A few days off the grid and I return to several notable announcements from companies that cater to lawyers:

A business development platform launched. Yesterday, Thomson Reuters Elite announced the release of Business Development Premier, a platform for customer relationship management and business development. In keeping with TR’s recent focus on “integrated” products, this platform is described as combining CRM and enterprise relationship management capabilities with company data from TR, competitive intelligence from Monitor Suite, and campaign management functionality. This integration of products and data, says the press release, will “reduce the amount of time spent on data aggregation and tactical execution within law firms, enabling users to concentrate on developing and executing their marketing and business development strategy.” I have not seen this yet but expect to be able to review it within the next few weeks.

And a business development platform sold. Even as Thomson Reuters was launching Business Development Premier, it was selling off another business-development and content-management suite, OneView. On Thursday, Handshake Software announced that it had acquired the OneView business, which includes three products — OneView Connect, OneView Search and OneView Extranet — as well as the client contacts associated with those products. The OneView products, all based on Microsoft SharePoint, are legacies of the Hubbard One business that Thomson Reuters sold off last year. The products focused on data sharing, searching and collaboration. The products should fit well with Handshake, which provides SharePoint-based intranets, extranets and document management.

hand screenshotRocket Matter Android app. The cloud-based practice-management platform Rocket Matter has released an app for accessing the platform on Android devices. (It already had an iPhone app.) According to the company’s announcement, the app provides “a streamlined version of the essential features of the flagship cloud-based product.” The app can be used to capture time-and-billing information and to access contact lists, client-matter information, and calendar information. The app is available in the Google Play store.

ALM digital memberships. The legal news and business company ALM (for which I used to work) has announced that, starting Aug. 23, it will begin offering free digital memberships to legal professionals. Registrants will receive what are described as “bundled benefits,” including digital access to five news articles every 30 days from ALM’s legal publications, discounts on ALM products and services, and access to ALM’s news alerts and newsletters. “In conjunction with the launch of these digital memberships,” the announcement said, “ALM will be unlocking news stories that previously were only available to paid subscribers.”

The announcement goes on to say that three ALM publications will remain free for unlimited reading online — Corporate Counsel, Law Technology News and The Asian Lawyer — while content from four “premium” publications — Supreme Court Brief, Litigation Daily, New Jersey Law Journal Decision Alert and Delaware Business Court Insider — will continue to be accessible only to paid subscribers.

The announcement leaves me confused about what will be free and what will not, and it does not even mention access to archived stories, so we will need to stay tuned and see what happens on Aug. 23.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.