Q&A - All you need to know about AXXIA DNA

It’s the first business management system in the world written specifically for the legal market – and here we answer all the key questions about Axxia’s latest killer application.

Q. What exactly is axxia dna*?

A. It’s sometimes easier to define something by what it isn’t. dna* isn’t a rehashed practice management system; it’s not a discrete case or matter or document management system nor is it a ‘modular’ anything; and it’s certainly not a ‘big firm’ solution. It’s a unified business management system suitable for all sizes of firm, whose web-based interface links everyone to everyone else and to everything they need – files, emails, correspondence, accounts, KPIs, reports, precedents, transactional tools, time recording, bills, contacts, marketing plans, induction procedures, in fact every conceivable component, legal and non-legal, to which you need access – all from a single window. It scales effortlessly from 5 to 500 to 5000 and allows you to have unprecedented levels of command and control over all business processes and activities.

In essence, dna* brings together three key disciplines for the law firm and moulds them together in one seamless whole:

• Practice management – time recording, enquiries, billing, reporting, KPIs 
• Business process management – case and matter management, transaction management, entity management, file management, document management, email management, CRM, HR, KM 
• Enterprise resource planning – workload monitoring, capacity planning, impact assessments, operational/financial modelling

Q. Why did Axxia develop dna*?

A. For the past three decades, Axxia’s practice and case management systems have led the market, evolving over the years to sometimes anticipate, at other times to reflect the needs of the legal market. It necessarily gave us a module or silo-oriented product set, which, while seamlessly integrated, didn’t necessarily harmonise completely with the way lawyers and law firms worked. When designing the next generation of practice management system, we wanted to create an application that didn’t dictate to users where they were in the system but rather supported and tracked the user as they logically went about their business – hence the portal approach that does away with ‘up and down’ working in a particular silo and instead allows work to be akin to a production stream, moving across and through the system from within the same window. It’s such a natural, non-invasive and user-friendly workspace that staff will barely register that they’re actually in it and automatically complying with practice requirements – although they’d certainly be lost without it.

We also realised that we wanted to redefine practice management, a term that had always been a bit of a misnomer given that it was used really in relation to accounts systems. To help firms cope with all the pressures brought about by compliance and regulatory change, by the need to adhere to standards and client protocols, by the on-going drive for yet greater efficiencies and by the increasing need for more strategic planning and proactive business management, we thought we would expand practice management into just that – a system for business management. Hence the expansion of core functionality to include not just traditional PMS elements but also BPM/workflow and enterprise resource planning (ERP).


Q. Why is it called dna*?

A. Through the dna*application, firms can capture and control the very base material that gives their organisation its shape, structure and service philosophy – processes, matters, files, standards, documents, data. That in turn can facilitate commercial ‘genetic engineering’ – the cloning of best practice into new teams, offices, franchises to circumvent the ‘getting up to speed’ stage and to guarantee operational consistency.


Q. How does it differ to existing solutions in the market?

A. It differs in two fundamental ways. First, it is a unified system – it achieves in one application what it usually takes multiple applications to deliver. That means substantial time and cost savings when you consider the extra investment, integration, training and maintenance requirements of a multi-layered solution.

Secondly, dna* passes control back to the user. It gives firms the ability to quickly and easily map every business process – legal and non-legal – into a workflow that can then be placed immediately onto the system. New workflows or amendments to existing ones are no longer the preserve of the supplier or the IT department – DNA offers a programming-free environment accessible to all. As long as you can identify the step-by-step sequence of events or conditions in any given process, you can create a workflow – however awkward or complex the decision tree.


Q. How does it benefit my organisation?

A. dna* is a prime example of lean software engineering – it is browser-based, so accessible from anywhere in the world where you have an Internet connection. It is quick to deploy, easy to maintain and intuitive to use. It is one unified solution, delivering broad-based functionality without the need to buy and deploy several discrete systems. It affords users new levels of control, allowing them to efficiently manage performance, workload, matters and standards, with the critical in-built ability to react quickly to change – commercial, regulatory, cultural or technological. With dna* on every desktop, it facilitates joined-up working, with unparalleled opportunities to connect and collaborate with colleagues. This is business-ready software for the business-ready law firm – those organisations that want to secure a successful transition from practice to commercial entity and to compete aggressively in a post-Clementi legal market.

Published on: 25-09-2006