A while back, Information Week reporter Charles Babcock put together an interesting piece on the greatest software ever written. He of course focused on software that has long-term impact broadly across the computer industry such as the Excel spreadsheet, BSD Unix 4.3 and the Java programming language.

If the job is to select the best software across the entire computing landscape, it makes sense that infrastructure software that everyone uses would jump out as the most significant. But such an approach, for obvious reasons, doesn’t capture the profound value that software brings to individual companies and employees in specific industries.

One example, as detailed in our latest Open Text News Podcast, is the legal industry which has seen tremendous benefit from LegalKEY® software applications developed specifically for law firms. The podcast features interviews with Mohit Thawani, Business Development Manager of the Open Text Legal Solutions Group, and Steven Burchell, Director of Client Management for Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold.

One example of how industry-specific software has helped law firms, highlighted in the podcast, is with new business intake and conflicts management processes. For law firms, particularly large firms and those in merger situations, one of the most important steps before taking on new business is conducting a thorough conflict of interest check. In the past, firms would route paper forms around to dozens of people to ensure that a potential new client wouldn’t present a conflict with current clients. It could take days or even weeks before a firm could open a new matter. Now thanks to this software, a partner can find out if there is a conflict within a couple hours. With the whole process handled online, conflicts checks can even get done after hours from a BlackBerry.

When it comes to great software, a key ingredient is whether it actually makes a difference in people’s lives and helps companies to improve productivity. If we look around we can find plenty examples of “great” software. Stay tuned – we plan to bring you many more examples of software in action.