In a recent post Thomson Reuters to Layoff 3,200 Staff Through 2020, Close Offices and Eliminate Products – Which Legal Products Might Die? I asked readers to provide their insights into the impact of Thomson Reuters layoffs on products and support.
Readers have highlighted several products which they think are in jeopardy due to the recent layoffs at Thomson Reuters. Those products are eBillingHub, Monitor Suite, West KIM, Drafting Assistant, West Legal Ed Center and CaseNotebook. Thanks to the four readers who provided the comments I have included below.
eBillingHub
Caroline Hill, Editor-in-Chief of the Legal IT Insider had a front page article Thomson Reuters reorg leads to eBillingHub office closure. According to the article the closure of the Pittsburgh office will impact support for eBillingHub customers for about six months. Article covers additional office closures and products impacted.
West KM Monitor Suite and Drafting Assistant
It’s interesting that even as TR continues to promote the notion that it is focusing on software over content, it has allowed installed products like West km to languish. Will Drafting Assistant be next?
I suspect Monitor Suite will be retired. Like West km it was an early entry in its space, litigation analytics, but it has many competitors now and one (Bloomberg) has especially deep pockets. Analytics are now available on the Edge platform and seemingly not using Monitor Suite as a data source. – Anonymous library manager
West Legal Ed Center
I think one product that might be under consideration by TR as product elimination is West LegalEdcenter. I do not think that enough support has been provided to WLEC in recent years. It’s been useful as a basic CLE resource for those of our attorneys who have last minute needs, but the platform and design have not been upgraded to my expectations. I also notice that the list of “partners” providing program has diminished from what it was initially. Background changes were made last year and earlier this year without any notice to firm administrators. In spite of that, the customer support team I work with have always been very helpful – but the unchanged platform and poor search design are indications to me that TR doesn’t see it as a valuable component of their legal product line. Every time a vendor makes staff and product elimination, customer service and content plummets. -anonymous librarian
CaseNotebook
Being in litigation support, my main interaction with them is with their Case Notebook software, which we use for deposition management. I’ve long thought the software has great potential, but was under-developed and missing some common-sense functions. Given the history of WestKM you laid out, I suspect Case Notebook was similarly mismanaged. With Relativity’s introduction of transcript management capabilities and the pre-existing competition, I would be curious if there was any other evidence that Thomson Reuters planned on further cutting back support/development of the product. anonymous Litigation Support Manager
My Take On Reader’s Observations I am not familiar with Casenotebook or eBillingHub so I can’t provide an insights on the vulnerability of those two products. I do agree that West Legal Ed Center – seems like a vulnerable product. It is too far removed from the software and innovation tools which Thomson Reuters has identified as the main focus of their business. I also agree that Monitor Suite is likely in long term peril. TR recently rolled out a completely new analytics platform within Westlaw Edge – which doesn’t leverage the Analytics from Monitor Suite – it was built from the ground up and is infused with TR’s most sophisticated AI and algorithms. Seems pretty clear that from here on every investment dollar for analytics products will be directed into Westlaw Edge. Monitor Suite at best will die a slow death of neglect — kept on “life-support” as long as any revenue can be squeezed from it.
Please send additional comments on vulnerable Thomson Reuters products to me at: jogdc1@gmail.com