I had another hour to kill, just me and my iPad. I thought I would check out GoogleDocs and other options. First stop was the app store. DocsToGo sounded promising but the reviews were mixed. The absence of spell check capabilities was bizarre, particularly since I was so used to the iPads intuitive correction as I typed.
Apps & Mobile
New Life for Time Matters – GuestOffice
We recently upgraded our suite of Powerviews (Basha OMS and EPMS) to Time Matters 11. Along the way we have done several implementations of Time Matters mobility service. For the price (included with the AMP), it did supply some useful features, but the navigation and scope of data in it left much to be desired.
News on the Verzion iPhone – Some Limitations
It’s been a while since I had something of note to write. Since I am in the process of consolidating all my communications, phone, email, fax, cell phone, wifi, data etc. I have been following the Verizon iPhone release. In this light, I recently got sent information from Basex , some research via their weekly TechWatch. I am including it below, with attribution.
BASEX:COMMENTARY-OF-THE-WEEK BY CODY BURKE
THE IPHONE COMETH
It would be understandable if you were under the impression that nothing at all happened this week except for the unveiling of the long-rumored Verizon iPhone. The launch has been hyped and anticipated for several years, in part because it would be the moment when AT&T would lose its exclusivity death grip on what has become perhaps the most iconic mobile phone ever.
So what did actually happen? Well, for those hoping for a slew of new features, or an LTE-powered world phone, not much. The iPhone 4 that Verizon Wireless will be offering is similar to the iPhone 4 that AT&T offers with a few exceptions. The phone and its antenna have been redesigned to work with Verizon’s CDMA network, and there is hope that this will result in a solution to the “antenna-gate” problem, whereby users of the AT&T iPhone 4 lost calls when holding the phone in a certain way. In addition, the Verizon version of the iPhone will be able to serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices.
So now that iPhone customers have a choice in terms of a mobile operator, which network should they choose? While the accepted wisdom is that AT&T’s 3G network is actually faster than Verizon’s, its coverage is not nearly as broad. If you spend most of your time in a major city and currently do not have many problems with your connection, then leaving AT&T for Verizon might be a bit hasty. If you travel around the country, and find yourself on rural back roads, away from major metropolitan areas, Verizon will be the more attractive operator.
Verizon released the iPhone on its 3G CDMA network instead of on its new 4G LTE network. According to Apple COO Tim Cook the official reason for this is that Verizon customers “wanted the iPhone now” and that the LTE technology would have forced design compromises that Apple was not willing to make.
While the Verizon iPhone gains a feature (Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities) compared to AT&T’s it also loses some capabilities, namely support for GSM and the ability to work in most countries around the world. While other Verizon smartphones including almost all those from Research in Motion support CDMA for Verizon Wireless’s network and GSM for roaming, the iPhone does not. This may be a deal killer for users who travel frequently.
Because of limitations on CDMA networks the iPhone loses one additional feature, the ability of to be on a phone call and maintain a data connection at the same time. Verizon may address this in the future, but for now, users will have to choose if they want to look up locations on Google maps or talk on the phone.
The new enhancements and limitations on the Verizon iPhone may make choosing a mobile operator for your iPhone easier than originally thought.
For current AT&T iPhone customers, moving to Verizon will require the purchase of a new iPhone (one that runs on Verizon’s CDMA network) and a possible cancellation fee (AT&T raised its cancellation fees in 2010 in anticipation of Verizon’s announcement). But iPhone fans will have to choose between simultaneous voice and data and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities not to mention the ability to roam internationally.This Analyst Opinion is also available online at http://www.basexblog.com/2011/01/13/the-iphone-cometh/
Cody Burke is a senior analyst at Basex. He can be reached at cburke@basex.com
Salesforce.com Apps for Lawyers
What if you could access your network from ANYWHERE and at ANYTIME? What if you could check your calendar, check your task list, do your billing and access all your documents? What if you could do this WITHOUT A NETWORK? What if you could do it WITHOUT a Server, without a terminal server, and without any network infrastructure at all? What if the entire network was IN THE CLOUDS. Wouldn’t that be great (for you that is)? What if this cloud-based system was infinitely customizable, and infinitely expandable? What if you could purchase “plugins” and other packages to extend the functionality of the database? What if there was a network of consultants who could assist you? What if there were hooks into Web-based document assembly applications like EXARI? What if I told you this system was already built and opened for business last month. Take a look at AdvologixPM.
AdvogixPM is a Force.com Application. It is built on Salesforce.com. This platform is used by almost every Fortune500 corporation. It is a cloud-based application that was designed, originally, to make a “mobile salesforce” truly mobile. Rather than replicating databases (which could be stolen or lost), it was designed as a complete and secure CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that allowed salesmen and women to track leads, manage accounts, post documents,track calls and emails in a centralized hosted environment on the Web. What turned this from a hosted CRM into a world-shaking application was the open API that Salesforce.com built. To make the system acceptable to large sales organizations, Salesforce.com enabled users (with privileges) and developers to add new fields, add new reports, record types, dashboards, analyses, and ANYTHING they wanted. They then let developers “package” the customizations and created a marketplace where those packages could be “given away” or “licensed”.
So where does this affect lawyers who, by their own classification, are not in the sales business? The answer is AdvologixPM. The infrastructure of Salesforce already meets many of the needs of lawyers. What is missing are MATTERS, and support for practice-specific details that lawyers want to know about their clients. Further, the system does not natively support client billing. What Advologix has done is stand on the shoulders of giants and build a Legal Practice Management system on top of Salesforce. It is, indeed a complete and comprehensive system. It does what a practice management system should do, and does it quite well. And you don’t have to worry about backups, network services, remote access or anything. All you have to worry about is paying your Monthly user fee. The fee will be more than you pay annually for your current practice management solution software. The difference, arises, however, if you look at TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). No server; no need to apply software updates, no installation costs, and worldwide access.
Now where the application gets interesting for me and my clients is in two areas. First,it is infinitely customizable. If a client comes to me with a bankruptcy practice and wants to track special creditor details in a table, I can modfy the application to add the necessary table and fields. And, if I do a good enough job, I can package up those modifications and “license” them to another client. They could make the changes themselves, or they could leverage my expertise in data gathering, workflow and document assembly in that field. The second place where it gets interesting. Exari has released a Force.com application NDA Generator on Exari. Here we are leveraging a world-class web-based document assembly engine with a world-class CRM system, none of which needs to be installed on a server that we manage.
There are some TRADEOFFS when you program a Force.com application. There are somethings about the way the application works, what some tables are called that you cannot change. Since the core application was designed by someone else, you are limited to working with what that company has built. As a result, you will not have the spartan and intuitive design appeal of a RocketMatter or a Clio practice management system that was designed from the ground up as a practice management system. You will need to look closely at what Advologix has done to Salesforce, and weigh what additional modifications you can make and compare them to both Client/Server applications (like Time Matters, Amicus Attorney and PracticeMaster) and to RocketMatter and Clio offerings. The good news is there are a lot of innovative solutions out there for to choose from. And now there is one more.