The Gazette 1989

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1989

colours at a very competitive price. One piece of software of interest to both solicitors and accountants was The Company Secretary from Datacare. It could print annual returns, notices of change of registered office and change of Directors and Secretary. Modules could be added for minutes and maintaining the statutory register. Frank Lanigan of Star, the great believer in UNIX, had his multi-user system running on Convergent Technology 68030. The accounts package SOLPAK has been com- pletely re-written and updated in the past year. He too has been looking at PCs. and has opted for IBM run- ning AIX (their version of UNIX). His systems professional Norman Hull, who represents Ireland and is Chairman of the European Unix User Group, apart from answering any possible question I could put to him, demonstrated the incredible speed of AIX on the 25 MHz IBM 70. The major problem with Unix, namely that of speed, appears to have been addressed. Bernard Donnelly of Orchard, fully re- covered after his recent illness, bounced into his stand (the largest at the show) in casual wear - welcome relief in a sea of suits. His sales director Mark O'Dwyer and newly recruited Martin Roper had convened large numbers of accountants and solicitors to sample their wares (a simple task for Martin after his years at the Oak). JUSTAX, their accounts system, will run on a PC and on a network system. Barristers were catered for by Legal & General as well as by BAR-MASTER from Pascal Software Ltd. Reliance Business Systems Ltd. had a very sophisticated cheque writing sys- tem, and Kalamazoo-Alluset Busi- ness Systems will ensure that you have a proper manual system, a vital necessity before one can computer- ise. Computers are marvellous for accounts, WP, indexes and data- bases but legal text is still best held in Book Form. Butterworths, as well as demonstrating Itelis for the latest judgments, had their excellent latest publication White on Irish Law on Dam- ages for Personal Injuries and Death. There were more than 50 stands at the exhibition and I didn't have time to visit them all. There was a great range of equipment, and nothing that I saw was irrelevant. The stand executives were extremely

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disk cost £250. Rick Deegan of BCL was another convert to PCs and Unic/Xenis. His accounts system will run on Wang VS, PCs and Unix/Xenis. His Case manage- ment system (the first in Ireland) will run on a PC as well as Wang, and his Debt Collection system (used by one of the biggest financial institu- tions in Ireland) will also run on a PC. All his systems will shortly be running on Unix. This is the year that the PC has come of age for the legal profession with Unix pushing very hard for a place in the sun. There was some great value in hardware. David Kelly of Softech Computers Ltd. had IBM Model 30 286 computers with a 20 MB Hard Disk reduced from £2,829 to £2,100. He had a twin bin Brother Laser Printer that printed on both sides of the paper reduced from £3,500 to £2,800. It had a very large selection of fonts, maybe not as many as the Kyocera but a much better choice with Pica and Elite being replaced by a better looking Brougham 12 and 10 point. As well as a 10 point Times Roman (the largest on the Kyocera) there was a 12.5 point Anelia proportional spacing which looked terrific. Like the Kyocera they had six printer emu- lations. They also has a single bin single sided Brother Laser reduced from £2,200 to £1,750. Sharptext had the new Kyocera 2200S with postscript for desktop publishing. Kyocera certainly led the way with speed and the number and quality of fonts. However, they should not rest on their laurels too long, and must address their market weak- nesses such as cost, particularly the drum kits. Seamus Murray of Business Electronic Equipment had great value in a Hyundai 286 PC and a Ricoh PC6000 Laser Printer for under £3,000. He also demonstrated the excellent Q&A Word Processor and Database. Michael McKeown of Tomorrow's World primarly dealt with account- ants but had some very price com- petitive equipment from Olivetti, as well as the Mac which has the best user interface in the world. Seamus Brennan of Office Automation demonstrated an Alcatel photo- copier with reduction and four

The first combined exhibition of technology for accountants, solicitors and barristers was a clear success. It was a great benefit to suppliers of general office equip- ment who catered for both pro- fessions. Ann Hegarty of Cantec found the greatest interest was in their heat binders: no doubt a side effect of the productivity of laser printers, which enables those WP precedents to get even longer - defeating the strongest of staplers and the most determined of secre- taries aided with hammers. It had been rumoured that some firms had gone to Plan Expo downstairs look- ing for Hilti guns and Black & Deckers to help solve their binding problems. Cant ec 's Petar McPartland found that business was very good this year after being dissappointing last year. There is a new trend in office design. To maximise space, desks are built in units on the walls, especially in corners where computer terminals dictating machines etc. are all fitted tidily in place with no exposed wiring. The centre of the room is reserved for a conference table. To fit in with this Peter Hynes of DEVTECH has space saving multi- purpose Storage cabinets which can line the walls, They are beauti- fully designed - a far cry from the gun grey metal of the steel deeds cabinets of old. The more equipment a firm purchases the higher the overheads go. Turning to the recent spate of investment in Fax machines and Laser printers Equitrac Corporation was there to show you how to record painlessly their use as Client disbursements. Both Martin Sawyer of Sabre Business Systems Ltd. and Patrick Shaw of Castletown Press pic felt that last year's exhibition was great and this year was quiet enough. They had a great year last year with the installation of Cobra Legal accounting systems into many firms. Last year for a multi user system one had to buy an Alpha mini-computer: this year they had it running on a PC(286) installed with a special card with a MB of memory. Patrick Shaw had a very reasonably priced PC with a removeable 44MB hard disk. The

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