Long wait for right Solution

By PETER GRIFFIN

A huge software deal, five years in the making, has finally been approved for newly acquired legal practice software company Keystone.

Keystone will begin implementing its global practice management software for UK-based law firm Clifford Chance over the next 12 months, to Solution 6, Keystone's new owner. The contract is expected to be worth up to A$20 million ($23.6 million).

Kaye Sycamore, Solution 6's president of global solutions and Keystone's former managing director, said negotiations with Clifford Chance had begun in 1997, but a law firm mega-merger had disturbed the process.

The contract would consist of five major data-integration projects aimed at integrating Keystone's billing and client management software with an Oracle database and financial software.

Three of the projects would be undertaken in Auckland while the main implementation was taking place in London where Keystone has staff on the ground and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young would act as IT consultants.

"The teams are working offset days to get some overlap with time zones and we're also doing a lot of video conferencing," said Sycamore. "Clifford Chance have many legacy sets of data to be put into the new system."

The project would run to December next year and maintenance revenue from the deal would be ongoing, said Sycamore, who described the deal as the biggest in Keystone's history. Scope for similar deals in the legal sector was good, with a group of about 40 global law firms seen as potential customers.

"This is the first implementation where they're looking to put the technology on the desk of every professional as well as every administration person. A lot of the previous implementations were back-office systems," she said.

Keystone employs about 150 people in Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand. The Auckland operation, which focuses on software development, now employs 65 people with 10 additional contractors brought in to work on the Clifford Chance projects. Keystone plans to take on seven graduates in the next two months.

Solution 6 said this month that its £13.5 million ($41.7 million) offer for Keystone had gone unconditional after receiving acceptances for more than 90 per cent of its shares.

Solution 6 is expected to buy the remaining shares in Keystone and de-list the company from the London Stock Exchange by June 21.