Alison Laferla reports

Legal customers are not as dissatisfied with their IT suppliers as previous reports have suggested, according to the Legal Software Suppliers Association chairman John Wilde.

A customer satisfaction survey conducted recently by the LSSA has revealed that most of the 426 respondents were happy with the overall service they received from their suppliers.

As many as 67 per cent of respondent firms said their expectations of the software they had installed had been fulfilled well or very well and 62 per cent rated the service they had received as good or very good. But only 41 per cent rated the training provided as good or very good.

The survey was sent out to clients of LSSA's members. "I believe the strict vetting procedure for membership of LSSA has influenced the results of the survey," said Wilde.

"I know LSSA members will use the survey's findings to review the effectiveness of their training. A change in culture is required to stop corner-cutting on training when budgets are tight. This false economy means less productive use of the computer system and time wasted making telephone calls to the supplier."

He added: "Although there is no room for complacency we were gratified that the results do not bear out past criticism of the levels of service provided by legal software suppliers."