Legalex 2017 was a mixture of seminars, networking events and exhibition space for the purpose of helping legal firms and professionals develop and thrive in today’s legal industry. There were around 100 exhibitors and plenty of VIPs and speakers, with the event taking place across two days. The remit of the show is to help legal workers and firms develop professionally and make the most of marketing, finance and technology services. There was a focussed, business-like buzz in the air.
The print industry’s products and services are well-suited to supporting the legal market, whether it’s maintaining the confidentiality of scanned documents, OCRing scanned documents to extract data for insertion in databases or, simply, printing documents. We were therefore eager to see how the print industry was represented at the show, and to see what imaging hardware and software the legal industry uses and how such systems are used.
Print dealers such as Logixal and Mode Print Solutions were on hand to fly the flag for digital imaging hardware and software. Mode Print Solutions has provided its customers with hardware and software print and document solutions since 1995, and was at the show to demonstrate how its managed print suite can help legal firms “to gather information, make choices and take control of your document environment.” Essentially, this is a managed print suite that provides users with print management, secure printing, mobile printing and remote device management. Mode Print Solutions also works with an independent company to offset its carbon emissions, and runs other green initiatives such as recycling to help limit its effect on the environment.
Logixal is a Gold-level authorised Xerox reseller that provides a managed print service as well as electronic content management, telephony, IT infrastructure and cyber security solutions. The idea is to provide businesses with a holistic approach to their print and IT needs. Its managed print service offering includes workflow automation, content management, device and document security, mobile and cloud printing, supplies management and output management, among other things.
Arena Group was also highly visible, plus Fujitsu had a presence on Arena’s stand. The two companies worked in tandem to demonstrate how Fujitsu scanning hardware and Arena’s mstore software can automate mailroom activity and remove the need for tedious and time-intensive data entry, to name just a pair of benefits.
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| Arena Solutions and Fujitsu joined forces to show how the print industry can help legal firms to save time and money through efficient use of technology. |
From chatting to people at the stands, it became apparent—perhaps predictably—that secure pull printing and scanning workflows are popular with the legal sector. One dealer said that although firms had moved to doing everything at MFPs, they increasingly want to perform tasks such as scanning at their desks. Dealers we spoke to reported that, for their customers, the most popular print solution is Papercut.
As with so many vertical markets, the digital imaging industry’s products and services can revolutionise the way traditional firms do business in countless ways, such as by securing, archiving and producing documents, and simplifying and enforcing business processes, among other things. It would therefore be good to see some big-name OEMs at a future Legalex event to show how their hardware and software products can be used together to make a legal practise more efficient, thereby saving it time and money.
Even if the OEMs don’t exhibit in future, it’s good to know that forms such as Arena Group, Logixal and Mode Solutions are taking the initiative and representing our industry. I’m looking forward to next year’s show, which is to be held at ExCel London on March 21–22, 2018.
