
Joanne Hunter, Head of Marketing, for Select Legal Systems Limited – authors of LAWFUSION – said, “At our sales & marketing meetings, the sales team often recount conversations they have had with people at law firms responsible for choosing new software. There have been many examples of late of firms signing up for software with some suppliers for a significantly reduced fee, only to find 12 months later their subscriptions have been hiked up dramatically, by up to 100% in some cases. These kind of conversations are becoming more and more frequent, and I would conservatively estimate as a team we have had over 20 conversations of this nature in the last six months.
“Law firms that choose LAWFUSION don’t need a crystal ball to keep a check on fees. They can be certain their annual software fees will not rise above the rate of inflation, indicated by the RPI. In fact any law firm that signs up for our cloud solution, LAWFUSION Direct, before 31 October 2020 will be guaranteed a 3-year price freeze, before any RPI increases are applied in year four onwards. This price freeze is part of our current ‘lockdown software offer.”
There is no doubt that so far 2020 has been a peculiar old year. None of us expected it. None of us know, even now, how things are going to pan out. None of us know exactly what the ‘new norm’ will look like for the legal profession, or for anyone else. However, amidst the ongoing turmoil there are some elements of clarity we can rely upon. People will always need quality legal representation of some variety, the law firms equipped to embrace the unexpected stand a better chance of success through difficult times, and key business partners to law firms – such as software suppliers – must work with their clients, listen to them and provide fair and transparent business contracts.
For more information about LAWFUSION please call 01482 567601 Monday to Friday between 9am and 5.30 pm. Outside of office hours you can request further information and/or a demonstration via the LAWFUSION online enquiry form which is available here.
