Company Background
Pryse Jones is a legal practice based in Sawbridgeworth, Herts that specialises in conveyancing and the handling of all property related legal matters. Kitty Pryse-Jones joined the firm in 1979 as a junior legal secretary and having qualified and gained 19 years of conveyancing experience, eventually took over as Principal of the legal practice on 1 April 1998. She was later joined by her husband Jon, who is now responsible for marketing and IT.
January 2001 saw the launch of MovingAhead.co.uk, Pryse Jones' Internet -based conveyancing system, which has quickly established itself as a cutting edge conveyancing system.

The Business Opportunity
Together, Kitty and Jon Pryse-Jones identified the Internet as the ideal medium to extend the services that they were already offering to their existing clients. This has provided them with the opportunity to expand their business to a whole new nationwide marketplace and thereby to compete successfully with legal practices much larger than their own.
Their idea was to develop an innovative system for use by their own clients, estate agents and independent financial advisors. The system would enable clients and their agents to obtain online quotations, instruct Pryse Jones via the Internet and then follow the progress of their conveyancing matters online at any time of day or night. It was therefore crucial that the system was simple to use and easily understandable by people with little or no legal knowledge.

The Solution
A specially designed online matter tracking system based on extranet technology has been developed which allows clients to obtain instant conveyancing quotations and then securely follow the progress of their conveyancing via a dedicated website named MovingAhead. (www.movingahead.co.uk).
By using the Extranet-based system, agents are also able to follow the progress of their clients' transactions online, meaning that they don't have to contact the practice by telephone. Having introduced their client, agents are also able to track any commissions that may be due to them in respect of each introduction.

Success
During the first three months of 2001 Pryse Jones' first online agent introduced over 20 new clients to the company. The online matter tracking facility was one of the key factors that persuaded this agent to switch allegiance and start to introduce its clients to the legal practice. The company estimates a turnover of £240,000 for 2001/2002, which is a 60% increase compared with the previous financial year.
Jon Pryse-Jones commented: "We have received lots of favourable comment from our clients who find it difficult to believe that a business as small as ours has managed to succeed in implementing such an advanced e-commerce solution."

Year Overview

• The site now enables clients to track re-mortgages in addition to property sales and purchases
• The company has carried out a number of upgrades to the online administration sections to ensure the continued smooth running of the site
• January 2002 saw the launch by MovingAhead of a revolutionary e-mail notification system which automatically updates agents and clients at every stage of the conveyancing process
• Turnover has increased by approximately 60%
• Due to the success of the web site, MovingAhead has now become a separate company

The Future
Pryse Jones has already begun to plan for the development of a completely new online project that promises to approach the conveyancing process from an entirely new angle. Using all that it has learned from MovingAhead, the practice is looking to make their new e-commerce site much more customer focused by carefully leading clients through a journey that will encompass the entire conveyancing process from initiation to completion.
The new site is being designed with a view to increasing the rate at which online enquiries are converted into actual business and will prove beyond any doubt the resolve of this small organisation to remain way ahead of it's competitors.

Advice for Other Companies
Jon Pryse-Jones commented:
"Businesses like ours, that are looking to offer a web-based service, need to be aware that it is not enough just to develop a web site and then sit back and expect a large increase in new business to arrive overnight. In order to promote a web site successfully, not only does one need to ensure that it has been properly optimised for search engines, but attention must also be paid to promoting the site using the more traditional forms of offline advertising.
"An e-commerce web site is rather like a wheelbarrow. You can fill it full of all sorts of wonderful products, but unless someone is prepared to pick it up and start to push it along then it is unlikely to go anywhere."