‘From a search company at heart to a conduit in the conveyancing journey’
InfoTrack have been on some journey in recent years. What started as a search company in Australia is now a conveyancing technology provider that completes more applications to HM Land Registry than any other entity.
Their CEO Scott Bozinis recently sat down with Today’s Conveyancer to shed some light on this journey. Who are InfoTrack? Why are practitioners “voting with their feet”? And, crucially, what is next?
Who are InfoTrack?
InfoTrack is a digital conveyancing services platform that provides a host of technology for law firms at all stages in the transaction, including digital onboarding, conveyancing services, eSignatures, and more. This, says Scott, is with the intention of making the homemoving process easier for all parties.
But where did they come from? “Following success in Australia expanding the searching business into a wider conveyancing services platform, we looked to other regions that could benefit from a similar journey,” says Scott, adding:
“As the conveyancing process in England and Wales shares similarities with that of Australia, we saw an opportunity to take what we had learned and apply it here. The objective has always been to improve the conveyancing process for law firms and their clients through great technology.”
‘A conduit to other systems’
“While InfoTrack began as a search company originally, we’re now proving to be a conduit to other systems,” Scott suggests. This involves bridging the gap between case management systems and other services, such as the Land Registry, HMRC, local councils and soon law firms to law firms, according to the InfoTrack CEO:
“I see that as the big future, as the missing link. So InfoTrack has really evolved from a search company at heart to being a conduit in the conveyancing journey.”
Indeed, InfoTrack now comfortably complete the most applications to the land registry, something Scott says is “proof that the conduit is working”.
‘I like to believe people vote with their feet’
Asked how he would describe InfoTrack’s relationship with conveyancing firms in England and Wales, Scott says:
“I like to believe people vote with their feet, and that’s how we’ve been able to lodge so many AP1 applications. Add to this SDLT applications, and we’re talking enormous volumes.
So, I think our relationship with firms in England and Wales is a good one. Hopefully the industry sees us as refreshing, as driving the innovation they want. We’re not revolutionising processes; we’re automating the existing process through technology.”
Indeed, he believes conveyancers don’t appreciate efforts to drive “rapid change”:
“It’s a very stressful and complex process to initiate big change. Instead, we have slowly introduced technology over the last eight years that has been adopted. It’s a slow evolution and we’re proud to be part of that.”
Perhaps testament to this is that Scott took home the coveted Industry Champion award at the most recent British Conveyancing Awards held in London earlier this year.
A significant player in InfoTrack’s success has been through collaboration, says Scott, who asks whether there is any other way than working alongside other stakeholders and technology platforms.
“I think the industry has been screaming for something like this. The desire to work together has always been there, but nobody has linked it up.”
A key part of this is a local focus and approach, says Scott:
“We may have brought some interesting technology from Australia, but that doesn’t mean anything until you get to know the local industry or the local jurisdiction. So of course, we’re collaborative, with both law firms and other suppliers and industry bodies. I couldn’t imagine it being any other way.”
Challenges in the adoption of digital conveyancing
“There are a few challenges in the move to digital conveyancing,” says Scott:
“One is the move to cloud-based services and trust issues around security. Part of that journey has been making sure that clients are aware that their data is more secure with us than being kept on-premise. I think the industry understands that now, but early attempts to move to digital solutions caused a lot of questions around those things. This was one of the earliest challenges that we’ve generally moved on from now.
Another is the change management – moving from paper files to digital. It’s not that paper doesn’t work at all anymore, but it’s not the ultimate solution. So, we’ve had to pick up a system that wasn’t entirely broken and move people to a system that is better for them but involves complex change. We have moved people from a paper-based system to a paperless system and with that comes the challenges around dealing with security and data sovereignty concerns, as well as learning new systems.”
Scott says that a move to managing conveyancing with new technology requires acknowledgement that the system “wasn’t entirely broken before” – a transition made more challenging having taken place “during a very busy market”.
On changing expectations, Scott says:
“People expect a lot more from their legal software providers now. You can’t be a point solution anymore. Firms want to consolidate their services; they don’t want 10 different providers and passwords. Instead, they want one case management system, one information provider, one operating system, and one Microsoft Office.
That’s been a huge shift and a lot of that can be attributed to the pandemic. COVID didn’t allow us face-to-face interaction and therefore technology solutions, like our eCOS onboarding solution, became essential for business continuity. Clients said, ‘we love it and we’re not going back’. They knew they wanted change, the situation just accelerated how quickly it happened and the industry hasn’t looked back.”
What’s next for digital conveyancing?
Scott believes there are two key things that are on the horizon for digital conveyancing:
“First, we need a conduit between the firms in the transaction. We need a better solution than emailing back and forth. We need a platform solution for this, there’s no doubt about that. We need to develop systems that allow the buyer’s and seller’s solicitor to communicate effectively.
Second, we need software to read documents and call things out. There’s a lot of documentation and paperwork that is read through the transaction that a conveyancer must read, be it the TA forms or searches or mortgage offers, and technology can speed up that process.”
While Scott doesn’t see this kind of tech replacing conveyancers, he does see it automating processes:
“We are already seeing some of this with title reading; various companies out there are reading titles to speed up how this information is reviewed, but we need to extend that thinking.”
The role of AI in conveyancing
“AI is not going to take over conveyancing anytime soon,” Scott says confidently. “It’s a very complicated process and I can assure you we’re not thinking about that.” Explaining this thinking, he says:
“Where AI is quite good is where you have very defined point solutions where you can feed it distinct information. We know AI is 85% accurate and no one’s going to accept conveyancing solutions that are only 85% accurate.”
He did, however, say that “there are times and places where AI can solve very defined problems in a much faster and more consistent way”, and as such believes InfoTrack will “look to introduce that technology where we deem it appropriate, to ensure it will be valuable”.
One Response
This is exactly what conveyancers need:collaboration to develop tech that complements the system rather than the promise of revolutionary “game-changing” IT.
As an owner I want reports and the IT on offer MUST provide the reports I need.