Project Case Study: Friendly Conveyancing (FC) 
"Friendly Conveyancing" (FC) is a boutique law firm operated by John Gordon and members of his family in the heart of Melbourne CBD. The firm specialises Residential and Commercial conveyancing, and its clients ranging from individuals to small and medium businesses. 
FC's main business is to handle conveyancing transactions, which includes work done by lawyers when a client buys a house or business. Each conveyancing transaction requires a lot of standard communication to be sent to buyers and sellers, and includes online title searches, and most importantly - managing deadlines. 
FC's business processes are manual, including the creation of client contracts, accepting payments and issuing receipts, as well as generating letters to clients and other stakeholders. Client details are maintained using a spread sheet, and appointments were maintained in Microsoft Outlook. 
All client files at this initial stage are paper based and staff often spend hours searching for a particular file. Once the client file is found, additional time is spent looking for documents within the particular file. Sometimes files would go missing and then reappear after a few days. In addition to this, the governing legal body requires that the file from a closed case had to be kept on the firm's records for 7 years. 
Current System / Processes - Buying a House 
For a standard conveyancing transaction that involves buying a house, the current processes followed by FC are as follows:- 
1. A client signs a contract and at that point of time nominates FC as its solicitor / conveyancer. 
2. The client then contacts FC and notifies them of the purchase of a property and provides a signed copy of the contract to FC 
3. FC staff immediately open a file for the new client and peruse the contract for any mistakes or errors 
4. A Title Search and Plan Search is performed at that stage to ensure that the seller details are entered correctly on the contract and property details are accurately reflected on the contract. 
5. Other terms such as "subject to finance" and "pest and building inspection" are made special note of, solicitors then set deadlines in Microsoft Outlook to ensure they can track these deadlines. 
6. The FC solicitor then contacts the solicitor of the other party to exchange contact details and reconfirm the conditions on the contract and associated deadlines. 
7. FC staff then prepare transfer documents and forward them to the seller's solicitors for signing 
8. After conditions are met the contract becomes unconditional (if ever there is a delay in meeting conditions, FC staff seek an extension from the Solicitors of the other party, where necessary) 
9. FC staff then order and obtain the remaining searches and check all searches 
10. FC staff prepare settlement figures 
11. FC staff book the settlement meeting with client's financier and the seller's solicitor 
12. FC staff advise the financier (bank) of cheque details for settlement 
13. The FC Solicitor then attends the settlement meeting 
14. FC staff send final letters to client to confirm details of settlement 
15. FC staff pay "Office of State Revenue" the required stamp duty on client's behalf 
16. The FC Solicitor stamps the transfer documents and then lodges the transfer documents with the government office
17. FC staff send a final letter to the client with details of settlement figures 
18. FC staff issue the client with a tax invoice for the work performed 
Details that are currently manually recorded on file are:- 
• Client name, address, contacts details (phone, mobile, email) 
• Other parties (sellers) solicitor details 
• List of requested searches by the client 
• List of conditions on the contract 
• Important Dates such as, "Subject To Finance", "Building & Pest Control", "Day contract goes unconditional", "Settlement Date" 
• Information about the client's financier (Contact Person, Bank Name, Branch, Contact Numbers) 
• Details of Client Loan and Client Contributions towards purchase of the property 
• Cost of standard searches 
Accounting 
All invoices are created manually using pen and paper and outstanding payments are tracked by setting reminders in Microsoft Outlook 
Problems with the Current System 
• Only one staff member can access important information at a time which causes bottlenecks especially if staff are away 
• There is some duplication with paper and electronic records 
• Records are held in computer applications plus in paper form 
• The system does not provide an effective means for keeping deadline details 

Due to these problems, some conveyancing transactions have not been handled well and customer complaints are increasing. 

The desired new system 

John has identified that his major priority is to create a system that ties together all the key elements of conveyancing transactions. He has hired your company, Brisbane System Integration Group (BCIG) as consultants to carry out analysis and develop the specifications for an automated information system.