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BigHand has been named as the UK’s fastest growing private legal software developer in the fifth annual Sunday Times Tech Track 100 league table, sponsored by Microsoft. Britain’s one hundred fastest-growing private technology companies were revealed on 25 September 2005, with BigHand ranking 51st overall and the only software developer aimed at the legal sector to make the list. Among the profitable companies in the league table, BigHand was listed in an impressive 32nd place and was shown to be the 19th fastest growing technology company in London.

The league table reported that despite tough market conditions, BigHand increased its sales by an average of 69.05% a year between 2002 and 2004 (£1.4m in 2002 to £3.9m in 2004). The report lists BigHand as in profit, with no debt, and forecasting an increase in sales again this year.

This year’s league table also features household names such as Multimap.com (No 84) and Cheapflights (No 79). They join past success stories from the list such as Wolfson Microelectronics and Cambridge Silicon Radio, which have since floated, as well as Friends Reunited.

BigHand Managing Director, Stephen Thompson, commented:

“It is a measure of the strength of BigHand technology that we now appear as the fastest growing legal software developer in the Tech Track 100 league table. Our workflow software sets a standard in terms of the reliability and flexibility it offers law firms, and it has provided substantial firm wide return-on-investment time and time again. With over 300 law firms as clients across the UK, and an increasing global user base, BigHand has established a great foundation for future growth.”

Most of this year’s Tech Track 100 companies are headquartered in London (33) and the Southeast of England (25), with the remaining breakdown as follows: North of England (13), the Midlands (11), East of England (5), Scotland (5), Southwest of England (4), Northern Ireland (3), and Wales (1).

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About the league table:

Now in its fifth year, The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 annual league table is compiled by Oxford-based research and events company Fast Track. It was published with The Sunday Times business section on 25 September and on www.fasttrack.co.uk.

In addition to title sponsor Microsoft, the league table is co-sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

League table criteria:

Companies are ranked according to their annual growth rate in sales between 2002 and 2004. Companies had to be unquoted, independent and registered in Britain. The league table adopts the London Stock Exchange’s techMARK definition of what constitutes a technology company. Companies primarily engaged in simply reselling or reassembly were predominantly excluded, as were IT consultants that do not develop proprietary technology. Companies also had to forecast an increase in sales from 2004 to 2005, but were not required to be in profit. The research was carried out by Fast Track between 1st June and 19th August. All companies were interviewed by telephone and the majority (88) have also been visited by the Fast Track research team.

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