News in brief

Johannesburg-based firm Makaula Zilwa recently selected AJS legal accounting and practice management following their appointment to the debt recovery panel for the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). "We strive to always be abreast of the latest information technology solutions, and we went with AJS because all the necessary development work for the integration to CTMM already exists." said Sivuyile Zilwa, managing partner of the firm. "We also liked the fact that AJS has been in the legal accounting business in South Africa for over 25 years, which is very reassuring" he added.

I have sent a few faxes to 0866 numbers recently, and whereas in the past the fax went through without any delay, now there is a waiting period of a minute after each page.

Graeme de Villiers, who has been the Nedbank Key Account Manager at Korbitec for the WebConvey system has resigned to take up a position with Nedbank as Lead Technical Analyst for a number of the Nedbank systems. "It is a great opportunity, and I look forward to driving systems from the other side for a change.", said Graeme.

The US software group has hired a former Wal-Mart executive to open a chain of retail stores, establishing a new front with Apple in the battle for consumers.

The Conficker/Downadup worm is slithering across the Web at an "amazing" pace, say F-Secure researchers. Calling the scope of the attack "amazing," security researchers at F-Secure Corp. said that 6.5 million Windows PCs have been infected by the "Downadup" (or "Conficker") worm in the last four days, and that nearly nine million have been compromised in just over two weeks.

L@W and LegalSuite are pleased to announce that they have entered into a joint venture relationship in order to integrate their products and provide a more complete solution to the legal industry.

After extensive consultation FNB Home loans has made a business decision to standardise all electronic instructions via Korbitec's Attorney Gateway (AG) going forward.

O2 Smart is extremely proud to announce that Diets Nieuwoudt has joined the group with effect from 1 October 2008. This comes about due to the acquisition of a majority stake in his company, SOS, by the O2Smart group.

After having worked for LegalSuite for many years doing Accounting Support - and later becoming office manager, Anrie left the company to begin her family, but four years later has returned as Sales and Support Director. Anrie will be responsible for looking after clients, agents and support staff.

British Airways has launched a remote check-in service, allowing travellers on the go to check-in for flights using their mobile handsets. The service is quick, free and does not require users to download any accompanying software. Logging on to www.ba.com/mobile using any mobile device with internet connectivity, customers can access British Airways' timetable in real time, as well as select seats and check-in individuals, groups and families for departing or return flights. South African customers are able to use the service to check-in for both British Airways' international flights as well as British Airways' domestic and regional services operated by Comair.

A ragtag band of researchers has pulled off the unprecedented coup of drastically cutting the spam volume internationally by adopting a new strategy: going after mainstream companies that can unknowingly help spammers, identity thieves and child porn purveyors by carrying their traffic on the Internet. The researchers identified that a large amount of spam was emanating from an ISP in California. By stopping traffic from McColo, worldwide spam has been reduced by as much as 60%. Full article on LA Times.

The technical and software development resources of O2Smart have had their hands full over the last few months with consolidating the AJS installations for the mergers of CLIFFE DEKKER and HOFMEYR (now known as CLIFFE DEKKER HOFMEYR) and also ROOTH WESSELS MALULEKE and MOTLA CONRADIE (now known as ROOTH WESSELS MOTLA CONRADIE INC). Both mergers were effective as from 1 September this year. (Cliffe Dekker and Hofmeyr were both previously on AJS, and Rooth & Wessels was on AJS while Motla Conradie was previously on GhostPractice, but chose to standardise on AJS for the new entity.)

"Where's the catch?" "At last!" "Thank you!" "Just what the profession needs..." are some of the comments we received in response to our first issue. Interestingly enough, the most-read articles in November were a mixed bag: Saving on print costs, 8 tech trends for South African law firms, Reduce your phone costs with Skype and Open Office Suite for free. This month we continue with our quest to save the profession money.

P.S. Remember that if you support our advertisers, you also support us - so we can support you, the profession!

JSE AltX-listed DVT Holdings has acquired 100% of Cape-based Emerald Consulting for an unspecified sum of cash and shares. Emerald Consulting is one of South Africa's leading providers of software and related services to the legal sector, with five out of the seven largest South African legal firms on its books. "We have known Emerald for a few years and they are a stable company, performing strongly within their chosen sector," says DVT CEO Chris Wilkins. "They fit in very well with our strategy of growth through entering niche markets with specialised solution providers."