LexisNexis Signs Distribution Agreement to Offer ANSOR Proposal
Generation Software to Law Firms
New Survey Conducted by LexisNexis InterAction Shows Law Firm RFP Response
Efforts Poorly Tracked but Significant Strain on Resources
NEW YORK, August 27, 2012 – LexisNexis Legal & Professional (www.lexisnexis.com), a leading provider of content and technology solutions, today announced it has signed an agreement with ANSOR LLC (www.ansorsoftware.com) to sell the company’s ANSOR Proposal™ and ANSOR Experience™ software to existing and prospective LexisNexis customers. The agreement, announced at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) annual conference, means LexisNexis will offer the ANSOR software as independent solutions to the market and also in conjunction with LexisNexis InterAction, a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application for legal and professional services firms.
“Corporate legal teams are increasingly turning to requests for proposals as a means of selecting outside legal counsel, and law firms have to adapt to this change in order to remain competitive,” said Rutger Van der Wall, vice president and managing director, CRM & Analytics for LexisNexis Legal & Professional. “Law firms can give themselves a tremendous boost by leveraging powerful relationship data within our LexisNexis InterAction CRM software to forge stronger connections with businesses likely to be conducting RFPs, and then use the ANSOR software to streamline the proposal generation process to compete more effectively for the business.”
The ANSOR Proposal software accelerates a law firm’s ability to rapidly construct proposals, pitch books, and other standard marketing responses by enabling attorneys, marketing and business development personnel to collaborate simultaneously on a single document. The system also enables staff to more easily integrate into that document content from multiple sources and formats. The ANSOR Experience software helps firms develop a powerful and granular database of attorney experience that can be leveraged to respond more effectively to RFPs. Both solutions are built on the Microsoft Word and SharePoint platforms.
By using the LexisNexis InterAction application in combination with ANSOR Proposal and Experience software, users can:
- Create and manage proposal development efforts directly from within InterAction.
- Archive and maintain finished proposals as InterAction “Activities.”
- Integrate InterAction company data to populate ANSOR “Proposal” and “Experience” fields.
- Leverage InterAction data, including the Matters Module, as Content Types in the ANSOR Proposal and Experience building process.
- Access previously generated proposals from within InterAction with one mouse-click.
Consulting firm Kraft Kennedy will work closely with LexisNexis to implement the ANSOR software at client sites.
“The cooperation of ANSOR, Kraft Kennedy and LexisNexis enables law firms to fully leverage their investments in InterAction, Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint technologies to help earn new business through an accelerated proposal development process that best highlights a firm’s recent and relevant experience,” said Richard Westle, senior director of product management, ANSOR.
LexisNexis today also released findings of a new study in which 42 percent of law firms saw a year-over- year increase in the volume of RFPs, pitches and proposals to which their firms were invited to respond. More than half (54 percent) of law firms surveyed indicated they spend an average of more than 20 hours responding to each RFP with 15 percent of law firms juggling more than 21 RFP responses per month. For these larger firms, cumulative time devoted to proposal generation efforts over the course of one year averaged 4,800 hours putting a tremendous strain on firm resources. Also of note, 146 of 359 survey participants – the majority of whom were connected in some way to law firm business development efforts – indicated they simply do not know the level of RFP activity underway at their firms. Accordingly, the final survey findings are based on responses from the remaining 213 participants.
“The survey findings suggest that law firms of all sizes are spending hundreds if not thousands of hours per year responding to RFPs, and that number is likely growing,” added Van der Wall. “Law firms are going to have to improve their approach to tracking, resourcing and responding to RFPs in order to drive growth and control costs associated with winning new business.”
The online ” LexisNexis InterAction RFP Activity Survey” was conducted between July 23 and August 3, 2012, and included more than 350 total responses. Survey participants were asked to provide basic demographic information on the size and location of their law firm and to answer questions designed to quantify the time and resources dedicated to proposal generation efforts as well as any year-over-year change in law firm involvement in such efforts.
About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis® Legal & Professional (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leading global provider of content and technology solutions that enable professionals in legal, corporate, tax, government, academic and non-profit organizations to make informed decisions and achieve better business outcomes. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. Today, LexisNexis harnesses leading-edge technology and world-class content, to help professionals work in faster, easier and more effective ways. Through close collaboration with its customers, the company ensures organizations can leverage its solutions to reduce risk, improve productivity, increase profitability and grow their business. Part of Reed Elsevier, Inc. LexisNexis Legal & Professional serves customers in more than 100 countries with 10,000 employees worldwide.
LexisNexis helps professionals at law firms and legal departments of all sizes manage the business element of their practice with innovative software and mobile solutions for customer relationship management, competitive intelligence gathering and assessment, time and billing management, matter management, client analysis, legal holds and more.
About ANSOR, LLC
ANSOR Software was launched in 2011 to be the first provider of a complete Legal Marketing Solution based on Microsoft Office and SharePoint. ANSOR Proposal and ANSOR Experience are industry leading solutions allow law firms to accelerate business development activities while leveraging existing investments in Web CMS and CRM platforms. For more information visit www.ansorsoftware.com or contact Rich Westle at westle@ansorsoftware.com.
About Kraft & Kennedy, Inc.
Kraft Kennedy, a leading technology consulting firm to the legal community, has been providing services for more than 20 years. It offers a broad range of consulting and integration services including strategic planning and technology advisory services, infrastructure and network design, business continuity planning, desktop migrations, managed services, and security reviews. By combining outstanding technical skills, an in-depth knowledge of clients’ business processes, and experience with applications critical to the practice of law it assists clients in leveraging their technology investment enabling them to improve their client service and lawyer productivity. Learn more about Kraft Kennedy at www.kraftkennedy.com/ or contact Rob Brindell at Brindell@kraftkennedy.com or 212-692-5604.
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Media Contact
John Michaels
LexisNexis Legal & Professional (202) 857-9121 john.michaels@lexisnexis.com
ANSOR Contact Rich Westle Ansor LLC
(212) 692-5654 westle@ansorsoftware.com
Kraft Kennedy Contact
Rob Brindell Kraft & Kennedy (212) 692-5604
brindell@kraftkennedy.com