2016 – Page 2 – Basha Blog

Practice Management in the Cloud and on the Desktop

November 7, 2016March 17, 2016 by Seth Rowland

It has been five years since I first started exploring cloud options for lawyers. In that time there has been much progress, but actually less than I expected. I have seen a proliferation of new products for lawyers, but found that most of them lack the maturity of the client/server desktop solutions. At the same time, I have seen a stagnation in the desktop solutions, a failure to embrace change, a failure to innovate.

I don’t intend to identify specific products, but rather to address the trends that I am seeing. The desktop solutions have mostly shifted to maintenance mode. This is reflected in their pricing models which emphasize annual maintenance and support plans. There is less emphasis on new marketing initiatives, and more on “insurance”. If you want support on your current system, keep current on your payments. This shift to annualized revenue, in my mind, is very healthy. It shifts the incentives to making sure the product is stable and dependable. It rewards incremental improvements, over splashy remakes. It keeps the company in regular contact with its client base.

HotDocs Tip – Parse City, State, Zip from Address

November 2, 2016March 16, 2016 by Seth Rowland

In our work in HotDocs, we often need to bring in defective and malformed data from databases. Often the data source contains an address field or fields. Ideally, it will be formatted with Street, City, State and Zip as separate fields. However, more often, the data is not properly structured for analysis and usage. We may get address line 1 and address line 2 or even address line 3. To put this data into a usable format requires an understanding of text parsing.

With the use of the Custom Functions properties of HotDocs Computations, we have defined a way to parse the Address Line text which is in the [CityName], [StateAbbrev] [ZipCode] format in a line into the 3 separate constituent fields, respectively tmpCity, tmpState, and tmpZip. We pass a parameter, prmCSZ which contains the address string. The output sets the tmp fields which can then be used in a dialog script or other computation to set the actual fields you wish to use.

Spring in the Air

November 13, 2016March 10, 2016 by Seth Rowland

The thermostat in our little river hamlet of Cortlandt Manor has hit 75 degrees. While spring has not yet officially begun, it is just around the corner. Along with spring come new resolutions. The first and foremost is to remove the clutter that accumulates of the cold dark winter. For me, that means several things.

NOTE: With this post, Seth Rowland returns to the web with an active blog. I realize the hiatus has been over a year and a half. I have been very busy, but have neglected the prime imperative of sharing and educating that has been key to the success of my own business venture. And so, come back, subscribe, even feel free to comment. I hope to make it worth your while.