Last week I attended the Butterworths Electronic User Group meeting – my first. There were more people there than I had expected, and I was quite glad to run into some people I knew – it was quite daunting walking into the large hall. The venue was nicely central, and a pretty room, though the acoustics weren’t fantastic, and those of us near the back had problems hearing some things. We got some goodies (a pen, a pad of paper, and some chocolate), which was nice (I am easily pleased by free chocolate), and there were drinks and canapes afterwards (though hardly anyone stuck around for them).
The main topic was the Spring Release of the new LNB interface – they spoke about why they were changing it, and showed some examples. It seems ok, nothing spectacularly different, and mainly cosmetic changes. It is due to launch on 26th April, so we shall see.
They also mentioned other LNB developments – making a lot of the fact ICLR cases are now available in .pdf format (irrelevant to many of us who access these via Justis who have had .pdf versions available for ages).
There was a brief talk about the FT and Nexis, discussing the Bridging Agreement and its extended deadline. There were various queries on this, including whether they would make it clear the FT is not included in search results (the response to which seemed to be ‘good idea, but no’), and whether the FT content would be separate or integrated (answer – fully integrated for those who subscribe).
Next they went on to Lexis Professional and LNB – much was made of the decision of where to access the Professional content being an individual choice, and that there are no plans to switch it off this year. Sounds like it might be good if it is merged into LNB – making the content available to everyone, and all in one place – lots of discussions of different menus.
They highlighted two main plans for the future – integrating Lexis content with firm content eg via an intranet/Sharepoint and using their expertise to add value to firm’s content – KM and searching basically.
Then there was a ‘Round Table discussion’ – which was ok – though it obviously depended on who you were sitting with as to what was discussed (and whether you got a chance to say anything).
There were two interesting queries. The first – ‘with the general levels of dissatisfaction with customer service why would we want to get anything more from Lexis than we already have to?’ They seemed a bit thrown by the question, and I don’t think they actually apologised for anything, though they claim it will be better in the future. We’ll have to wait and see on this one too (I once rang customer support for help with a product, and ended up having to give them my log-in details as the person I was speaking to didn’t have access, then explain what the service was and how to use it – kind of the wrong way round!).
The other interesting query was on whether they would consider setting up wikis and/or blogs – the answer was positive – these may be implemented in future for communication and feedback on particular topics (e.g. LNB Spring Release – bit late now of course).
I am glad that I went to this, and would be happy to go to other meetings in the future (and not just because of the gorgeous Hotel Chocolat chocolate buttons) – it is a good chance to get an idea what issues other people have with Lexis Nexis (and who doesn’t have issues with Lexis Nexis), find out what Lexis are planning, and meet other people (yes, the dreaded networking).
For more info about the meeting see Fiona Durrant’s report on the BIALL blog.
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