Presumably this involves creating more space where the PC once stood.

I doubt the Pilgrim Marketing team will use this:

Paradigm "is a word too often used by those who would like to have a new idea but cannot think of one."

— Mervyn Allister King, then—Deputy Governor, Bank of England

Understand that David T and team are off to to launch in the USA at LegalTech ....Pilgrims progress following the light back to LA???!!!???

As someone who was at the User Conference, I have to say that what they have done caused a stunned silence in the audience. If they deliver what we were shown it will be something truly different.

I agree. For those interested, the new product they launched brought the functions of time recording, billing and others into Office 2007. That description didn't do it justice. I'd recommend a look for yourself.

I've not seen it yet (but I've heard about it directly from Pilgrim).

Lets be honest; this type of working 'paradigm' (embedded application functionality in a matter/client context within the 'space' where people work i.e. in MS Office - including Sharepoint) has been a technical possibility for a couple of year now and a few people have been championing it, both from within legal firms and within the Legal/IT sector.
I am certainly aware that the Legal/IT companies have been listening to the law firms in this respect for a couple of years now...

It's a natural fit and way of working, and some firms have been working towards this (Handshake, ADERANT, FWBS, VisualFiles Manilla) with sub-sets of product already available in the market. So we have to realise that Pilgrims 'Paradigm' is not actually new...

What appears to be new is that they have the whole thing working in a fashion that non-techies (even lawyers!) can understand and that such people can appreciate how it will work in (legal) practice; now that is something that Pilgrim should quite rightly be applauded for.

Others (aguably Elite) have kept ploughing there own furrow and one has to question how long PMS (and other) suppliers can afford to ignore the fact that the Microsoft stack is open and a no-brainer for users - and that Microsoft will challenge for the sector soon enough.

Osman Ismail's outfit - DPS Software - are also showing a similar new system (called Outlook Office) at next week's Legal IT Show in London.

I think where we (Pilgrim) have redefined the paradigm is that we have gone beyond what most have done with the drag and drop into Outlook folders, used most notably for e-mail. We have actually engineered functionality right into the ribbons and toolbars of Outlook, Word, et al, so that the PMS becomes just a seamless set of add-ons to Office. I'll leave it to commentators such as Charles to report, but I can tell you the reaction from users was one of speechlessness. I agree with the view that to plough one's own furrow is becoming increasingly out of touch with what the market really wants.