Yesterday, at Smiths of Smithfield London, Toucari launched it’s first software product to market.

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BHF put on a great day for us all, well organised, and despite the hills and stop-start-stop on the early bit it turned into a real scorcher Chariots-of-Fire ending with lovely sunshine and a sprint finish.  Saw a nice Chopper on the way too.

Thank you to all for sponsorship, Total raised £417.97 plus gifting aid.!  Thank you.

Tommy.   PS. Pictures here, and more here.

Tutus have it!

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Suggestions for added coverings on the day include;

• A neon pink tutu
• Leg warmers
• Jean du-Coconut rides pillion
• Pink socks
• Hotpants

You decide!  click below and see your vote added to the total.

Ciao-for-now!

To sponsor Tony click here.

Last week I got my hands on the iRex Digital Reader 1000 to try out some features and get a feel for what value this device could offer for firms in the UK and Europe.  Business entrants have to differentiate themselves from the Kindle, they need to do this by putting in new features such as notes / annotations and they have to offer the kind of flexibility required by organisations today.  The key is not so much in the physics of the devices (most use e-ink developed by Philips and Philips spinoffs) it’s more about the way people can use them to acquire content very easily, consume and use that content quickly and share their output with colleagues to get work done accurately.

The iRex builds on previous features offered through their iLiad range; I like the screen, the clarity and USB / Ethernet connection; WiFi would be great and is coming soon.  For lawyers and business professionals who read and mark-up large documents the iRex provides annotation features to with the stylus to allow users to mark-up sections for later work by document production teams.  This is, at present, limited to PDF format but it does represent a good improvement on work process out there today involving, as many will know, a liberal use of coloured post-its, riders, pencil mark-up and then scanning/faxing to oneself before running through OCR or a colleague to produce the next version.  Menu icons on the iRex are tiny, but at least, using an e-Reader like this, one or two messy steps are removed and the mark-ups kept in a digital system as a record, potentially mitigating legal and regulatory risks around provision of client service.

Alternative devices from Sony, Netronix, PlasticLogic and FirstPaper are making ground in the market, expect to see support for animation soon and colour with full video by 2011 or so, particularly on the Sony.  Social networking and book-sharing features will also become widely offered as content publishers start fighting for revenue share.  It’s too early to tell who will build the biggest slice in the legal market but I expect to see a client for iRex amongst UK law firms soon.

I remembered BlackBerry can “Send my location” via SMS or E-mail and so, whilst still on the call I fired it up.  One swift pick-up later I was back home and great though that feature was running GPS whilst on a voice call really chewed through battery!

Perhaps one day time-recording software companies will add in location based features to prompt for billable info, so long as the battery pack keeps up.

For some applications it may help, like reviewing physical objects,  but for plain business meetings? hold on, I don’t look my best on any camera, and I don’t want a more detailed system picking up the glare from my receeding hairline so that, as some systems require, people at the other end will be forced to squint whilst wearing cellophane glasses.

If you’re looking to save travel budget and enable more meetings happen in a timely way (it’s surprising just how many meetings fail to happen at all) then invest in conventional VC, or even better, rent telepresence in London;

Try London Video Conferencing or Cisco rental.

Just to indulge ourselves here’s couple of 3D systems available now;

• Cisco Telepresence in 3D – yes it’s true and it works! 
  Check out Musion.

• Minoru 3D webcam – just plain wierd

The show looked calm on foot-fall mainly due to the snow and problems with London transport but actually there was a good selection of Law firms attending from as far afield as Scotland, Ireland and even one from St. Petersburg.  Speakers corner was difficult to hear, noisy and busy or quiet – nothing in between.  Plenty of interest in established vendors and new entrants alike, particularly Autonomy with their aquisition of Interwoven. And, of course, lots of discussion at O’Neills round the corner.

Toucari shared ‘Area 51′ with representatives from mobile audio-conferencers Ring2, Polycom who you’ll know but may not have heard of their new capture station and of course show sponsor Response data comunications who showcased and demonstrated the extensive features of the Shoretel IP platform.

Looking forward to more events this year.

AIRTIME developed its core offering to help lawyers and other professionals capture accurate time records from mobile phone calls and e-mails on BlackBerry and other mobile devices assigning them immediately to client projects and matters.  After each call or email made using a mobile device, A4P raises a note and prompt to bill the time.  A4P-Enterprise remembers billing matters for each contact, making it possible to bill many events with a single click, users can also search or scroll through open projects for the appropriate billing matter using their mobile device. Once billed, the time entry is automatically posted to back office financial and practice management systems such as Elite, Carpe Diem, CMS, Omega and many others.  This process helps organisations to bill their clients with increased accuracy and transparency.

Law firms and professional services companies in many other markets need to manage and control the level of time recorded and billed for employees especially as they spend more of their work time out of the traditional office setting reliant on mobile devices and technology.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer the AIRTIME product suite to our customers” said Tony Bland, Managing Director of Toucari.  “AIRTIME software has been leading the market for mobile time capture in America for some time and recently our customers began asking for tools to help track billable time on mobile devices with more accuracy and immediacy than before.  AIRTIME has a good number of satisfied clients and a great track record for delivering this kind of technology so it was a fantastic opportunity to be able to partner with them and deliver their software to our clients”.

Through the partnership Toucari will offer AIRTIME software, implementation and support services to existing and prospective clients.

Click here for a complete copy of the press release.