I don’t normally post installer bugs, but this is one that crops up from time to time and is difficult to swat down. And so, for my purposes and anyone who works with Time Matters or LNTPA, here is the solution. This bug happens because the Time Matters installer as well as the update utility makes registry changes that require a reboot.
Legal Technology Portal is Live
Our new Legal Technology portal is live. To try it out, please bookmark http://legaltechnology.bashasys.net/. If you have a “RSS feed” or a “twitter” that relates to “Case Management Software”, “Document Assembly Software” that you want included, please go to the website and suggest a link.
There is a wealth of information coming from Vendors in these areas. Rather than “surfing”, use our website to do your research or to keep up on developments. You will find my “Time Matters Tips” blog there. At the moment, there is no feed from LexisNexis on Time Matters, PCLaw or Billing Matters, but that should change with time.
AdvologixPM – The One Year Anniversary Review
It’s been a year since my review of AdvologixPM for Technolawyer (see Review: AdvologixPM: Web-Based Practice Management System,” Technofeature, December 15, 2009). Since that time, I have spent a lot of time learning the Salesforce.com platform (completing several online courses) as well as working with AdvologixPM. Basha Systems has signed on as a development partner and reseller, and now offers regular training classes on how to use and configure AdvologixPM. On this “anniversary”, I wish to reflect on those features of the AdvologixPM platform that are “special”, if not “unique” and explain why Basha Systems has become an Advologix partner.
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
Recent Adventures in the Cloud
It’s been a while since my last post. I have been active in the web-space, mostly on LinkedIn where I manage a few special interest groups: (1) The Virtual Lawyer, (2) Future Automation (Documents, Data and the Cloud), (3) Time Matters Connection, (4) HotDocs Wizards, and (5) Amicus Attorney Wizards. The first two groups have been pretty active, growing with interesting discussions, but I have neglected this space where I have a better opportunity to express myself. And so, below are some thoughts on areas I have been exploring.
Cloud-Based Practice Management
I have done reviews of AdvologixPM, RocketMatter, Clio and Houdi. These systems do much to remove remove the shackles of an office-based, big-hardware, client server based system. They enable lawyers to “be virtual” and to be free. And in these times of downsizing, resizing, and cost-cutting, the ability to have a flexible and scalable practice management system that doesn’t require too much capital investment is quite worthwhile. It allows attorneys to form “ad hoc” groups, practicing together, often from their homes, or wherever there work in. The potential of cloud based practice management really lives in the “collaboration features.” For those who have followed my discussions on LinkedIn or participated in them, the economics of Cloud based practice management have come to be comparable to those of a client-server model. If your firm is looking at getting a “new license” and getting “new hardware” or replacing a “server”, the economics of a Cloud solution start weighing in their favor.
Most practice management vendors have moved to “annual pricing” for their software. This is often in the form of an annual maintenance plan, or some other structure that requires users seeking tech support, service releases or upgrades to pay some percentage of the cost of the software each year. Fees range from 20% of list up to 33 1/3%. In my view, these fees are reasonable and justifiable. They provide ongoing revenue to the software vendor to improve the software and fix the software, as well as pay for responsive support staff. That said, these costs need to be factored into a TCO (“total cost of ownership”). If you already have a functioning server; and already have case management software in place, you need to be aware of some significant costs that should be considered in making a decision to move.
Pro-Cloud Costs
You need to factor in the software vendor’s annual maintenance fees. You also need to factor in the cost of applying service releases and upgrades. Just because the software is “included” doesn’t mean that you will not have disruptions in service during the upgrade or application of the release. Some of these disruptions come form the time of migrating the data to a “new platform”. There are consulting and training costs surrounding the new features. Some upgrades have required new hardware and new operating system and database software. If you haven’t put a backup system in place, you need to factors the costs of that solution. You need to evaluate what “redundancies” you have in your hardware and software in the event of disaster.
Costs of Moving to the Cloud
If you have “nothing in place”, the start-up costs are negligible. You can take your “Outlook” contact list and synchronize or import it into the cloud system. However, if you have been running as a business for a while, you will have large contact lists, active matters, email repositories, and documents. The decision will be what to do with these items. You may decide to “import” this data into your Cloud system. If it is just contacts, that can usually be done pretty easily with wizards. If you wish to bring in custom data, you will be best served to work with a consultant. They will identify the fields that need to be customized in the practice management system, help you cleanup your data, and set up import templates. If you are moving in “documents”, you need to be aware of “size” limits. The base fee includes a certain amount of storage. If your files exceed that storage, you will incur extra changes. In the greater scheme these are nominal, but you need to be informed what the charges are and be realistic as to what you are storing in the cloud.
There is so much more I could write, but I will be coming back to this topic on a more regular base. As many of you know Basha Systems has signed up as reseller partners with AdvologixPM and NetDocuments. There is a philosophical reason. I believe that lawyers have different needs and uses for their practice management systems and that no single configuration of intake forms and calendars will satisfy all attorneys. In that light, I prefer the “platform” approach adopted by Time Matters (in the Client-Server world) and by AdvologixPM in the Cloud. The platform approach presents a base configuration that meets MOST of the needs of MOST attorneys. But at the same time, it allows the individual organizations to disable features they don’t need, modify features they do need, and extend the program by adding additional features. Moreover, a platform approach allows 3rd party vendors to create applications that extend the features of the shipping application.
As for NetDocuments, I favor that platform over DropBox, Box.net, iGNYTE, and GoogleApps, for two reasons. First, it was developed “FOR LAWYERS”. That means it was designed to meet the security, encryption, and document integration needs of lawyers. Second, you cannot adopt a Cloud practice Management system and then leave your documents in the “MyDocuments” folder or on a local Server; this position is inconsistent. So you need a viable cloud-based stoage. Moreover, you need a system with an API (Application Programming Interface) so it integrates with your cloud solution and isn’t a separate repository.
Ease of Use—Not a Good Thing?
John Heckman in his recent blog post, When Is Ease of Use Counterproductive? raised an interesting issue and one I have struggled with in designing advanced interview systems for document automation. He posits that making something too easy encourages foolish and stupid behavior. There is a balance between “constraints on behavior” and making something too simple.
John was likely thinking of practice management systems that strive to use wizards to paper over the complexity of their systems. As a person who routinely turns off the wizard, I can see his point. If you don’t ever confront the data entry form, you will not know enough about the structure of the system to be able to properly work with the data you have entered. I can appreciate a well designed wizard, but too often the wizard makers make assumptions that simply don’t apply to you. And unless the user is exposed to the non-wizard approach, they will often be unable to get the result they desire from the software. Extensive wizards can in fact cripple good software. It is not that they break the software. Rather, it is that they obscure the functionality of the software.
In building document assembly interviews, I am constrained to balance simplicity of design with the complexity of reality. Make an estate planning system TOO SIMPLE, and the templates it produces will only be functional 80% of the time, requiring constant vigilance and tweaks of the final Word document. Make it too complex and the user will not know how to answer particular questions that appear unfamiliar out of the context of the documents they used to edit manually. The solution that I have come up with is a balancing act. Rather than push the complexity under the rug with a wizard, I script the dialogs with an “advanced” option that allows you to expose more complex questions in a particular area. Questions are carefully grouped under headers. There is help text both associated with the variables and on the dialog. With document assembly tools I can also add constraints that prevent bad data from being enter, such as an “division of assets” that might exceed 100%.
There are many purported “simple systems”. The iPOD app store is an example of “simple systems”. DISCLAIMER: I have 2 iPOD Touch devises and a Blackberry Storm. In their advertisements, Apple toots: “There’s an APP for that”. And yet, the sum of the parts is often less than the whole. And that is because each APP is an Island, requiring you often to dual enter data and maintain the same data in multiple places. I find the approach by Salesforce.com and Mozilla Firefox to be quite different. The “APPS” in these cases are plugins that extend the core functionality of the system and allow you to do more with forcing you to separate your data in different Island. Yes, there are thousands of apps for Salesforce.com; but each APP assumes a core set of shared data (Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities) and so these apps together are MORE than the sum of their parts.
And so, when you think of “Ease of Use” bear it in mind with a grain of salt.
Living with the Dragon; Talking back to your computer Day 3
Honesty by Computer. There is one aspect of Dragon NaturallySpeaking that might end up being quite beloved by executive management types. Having to speak out loud into a computer tends to cut down on non-work Internet surfing! There are few employees who would have the guts to say out loud “Seach web for beach houses available in June 2010”.
This might be just one of the vaunted productivity gains touted by Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Non-standard windows, such as Time Matters, seem to work best with a combination of spoken commands and mouse positioning. I noticed that Dragon NaturallySpeaking tends to favor commands that are actual word commands. By this, I don’t mean Microsoft word commands per se, but commands such as “File, save and close”. It does less well with picture icons or long, nonstandard, picklists. This may be a matter of training-my training Dragon, I mean. I was quite excited, however, when I successfully created a step-by-step command that allowed me to create a bill slip from an event record in Time Mattters. Still, it required that I highlight the actual event to to create the bill slip.
I’ve found so far that the Step-by-Step keystroke commands work the best in Time Matters. I’ve managed to create some useful new record commands and saving commands. The “Give Me Help” command is a G_dsend – the index is very easy to work with.
Note From Seth: Dragon is like the Tour de France. There are some days where you race ahead of the pack and feel as if you are on top of the world. There are other days where it is a long slog as you climb mountain after mountain to get to a goal that seems just out of reach. As with the Tour de France, practice makes better so don’t let the minor hills keep you from your course.
Life with the Dragon: Day Two – Talking Back To Your Computer
Working with Dragon NaturallySpeaking reminds me very much of one of those old movies in which you see an executive dictating to a secretary. I am now gaining a good deal respect for both executive and secretary.
The dictating executive had to be clear and concise and the secretary had to be able to understand him (face it, it usually was a him), even when he was not. Without a doubt, the program that Dragon NaturallySpeaking seems to work with most easily is Microsoft Word. This makes perfect sense as it is a dictation program. You do, however, come to realize, that you must slow down your speech and speak to the program as clearly as you would to a recalcitrant 4 year old. Like the 4-year-old, Dragon learns a little more every time you speak to it as long as you speak to it in an measured and even tone.
Sometimes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking will mistake words for commands. For instance, when I used the word “tone”, Dragon read this as “Home” and proceeded to fly up to the “Home” key, ready to click. There are a few ways that I have noted that will allow you to avoid this issue. When you dictate a word that is read incorrectly more than once, you can use the “spell that” function to “train” your computer to understand the way you intone a particular word. If you mean to use a command, you can hold down the control (CTRL) key and Dragon NaturallySpeaking will understand that you do not intend to dictate that as a word. I have noticed that speaking in phrases of 3 words together with a pause after each tends to minimize the errors. The best way, although probably not the easiest or fastest way, is to create user commands that will give you different ways of asking for common commands such as end of line or inserting a commonly used address.
Note from Seth: Do not have too many windows open at a time when you are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Otherwise, you will find extraneous codes and remarks in places you never intended them to appear. You should silence the “Dragon” when you finish your dictation.
Life with the Dragon: Day one-talking to your computer
Can Dragon Naturally Speaking enable you to throw away your keyboard and control your computer with just your voice? Basha consultant, Rose Rowland, a newly certified Dragon Naturally Speaking reseller, tries a week without her keyboard to see how far the limits of spoken technology can go.
I have been typing for a VERY long time. Just to give you a sense of how long, when I first took typing in high school, we all worked on manual typewriters and only the very best were allowed a shot at the fancy new electric IBM Selectrics. Now you can go play a guessing game about my age (no, not THAT old!).
Therefore, entering the world of computers and keyboards was no great challenge to me. I have never, however, up until this point had the wizard-like option of talking to my computer and having it do what I tell it to do. So, Harry Potter fan that I am, I was eager to try Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Having passed my exam, I decided to spend a week with the Dragon.
On Monday, I started. First impressions. Much like wizarding skills, working with Dragon is exceptionally cool but mastering it does require a degree of patience. Not because the program is difficult to learn-far from it. It is one of the most easy to master out-of-the-box products I have seen recently, The difficulty stems more from the wizard than the wand. However, if you can stick with it, I am assured that it can speed up your work considerably. I can already tell that my searches, whether on the Web or in my computer are considerably faster using Dragon Soft. Check back tomorrow for my further adventures talking back to my computer.
NOTE from SETH: While working with “text” is easy, navigating the commands of a new program can be challenging. Your friend is the “mouse grid” command. Before you go on long adventures, be sure to keep a hand “command” guide at your ready or say “What can I say?”
Future Automation and The Virtual Lawyer
Some have asked why I don’t enable comments for this blog. The answer is two fold. First, moderating and filtering the “spam” wasn’t worth the benefit. The second reason is that there are better and more effective forums for these discussions. They include “The Virtual Lawyer” group on LinkedIn.com and my new group “Future Automation (Documents, Data and the Cloud)” also on LinkedIn. I am also managing a group for HotDocs Wizards, Amicus Attorney Wizards, and “The Time Matters Connection”. So if you find anything I write provocative enough to comment on, I hope you go to one of those groups and have your say.
Future Automation represents an attempt to bring together the thinkers and developers who are shaping the future of document assembly and legal practice management. It’s goal is to be forward thinking and positive; to celebrate what is good; and to occasionally point out what is not yet good enough. Future Automation recognizes that much of software is still “too hard” for people to grasp. Much of that difficulty has been in the hardware and management of networks. In this “Wild Wild West” with malicious attacks, trojans and virus, just running a server can be an act of faith, or a very expensive proposition. So much energy has been directed to “protecting” and “defending” that many have forgot that computers are about “doing” and planning, and structuring data for quick retrieval, and integrating data for “document assembly” and other forms of automation.
And so, Future Automation is about looking at a bring future for software that bring real productivity to lawyers and business people; to celebrate software that “makes lawyers smarter”, that “makes lawyers more productive”, and that “makes lawyers richer”. For face it; if the technology is not bringing a tangible return, why invest in it.