Only Time Will Tell

The 10th edition of Quill Pinpoint's Readit! news letter has been distributed and also published in PDF format.

In this issue:The importance of Lexcel, Cloud Computing, Legal Marketing Cooperatives, Surviving a SRA (Solicitor's Regulation Authority) audit & more ...

Readit! Edition Q4-10

On the 12th November 2010 (12/11/2010) the Institute of Legal Cashiers & Administrators (ILCA) changes its name to the Institute of Legal Finance & Management (ILFM).

Dilligence & Vigilance remain as its core values.

http://www.ilca.org.uk/NEWSROOM/NEWSDETAILS/tabid/71/news/676/Default.aspx

Quill Pinpoint wins ILCA Solicitors Software Users Award 2010

The Institute of Legal Cashiers (ILCA) has once again surveyed users of Legal Accounts Software to find the supplier rated most highly by its members.

Full Story here ...

People and Software Services ...

Quill Pinpoint not only develop web based legal accounting & document management software for their clients but they also host their applications & client's data within their own data centres.

Quill Pinpoint's primary and recovery data centres are equipped with HP hardware and VMWare for server virtualization. Virtual machines and data are replicated to a co-location recovery data centre for business continuity & disaster recovery (BC&DR) purposes. And two internet pipes serve the primary data centre: one which uses the BT exchange and other outside of that for further BC&DR.

Law practices can write part of Quill Pinpoint's BC&DR plan into their own thereby outsourcing the IT part of their plan. and for those firms using the optional hosted Document Management System (DMS), Quill Pinpoint effectively become their virtual office.

Firms with head offices outside of the UK can monitor and supervise their UK offices from abroad. Quill Pinpoint offer free access to the firms accountants therefore helping to reduce the firms risk, improve their compliance with the Solicitors Accounts Rules (SAR), speed up audit times and ensure key management reporting such as cash flow forecasting is accessible to the right people.

Coupled with their outsourced Legal Cashiering service - provided by fully trained UK based legal cashiering teams - Quill Pinpoint provide their clients with an entire virtual business service: not just Software as a Service (SaaS) but the much more demanding and difficult to achieve: People and Software Services.

http://www.quill.co.uk/pinpoint/outsourced-services/

Professional Certificate in Legal Accounts Management

It was a proud day for Quill Pinpoint when the first twelve of its "home grown" legal cashiers stepped up to receive their Professional Certificate in Legal Accounts Management at an awards ceremony at the University of Chester.

Their journey started in 2007 when the company experienced difficulty in recruiting enough high calibre legal cashiers to meet the growing demand for the Quill Pinpoint outsourced legal accounting service. A decision was taken to recruit promising candidates for a rigorous in-house training programme that would tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience within the company, producing legal cashiers who would meet the exacting standards and also lead to a recognised qualification that would offer them real career progression.

One of the main advantages of in-house training has been the opportunity for trainees to be mentored by existing experienced Quill Pinpoint legal cashiers. This has ensured that they are fully versed in the technical aspects of the Pinpoint Interactive system as well as the importance of ensuring that no breaches of regulations occur by following the stringent procedures that are laid

One of the company's key objectives was for the training to provide a recognised qualification and to this end a number of avenues were explored. As the University of Chester already had a track record of working with employer-led training programmes, they were selected to deliver and support the academic aspects of the training. The qualification awards 60 UCAS points on completion.

According to HR director Maria Hadfield, the programme has exceeded every aspect of the company’s expectations. “The exercise has improved motivation, self-development and staff retention and proven to be an excellent return on our investment,” she comments.

Unexpectedly, the course proved to be engaging even to some of Quill Pinpoint’s most experienced cashiers and last year the opportunity to participate was extended to all legal staff. "Continuing professional development is valuable at every level and, of course, the chance to achieve a university-accredited qualification is the icing on the cake" adds Maria.

Twelve more staff will commence training at the start of the next academic year.

Re-Branding

Quill Computer Systems Ltd began life over 35 years ago as a software supplier to the legal profession in England & Wales. Then in the mid-1990's our sister company called Pinpoint Accounting Ltd was born that provided outsourced cashiering services to law firms using Quill's accounting software systems to drive it.

Since then, the marketing of these two businesses has been divided leaving our brand & our overall mission unclear to our potential clients.

So this year we undertook a full re-branding exercise by re-building our marketing essentials, such as brand-name, logo, brochure, newsletter & web site from the ground up. See the results for yourself www.quill.co.uk

Also our latest Readit! newsletter can be found here