January 31, 2005
Searchlight shines in document processing, CEO says
Construction industry veteran behind new management solutions software
By Patricia Williams
staff writer
Vancouver-headquartered Searchlight is marketing what it considers a better mousetrap — a combination of information management solutions and litigation support services.
The firm, which was founded in 1998 and now has a full-time staff of about 50 with offices in Canada, the United States and London, has developed a process for document management as well as a fully integrated software package.
Data, whether paper-based or digital, including computer-aided design (CAD) and other types of computer files, can be inputted into a central repository.
Searchlight can also help clients organize this data and get it into the system.
“If your documents are properly organized, you’re light-years ahead of the game if a project goes sideways,” says construction industry veteran Gary Procknow, Searchlight’s president and chief executive officer.
“Your lawyers are ready to go on a moment’s notice.”
The firm was founded by Procknow and Rick Green, a software engineer with a military intelligence background.
Gary Procknow
In his former capacity as general manager for a Vancouver-based heavy construction company, Procknow was in charge of several large legal claims, including their negotiation and settlement.
In one such claim, the company needed to deal with tens of thousands of documents, photos and video clips to be used throughout discoveries, negotiations and a seven-month trial.
Faced with untangling the large mass of evidence into organized and easily retrievable data, the company searched for a software program to help them with this task.
Unable to find one powerful enough, Procknow consulted computer professional Green to create an electronic document management system that would manage, track and display documents in court.
The lawyers and the trial judge had access to the software program and all the data.
“We won that case,” Procknow said in an interview. “We spun the process into a business. We started strictly as a company to build software to organize documents.
“In 2001, we expanded into providing services to the litigation industry.”
Searchlight customers include corporations, legal practices, securities’ commissions in two Canadian provinces and one U.S. state and even some construction companies. B.C. Hydro is also a client.
Last year, Searchlight did about 80 per cent of its business in Canada. That proportion is expected to fall this year to about 50 per cent, “because the American side is growing quite a bit.”
Procknow, who pointed out that there are warehouses “all over North America that are filled with paper,” said managing that data “is a costly affair.”
“Companies now are moving to digitize those records,” he said.
“Once they are assured that everything is captured, they can destroy the original records.”
Searchlight staff are involved in such activities as scanning and coding documents and managing litigation projects for clients. The firm’s Seattle office concentrates on U.S. Air Force work.
Trish Hill
Tish Hill, the company’s Seattle-based vice-president of strategy and new business development and a former consultant to Microsoft Corp., said one of the document management system’s key benefits is flexibility.
“How you use us is really à la carte,” said Hill, who works closely with Procknow in development of the company’s strategic and long-term goals. “Sometimes, people just use our consulting services.”
Cost is also an issue, said Hill who met with some construction lawyers during a recent trip to Toronto. It can cost companies “a fortune” to develop their own electronic information management systems.
“They’ve got to hire people (computer professionals) they wouldn’t normally hire,” Hill said. “They don’t know how to manage them and how much to pay them, whereas we already have the infrastructure in place.”
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