Homegrown tech export cracking America

Like New Zealand technology exporting companies Xero and Navman, an innovative homegrown technology solution called ActionStep is now poised for strong growth in the United States.

Targeting the United States’ nearly one million lawyers and 45,000 law firms, cloud-based ActionStep Legal Practice Management Solution now has a presence in Silicon Valley.

The company has appointed a growing number of leading certified consulting partners and received strong reviews in the technology media, including Technolawyer, a critically acclaimed technology and practice management advisory resource for law firms.

“The response by law firms to ActionStep since it entered the U.S. market at the beginning of 2012 has been tremendous,” says Ted Jordan, ActionStep CEO.

“There are plenty of other practice management systems out there with the usual offerings of calendars, time tracking and billing.

"But ActionStep has taken practice management to a whole new level with fully integrated accounting document assembly, and workflow, all delivered via the cloud via an affordable subscription model.

"Firms that use the full feature set can expect productivity increases of 20% or higher without increasing costs.”

In his ActionStep review for Technolawyer, Seth Rowland, a lawyer turned legal technology consultant, agreed.

“I thought I had seen it all until I saw ActionStep,” he wrote. “By contrast [with conventional practice management systems], ActionStep starts with defining the work lawyers and staff actually perform.

"Workflow is ActionStep’s killer feature … It gets top marks for handling of workflow and task management.”

Other key benefits of ActionStep includes the accessibility and mobility of its cloud-based technology, with Jordan saying clients can start taking advantage of ActionStep virtually immediately, without the need for software or upfront costs and paying only a small monthly user fee.

“About 40-50,000 new lawyers graduate each year and are struggling to get up and running due to the competition," he says.

“ActionStep will provide them with an instant practice management system on the cloud and important ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors.”

Despite the enormous potential for ActionStep in the United States, Ted Jordan is quick to confirm that ActionStep was originally designed in New Zealand specifically for the New Zealand law firms.

“ActionStep is well proven with our existing client base here in New Zealand,” he says.

"But sometimes New Zealand products need to make it big overseas before Kiwis really start to sit up and take notice.”