Deacons progress with the first Chinese Language implementation of Elite

November, 2004 - Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The Holy Grail for legal firms doing business across multiple geographical locations - particularly in multiple languages using non-English characters - is to have a single, integrated computing environment which supports all languages.

This is easy to say, but has proved in the past to be extremely difficult to put into practice. However, working closely with the Hong Kong-based firm Deacons, Thomson Elite is nearing completion of a major project to develop a multi-language, multi-character set version of the Elite financial and practice management system.

Key to the Elite system's competitive edge in this critical area is compliance with the widely accepted Unicode standard. This standard provides the means for all data to be held in standard Unicode form in a central database. This data can then be searched or otherwise accessed in virtually any language using virtually any characters, according to user preference.

According to Deacons Chief Information Officer Philip Scorgie, this capability is particularly important for his firm, which does business in both Hong Kong and mainland China. This, he says, means doing business in Chinese with two different characters: Simplified Chinese characters used throughout PRC, and Traditional Chinese, more common in Hong Kong.

While other legal firms, and Asian businesses in general, struggle with a confusion of duplicated operating systems, databases and applications, Deacons now has a single, integrated system with all databases and applications using Unicode to support all languages and characters required. A key part of this system is the new Unicode compliant version of the Elite solution - the first specialist legal market practice and business management system to achieve this milestone.

There are obvious advantages to this, Scorgie says, such as the speed and efficiency gains from being able to access and use all client matters and client information from any system in any Deacons office, using whichever language and whichever character set the user or the client requires.

At Deacons, Unicode compliance spans all applications, including the firm's document management system. Routine tasks such as supplying financial and other reports that are required under PRC regulations and must be supplied in Chinese using Simplified Chinese characters, can be done as easily as in English. Task-based billing, which requires the database to search and compile information from multiple documents and sources in multiple languages and character sets, is now fully automated online.

A sophisticated client extranet allows clients to log on to the Deacons system and review progress on matters in the language and character set of their choice, with all character and language conversion fully automated. This includes live access to financial data extracted from the Elite system, and relevant emails and documents. Since all this information comes directly from the Deacons database, it is fully Unicode-compliant and easily handles both Simplified and Traditional Chinese content.

"These capabilities really do make a huge difference to the practice of law in our part of the world," Philip Scorgie says. "There are huge benefits and conveniences for our clients, but also there are major savings for the firm, particularly in managing the cost of maintaining our IT infrastructure.

"For example, prior to our Unicode standardisation, we needed to configure servers and desktop systems differently depending on where - Hong Kong, Beijing or Tokyo - the system was being used. Each location would require different software and different hardware configuration. Now we can standardise on a single desktop and server set-up. This is considerably less expensive, more robust and can be serviced via a single helpdesk.

"The willingness of Thomson Elite to support our Unicode strategy was a key factor in our decision to implement the Elite financial and practice management system. We've built a mutually beneficial business partnership where we have the functionality we want, and Thomson Elite has achieved a strong competitive advantage from being the first legal financial and practice management system that is truly compliant with multi-language, multi-character set requirements. I'd call that a win/win," Philip Scorgie said.

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