APIS Presentation, Company Record

            The company began in September 1989 as the APIS HRISTOVICH single-member company, which went into business selling computer hardware, accessories and consumables. Vasil Hristovich was its owner and managing director.

In 1991 APIS launched the Collection of Laws monthly serial publication, the Law Library loose-leaf publication and other legal information publications.

The company began designing its own software in 1993, specialising in the development of information-retrieval systems and the provision of information services.

APIS BULGARIA Ltd. was established in 2003 to provide customer service and design software.

At present APIS is a leader in legal information systems in the Bulgarian market. The company has a flexible structure, with a full-time staff of more than 130 people engaged in:

• Developing software;
• Maintaining databases;
• Marketing and sales;
• Technical support and communications;
• Accounting;
• Administrative services.

About 200 outside associates – lawyers, programmers and economists – are involved in the building and development of the database and in new project implementation.

Constant contact with customers through more than 75 representatives countrywide is the key factor in the company's success. They are instrumental in the signing of contracts with customers, customer training, the maintenance, updating, distribution and advertising of the APIS information systems.

The company is focused on always providing the latest legal, administrative, business and economic information to its more than 18,000 customers. It is the most technologically advanced and innovative company in terms of product numbers, speed of customer service and share of the market for legal information systems in Bulgaria.

Currently, some 7,000 businesses and organisations, including ministries, central agencies, local administrations and courts are APIS customers. Many lawyers, notaries and other non-corporates also work with the company's products. In view of this, the creative team of APIS BULGARIA Ltd. is set on continuously improving the existing products and creating new systems to meet the customers' latest requirements.

A new integrated legal information system, APIS 6, was presented in 2006, which runs on a fully innovated 32-bit platform. It has the following advantages:

• Common functionality and a single user interface for all products;
• Simultaneous search in all databases;
• Improved visualisation and sorting of the search results;
• Quick access to the reference texts to provisions or archived provisions;
• Support of graphics and colour images in the statutory instruments;
• A print preview option and an option to print individual pages of a statutory instrument or another document;
• Integration with MS Word and Excel;
• An option to save information in RTF, HTML or PDF format;
• Simultaneous, automatic Internet updates without interrupting system use.

APIS 6 includes the new legal information module on EU legislation, EURO LAW, which offers customers the official Bulgarian translations of European Union legislation. Users have access to the full texts and bibliographic notices to the EU legal instruments, as well as links to relevant Bulgarian instruments and provisions. Another major advantage of the new module is that users can simultaneously perform a full text search in Bulgarian and EU legislation.

The company has  seven offices: five in Sofia with a total area of 900 sq m, a 300 sq m office in the town of Pazardjik and a 300 sq m office in the village of Mokrishte.

The company has introduced and applies the EN ISO 9001:2000 quality management system in the design, development and maintenance of information search systems with large databases and provision of information services.

The companies APIS BULGARIA Ltd. and APIS HRISTOVICH Ltd. hold certificates No. АС 0412-12/27.12.2004 and No. АС 0412-13/27.12.2004 from licensed auditor AeroCert.