Introduction
Thomson Elite is a premier provider of financial, practice and knowledge management systems to the legal industry and other professional services markets, including accounting, engineering, marketing services, management and IT consulting.
Thomson Elite is a business within Thomson Legal & Regulatory, a market group of The Thomson Corporation. Thomson Legal & Regulatory provides a wide range of leading integrated information solutions to legal, tax, accounting, intellectual property, compliance and business professionals around the world.
The Thomson Corporation is a leading global provider of integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides must-have information, with technology and applications that help its customers make better decisions, faster. Thomson serves more than 20 million information users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, financial services, scientific research and healthcare. Common Shares of The Thomson Corporation are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:TOC) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:TOC).
Business Overview
Thomson Elite provides powerful technologies and applications that give customers the tools they need to make better decisions faster. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company employs more than 600 professionals and maintains offices worldwide, including in New York, Philadelphia, London, Albuquerque, and Eagan, Minnesota. Key brands include Elite, ProLaw and West km.
- The Elite financial and practice management system is ideal for large national and global firms, and their clients. Elite’s fully integrated enterprise solutions combine world-class billing systems with comprehensive practice management applications that are designed to maximize business profitability. Elite offers customized solutions for the accounting, consulting, government, corporate and legal markets.
- ProLaw is a powerful practice and financial management solution designed especially for law firms, corporations and government agencies. ProLaw includes customized case management from WestWorks, flexible reports and automatic integration with existing applications, all on a completely scalable n-tier architecture.
- West km combines a firm’s work product with KeyCite® and Westlaw®, allowing practitioners to find relevant firm documents and to gain insight and understanding from their firms’ own experience. West km® increases knowledge transfer and productivity, and enables reuse of a firm’s best work.
Market Opportunity
Thomson Elite capitalizes on nearly a century of combined experience gained by Elite, ProLaw and West km in the legal and professional services markets. With this foundation, Thomson Elite has developed a thorough understanding of the financial, practice and knowledge management needs of law firms and professional services organizations.
The annual market for legal and other professional services technology is estimated to be over $1.3 billion (source: internal estimates, Aberdeen Group, Gartner). The company targets the following market segments:
The Thomson Corporation acquired ProLaw in August of 2001, and Elite Information Group, Inc. in May 2003. The acquisition of ProLaw and Elite advances the Thomson strategy of providing powerful technologies and applications to complement its world-class information services, including Westlaw and Dialog. The combination of ProLaw’s comprehensive solution for small and medium-sized firms and Elite’s integrated financial and practice management applications for large firms with West’s authoritative information services creates the foundation for a new generation of tools that unlock competitive advantage for law firms and other professional services organizations.
Products and Services
Thomson Elite’s integrated financial, practice and knowledge management solutions use state-of-the-art technology and advanced features to automate critical front-office and back-office operations, and to facilitate the management of information assets. The products are organized according to functional business areas including:
- Financial Management
- Practice Management
- Client Relationship Management
- Knowledge Management
- Resource Management
- Business Intelligence
Financial Management
- Elite Billing Manager is the comprehensive time and billing system that sets the industry standard. The system includes cost collection, trust accounting, budgeting, profitability, performance analysis, and inquiry systems designed to provide real-time access to essential decision-making information.
- Elite Accounts Payable closely monitors cash situations while streamlining the entire payables process. Features such as quick checks, fast check reconciliation, online bank reconciliation, scheduled payments and online design ensure that all information is current and accurate.
- Elite General Ledger provides decision makers with the data necessary to make informed decisions regarding investments of firm time and money. The system tracks profit centers within the firm and offers multiple formats and reporting flexibility, including multi-currency, multi-company, and multi-language capabilities.
Practice Management
- ProLaw offers an easy, powerful way for small to midsize firms to integrate practice and business functions, with the addition of customized case management from WestWorks. ProLaw automates front and back-office functions to maximize efficiency and profitability.
- Elite Conflicts Manager is a fully integrated, fast and accurate conflict checking system, which is a critical tool for law firms.
- Elite Case Manager is a comprehensive system that includes calendar, docket, and related-party tracking.
- Elite Records Manager allows rapid file access and provides an automated method of reviewing, storing, or destroying outdated information, which optimizes the use of valuable office space.
- Elite Profitability Manager allows firms to manage the bottom line. The system tracks profitability firm wide as well as by individual offices, departments, matters, groups of matters or timekeepers and measures it against allocable expenses for a given period.
- Elite WorkFlow automates paper-intensive processes by using electronic forms, pre-defined routing of the forms, and password-based approval of the transactions represented by the forms.
Client Relationship Management
- Elite Apex is an innovative client relationship management (CRM) application that helps firms manage lead generation, contact management and other critical aspects of customer relationship management.
Knowledge Management
- West km (West knowledge management) combines a firm’s work product with KeyCite® and Westlaw®, allowing practitioners to find relevant firm documents and to gain insight and understanding from a firm’s own work experience.
Resource Management
- Elite Travel and Expense Manager includes powerful tools for managing the entire travel and expense management process for busy employees on the go.
- Elite Project & Resource Manager is a sophisticated project management tool that leverages Microsoft® Project 2000 to allow reporting and tracking of multiple projects from within a Web browser. Also provides tools for managing the professional workforce, including project staffing and the management of information including employee skills and work preferences.
Business Intelligence
- Elite Business Intelligence provides a comprehensive set of data management tools that simplify reporting and analysis. A full-featured data warehouse solution that takes the complexity out of locating and retrieving data, Business Intelligence also includes powerful reporting capabilities, profitability analysis and event notification functionality.
Implementation and Support Services
Thomson Elite’s extensive project management and support services organizations assist clients with implementation and ongoing optimization of all Thomson Elite solutions. Implementation services include planning sessions, management overviews of system components and installation milestones, data mapping to ensure seamless data conversions, training, testing and final conversions to the new systems, as well as onsite support and online documentation.
A highly qualified client services team of more than 275 professionals provides complete 24-hour telephone and Web-based support to ease system upgrades, as well as ease the deployment of new procedures and processes. Thomson Elite customer support uses various tools and methodologies including modem/dial-in problem resolution, an automated call-tracking system and an integrated voice response system. Many of Thomson Elite’s client services personnel hold the following computer certifications: MCSE, MCP, MCP+1, CNE, CAN, and CCNA.
Consulting Services
Thomson Elite’s consulting group offers a range of value-added services including knowledge-building on Thomson Elite applications, advanced consulting, customized programming, template development, system reviews, and technical assistance.
Technology Framework
Thomson Elite’s products are based on industry-leading technology with both Windows and web browser interfaces. The solutions are built within a common architecture to be platform- and database-independent, which helps increase the technology return on investment for clients. The Elite product line currently support Windows 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows NT, as well as any database server platform that supports SQL Server, Informix or Oracle; the Elite application architecture is built to a standard known as "n-tier," which means client and server components can be separated and installed on multiple servers for optimal performance, management and scalability. ProLaw version 9 supports Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Sybase SQL Anywhere 7.
Thomson Elite understands the complexities of legal and professional services practices, and the central role that technology can play in allowing customers to increase efficiency by enabling real-time knowledge sharing, time and billing, front and back office operations integration and client relationship management. By building on the current knowledge base and focusing on innovation, Thomson Elite is committed to advancing the development of the next generation of legal and professional services software solutions for customers.
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