Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a browser-based practice management system (see article below), a Web-based enterprise search solution, an online password manager, a site that matches lawyers with prospective clients, and an iPhone app for processing business cards and receipts. Don't miss the next issue.
Make Your Practice Management Headaches Disappear
Lawyers routinely perform magic. Just as magicians use the power of persuasion to make it seem like they've changed the laws of physics, lawyers use similar powers to win over judges and jurors even when the facts of the case make it seemingly impossible. But when it comes to managing their law firm, lawyers seek another form of magic known as practice management software.
Houdini ESQ … in One Sentence
LOGICBit's Houdini ESQ is a browser-based practice management suite.
The Killer Feature
LinkedIn may help you recruit a new associate, and Twitter may help attract a new client, but email remains the communications workhorse for law firms.
Recognizing email's central role, LOGICBit engineered Houdini ESQ to work with any email system, including Microsoft Exchange and Google Apps.
When you use your email account through Houdini ESQ, it logs your messages and attachments by client/matter so you can pull them all up tickler-style. You can also search for email messages and attachments firm-wide.
Other Notable Features
LOGICBit offers Houdini ESQ as a server that you install at your firm, or as a hosted Web application (SaaS as they say). The server requires a static IP address and runs on Mac, Windows, or Linux. Either way, you use Houdini ESQ in a Web browser.
Houdini ESQ offers an "event-centric workflow," which means all activities become "events." For example, if you and a colleague have a meeting, you can create an event, add both of your names, and start a timer. At the end of the meeting, stopping the timer creates two time entries that you can approve and bill.
Houdini ESQ also includes group calendaring with filters, document management with full-text search and bulk uploading by client/matter, secure chat, virtual post-its, billing, general ledger and trust accounting, and reports.
Houdini ESQ offers extensive customization so that you can capture information specific to your practice areas. Tools such as entry and lookup fields, drop downs, radio buttons, and checkboxes, and validators for social security numbers, zip codes, credit cards, etc. automate data entry and reduce errors.
What Else Should You Know?
Houdini ESQ's founder and chief developer previously served as the chief architect of Time Matters World Edition, one of the first browser-based practice management systems. The self-hosted version of Houdini ESQ is free for solos (single user). Otherwise, the server costs $792 and each seat $96. The hosted version of Houdini ESQ costs $48 per user per month. Support costs $96 per incident or $672 for an entire year. Learn more about Houdini ESQ.
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So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
