Axxia stats reveal changing face of UK supplier industry

Judging from figures recently released by Axxia Systems, the legal software industry in the UK has come a very long way in terms of development budgets and commercial ambition. But are we seeing the emergence of a two-speed supplier market?

In bringing its next generation, BPM-oriented business management system – dna* - to market, Axxia has revealed that for the past three years, it has devoted 15% of annual revenues to funding the multi-million pound project.

Stuart Holden, Axxia’s managing director, commented: “When it comes to the UK industry’s traditional stronghold, the provision of integrated systems, I think we have now put some very significant distance between us and our competitors and presented new options for law firms. People may argue that in absolute terms we can not compete with global enterprise vendors but at this higher level I believe that it’s more about intellectual than financial capital. In dna* we have crafted a product that goes well beyond conventional PMS and time and billing solutions – it touches every part of the business, from legal to HR, marketing to finance, connecting everyone to everywhere via a process-driven framework that you can control and change at will. We may have outspent some but we’ve also had to outthink others.”

All in all, it’s a bit of a far cry from the early 90s when a number of owner/proprietors started to deliver what were then regarded as rather small-scale niche applications. Over time, ‘cottage industries’ evolved into software houses: some have continued to grow, some have sold out, others have disappeared altogether. But certainly no UK supplier can be said to have yet made an investment comparable to that which Axxia has made in its future and the future of its users. It’s also strong evidence of the company’s continued belief in the legal profession, who will need to leverage next generation tools to compete effectively; and in those non-legal organisations who will welcome a user-driven BPM solution as they look to put workflow at the heart of the enterprise.

Stuart Holden continued: “This year’s market consolidation has long been predicted and perhaps it’s not that surprising that the focus for many home-grown suppliers has been exit strategy rather than product strategy. That vacuum has seen the growth of global legal IT specialists in the UK and more recently best-of-breed generalists looking to move into the legal space. It’s important for legal and non-legal organisations to know that there is at least one local supplier working with a medium to long-term view, that is vigorously pursing a well-defined development strategy and that has the will, the resources and the track record to deliver. As a result UK users now have a genuine contender in the next generation technology stakes.”

Published on: 23-11-2006