Total Attorneys advertised practice management in the cloud for $1/month per user. I recently came across Josh Campman’s review (Choosing Practice Management Software Part 1.5 of 2) and checked out their website (TotalAttorneys.com). I have not had a chance to review the offering, but plan to in the future. For now though, I wish to note that price-points are not what they seem.
How Stupid Companies Treat Customers
Every once in a while you come across an interesting tech article that gets to the HEART of what distinguishes successful well-run companies from their competition. Often, what is said is common sense, but put in a particularly pithy manner. In the Baseline.com article How Stupid Companies Treat Customers, Dennis McCafferty makes a few key points that are often forgotten.
XpressDox Integration With Salesforce
Previously, I have written about XpressDox integration with Salesforce.com and Advologix from a technical side, how from Microsoft Word you can access your template library, launch a template, and pull data from a Salesforce.com based practice management system. Such approach is very powerful and cost effective. But it also requires you to have Microsoft Word installed with an XpressDox plugin.
This post, however, focuses on implementation of a completely cloud-based assembly engine integrated into Salesforce.com. A prototype has been tested and implemented on a client site; however the tool is not yet ready for public distribution. In this system, a simple button would be added to the Matter object (or any object) in Salesforce.
On the Nature of Things
And so, after a long break, I resume my writing. At the moment, we are reassessing our entire web presence, figuring out what form and format best suits our mission. Since I am spending a great amount of time rewriting much of the website, there is little “technological” inspiration for this blog. And so, I turn to in the other direction.
How to Access Amicus Attorney Custom Records From HotDocs
At the recent Gavel & Gown consultants conference, I demonstrated a new way to access data stored on Amicus Attorney Premium Edition. Because Premium Edition is run on SQL Server platform, there is a way, through a secure connector to access the data for document assembly through HotDocs. More on that later.
HotDocs Tips – Importing from Outlook
HotDocs has for years had a connector to Microsoft Outlook. It is an effective tool for importing data. However, the data that comes in, often needs to be “cleaned up” before it can be used.
Working with Outlook
- State Field: The state can sometimes be entered as Abbreviated (e.g. NY) or as a Full State (“New York”) which causes problems on import if you importing into a Multiple Choice field
- Street Field: The “Address” in Outlook is different from the BusinessAddressStreet field. And that field can have multiple lines in it, affecting how that text appears in your template where you may have coded Street1 and Street2
Further, some of the mappings in the tool are confusing because of the terminology used by Outlook and that used by most HotDocs coders can be quite different.
- Which Address: In Outlook there is a MailingAddress, a HomeAddress and a BusinessAddress. If you are importing into a primary address, then you would choose MailingAddress. If it is a Business, with a Company, you should use Business Address.
- Salutation, Title and Job Title: These fields are confusing since Title is “Mr.” or “Mrs”, Saluation is non-existent, and JobTitle is the positon someone holds at a company.
KRONOS Watch – Copy2Contact Review
In an old post I set forth my standard for evaluating software (See KRONOS – Evaluation Criteria for Software).
. Keystroke Count
. Return on Investment
. Opulence and Intuitiveness
. Networkability and Integration
. Options and Customization
. Suitability for the Task.
W * A * T * C * H
Forrester Report – ROI of Cloud Apps
The Forester Reasearch released to the public (via TechRepublic.com) a June 23, 2011, white paper titled: “The ROI of Cloud Apps: A Total Econimic Impact(TM) Analysis Uncovers Long-Term Value in Cluse Apps.” Below I will quote and highlight some key conclusions of this report.
Recognize that the report: analyzes the longer-term, five-year cost of ownership and value for cloud applications across four categories: customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), collaboration (including email), and IT service management.”
Lost Phone, But Still Under Contract
Ever lost your phone, but neglected to get insurance? If you are like most and have a cell phone contract, you can only upgrade your phone every two years. If you do want a new phone before the expiration of the 2 years, you need to pay “LIST PRICE” which is usually outrageous.
iPad Blues with Document Management
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.