Solcara Offers Superior Search for Legal and Business Teams
Jinfo Blog

By Candace Cathey

Abstract

Legal researcher Candace Cathey selects some highlights from her recent product review of Solcara Legal Search from Thomson Reuters. She explains how it offers time efficiency and which search and sharing features she found of most interest.

Item

What if there was an application for users with the power to search across multiple databases, various online legal services, and internal systems - and if all that was available in one platform for single search? That source is Solcara by Thomson Reuters Legal UK and Ireland and is explored in the May 2015 FreePint Product Review of Solcara.

Research and Resource

Solcara is a sophisticated tool that is geared toward information professionals and users in the legal and business sector who are looking for a solution that allows one to conduct a single search across multiple databases. Researchers can retrieve a variety of information such as case law, news, journals and legislation information from subscription services, free resources and internal content.

The homepage has a Google-like search box interface for users who are familiar with search engines. This will be very appealing to both experienced and beginner-level users who are accustomed to the natural language search method.

The syntax was engineered to provide efficient search results. In addition, there is a drop-down option allowing users to select a primary source or go with the default set of practice area resources.  

Even though Solcara is affiliated with the UK and Irish legal market where the primary language is UK English, they offer their services and sources in multiple languages for French- and Spanish-speaking clients in the Canadian and Mexican markets, for example. Users can select their language preference on the homepage.

Internal and Document Management System

Not only does Solcara offer a search that can pull in a multitude of resources, but it offers the opportunity to search internal documents via a link with systems such as SharePoint.

Solcara's method of saving searches makes life much easier for researchers and increases time efficiency for users.

There is an option for information managers to create a name, enter a description and receive an email of results. Other options include bookmarking pages where you can create and organise collections by making them private or opting to share them with a group of users.

Search results can be printed, emailed or exported based on the user's preference. After selecting an option, one can choose formats in HTML, Plain Text, or Rich Text Format.

Find Out More

Overall, Solcara offers the best of both worlds: a research and content solution with links to internal document management systems. I highly recommend it for those in the European market as well as the North American legal and business sector.The best value of Solcara for future clients is that it requires little to no involvement with IT teams.

To learn more about Solcara, its full capabilities, competitor landscape and value, read the Product Review of Solcara.

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