Murafe or general-purpose software?
The difference between Murafe and general-purpose software lies in where each one starts: a general-purpose system starts with generic concepts and is then customised, while Murafe starts with litigation degrees, hearing decisions, appeal deadlines and the Qatari courts from day one. CRM, task and accounting systems are powerful tools, and some come close to a law office’s work once customised; this comparison helps you weigh up the effort that customisation takes.
| What the office needs | General-purpose software | Murafe |
|---|---|---|
| Case file with litigation degrees | Needs customisation | First instance, appeal, cassation, execution and arbitration in linked files |
| Hearing decision and the next hearing | Depends on the system | Ready phrases, and the next hearing is created automatically |
| Last day to appeal, and an alert before it | Needs customisation | Proposed from the appeal periods in the settings, with an alert before it |
| Order on petition and the grievance against it | Needs customisation | A last day for grievance with an alert, and an automatic link to the grievance file |
| Qatari courts, prosecution offices and committees | Usually added by hand | Preset with their official names, and new ones added in the settings |
| Powers of attorney and delegation letters | Depends on the system | An alert before a power of attorney expires, and a delegation letter filled from the file |
| Fee agreements and their instalments | May mean linking more than one tool | Instalments with due dates, linked to the case or service |
| Vouchers in Qatari riyals with the amount in words | Depends on the system | The amount written out in words automatically, printed on the office’s letterhead |
| A portal for clients to follow their case | Depends on the system | Hearings, documents, account and messages, as far as you allow |
| Arabic interface, right to left | Usually a translation | Arabic first, on every screen and printout |
| The office’s work in one place | Depends on how many tools are used | Cases, clients, accounts, documents and communication together |
| Isolation of the office’s data | Depends on the system | A separate database and a private web address for each office |
General-purpose software has room for anything… once you have built it
A general-purpose system is designed to serve many kinds of business, so its concepts are generic: customer, deal, task, invoice. A case at its litigation degree, a hearing with its decision, a judgment with its last day to appeal, on the other hand, usually need custom fields and stages that someone has to build. The practical question before any comparison is this: who builds that customisation in your office, and who maintains it when needs change or the person who built it leaves?
Murafe is law firm management software for Qatar, designed around these concepts from the start: courts, prosecution offices and committees under their official names, Qatari riyals written out in words on vouchers, the delegation letter filled from the case file, and the order on petition with its last day for grievance. What varies from one office to another is set in the settings without programming: the lists, the appeal periods the office’s lawyers review and adjust, the message templates, the fee agreement template, and the roles and permissions.
On the other hand, if your office’s work is consultations and contracts that never reach the courts, or if you have a technical team that built your general-purpose system and looks after it, what you already have may be enough. The comparison here is not between a good tool and a bad one, but between a tool you build yourself and a tool ready for legal work.
From general-purpose software to Murafe in four steps
Write down what each system does today
Contacts in one tool, tasks in a second, invoices in a third? A clear list of what you actually use decides what moves and what stays behind.
Prepare your office’s system
Your office’s system runs at its own web address with its logo, colours and typeface. Create the roles and the team’s accounts, and review the lists, appeal periods and message templates before entering files; the set-up with us is arranged by agreement.
Move what can be exported
What your current system can export decides what can be moved, and the move itself is a service agreed with us, as Murafe has no self-service import tool.
Switch on one section after another
Start with pending cases and their hearings, then agreements and vouchers, then the client portal, with team training as agreed, and retire the old tool once no live work is left in it.
Questions about moving from general-purpose software
In Murafe, what a law office needs is set in the settings: lists such as courts, prosecution offices, matter types and services, the appeal periods, the message templates, the fee agreement template, roles and permissions, and the office’s identity. But it is not a platform for building general-purpose applications; it is a system designed for legal work.
It does not currently connect to accounting software. Murafe covers the accounts that belong to legal work: fee agreements and their instalments, receipt and payment vouchers, the client’s statement of account, the financial summary and court-appointment fees. If your office keeps its books in accounting software, that remains its job, and the statistics reports and office expenses can be downloaded as files that open in Excel.
You do not have to switch off your current system on day one: the two can run side by side for a while, so you start in Murafe with the active files and the old record stays a reference you can go back to. Moving the historical data is looked at as part of the agreed data transfer service.
Every office on Murafe has a separate database, its own file storage and its own web address, so its data never mixes with another office’s, and it is backed up daily. The office can switch off technical support’s access to its system in the settings, and every support visit is recorded in the audit log.
Murafe is one all-inclusive package covering every module and feature, with no limit on the number of users or on document storage; the price is on request, set by the office’s size and needs, in Qatari riyals. Clients who sign in to the client portal do not count as users, and a trial is available before you subscribe.
Other comparisons
- Murafe or Excel?
When is Excel enough for your cases, and when do you need a system that creates the next hearing, warns before appeal deadlines and issues vouchers?
Read the comparison - Murafe or paper files?
Signed originals stay in the cabinet; follow hearings, deadlines and vouchers in Murafe anywhere, with alerts before hearings and appeal deadlines.
Read the comparison - Why Murafe?
Paper, Excel and general-purpose software in one table, and six reasons why the system is different.
Read the comparison
Ready to organise your office?
Book a demo and we will show you Murafe on examples that look like your office’s daily work: from the first consultation to the final judgment.
- Arabic-first
- Qatari riyals
- A separate database for every office