Conveyancing
The demise of Veyo: lessons for the conveyancing industry
Nicola Laver discusses the Veyo project and the lessons its demise may perhaps teach the conveyancing profession.
About the author
Nicola Laver is a freelance legal journalist.
The Veyo Conveyancing Portal was the Law Society’s answer to the conveyancing profession’s persistent calls for an efficient , effective and secure digital conveyancing system. But Veyo was not to be: the death knell sounded as 2015 gave up the ghost, with the project’s naysayers gleefully declaring: ‘Told you so!’
The portal was designed, in 2014, to speed up house buying and reduce the risk of fraud, against the background of a changing conveyancing market. The Law Society declared that the portal would:
… facilitate agreement of exchange and completion dates, and o›er enhanced visibility into the details and progress of all properties via the ‘Chain View’ feature. It will be accessed by professionals and homebuyers. Veyo will be a secure, transparent and efficient system to help conveyancing businesses compete.1
The Law Society conducted its due diligence, selecting Indian technology giant Mastek to be its partner in building an online conveyancing system for England and Wales. Veyo was developed by Legal Practice Technologies (LPT) – a company founded by the Law Society and Mastek in 2014 – when the society invested £600,000 into LPT for a 60 per cent shareholding in the company (the minority shareholding being held by Mastek).
The Law Society confidently declared that the portal would launch in 2015. The initial launch date was then postponed. Then, in December 2015, LPT announced that a review concluded that ‘the shape of the market for the Veyo product has changed radically’ since LPT began.2 As a result, no further investment would take place. Veyo was put to sleep. So, what happened?
Despite the laudable aims behind Veyo, the project hit the buffers for a number of reasons. It could not keep pace with developing technology and failed to anticipate new providers (such as Free2Convey (F2C)) entering the marketplace offering free products within case management software to deliver LTP’s initial vision for e-conveyancing . The Law Society conceded: ‘The timetable for getting Veyo to market was, in retrospect, over ambitious.’
Veyo’s development appeared to be going well in some respects: it won awards in April 2015 for its marketing, having been nominated in five categories of the Transform Awards Europe, an international brand development and reputation management event. However, it had not yet launched and the set launch date had already been postponed. Just a month later, in May 2015, Doug Crawford, chief executive of My Home Move, correctly predicted that Veyo would fail.
The financial cost has been significant – Veyo has exceeded £3m and the total cost of development and launch could reach a reported £10m. The Law Society said that ceasing funding Veyo was done with ‘considerable regret’ , but justified pulling the plug on the project saying that it was the right commercial decision to make. It has also apologised to those who have been waiting for the portal, and conceded that ‘lessons have been learnt’ .
Given the financial costs, the society’s apology may have appeased some, but there are still many practitioners who have requested answers and accountability from the Law Society and LPT. Some critics believed that the demise of Veyo was inevitable from day one.
Rob Hailstone, conveyancer and founder of the Bold Legal Group, questioned why Veyo was not stopped ‘six or 12 months ago’ . In an open letter to Jonathan Smithers, the Law Society president, and Catherine Dixon, its chief executive, in December 2015, he made clear that ‘a significant number of solicitors (and conveyancers) have requested and deserve an explanation, an apology, answers and accountability from those in the higher echelons of the Law Society and LPT’ .3 3
He described blaming the failure of Veyo on the ‘changing shape of the market’ and ‘free products coming to the market’ as ‘incredulous and insulting’ . He also questioned how, ‘if Free2Convey was thought to be a real threat, then how was it developed within a matter of months and at a fraction of the cost of Veyo?’
Rob Hailstone has put many questions to the society about the project, including surrounding the financial aspects, and why the project was ever commenced. He received a letter in response, stating that closing Veyo was ‘a diÿcult decision’ and that the society is ‘sorry for the disappointment caused’ .
The Journal asked Rob Hailstone about what he thinks went wrong. He comments: ‘I believe that the development of Veyo was well intentioned to try to help high street firms, which could not or did not want to invest in expensive case management systems, get into the 21st century. However, Veyo went wrong from day one. Not enough market research was carried out and there was no proper consultation with the majority of firms who might have found Veyo interesting and useful. Too much money was spent on marketing, PR and employing a sales force before the product even existed. There was too much interference by Law Society ‘friendly firms’ who had no understanding of how and when to take an online system like Veyo to market. I could go on.
‘I understand that an investigation has been carried out and it is damning to say the least. Whether it will see the light of day is unlikely.’
A Law Society spokesperson told the Journal: ‘Since closing the company, we commissioned an independent ‘lessons learned’ report. The report makes recommendations for our future approach to commercial investments. The report is currently being considered by management Board and council.’ The report is not yet public.
Andrew Stenning, managing director at SearchesUK, believes that one of the main reasons why Veyo did not succeed was because it limited choice and was a ‘one-size- fits-all ’ offering. He says: ‘The thinking behind the Veyo proposal was full of great intentions – hoping to revolutionise the conveyancing marketing and bringing the whole process into the 21st century. The concept of having a chain that is easily viewable by all involved in the transaction isn’t necessarily new, but it hadn’t been pulled off as a fully supported, industry-wide offering before. Unfortunately, the proposal didn’t take account of the numerous requirements and variances within the conveyancing profession, and it seems that the whole concept was backed by an overinflated marketing campaign which didn’t support their actual product development and time frames.’
The demise of Veyo does not mean the death of e-conveyancing . New software providers are introducing new products into the marketplace. F2C, for instance, was launched by the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) in September 2015, and is effectively a free rival version of Veyo. With Veyo consigned to the dust, F2C can power ahead – but has it got what it takes?
Rob Hailstone explains the background: ‘F2C was created by the members of the LSSA because the delay in launching Veyo was clogging up their pipelines. As far as I am aware, F2C offers a Deal Room and a Chain View - the two parts that Veyo would have had - that most existing case management systems don’t . The $64,000 dollar question is - do conveyancers want a deal room and chain view and would a chain view increase the number of calls from clients and agents or reduce them?’
Rob Hailstone highlights the lessons conveyancing technology providers need to learn from Veyo’s demise: ‘Consult, consult, consult and carry out extensive market research before spending vast sums of money on developing new ideas, products and systems. Having said that, don’t not try to create things that will help speed up the process, and make it safer and more transparent. The public deserves a better process, and conveyancers would welcome an innovative system that makes them more productive and their lives less stressful.’
Other providers include Easy Convey, a ‘totally automated, seamless’ electronic case management solution, and Eclipse’s Proclaim Conveyancing Case Management solution. But can other search providers fill the gap in similar ways? Andrew Stenning says: ‘Searches UK has close links with a number of extremely good case management providers, and whilst we don’t offer case management systems ourselves, we are more than able to integrate with them to ensure our clients have streamlined and efficient systems and processes in place.
‘We don’t favour one CMS above another: we believe that solicitors and conveyancers are more than capable of working out which system suits their firm’s needs best.’
The latest technology will undoubtedly shape the future of e-conveyancing . As Rob Hailstone says, the current market is crowded with search companies, and what the market needs is ‘forward thinking suppliers as siloed processes are no longer cutting it’ .
‘With client expectations increasing and work heaped on conveyancers, they need to spend less time on inefficient individual processes and more time on the things that really matter. Using multiple websites, logins and invoices, as is the current status quo, is quickly becoming tiresome and ineÿcient , meaning longer working hours and more administrative tasks. One of the presenters at the Bold Legal Group roadshows, who are a conveyancing services provider new to the UK market, are offering the technology to perform not only the searches but also the functionality to submit SDLT and AP1 transfers within one system. It is this kind of forward thinking that the market needs right now. With so much fantastic technology at the industry’s fingertips, conveyancers need to be open to change and trialling what works for their practice.’
Though progress is being made, Andrew Stenning warns: ‘We need to look at the mistakes that have been made and learn from them, rather than sit back and simply criticise.’
Richard Dawson, managing director at PSG Connect, says: ‘The advancements of technology, high broadband speeds, acceptance and trust by the general public to conduct transactions online have caused changing behaviours and new entrants to enter the conveyancing market, using technology to drive efficiencies and reduce transaction costs. We have seen technology impact the conveyancing market with online referral portals, online case management systems and online estate agents.’
But technology is not what it is all about: efficient, effective conveyancing remains, as always, about the client. As Richard Dawson says: ‘PSG views technology as just another tool to assist with, rather than replace, great personal customer service. Having someone to speak to about a transaction when needed and providing a personal service is, in our view, still as important as ever.’
Will F2C succeed where Veyo did not? Conveyancing practitioners will undoubtedly be watching with interest.
1 The Law Society Group: Annual report and consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2014, p14, available at: http://tinyurl.com/joakayp
2 ‘Statement by LPT board on the future of Veyo’, 3 December 2015, available at: http://tinyurl.com/zxfc7af 3 Available at: http://tinyurl.com/jpeoqxy