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Business Integrity Ltd is a privately held software company headquartered in London with a second office in New York. Business Integrity develops, licenses and supports a range of Document Automation products for the Microsoft Windows platform.

History
The company was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between Tarlo Lyons, a London based law firm and Logic Programming Associates, a software company specializing in artificial intelligence software and Windows-based Prolog compilers. Founders Phil Vasey and John Mawhood devised a new approach to document assembly which enabled users to create document assembly templates in Microsoft Word using a text based mark-up language which would then be automatically compiled into a web-based questionnaire form.

In 2000, Standard Chartered Bank became the first corporate customer to license Business Integrity's products for the generation of procurement contracts. Microsoft followed in 2004, using ContractExpress for the automation and management of their end user license agreements. Other prominent corporate customers include Christie’s and AXA PPP.

In 2001, Linklaters became the first law firm to license Business Integrity's document assembly products for use in their award winning Term Sheet Generator product. The ContractExpress product has since formed the basis for Goodwin Procter’s Founders Workbench Document Driver, providing legal documents for new start-up companies, as well as underpinning De Brauw’s Connect Contract service and is the engine behind the Cooley GO Docs offering within Cooley Go, Cooley LLP's online document generation offering for startups.

ContractExpress
Business Integrity's product is ContractExpress, a document automation system used by law firms and corporate legal departments. In February 2010, Business Integrity launched ContractExpress.com, a cloud based version of the document automation software. The most recent version, ContractExpress 5.4, was released at the end of June, 2015.

The most recent version of ContractExpress for Sharepoint 5.1 was released in July, 2015, and ContractExpress for Salesforce 4 is due for release in August, 2015.

Patents
ContractExpress has been granted twelve U.S. patents, several international patents and has further U.S. patent applications in process. , the latest one was granted in January, 2015.

The following are the U.S patents granted by US patents and Trademarks office.

Dynamic questionnaire generation

(U.S. Patent # 8,302,003)

The invention provides a document generation system for generating a customised document using a document generation program, having means to generate and information capture document for obtaining input information. At least one content element comprises at least a first variable. The system comprises means to evaluate a set of further rules including at least one second variable to determine the number and type of occurrences of the first variable, and means to aggregate the further set of rules to determine the relevance of the first variable in terms of the at least one second variable.

Script Generation

(U.S. Patent # 8,788,929)

Indirect update functions, for updating a form, are generated by supplying update functions to a synthesizer, and generating an activation network, based on these update functions. The invocation sequence of the activation network is then determined, and used to update elements of a form. The generation of the invocation sequence by the synthesizer removes the need for complex hand encoding of form structures, and provides a means by which the functions may be generated as part of a server, client or middle-ware application.

Editing of customised documents

(U.S. Patent # 8,234,563)

A method of generating a second customised document incorporating amendments made to a previously generated first document, where the customised documents include one or more selected predetermined portions of document content, comprises the steps of: determining which portions of document content are comprised in the first document but which are not comprised in the second document; deleting the portions of document content determined in the preceding step from the first document; determining which portions of document content are comprised in the second document but which are not comprised in the first document; and copying the portions of document content determined in the preceding step from the second document to the first document.

Mark-up of automated documents

(U.S. Patent # 7,363,579)

The invention relates to the generation of customised documents using document templates and in particular to the generation of different types of customised documents including clauses or other portions of document content which are common to two or more types of customised document.

Re-usable clauses

(U.S. Patent # 7,992,080)

The invention provides a document generation system for generating a customized document using content elements selected by rules operating on input information, the operating information comprising transaction values. The system comprises at least one computer having a document generation program stored thereon, means to associate further rules with the transaction values, and means to evaluate said further rules to produce an indication of whether transaction values are definite, indefinite or absent in a partially customized generated document. The effect of the transaction values is represented by means of a mark-up.

Checking missing transaction values in generated document

(U.S. Patent # 7,380,201)

The invention provides a document generation system for generating a customized document using content elements selected by rules operating on input information, the operating information comprising transaction values. The system comprises at least one computer having a document generation program stored thereon, means to associate further rules with the transaction values, and means to evaluate said further rules to produce an indication of the relevance of the presence or absence of the transaction values in a fully or partially customized generated document. The effect of the transaction values is represented by means of a mark-up.

Systems, methods and computer programs for analysis, clarification, reporting on and generation of master documents for use in automated document generation

(U.S. Patent # 7,472,343)

A system and method of generating data representing a master document for use in an automated document generation system comprises storing data representing a first mark-up notation or style and data representing a second mark-up notation or style different to the first mark-up notation or style. Data representing a mapping between the first and second mark-up notations or styles is stored. Data representing a precedent or master document written in the first mark-up notation or style is received. The received data is analyzed, in dependence on the data representing the first mark-up notation or style, to determine component elements of the first precedent or master document and the interrelationships of the component elements. Data is generated representing a precedent or master document written in the second mark-up notation or style based on the analysis and dependent on the data representing the mapping and the second mark-up notation or style. Lastly, the generated data is output.

Cross-reference Generation

(U.S. Patent # 7,506,251)

The invention provides a document generation system, which is capable of generating a fully or a partially customized document by evaluating rules to select some of a group of content elements, such that the fully or partially customized document is able to support cross-references between a first content element and at least a second content element, and cross-references between any of the content elements and an external file.

Debugging Master Documents

(U.S. Patent # 7,757,160)

The invention relates to debugging of document templates or master documents used in the automated generation of customised documents.

Conditional text manipulation

(U.S. Patent # 7,818,304)

A document generation system for generating a customised document using content elements selected by rules operating on input information, the content elements comprising conditional and unconditional text is provided. The system provides means to generate a program structure, containing information about the space characters to be inserted between the conditional and unconditional text in the generated document. The program structure is evaluated to determine the positions of the space characters. The program structure may be an XML structure.

Definitions in Master Documents

(U.S. Patent # 8,745,050)

The invention relates to the generation of customised documents using document templates or master documents in a document generation system. In particular, the present invention relates to master documents requiring information specifying various definitions used in the document generation process.

Completeness in dependency networks

(U.S. Patent # 8,700,668)

The invention improves document generation systems in which data is collected to enable automated, customised document generation. Initially, a questionnaire which defines a dataset is completed. The system then determines which variables are relevant, and then determines whether all relevant variables are in the dataset. Finally, the system generates a fully customised document if the dataset is complete.

Legal IT
Business Integrity provides document assembly solutions for the legal arena. The software was developed to draw upon pre-approved template precedents and allows the user automating the template to incorporate the appropriate data and clauses from the original template through natural language input within Microsoft Word. This document automation software does not necessitate the user to be familiar with programming, as is often needed in traditional document assembly tools. It abstracts users from the underlying legal language of a document template and instead presents them with a questionnaire that collects data and guides them through the document creation process.

The administrators have the ability to 'lock' documents so that changes are not possible. Alternatively where alterations are made, the document can be automatically dispatched to the legal department for approval. The intention of these features is to reduce the opportunities for errors to enter the process, while ensuring legal departments are only required to review work when it is necessary. .

Some have termed this disruptive technology as it alters the underlying processes of drafting.

One of the main formative influences for Business Integrity the has been the work of Richard Susskind, in which he argues that law firms in order to evolve and compete in the modern market need to embrace technological change. A similar theory is also expounded by Kenneth Adams who contends that the common features of legal drafting (e.g. reuse of precedent templates) and the inherent inefficiencies (e.g. ensuring compliance and certainty) lend themselves well to utilisation of document automation.

Some of Business Integrity's industry awards; 'Best of Show' for ABA Techshow 2010 by Technolawyer, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for 9 years in a row ,'Best of Breed' at Legal Technology Awards 2007.