Posts Tagged ‘customization’

Upon Returning from Banff

I have just returned from the Amicus 2010 Consultants conference in Banff.  They were kind enough to invite me to speak on document assembly to their consultants and to demonstrate how Amicus Attorney can support and facilitate complex document assembly workflow.  The setting, high in the Canadian Rockies, was nothing short of spectacular.  Some days were sunny and warm (I wore T-shirt and shorts) and other days it snowed.  But what was real exciting was the transformation from Amicus Attorney from the “warm familiar” attorney practice management system that “anyone” can use into a powerful, fully customizable, extensible workflow powerhouse.

Workflow Possibilities

I took several days to prepare for my session, evaluating just how far and how easily Amicus could be modified to support complex workflow.  The answer was that “within constraints” there was no limit to how far it could be customized.  Customization is permitted on Contacts and Files in the form of “Custom Pages”.  Each custom page can be designed.  All field types are supported.  You can layout the prompts and the data entry boxes in any fashion you want.  You can (and are recommended) to use the same fields across multiple file types.  However, you can apply them in a different order, in a different grouping, and on different pages across multiple file types.  You also have “custom records” which can be used on files and contacts, with no restriction on the number and type of custom records.

This is all done without substantially altering the familiar look and feel of Amicus.  But in the process, it truly transforms the product.  Gone are the limit of 50 custom fields for Files and 20 custom fields for contacts (assuming of course you are using Premium Edition).  In preparation for the session I prepared 3 custom pages with a total of 100 custom fields of various types including dates, picklists, checkboxes, text, and memo fields.  I also added custom pages for contacts on the file.  And I created two new record types.  It was all done rapidly.  I was able to define the field names, the prompts, the size of the text boxes, the location on the page, and even use alignment fields to make everything “pretty”.  I was also able to add text label boxes to provide further clarification.

The fun begins

This would have been enough, but the focus of my presentation was document assembly.  Amicus lets you access all the fields, including custom fields, in both “merge templates” and through HotDocs.  The merge template builder gives you access to the custom data on the file with fields grouped by file type.  If you are “rigorous” on your field naming, your field lists can self organize by subject area.

As for HotDocs, Amicus takes full advantage of the HotDocs API.  You can use a default “map file” which will automatically create a HotDocs component file will all the data on the file (with the exception of custom records at the present time).  This include all matter data, including custom fields, all data on the “primary client” including custom fields, basic information on people on file (in a repeat) and special fields for data on events, tasks, notes, calls etc.  It creates a CMP file and will generate the requisite answer file without any mapping required.  That doesn’t prevent you from creating your own custom maps to an existing set of HotDocs templates.  Nor does it prevent an advanced HotDocs developer from creating his or her own master component file and using an INSERT command to bring the interview into the template.

Even more exciting is the ability made possible by SQL Server that ships with Premium Edition.  You can create a database component in HotDocs and “query” the database for any data that is not coming over automatically.  You can use the Short Filename in your query to go back and grab more related data. Or, you can build your own dynamic reporting system.

Conclusion

As you can see, it was a busy few days.  I learned a lot about Amicus and met a lot of great new consultants and made some new friends.  In my standing room only presentation, it is my hope that I have excited them as much about document assembly and its possibilities, as I am now excited about Amicus.

Merge Templates and Clause Libraries

Early Days of Automobiles

In the early days of the auto industry, a team of mechanics would put together a car in a week.  This was no mean feat of engineering.  In many cases, the car would have “custom parts”.  There would be “user” preferences.  And there was the inevitable unintended variation.  To achieve efficiencies (and thereby profits which was the ultimate goal), the engineers would create a template (a master design) with instructions to be “manually” completed by the engineers.  Further efficiencies were achieved by laying out the workspace; adding labeled shelves with all the key auto parts.  Some items were “pre-assembled” or partially assembled, leaving a few remaining steps that could be used for customization.  Nevertheless, it required a team of skilled engineers to put together a car.  Quality control was a matter of “experience” and not something that could be measured.  Each car had a unique character.  And of course, cars were expensive; in fact, too expensive for most people to afford.

Early Days of Document Assembly

In many ways, the early days of automobiles resembled most law firm’s view of document automation.  The more “efficient” firms have recognized that Word or WordPerfect templates can make them more productive.  These “templates” are partially constructed documents that contain the bare bones of the ultimate legal instruments that are the stock and trade of lawyers.  More advanced firms have added “merge fields” to these documents allowing some user input at the assembly phase.  The user can “fill in” the blanks with prompts.  Some have “organized” the shelving in the the assembly room, by grouping clauses into clause libraries.  A skilled practitioner then reviews the clauses and selects the one the he or she feels fits the bill.  Some will fit; others won’t.  And the skilled practitioner then adjusts the part to make the proper fit.

In many cases, each attorney has his or her own assembly space.  Each attorney or paralegal organizes his space differently, populating it with different parts.  The actual organization is generally understood only by the individual. The implication is that the individual can be more efficient, but the individual is not easily replaced. And moreover, the individual cannot dramatically improve his productivity.  Gains in productivity are “incremental” as opposed to arithmetic or exponential.  These “workspaces” are often confined to the users “computer profile” which stores their favorite documents.

To help lawyers in these efforts, there are features of Microsoft Word and WordPerfect.  There are some add-on tools that amounts to clause libraries with fill-in fields.  These adhoc tools enable the skilled practitioner to be more efficient; but also entail a great deal of technical learning to accomplish for fairly limited productivity gains.  This piecemeal approach to document production is doomed to limited gains. Such programs as Pathagoras, Microsystems D3, Ixio qShift, ThinkDocs, ClauseBank all embodied this approach.

The Present and Future of Document Automation

Document Assembly tools are NOT new.  HotDocs has been around a long time (on 20 years).  It was preceded by CAPSAuthor, Visual WorkForm, PowerTXT, and MasterDraft.  Other programs such as GhostFill, ThinkDocs,and SmartWords are no longer available or supported, There are several other programs available, including Exari, ContractExpress, and XpressDox.

These programs, however, are different from the early days in that they support true logic.  That means that decision trees can be built into these systems to result in dramatic improvements in both quality and quantity of the output. These systems support “rule-based” document assembly, true templates, and “dynamic interviews”. They support arrays, computations, and calculations.  This newer breed of document assembly tools (Contract Express, Exari and HotDocs) include a “relevance engine” that can look at the document markup and determine the relevant questions to present to the user.  This change in these engines is nothing short of revolutionary.  It is a baby step towards the thinking machine.  But the real revolution is that it simplifies the process of creating complex templates.  By putting all the clauses in (or linked to) a master template, you can now add simple rules that will bring in the appropriate language.  Far from simplifying the “outputs” with one model fits all, Rule-based document assembly enables unlimited customization while retaining quality control.

Cloud Based Practice Management

In the next few weeks, my reviews of CLIO and RocketMatter will appear in Technolawyer, with copies on this site.  I don’t want to give away the results, but I want to comment more generally on the development goals of cloud-based offerings versus client-server offerings.  To some degree, I have dealt with that tension in my development and advisory role in the creation of Wealth Transfer Planning and its unique front-end for HotDocs.  It is this balancing act between simplicity and sophistication, between stability and customizability, that marks really good software. CLIO and RocketMatter are following in the footsteps of the two giants of software development.

CLIO and RocketMatter are following the outsized success of SalesForce.com and that of Bob Butler’s efforts in building Time Matters. SalesForce.com is a ubiquitous platform that promises data anywhere, on any platform, from any location. Resources are “rented” at a hefty monthly fee.  The user has no upfront costs, no hardware costs, and pays only based on usage. The user gets service guarantees. But what has made SalesForce.com so successful is the API (application programming interface) which lets it read data from and write data to just about any resource, its customizable front-end, and the ability to create and purchase add-ons that interact with the data. All this together is responsible for SalesForce.com’s outsized lead in the Cloud market.  It can be whatever you need it to be; and it is likely, if you want it, that someone else has already customized SaleForce to meet the needs of their industry, and can give or license you that customization module.

Time Matters, in the Client-Server environment is much like Salesforce.com.  It is a powerful, structured database that allows near infinite customization.  Out-of-the-box Time Matters works as a full-blown practice management system.  It can be easily customized.  There is a network of consultants and third party vendors who have harnessed the power of the data in Time Matter’s SQL databases, and those who, like yours truly, have built and marketed add-ons for Time Matters.

So how can CLIO and RocketMatter follow in the footsteps of the two giants?  At the moment, they are ensuring the stability of their core offering.  Both have delivered solid, functional practice management systems.  Both have unique visions on what usability is, and how it should work.  Their interfaces are innovative; client/server vendors should take notice of what they have done in terms of usability.  And yet, both CLIO and RocketMatter have a singular vision; a single view of what the interface should be, what features should be available.  They try to fit all lawyers and all law practices into one mode of operation, one mode of billing, one mode of practice.

In their efforts to get out a 1.0 release, the software at present does not represent the full diversity of practices of lawyers in the market place.  This is not to say that these programs will not or cannot represent that diversity.  Unless your core product works, is stable and supportable and dependable, it doesn’t matter how customizable and flexible the product will be.  The learning curve on both products is measured in hours, and not days or weeks, like it is for other practice management solutions.  CLIO’s tagline is “Practice Management Simplified”. RocketMatter, in some ways, seems to think for you, seamlessly building interrelations between contacts and matters. Both make it easy for lawyers to bill and capture their time.

And yet, in this drive to simplify, make practice management easier, more available, these vendors have missed the richness and diversity of the practice of law; they have missed the benefits of interconnectedness between data and documents, between applications.  Much of what I am asking for in these offerings can be added on and built into these offerings, and most likely will.  And since the cost of distributing updates of Web 2.0 technology are zero, may come to pass.  We need more recognition of that diversity, the ability to customize by practice area, to recognize user-specific preferences in the interface, to recognize new and unique record types, and the ability to package and deliver such features.

I will save for another time why The Cloud is so important, particularly for lawyers.

Customer Service 101: Connecting in an Interconnected World

Rose Rowland, Developer and Trainer for Basha Systems adds her thoughts on customer service in an interconnected world.

For several years now, I have gone to a drycleaners that is farther from my house than at least five others.  This drycleaners is not particularly cheaper or even better in any appreciable way than the ones that are nearer to my house. And still, I make the extra trip for one reason – the lady behind the counter.

Her name is Maria and she is a lovely Hispanic woman with the warmest smile imaginable.  From the first time I came into this drycleaners, she always gave me the friendliest and most concerned of service. When my children come in with me, she talks to them and sometimes gives them gum.  When I have a problem, nothing is too much trouble for her. So, I return again and again.

Now, what does my drycleaners have to do with Time Matters, client service in law firms or really anything computer related?  The point is, my drycleaner Maria has discovered something very important—the necessity of making a personal connection in an interconnected world.

Now, that last sentence sounded just a bit strange.  After all, what could be more personal than interconnectedness? Frankly, a lot.  As I sit at my desk in my office at Basha Systems, I receive many, many emails.  Amongst the ads for Viagra and Florida vacations, there are quite a few that inquire about having Basha Systems do HotDocs or Time Matters customization for their firm. Now, I could shoot back a canned email response or possibly something even more detailed, but I usually pick up a phone. I make that more personal connection.

That personal connection is critical for us.  For in that short phone call, I can determine what kind of software a client wants and really needs. Sometimes I’ll get an email from a client who THINKS he or she wants HotDocs but could really be serviced better with Time Matters merge templates.  And, sometimes, none of the products we service are right for them and then I try my best to steer them to other providers who can better suit their needs.

To have a personal connection with someone, you must remember details about them.  My drycleaner Maria remembers me, my children and different details about myself or others that I have dropped over the years.

I am not lucky enough to have Maria’s memory. We have dealt with thousands of emails over the 14 years we have been in business, and worked with hundreds of people in a substantive fashion. We have over 4,000 contacts in our Time Matters database.  The feat of remembering everything about every one of those contacts would boggle the mind.

For that, we have Time Matters, and an add-on built by Basha Systems called the Basha Systems Office Management System for Time Matters (aka “OMS”).  A couple of years ago, Basha Systems created two packages for Time Matters software to make it more powerful – EPMS (Estate Planning Management System) and OMS (Office Management System).

The most amazing part of these packages and the one that everyone is most impressed with are the Power Views created by Seth Rowland and Ian Burrows.  They seem simple (despite the thousands of dollars of development time).  They implement the 3-Click solution.  And in so doing they unlock the true power of Time Matters.

By clicking on a Contact in Time Matters and clicking on the Power View list, I can see numerous details at a glance. One of the things I really love about our power views for Time Matters is the ability in a single click to see the data entered on ALL THREE tabs of the Contact record (or the Matter record) in a single view which can be printed.  The second favorite Power View is call OMS Contact Note Phone List.  Here, in a single power view is a list of all contacts (with their name, code, phone number, cell number, and email), the full text of ALL related notes, and the full text of ALL related phone calls.

With information like that at their fingertips, lawyers/professionals can treat each of their clients (whether they have 50 or 5,000 clients, and whether they are solo or work with a team of 20 people) like EACH one was the most memorable and important client they had.  All this information, available in 3-clicks and quick perusal, gives YOU that personal connection.  It is an interesting concept and one we believe in at Basha Systems.

Why do my autoentry forms include the wrong task links

Auto entry forms are a hybrid between chains and notes. They allow you to structure your tasks and events, much like a chain. And they also allow you to take notes on your tasks. However, if you convert an outline to an Auto entry form, the tasks associated with the underlying record (not the new record) are link to the outline topics.  It is simple to save an outline as an auto entry form. However, before you do that you should make a copy of the form and then remove the links to any associated records.

  • Make a copy of the outline
  • Remove all links to client and matter
  • Make a generic version of the description
  • Right-click on any outline elements that are linked to a task or event records and disassociate the link
  • Standardize and clean up the language
  • Click on the Save As Auto entry Form

You are now ready to go.

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