We guarantee that software programs work perfectly together within Legal Desktop.
Our clients stay with us for a long time; a relationship of ten years or more is no exception,' says Bart van Wanroij, managing director of Epona Legal. That's remarkable because we don't put anything in the way of our clients: if you're fed up with us, you should be able to switch to another supplier tomorrow. That's another reason why we use standard Microsoft applications. But our customers are loyal. This undoubtedly has to do with the fact that Legal Desktop is experienced by our clients as a very good program'.
Legal professional
Epona Legal provides software and services to the legal professional: the attorney and the lawyer. She has been doing so for 25 years. Epona Legal provides many hundreds of law firms in the Netherlands with Legal Desktop. With offices in Lisbon, Düsseldorf and Asheville (United States), Epona Legal is also making significant progress internationally.
Best Of Wide
Bart: 'Legal Desktop is a Best Of Breed solution: offices choose the best components they want to use for their legal work.
At the base of Epona Legal Desktop are Microsoft 365 (with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Exchange, Skype for Business and SharePoint) and Epona Legal's own DMSforLegal (document and e-mail management). To this, the CRM program ContactManager and LegalWord can be added; many law firms choose to do so. Legal Desktop can further interface with widely used claims software such as Aderant, CClaw, Elite, Fidura, FORTUNA, Legalsense, Urentool.com and other applications.
Excellent
Bart: 'We guarantee that these components work together perfectly within Epona Legal Desktop. This makes our offer virtually risk-free and cheaper. DMSforLegal, for example, costs a quarter of the license costs and a tenth of the project costs charged by other vendors'.
Flip
That calls for an explanation. "We've reversed the process. Many fellow companies will go through quite a preliminary phase before implementing a system: what exactly do you want, what are the requirements, there will be an analysis, follow-up discussions, construction will take place, you name it. We say: give us a few examples of what your documents look like, we integrate that style into LegalWord and that's what you get. Then the questions follow: 'yes, but we also work with these models'. No problem, we also implement them. This allows us to charge much lower project prices. For the client, that's where the big profit lies'.
Consultancy
Thus, Bart says, the many small law firms in the Netherlands also get the opportunity to use modern technology. 'Our consultants become especially happy when they see that their solutions make clients happy; making money is an afterthought. Our ambition is therefore to challenge users to take the next step with Microsoft 365. Take advantage of the opportunities offered.'
Company moderator
If they do, legal professionals will be able to work much more efficiently, much more businesslike, Bart expects. I'd prefer to hold up a mirror to the client: 'In the last month, so many documents have gone out the door, created in this way and to which your employees have added so much time'. Next, I want to show that the same high quality output - or even better - can be realized in a different way. If an office works with a pre-agreed delivery time and price, that could be very interesting for its competitive ability. With the very low risk and attractive price of Legal Desktop, Epona Legal is happy to give him the opportunity to do so'.
