LexisNexis and Uptime Legal – a Match Made in the Cloud
In our recent joint press release, we and LexisNexis announced that Uptime Legal and LexisNexis have joined forces to deliver Time Matters and PCLaw in the Cloud. In this release, LexisNexis explains that more and more of their clients, users of their Time Matters and PCLaw software, have sought a cloud solution to host their software (and the rest of their firm) in the cloud. As a result, LexisNexis has chosen Uptime Legal as the primary provider in LexisNexis’ newly developed Authorized Hosting Partner Program. The program vigorously vets potential cloud hosting providers and provides a clear roadmap to the cloud for Time Matters and PCLaw customers.
Here at Uptime Legal, we couldn’t be more excited for users of Time Matters and PCLaw.
We’ve been hosting Time Matters and PCLaw on Uptime Practice, our private cloud platform, for years. And our respective technical teams have been working together to serve our mutual clients for a long time. This Authorized Hosting Program formalizes this alliance as well as the requirements for future authorized hosting providers.
So, what led up to the launch of this program?
One thing I’ve personally witnessed over many meetings and phone calls with the team at LexisNexis is that customer experience is the most important thing to them. As cloud computing becomes more ubiquitous, more law firms are searching for a hosted solution for their Time Matters and PCLaw. This search often leads them to ask their local IT firm or a cloud hosting company they found online about hosting their Time Matters and PCLaw. The result of this was many small hosting companies and IT service providers building their own cloud offering.
The problem: The market became saturated with IT consulting groups and self-described Cloud Service Providers offering to host Time Matters and PCLaw for law firms. Some of these firms, unfortunately, lacked the experience and the acumen to understand the nuances of hosting legal software and the culture of providing technology solutions to law firms. We call it the “me too” phenomenon of IT companies losing business to the cloud–and throwing together their own brand of “cloud” solution to keep their clients and stay relevant in the market.
LexisNexis witnessed this, and unfortunately it was the client–the law firm–that paid the price if their local IT consultant or their chosen cloud provider wasn’t suited for the task. Clients with problematic or inferior cloud platforms would call the LexisNexis support team for resolution to their problems. The LexisNexis support team, as eager as they are to solve their clients’ problems, could do little about a cloud platform that wasn’t suited for the task, or a technology team that lacked experience hosting and supporting Time Matters and PCLaw.
Truly, when it comes to cloud services for law firms and hosting of legal software, it had become the wild west.
For LexisNexis, I think the sentiment was: “See Rule #1”: Customer experience is the most important thing. LexisNexis wanted to bring some law and order to the playing field. They knew that for every capable, reputable legal cloud service provider there were many more that delivered a sub-optimal experience to their customers. Cloud providers that cut corners, offered a limited support scope or otherwise lacked the experience and skillset to host legal software and secure the law firm’s data.
This led LexisNexis to Uptime Legal, who had emerged as the Gold Standard for legal-centric private cloud services. To quote LexisNexis:
“Uptime Legal Systems was an obvious provider for us, helping to bring continued value to our active customers through an integrated system allowing them to fully manage their business, on their terms.”
– Scott Wallingford, Vice President and General Manager of Law Firm Software Solutions for LexisNexis
Setting a High Bar
Law firms across North America (and the world) are looking to ditch their servers, get out of the business of managing servers and IT, and practice from anywhere. LexisNexis understands the needs of law firms better than almost anyone, and they were acutely aware of this. So, they set out to develop more than just a shortlist of companies they can refer their clients seeking a cloud solution. To ensure an optimal customer experience, LexisNexis developed their new Authorized Hosting Program so that companies that provide hosting services for LexisNexis products meet the highest standards of reliability, security, ethics and support.
This program and its requirements, ranging from data security and sovereignty, to infrastructure and backups, to process, support and user experience, sets a very high bar to make sure that every Time Matters and PCLaw client that moves to the cloud is not only officially supported, but in the best hands possible.
So, what does this mean for Time Matters and PCLaw Customers?
Officially, support for a cloud-based or hosted platform for PCLaw and Time Matters has been ambiguous. This new program creates a formal path to the cloud for LexisNexis customers, a solution that is battle-tested and lawyer-approved. For the first time, users of Time Matters and PCLaw will have a LexisNexis-endorsed, fully-supported cloud platform when they move to the cloud within the LexisNexis Authorized Hosting Program ecosystem.
At Uptime Legal we’re honored to not only have helped LexisNexis develop the specific program requirements but to be the first participant in this program. We’re even more excited to deliver the level of service and commitment we have to our over 500 law firm clients to even more users of Time Matters and PCLaw.
Learn More
Are you a Time Matters or PCLaw customer? Are you tired of dealing with servers and IT headaches? Do you need a higher level of cybersecurity? Do you wish you could access your entire practice (software, documents and email) from anywhere? Check out Uptime Practice, our private cloud designed exclusively for law firms.
But Uptime Practice will do more than just host your Time Matters and PCLaw. Uptime Practice includes:
- Tons of storage for your documents and data.
- Microsoft Office for everyone in your firm.
- Exchange email with unlimited email storage.
- Unlimited IT support – for all of your technology.
- Microsoft SQL Server.
Thinking about the cloud for your law firm? Give us a call–we’d love to chat.
