AlphaLAW-Junior to Insight Legal Data Migration

If you use AlphaLAW Junior (if there are any left), we are able to provide a complete data migration to the Insight Legal System.

The AlphaLAW Junior legal account system is MS-DOS based system that utilises COBOL ISAM based data storage. It was first produced by MSS (latterly AlphaLAW) in the late 1980s and met a very high degree of success in the legal market when bundled with an Amstrad PC. Although sales never quite reached the 1,000 firm mark, it was still an incredibly successful system. We don’t actually know of any firm still using AlphaLAW Junior. However, every time we think we have seen the last of it, another firm turns up and asks if we might be able to convert their 20 years of data to Insight.

At Insight Legal we have converted a small number of firms from the AlphaLAW Junior system to Insight Legal and would be happy to put you in touch with one or more our users who previously used AlphaLAW Junior.

As AlphaLAW Junior utilises a very old-fashioned type of database, it is difficult to extract data from.

However, we can still successfully perform a conversion and these will typically include at least all of the following;

  • Clients – including names and addresses
  • Matters
  • Matter Types
  • Banks
  • Fee Earners
  • Accounting Periods
  • Client/Matter Ledgers
  • Time Recording
  • Nominal Ledgers
  • Nominal Ledger Transactions
  • VAT Liability Opening Balance
  • Bank Opening Balances

We will definitely want to perform a trial conversion prior to scheduling a live data migration. You will need to send us a backup of your current AlphaLAW Junior data. The last backup we received was on floppy disks which meant we had to buy a floppy disk drive. Following the trial conversion, we will deliver the data back to you in Insight so you can check that the conversion is correct and understand the extent of the migration that is possible to achieve. Any changes to matter types, departments, fee earner codes, etc. can all be agreed following the trial conversion.

The Live conversion will normally take around three days to complete. Part of this process will be for us to check all of the balances match those from AlphaLAW Junior prior to the live conversion and these will be checked against a series of reports that you have run before taking the backup of the AlphaLAW Junior data.

When you’re dealing with the experts, it doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t need to be a hassle.