Veyo has the momentum but will it prove to be a winner?

Much of the negative press generated by Veyo has emerged in my view from what can only be described as an identity crisis.    An issue which has caused some analysts and potential clients confusion about Veyo’s objectives and long term aims.   This lack of a clear and consistent message is a little difficult to understand when one acknowledges the success of Veyo’s branding and its PR machine.  Indeed it has within the last five days picked up five prestigious marketing awards.  So what has gone wrong?

I recently met with Stefanie van den Haak Veyo’s Commercial Director to put this and other questions to her.  My first impressions was this is a lady with a mission and one which she is determined to make a success. Stefanie is a lawyer and has much experience, as well as a good track record in bringing to the legal market intuitive and much advanced technical based products. She has held senior sales and business development roles at Lawtel (Centaur Media) and Thomson Reuters where she was instrumental in bringing Westlaw, the primary online research services for lawyers, to market. She was also EMEA Sales Director at Cambridge University Press.   She clearly knows her market and the difficulty of overcoming the inevitable hurdles of introducing technology to a very traditionalist legal community.

She struck me as someone who is passionate about her work and is relishing the challenge which she acknowledges she will face.

So what has gone wrong?   Stephanie says she inherited when joining Veyo a team which lacked direction and which struggled to understand the correct message to convey.    She has now understood the need to be more transparent and to acknowledge that Veyo is a case management system and one which will compete with existing case management systems.   The time has come according to Stefanie to declare that Veyo is in business to compete with the other case management systems and to deliver a system which will revolutionise the tools currently available to manage and advance conveyancing transactions.

Hooray – at last we now know Veyo is a case management system which has features which will distinguish it from existing case management systems and which if successful will bring conveyancing into the 21sts century.   So what distinguishs it?  Unlike other systems Veyo will allow solicitors to collaborate online and to move away from traditionalist practices. Bye-bye to pigeon post and the delays associated with it.  Good bye to the restraints and delays caused with antiquated means of communication and hello to an age when the consumer’s interests are put first.  Solicitors speaking with each other and collaborating on documents in real time and thereby making the conveyancing system far quicker and efficient.

As I have said before Veyo heralds a radical change in approach to conveyancing and one which is well overdue. With Stefanie leading the way and with the strength of belief in the product there is a glimmer of hope that a revolution is about to be born. 

Despite the drive and optimism evident in the positive language Stefanie uses I still have reservations about the future of Veyo.   The product will undoubtedly be good and reliable – it comes from a very good stable and one which has an excellent track record.  It will clearly deliver what is says on the tin and will give conveyancers the tools to communicate with each other electronically and to make the conveyancing a more enjoyable experience for everyone.  I have no doubts about this.  My reservations centre around take up of the product and the need to recognise the importance of a change in philosophy towards the approach to conveyancing.  

According to Stephanie Veyo is looking to achieve a 90% share of the CMS market within six years.  Clearly if this can be achieved Veyo will become a roaring success and investors in Veyo will see a good return on their investment. The question is can such a target be reached within what is a relatively short time frame?   Everything is possible but there are hurdles some bigger than others. 

There are firms out there are technology savvy and which will embrace the values of Veyo and its objectives. However will these firms be sufficient in number to provide Veyo with the critical mass it requires to make the collaboration and chain view tools the success they deserve to be? 

I continue to have my doubts that the conveyancing community as a whole will prove to be receptive to such fundamental changes.  How many conveyancer are out there who are ready to move to electronic files, to begin communicating with each other electronically and to collaborate online with other firms?  Some may say they are ready but have not thought through the consequences of making such a radical change.  As I pointed out to Stefanie there are a number of firms who don’t wish to change.  They like the client contract and the traditional practices of managing a transaction with a dictation machine in one hand and a pile of files in the other.  They have always worked this way and probably see no reason for changing.

So for Veyo to be the success which Stefanie and her team (and shareholders) hope it will be there is a need for those who have good case management systems to abandon those systems and convert to Veyo, for those who do not have a case management system to adopt Veyo in preference to other systems, and for those adopters to embrace a huge leap in technology and the way in which conveyancing is processed.

Do I think Veyo will succeed?  Meeting with Stefanie has change my view slightly.   Her belief in the product and ability to sell in a market which is in desperate need for change and for a product of this type is compelling.  I am just not sure however it’s enough.  I know how difficult it is to persuade lawyers particularly the traditionalists to change processes and to adopt and embrace technology. Looking to bring about a change in philosophy may prove to be a more difficult challenge than might first appear. 

On top of this is the cost factor. £20 per transaction is not a lot of money and given the benefits which are included represents good value.  The problem is are firms with existing case management systems willing to pay for two systems at a time when profit margins are very tight.  Despite the low cost of the system one cannot ignore the economics.   Perhaps we will see some firms abandoning existing systems and moving to Veyo.

Another hurdle to overcome is the fear of might happen in the future.   If Veyo achieves a monopoly can we sleep safely knowing there will not be a sharp price increase in the future?  What if the Law Society connection is severed and Veyo moves into the conveyancing market as a provider of conveyancing services?  What will happen if Veyo uses if position in the market to begin dictating to users the choice of search and other third party suppliers?  In short would it be good for the conveyancing market and indeed the consumer for Veyo to have such a large share of the market.

I am sure now Veyo has come out of the closet and announced its arrival as a case management system that those already in this market will not sit back and allow market share to be eroded but will fight back and introduce innovative technology which will compete.  Those who do not take this as a wakeup call will surely not survive particularly when one has regards to the determination and drive which I witnessed when speaking with Stefanie.  She is not a loser and will clearly do all she can to make Veyo a big success.

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk

Veyo - Raising more questions than its answering

Heather Cameron of Today’s Conveyancer recently interviewed Veyo’s Chief Executive, Elliott Vigar, in an effort to learn more about Veyo’s product which is scheduled for release in Spring 2015. 

Despite a recent statement to the contrary, Mr Vigar has now placed on record his company’s intention to release (into an already congested market), an online system which will essentially provide conveyancers with a case management portal.

On being asked what exactly makes Veyo unique from other similar conveyancing systems, Mr Vigar stated:

"Veyo not only covers the entire chain comprehensively, securely and quickly, but most importantly it’s unique because it allows conveyancers on both sides of the transaction to communicate in real time with each other, their clients and other stakeholders in the transaction. It has been designed with considerable input from licensed conveyancers as well as solicitors to ensure it meets the needs of the industry.”

Interesting comment.  

To begin with its difficult to see how the system can monitor the ‘entire chain’ without first ensuring every conveyancer in the chain is part of the Veyo system.  Mr Vigar does not explain how Veyo is looking to achieve this especially when Veyo  as far as we know is not going to be a compulsory product. 

Secondly, it seem strange for Mr Vigar to suggest that conveyancers do not already speak with each other in ‘real time’.  Speaking on the telephone and communicating via email must clearly, must it not, constitute ‘real time’ communication. Furthermore, most case management systems already provide collaboration tools and to claim that Veyo will be unique in this area is simply disingenuous. 

On being pushed on the subject of Veyo’s USP Mr Vigar stated:

"Conveyancing professionals have been in real need of a solution that improves communication and collaboration between everyone involved in the home buying transaction process for a long time now. Veyo is being designed as a complete, end-to-end, transactional solution and unlike any other on the market.”

He added:

"Veyo provides the perfect solution by streamlining the process, reducing the administrative burden, enabling seamless communication and thereby both saving conveyancers time and money, but also speeding up and increasing confidence in the home-buying and selling process for consumers.”

It will be interesting to see what other legal software suppliers make of these remarks bearing in mind many of the competitors in this areas have been up and running and providing good, solid and well tested products for many years.  These competitors know the market inside and out and already have systems which provide an ‘end to end’ solution as well as communication and collaboration hubs.   

Most good solutions help conveyancers to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens.  Those systems also help conveyancers to save time and money as well as to keep  clients informed of progress. 

There still therefore seems to be nothing new on offer. 

Turning now to the consultation process we are again being told that Veyo has come about due to ‘considerable input from licensed conveyancers as well as solicitors’.  Despite being asked the question several times Veyo has still not disclosed which conveyancers were consulted during the focus group phase of development.  

On this subject Mr Vigar explaining the process in more detail stated:

"The Society conducted a rigorous nine month tendering process and talked to more than 20 potential partners to ensure we got this decision right. Mastek was successfully selected because it takes such an agile and collaborative approach to technology. Its overwhelming expertise, experience and pedigree in developing enterprise class solutions with an emphasis on security, robustness and handling sensitive information make it the perfect partner.”

It is clear there was a form of tendering process and that several suppliers of case management systems were invited to attend the Law Society and demonstrate their offerings.  Looking back I wonder how many of those suppliers ( who will soon be competing with Veyo ) now regret taking part in this exercise.  

The choice of Mastek is surprising not because of any question mark over its pedigree but more to do with its  lack of track record in the legal technology market.  It is equally puzzling to note that it has only been within the last 4 weeks that Veyo has established contact with  The Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA), the UK industry body for legal systems developers and vendors.  

At the recent user group meeting of the BT legal software suppler Tikit users if the technology were told that Veyo had no contact with Tikit until very recently and that when the call came  it transpired that Veyo was asking for help!  Tikit made it clear that it views Veyo as a competitor though it will be happy to integrate its system with Veyo but only if the customer is prepared to pay for the installation. 

Despite the product being promoted as  ‘designed by the industry, for the industry’ it seems Mr Vigar does not possess a background in conveyancing.  In his defence he explained:

‘’Whilst not at the coal face, however, having trained as a barrister and having amongst other roles, previously run the Law Society’s regulatory policy function for a number of years, I have strong legal experience." 

As for pricing there is still no news according to Mr Vigar:

"At this point it is still too early to confirm, as we are still considering a couple of different pricing models and variations and discussing possible options." said Elliott.

"What is likely to be the case though is that Veyo will be based on an annual, per license fee coupled with an individual transaction fee. We believe that using Veyo will actually save conveyancers money by making the entire conveyancing process quicker and more efficient."

"Currently, we’re working to ensure that our pricing structure works for law firms of all sizes. This is because one of the benefits of Veyo is that smaller firms will have access to the kind of advanced technological system that normally only larger, more technically able firms have, bringing improved efficiencies for all and greater financial rewards. We are clear that Veyo should not adopt a pricing model that prices any firm out of its use."

So where does this leave us?

In short, no further forward, though we do now know that Veyo is a conveyancing case management system meaning that only those conveyancers who do not have an existing system or on that needs to be replaced will be interested in the product.  This must be correct since why would a conveyancer already running a good and reliable case management system wish to spend more money on purchasing Veyo?

I have no doubt that Veyo will provide the Law Society with a good and sophisticated piece of kit and that they will secure some business, but as I have previously written I do believe that they have in their haste to get this product to market, missed a trick or two.

Heather Cameron’s full article can be found here: 

Your Guide to the Digital Property World

With more and more of us having access to the internet through tablets and smart phones, it should be of no surprise that there are an increasing number of websites available to satisfy the digital appetite of the property seller/purchaser.  

At one time the focus of these website was the professional, however the emphasis has clearly changed with more and more online portals popping up to provide the consumer with direct access to information.

The increasing number of house price indices will soon be challenging the number of coffee outlets! The better of the bunch include http://www.zoopla.co.uk/  and http://www.rightmove.co.uk/ these website offer the consumer not only access to the national property market but also offer information on latest UK house prices.  They also offer a range of sold price information databases, meaning that consumers have a much more accurate view on how much a property might be worth.

You can also take a look at the crime rate for the postcode by visiting www.crimerates.co.uk/

If the standard of local schools is of importance you can find the latest Ofsted inspection report rating here: www.locrating.com/

If public transport is important check the location of the local bus/train station and timings of buses/trains by visiting: www.transportdirect.info

Check your mobile phone reception and broadband speeds within the home. The following website shows some of slowest areas in the country: http://on-msn.com/VwkVWd

As for the conveyancing process is concerned, the bad news is that there is still a lack of products on offer which enable a consumer to access information and documents during the course of a transaction.  

Www.quickcoveyance.com offers some relief by providing the consumer with 24/7 access to post, conveyancing documents, solicitor updates and legal reports generated during the course of the transaction.   These are all presented in an online and client specific property log book which can be accessed even after the transaction completes.

My firm makes use of this portal and since it was made live in 2011 it has helped handle 29,000 transactions.  It clearly used by our clients having recorded in July of this year over 16,500 views.

The Law Society Portal which will be launched soon promises more of this type of portal – only time will tell if it the Law Society can for the very first time deliver a product which will be adopted and preferred by professionals and consumers alike.

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk