Tracking Legal Technology

World Software Corporation’s Worldox GX3 was announced this week at LegalTech New York. There are three components:

• Worldox GX3 Professional
• Worldox Enterprise
• Worldox Cloud.

The first, Worldox GX3 Professional, was released on February 1, and adds welcome new features and ease of use to the familiar Worldox client software. To wit: named toolbar buttons and toolbars that are configurable by the user, even allowing users to rename buttons. The reorganized left-side pane presents new view choices. Favorite Matters offers a way to view recent case files in that left-side folder tree pane. The My Workspaces function has been made more flexible, offering the ability to visually bookmark personal folders.

World Software claims that Worldox GX3 Professional will be up to 60% faster for certain operations. Integration has also been enhanced with the addition of connectors to Airmail, Bulk Archive, Client/Matter connectors. A new ISYS engine offers streamlined indexing and database management and is able to handle larger text indexes. There is also tighter Microsoft Active Directory integration. One benefit that Worldox has always offered is the ability to view documents for software you do not have installed; for example, you can view old WordPerfect documents without having WordPerfect installed, or the new Microsoft .DOCX format even if you don’t have Office 2007 or 2010 installed.

The free Worldox iPad app for Web Mobile subscribers will shortly have an update featuring integration with Dropbox, according to Rob Oriolo, Manager of Operations at World Software.  Many law firms are now using Dropbox in at least some capacity to sync files between the workplace computers and other devices.

In the coming months, expect an announcement of the release of GX3 Enterprise, which is an extension of Worldox into a terminal services environment in a unique way: the Worldox published app will have full communication with users’ local applications, including MS Office, Outlook and third-party integrations with case management software.

Also expect a future announcement of the release of GX3 Cloud, an SaaS housed, Cloud-based Worldox. The company continues to offer Worldox Web Mobile which can be either hosted by World Software or can be run on a web server at the customer’s office.

In addition, vendors like Trumpet, with its Symphony OCR and Profiling, are recognizing the value of integrating with Worldox. Airmail recently announced its integration with Worldox for OCR processing of pdfs. All in all, Worldox offers a reliable, affordable and powerful document management system that is up to date and ready for the new world of total access, all the time.

Have questions about Worldox, or about document management systems in general? Reach out to us at 877-357-0555 with your questions, and we will do our best to offer sound advice to help guide your decision.

Cloud-based data storage is proliferating, hastened along by such technology giants as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. The rise of the tablet (and to a lesser extent the smartphone) as a legitimate vehicle for data retrieval is rapidly facilitating this movement into the ether.

Note, however, that the industry giants identified above who are helping us all to embrace the benefits of the cloud are, for the most part, consumer-driven and not business-driven. Storing your digital tunes in Apple’s iCloud, or in the Amazon Cloud Service, is not quite the same as storing documents subject to HIPAA compliance or attorney-client confidentiality restrictions.

Popular services like Box.net, Dropbox, and other “free” (or nominally priced) document storage services, while somewhat more business-oriented, are still a long way from complying with ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 95-398, which states:

“A lawyer who gives a computer maintenance company access to information in client files must make reasonable efforts to ensure that the company has in place, or will establish, reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality of client information. Should a significant breach of confidentiality occur, the lawyer may be obligated to disclose it to the client.”

These largely consumer-focused services also make it rather difficult to adopt a “matter-centric” approach to document storage, and do little to facilitate the kind of “profiling” which is necessary to quickly find and retrieve a key document (despite all of our best efforts at “intelligent naming”).

We think that anyone serious about adopting a cloud-based document storage strategy, from the solo attorney to the multi-office firm, should take a close look at NetDocuments before launching that strategy. Having been around since 1998, the folks at NetDocuments have a pretty good understanding of data storage and retrieval, and have a rock-solid infrastructure for managing data.

Basically, NetDocuments adheres to the same rules and regulations imposed by federal regulatory agencies on commercial banks for the security of client data. In fact, NetDocuments storage facility is actually co-located in a bank (in the bank’s secured data rooms, that is). The same rules enforced by the courts for managing the contents of customers’ safe deposit boxes are applied to NetDocuments data. Your documents are viewed as your “digital assets”, just like those paper bonds and trust papers stored in the safety deposit box.

So, share your music with the world up in the cloud, proudly display your kids’ performance in the school play up on YouTube, and freely distribute those vacation photos from one of the many photo-sharing websites available to consumers.  But pay a little more attention to with whom you share your client’s court papers.  At thirty bucks per month per user (and a 30-day free trial to boot before paying for anything) this seems like a cost-effective, safe, and reliable way to get in the cloud.

Judging by all of the press coming out of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), tablets appear to have now “arrived” as a serious player in the technology market, vying for the consumer’s dollar along with all of the other gadgets and gizmos. Their presence is becoming more ubiquitous in the business environment, as well. It is rare that I don’t attend a conference where at least a portion of the audience is taking notes on a tablet. Technolawyer now seems to offer posts pretty regularly about tablets in various areas of law practice.

Jason Hiner, editor in chief at Tech Republic, recently posted an article from CES offering an interesting perspective on the state of the tablet market.  He sees the glut of “android-based” devices rolling out today as analogous to the “Clone Wars” of the 1980’s, when hardware manufacturers were falling over themselves to offer bigger, faster, more powerful hardware, with more connectivity options, than IBM could offer at that time, and for a lower price. 

Hiner thinks that the tablet manufacturers are, by and large, missing the point of the tablet as a “breakthrough” technology device. It will never succeed as a replacement for the notebook PC as they are used today; tablets don’t do any of the things that are considered “bread and butter” PC  tasks nearly as well as a notebook can today.  Ask anyone who has tried to draft a 5,000 word document on their tablet. Unless of course they also bought that Bluetooth keyboard accessory, and hooked it up to an alternative video source, thus creating an ersatz notebook that doesn’t function nearly as well as a “true” notebook.

It seems that tablets do one thing really, really well, however: access information. Video, music, documents, drawings; in a word, content. And where might one find all of this content? You guessed it, in “the cloud.” The real value of the tablet, where it really shines, is in quickly and seamlessly accessing all of the content available to the device out on the web. And the tablet manufacturers who really “get this”, and who have optimized their devices to perform this function most effectively, are the ones who have made it the easiest to store and retrieve content via user-friendly “containers”.  Jason Hiner believes that this is precisely what Apple and Amazon are all about, and why he believes that these two, with the iPad and the Fire,  will be the big winners in the competition for the hearts and minds of tablet purchasers. Ultimately, it is not the device, but the system, that the user is purchasing, and the system needs to provide storage, content, and ready access to information within a user-friendly interface. Both iCloud and Amazon Cloud offer this.

There is a growing sense that the technology market is no longer largely the realm of technology lovers, the so-called “geeks and nerds.” Many consumers of technology today can’t tell a gigahertz from a megapixel, and couldn’t care less about either one. They just want their technology to work, quickly, easily, and painlessly.  And that’s not really such a bad expectation, is it? These are the purchasers that savvy manufacturers should be courting.

What are your thoughts on the emergence of the tablet? Do you use one yet? Instead of or in addition to a PC? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, which we believe is going to be a big one throughout 2012.

Okay, you have selected your case management or billing/accounting software, it has been purchased, delivered,  installed and it is up and running. Now what?

 There is a big difference between “installing” the app on your network and “configuring” the app to work efficiently for your practice and your staff. That is where legal technology specialists can help you.

 How do you get the system to give you management reports? How do you use the system to get a bird’s eye view of your practice? How do you monitor how productive your firm is? How do you make the system work to save you money and help you prevent malpractice?

 Practice management systems like Amicus Attorney and Time Matters can help prevent key dates from being missed and discovery tasks from being missed or overlooked. The tracking of tasks within these systems can make sure clients get responded to in a timely fashion, creating more satisfied clients with less time expended to do so.

 How these systems are set up and customized make all the difference to your getting the most out your software investment. For example, screens can be customized to capture key dates, docket numbers, courts, to name just a few. Triggers in programs like Time Matters can be set up to send messages, record to-dos, schedule follow ups, and create billing entries for completed work.

 Screens – What fields do you need to create to capture the data elements that are important to you, beyond what comes pre-configured ion the software? How can these extra fields be useful for filtering, sorting, alerting, etc.? If you have multiple practice areas, this applies to each of them.

 Alerts and Reminders – What reminders should pop up in the system? What events should trigger notification to people working on a matter, or to partners?

 Reports – what information do you need, in what format, and in what interval, to make your practice operate more efficiently? Do you need it on paper, or in a “viewable” dashboard? If you bill by the hour, how do you ensure that all time has been entered? If you bill using an alternative billing arrangement, how do you evaluate the time versus the compensation?

 Are you being required to produce reports for an outside organization or government entity? If so, do they require sorting and grouping by demographic or other information? Is that information readily available in your new system?

 Getting It All to Connect – Many practice management and billing systems “talk” to each other – so, for instance, Amicus Attorney practice management links to the Worldox document management.  Time Matters links to PCLaw and Timeslips, and to other billing systems.

 Getting value from the software post-installation requires application-specific expertise. That’s where ELS can help. Call (877) 357-0555 to get assistance in making your software work for you in 2012.

Happy Holidays!  By now we’ve finished our Halloween treats and Thanksgiving feast, and are heading for the home stretch amidst the end-of-year holidays.  This is an excellent time to reach out to our clients; yet we hear from many how time consuming that can be.

 Timeslips users have known for years that their time tracking and billing program can print client addresses on a variety of envelope and label sizes.  But with the release of Timeslips 2012, users can also craft custom letters to send with those envelopes and labels.  Here’s how:

 Step 1:  Categorize your clients into groups for your special communications
 Many years ago I was talking with the representatives of a law firm about Timeslips’ custom client fields.  The administrator said, “Don’t laugh, but we created a list-type field called “Greeting Cards”.  The choices were “Christmas”, “Chanukah” and “Kwanzaa”.  I didn’t laugh – it was a brilliant idea!  When this firm was ready to send their greeting cards, they used that field to sort mailing labels into those three areas so each client would get a greeting that was relevant to them. 

 Step 2:  Decide what size labels or envelopes you will use
Timeslips default label size is a sheet that contains 3 labels across and 10 rows down.  If you use label sheets other than that, use the Label Designer to create a size that matches what you use.   Ditto for envelopes – the default envelope size is Standard #10.

 Step 3:  Create your custom greeting or communication
Here’s where Version 2012 shows off!  Use the new Mail Merge feature to keep in touch with your clients.

 Click here for our detailed step-by-step “How To” on using the new Timeslips 2012 Mail Merge feature

Step 4:  Now print your labels 

• From the Reports menu, select Client; then Label
• On the Selection Filters tab, choose the filter for individual Client Selection, or the custom field you created in Step 1 to choose a group whose names and addresses you want to print
• You have the option under the Sort and Subtotal tab to choose the sort order for the labels
• Now print your labels – it’s that easy!

 If you’d like to print individual envelopes, select Envelopes instead of Labels from under the Client tab under Reports.  Follow the steps under Step 4 to generate them.

 Be sure to contact us at 1-877-ELS-0555 if we can help you with this project, or to learn more about generating labels and envelopes using the other programs we support.  Happy Holidays and Best Wishes from Eastern Legal Systems for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

It is the time of year when your firm may need to change the hourly rates for your partners, associates, and paralegals. What is the most efficient way to do this to ensure that your 2012 billing will go smoothly?

 In the spirit of holiday giving, Eastern Legal Systems would like to present some tips and tricks for changing billing rates in three popular systems:

• Sage Timeslips
• LexisNexis PCLaw
• LexisNexis Billing Matters

 Click here to access our “How To” page  for specific instructions on changing rates in each of these three products.

 General advice for any billing system:
 Make sure that your billing department has a list of the new rates. You may need to update several rate scales for different clients or practice areas. The billing department should also know when the rates go into effect for new clients and for existing clients. Also let the billing department know about clients whose rates will not increase.

 If your timekeepers enter their own time, let them know that the December time must be in by the end of the year, so that the rate increase can be set at the beginning of January. Timely entry means faster billing and better cash flow. Both PCLaw and Timeslips can report on the number of hours entered for each day, so you can catch any missing days.

 The firm should update the standard retainer agreements to reflect the new rates.

 Before you start changing rates:
Always make a backup copy of your database before making changes. If you are working in Timeslips, remember that the rate changes go into effect immediately, so plan on making changes right after the December time has been entered. If your firm uses PCLaw, you can set the rate changes to be effective at a particular date, so the timing is not quite as critical.

 Eastern Legal Systems has extensive experience with all three of these billing systems, and has been helping clients with year-end closing and billing maintenance tasks for many years. If you need help or advice on how best to prepare your billing system for the transition to a new year, give us a call at 877-357-0555, or send an email request to info@easternlegalsystems.com

Season’s Greetings!  It’s almost December.  There is a crispness in the air.  Lights are everywhere.  And Section 179 of the United StatesInternal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C.§ 179), allows an individual or business taxpayer to elect to deduct the cost of certain types of business-related property or expenses purchased in 2011 on their income taxes as an expense up to $500,000.   According to the website http://www.section179.org, this limit will go down in future years.  So is now a good time to invest in your business? It is time to focus on the year’s end.

 How are you positioned to wrap up your year?

 What reports are you required to produce?  For your organization?  For your clients? 

• Have you met with your accountant or financial advisor to plan your organization’s tax strategy?  Can you make any last-minute purchases to maximize your position?
• How well is your network and hardware functioning?  Do your year-end plans include upgrades?  How would new equipment – and the new Windows 7 operating system — impact your existing programs and applications?
• Is it time to upgrade your software?  Many software companies face their own end of the year, and offer sales and discounts to boost their revenues.  Do you know about these hidden gems?

 One of our leasing vendors has sent us a fun link to demonstrate how much you can save on your 2011 taxes by taking advantage of th Section 179 provisions of the tax code. If you are considering a purchase before year end, click here to see the impact that software or equipment purchase can have on your 2011 taxes.

 Our consultants at Eastern Legal Systems support a variety of software products and can work with you to get the best pricing on upgrades and new software purchases.  We can also work with you in the areas of implementation, customization and training so you can get the most out of the programs you own.  Call us at 1-877-ELS-0555 for more information.

The annual LexisNexis Practice Management Conference may be over, but the news keeps coming! So this week we thought we’d bring you up to date:

Time Matters
LexisNexis announced that support for Time Matters/Billing Matters/Total Practice Advantage Version 8.0 ended on September 30. This decision means there is no longer phone support, further service releases or hotfixes for this edition; nor can additional licenses be applied for Version 8. It follows the trend in other software companies of supporting the “present version plus two versions back”.

Service Release 1 for Version 11.0 was released in July of this year. This service release included support for Mozilla Firefox 4 and for the latest releases of several third-party software programs. You may view the complete list of features and fixes at http://support.lexisnexis.com/lndownload/software/TM11_SP1_Release_Notes.pdf. The next service release for Time Matters (due in early 2012) is expected to offer support for Microsoft Exchange 2010, and will also include a revamped version of the Time Matters – Exchange Synchronization utility.

LexisNexis Time Matters Mobility Version 1.2 is now available for download. This version adds the ability to enter Events and ToDos to your Calendar in real time, updating your Time Matters calendar from you phone. To take advantage of this new capability, customers must be using Time Matters Version 11.1 (Version 11 with Service Release 1).

It was announced, on October 21, that an issue previously identified with the link between Time Matters 11 and Timeslips 2012 has now been fixed. LexisNexis issued the following bulletin:

“With help from the team at Sage, we have now successfully completed our testing and are pleased to report that the link between Time Matters v11 and Timeslips 2012 is now certified with Time Matters Version 11!”

PCLaw
With the release of PCLaw Version 11.0, support for Version 8.0 ended on September 30. The cancellation of support for that obsolete version is the same as for Time Matters – no further phone support, service releases, hotfixes; nor ability to add licenses.

On the other hand, the release of Version 11.0 includes a new mobility service, which allows end-users to view and update Matters and Clients; and record time and expenses in real-time, with changes going directly to the main set of books. It also boasts integration with Fujitsu ScanSnap — now PCLaw customers can scan documents from any Fujitsu ScanSnap desktop scanner directly into the PCLaw software, associate them with a matter or case and store them using the software’s document management functionality.

It was announced to customers on November 4 that Service Release 1 for PCLaw is now available, as well as an update for its Mobility Service . The installation of both of these upgrades include the ability to add Events to individual calendars; and create time entries from calendar events.

Did you know… ?

… that both Time Matters and PCLaw have new (and improved) web sites? Here are the links:

http://www.lexisnexis.com/law-firm-practice-management/time-matters/

http://www.lexisnexis.com/law-firm-practice-management/pclaw/

Are you still on an older version of Time Matters or PCLaw? Want to know what you’re missing? We can help in answering questions, obtaining additional licenses, or customizing your program to help you get the most from these award-winning applications. Please call us at 1-877-ELS-0555 where Andrea Prigot, Jack Schaller and Dana Riel would be glad to assist you.

If Moses were to recreate his famous descent from the cloud today, coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments in hand, what would he be carrying them on?  An iPad?  A Kindle Fire? A Samsung or an Asus tablet? He would certainly have no lack of choices, and all of them would be lighter, and hold much more content, than those stone tablets he was burdened with. It boggles the mind to think how many commandments we might be saddled with today if Moses had access to all of the storage these contemporary tablets can hold.

As tablets become more ubiquitous (some surveys indicate that one-third of all attorneys use one in some fashion in their practice), it is time to give more thought to how we can use these content-laden devices to descend from our own personal “clouds”  loaded up with the information we need to conduct our daily business.

Unlike Moses, however, we have choices available when selecting a tablet. Lots of choices.

Apple has a commanding lead in tablet sales at this point, with its much-touted iPad. The iPad is projected to sell 45 million units by the end of 2011, placing it way at the front of the pack. It is by no means the only choice, however. In his recent blog post,  Jason Hiner, an editor at Tech Republic, reviewed the top ten tablets available in 2011, and makes some thoughtful observations about the competition for the hearts and minds of users, who will win, and why.  Read Jason’s full review here.

Jason particularly likes the Asus EEE pad Transformer and the Samsung Galaxy,  as two versatile and capable iPad alternatives, but he thinks that the Kindle Fire is likely to emerge as the strongest challenger to the iPad’s dominance.

Why? Because of its easy access to the personal cloud. As the iPad has its iCloud, the Kindle Fire offers the Amazon Cloud as a personal repository for user content. And in the final analysis, this is what will differentiate tablets, and give us an insight into their ultimate usefulness for business purposes.

Looking at tablets as “laptop alternatives”, while appropriate in some situations, really misses the point. The tablet represents a new paradigm for accessing content, offering fast and easy retrieval of a dizzying array of information from virtually anywhere in the world. They are much less effective at creating content, which will likely remain the domain of the laptop (and desktop) PC for a while longer.

So, when thinking about tablets, you should inevitably also be thinking about the Cloud. For tablets, the Cloud will be a giant hard drive in the sky, and the winners in bringing tablets to market will be those that can most effectively harness that storage and make it seamlessly and instantly accessible on a tablet.  Kind of makes sense to think that the “Cloud Keepers” (i.e., Apple, Amazon, and perhaps Google) will have the inside track here.

So, if you were descending from the cloud on Mt. Sinai today (assuming there is a good Wi-Fi connection there), what tablet would you be carrying, and why?  Inquiring minds want to know, so leave us a comment.

 As software consultants, we frequently talk to groups or individuals about the programs we support.  Inevitably we are asked – “But which software program do you like best?”  The answer is not a matter of “like” or “dislike”; it’s a matter of knowing which program provides the most desirable features for a client.

 So today we’d like to talk about the billing, accounting and financial management programs we know:  Timeslips, Time Matters/Billing Matters, PCLaw and QuickBooks.

 “Best of Breed” versus “Integrated”
Choosing a software program from this point of view can be compared to choosing office equipment.  Some firms want The Best Copier, The Best Scanner and The Best Fax Machine.  Others are happy with the 4-In-One machine that sits next to their computer.  The first approach guarantees a firm will get exactly the features they want in each machine.  The second approach gives a solution that may not have the top of the line features in each category, but it does the job simply and with one machine.

 Using a program like Timeslips will give an end-user a simple way to enter data.  A major strength is its bill layout design, constructed to give organizations what they want in terms of presentation.  It has over 100 pre-defined reports, plus the option for totally custom reports built from scratch.  And it gives the end-user (and their accountants) the option of using the accounting program of their choice.

 On the other hand, Time Matters/Billing Matters and PCLaw give end-users the simplicity and security of knowing that data is entered once and it goes where it needs to go.  It records information about Contacts, Matters or Cases, and Vendors (in the case of PCLaw).  Users set up the data, enter time and expenses, and generate bills.  Both programs have document management, calendaring and Email management as well.  In the case of Time Matters/Billing Matters, there is the additional functionality of document generation, phone call management, tracking mail, outlining, and other “Front Office” features.  In the case of PCLaw, there is a fully functional general ledger program that handles trust accounting as well as other “Back Office” functionality.

 “Front Office” versus “Back Office”
People often hear these terms when speaking of LexisNexis products and ask what it means.  Think of walking into a professional services firm.  Who is the first person you often see? The receptionist.  And that person is often involved in – answering the phone, setting up appointments, generating documents, etc.  That is the “front office”; therefore, those functions are often referred to as “Front Office Functionality”.  Continue past the receptionist and walk down the hall.  What is often at the end?  The accounting/bookkeeping department.  Here is where billing is done, along with producing financial reports.  This is the “back office”; therefore, such functions are often referred to as “Back Office Functionality”.

 Time Matters/Billing Matters puts its emphasis on “front office functionality”.  PCLaw is designed for “back office functionality”. 

Conclusion
When your firm needs to determine the best solution which solves identified needs, it is important to look at what each software program can deliver. Here’s a chart to help you out: 

 And for those who want it all, there is the ultimate combination of Time Matters and PCLaw.

 What’s the best solution for your firm?  Is your present solution meeting your firm’s needs?  Call us at 1-877-ELS-0555 for advice and further information about our products.