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April 06, 2004
Lexis and Westlaw Software or Dot Com?
Lexis and Westlaw introduced the web versions of their popular research services in 1998. The eventual phase out of the classic software was predicted and discussed on lawlib that same year. Since then law students have been trained exclusively on the web. But will we have to wait for a full generation before discarding the software? It's beginning to seem so! The results of a recent LawLibTech poll shows that 67% of law firms still offer the classic software of one or both vendors.
My guess is that 20-30% of researchers still use the proprietary software. Do you suppose Lexis and Westlaw anticipated the continued loyalty that their proprietary software seems to inspire in long time users? Considering the advances in functionality of Lexis and Westlaw dot com, why should firms continue to support the software?
In a word, speed. Power users including attorneys and librarians who learned Lexis/Westlaw pre-web are adamant in their opinions that the software is faster. Even though Internet connection speeds have improved and "dot commands" and short cuts are now available via the web, it's hard to dispute. And for those opting for hourly pricing, speed can translate into cost savings.
Political issues also play a part. Many long-time software users are high-billing partners. Could they learn to love the web? Maybe, but at their billable rate, it's an expensive proposition to wean them from their research tool of choice.
So what are the downsides to keeping the software? There are several.
The main concern from the IT standpoint is software maintenance. Since new versions of the classic software are no longer being released, updates are a thing of the past. But new installations, troubleshooting and migrating the old software to new platforms still requires valuable IT time.
Enhancements introduced in the last couple of years are only available on the web so those using the software are missing out on many valuable new features. They may not even know what they're missing. For example, Westlaw's Resultsplus is not available via the software. Certainly any firm using West KM or Lexis TotalSearch would want to migrate ALL users to the web versions, as these services would be completely missing from the software. Those are just two examples; there are many more features only offered on the web.
Librarians who choose to use the software exclusively may not be familiar with the web versions. In that case, not only will they be unable to help researchers using the web, they may also be seen as "behind the times" by incoming associates who have to turn elsewhere for assistance.
How will this play out? Eventually there may be a "killer" feature added to the web versions that will convince even the most die-hard software users of the advantages of the web. Or perhaps it will be an accumulation of important enhancements that will motivate software users to make the switch. Or all those partners will reach retirement age, whichever comes first.
Comments
This is a continuing problem for our firm. We would love to be able to dump the older Lexis and West clients, especially since many are buggy and unstable. I've wondered if attorneys are so reluctant to use Web-based clients because the early versions of those clients were feature deficient compared to the Windows versions. Our attorneys swear that they can find things with the older clients that are "not there" when they search through the Web.
Posted by: Roger Bonine at April 16, 2004 02:08 PM
That's a good point. There are probably attorneys out there who tried the web versions a couple years back and were dissatisfied, so they haven't gone back. Of course, there's the general problem of people simply not wanting to learn a different way of doing research, which I didn't really discuss much, but is no doubt a significant factor.
In terms of content, at one time there were certain databases weren't available on the web because of licensing issues. Now that the dot com versions have evolved, there's really nothing of significance that I know of that's specific to the software.
I'm skeptical about the claim that the research results vary between the software and the web. The search processing is done on the Eagan side and shouldn't be affected unless there's something I'm missing.
Anyone have any different information/opinions on the subject? Are there reasons for using the software that we haven't discussed?
Posted by: Cindy Chick at April 16, 2004 04:57 PM
I came across a Westlaw Quick Reference Guide called "westlaw.com vs. WestMate 7.3 - an Easy Choice" available at http://west.thomson.com/product/RM120705/product.asp . This document provides a chart showing the features available on westlaw.com that are NOT available via Westmate.
Posted by: Cindy L. Chick at April 30, 2004 12:14 PM
Westmate -- the old-school software -- is far quicker than the dot.com website and far more effective.
I don't understand how it's difficult or expensive to maintain the software upgrades. The dot.com website has its own server-side source code that, too, needs to be updated as webrowsers evolve. Thus, it probably cost the same or more more to maintain a website rather than giving users updated software.
I hope the day will never come where Westlaw takes away its software. If that happens, I sincerly hope that the internet the becomes 10 times faster -- otherwise the web interface will never be as good.
Finally, I take exception to the assertion that the software is "buggy." I find westmate (the software for westlaw) to be very reliable. I rarely, if ever, have any crashes. True, it could have some of the updated features added, but even without them, it is superior to the web version. West should add the updated features to the software client.
Posted by: Peter NYC Lawyer at April 2, 2006 10:34 PM
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