Practice Insight

Practice Insight – WiseTime has been selected as an ABA100® Winner for Software Innovation in The Australian Business Awards 2020. The Australian Business Award for Software Innovation [SWR] recognises software products and services that provide innovative solutions for new and existing market needs.

Practice Insight was founded by Thomas Haines, a Patent Attorney and software engineer, in Australia in 2010. Alongside firsthand experience working in the intellectual property profession, the core team have worked for some of the world’s leading technology companies, including Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. The foundations of Practice Insight were developed out of a desire of the founder to develop better tools for his industry. The company was acquired by IPH Limited (IPX 200) in 2015, to join many of Australia and New Zealand’s leading IP firms that make up the group. The Practice Insight team has grown significantly since then, and undergone several evolutions of their software and structure, but it’s simple philosophy – of building software that makes peoples’ lives easier and providing business insight – has remained the central pillar of their efforts. Today many of the world’s best-known corporations and law firms benefit from Practice Insight’s developments. Practice Insight’s first products Filing Analytics and Citation Eagle help IP firms access Big Data, quickly extracting exactly the data they need with user-friendly software and analysis tools. In 2018, Filing Analytics and Citation Eagle were acquired by CPA Global, allowing the Practice Insight team to focus wholly on WiseTime.

Working as an IP lawyer in Australia and internationally, Tom Haines understood the unique challenges faced by his colleagues around the world: the constant juggle of administrative and attorney duties, the requirement for precise time capture, the delicate job of building client trust, the importance of working without distraction when drafting specifications to a deadline, and the value of knowing where one’s attention was going throughout the day. There were many products on the market but none of them matched the requirement to aggregate information into an easy-to-use format, or complied with strong privacy principles. As a result, Tom developed his own software tools to meet these challenges. WiseTime was released to the international market in 2018, and has continued to grow its customer base steadily. It is the first enterprise-grade autonomous timekeeping solution designed specifically for legal, though it’s scope extends into other industries such as the growing technology industry and many other professional service industries. WiseTime’s motivation is to relieve professionals from the monotony and administration of time keeping, so they can focus on their work and clients. WiseTime works by collating the user’s on-screen attention into a private, easy-to-interpret timeline, without needing manual input. With built-in individual privacy settings, WiseTime is compliant with strict GDPR requirements, putting users in complete control of their data throughout the entire life cycle. The tool prioritises user privacy, whilst allowing businesses to harness the value of attention data in order to gain insight into their practice, optimise their systems and processes, and build multi-tiered trust between management, employees and clients.

WiseTime’s innovation and market difference is underpinned by the synthesis of four key features – its patented algorithm, its strong privacy foundation, its seamless connection to existing practice management systems, and its ability to provide critical business intelligence. WiseTime consists of a desktop app (downloaded and installed on the user’s computer and available for Mac, Windows and Linux) that works in conjunction with a web-based browser interface. Users create an account upon sign-up, and are invited to create or join an existing team with other members from their organisation. If the user chooses to connect WiseTime to their practice management system, they are prompted with instructions on how to set up a cloud-based connection. The WiseTime team will create and maintain an on-premise connection for Enterprise customers. WiseTime is distinguished by its easy-to-navigate, dynamic and intuitive user interface. Constantly improving and evolving, new features are added regularly that make the job of viewing, sorting and posting time quicker and easier. WiseTime provides a simple user experience while leveraging complex technologies that combine cloud and app platforms, with outcomes that benefit all parties.

While there are products on the market that also achieve one or two of WiseTime’s key features, there are none that synthesise all four. From a service perspective, WiseTime is set apart by its team’s experience and knowledge of the industry. The founder of WiseTime was a patent attorney and lawyer before turning his attention to WiseTime, and the CTO/vice-CEO continues as a practicing patent attorney specialising in the software patent field. WiseTime’s sales and support team amass years of experience working with and for attorneys. The software itself is created by a team of leading developers located around the world, with a strong internal culture that supports professional education and diversity of skills. As such, WiseTime brings a unique understanding of the needs of the profession, its attorneys, and their clients alike – as well as a superior quality product.

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