Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an accounting and practice management system that integrates with Microsoft Office (see article below), a Web-based transcription service for audio files and telephone calls, an online project management tool, a private realtime location sharing app, and a trip planning and management app. Don't miss the next issue.
Gain Greater Insight Into Your Law Firm
People say technology should be invisible. For example, when you write an email message in Outlook, you're not aware of Outlook. You're just writing to a client or colleague. Many law firms eschew legal-specific accounting, billing, and practice management software because they feel it lacks this invisibility. But running your law firm without such software can lead to invisible problems, some of them catastrophic. One of the industry's leading integrated front and back office legal solutions has made its software more invisible by adding another office of sorts — deep integration with Microsoft Office (including Outlook).
ProLaw XII … in One Sentence
ProLaw XII, a Thomson Reuters solution, is accounting, billing, and practice management software that integrates with Microsoft Office.
The Killer Feature
Many companies toss around the word "integration," but not all integrations are of equal caliber.
ProLaw's developers used Microsoft's .NET programming language to create version XII. As a result, ProLaw integrates with Microsoft Office. It also better leverages Microsoft SQL Server as its underlying database.
This deep integration becomes evident when generating reports, all of which are interactive and run in realtime. The result is enhanced "business intelligence" — the ability to transform data into insights that can help grow your business and prevent problems. For example, ProLaw XII enables you to compare budgeted versus reported billable hours for each matter, view your top clients, and generate accounts receivable and WIP aging and rolled-up reports. Within many reports, you can instantly drill down to the details while maintaining the big picture. Also, many reports include charts and graphs that help you interpret and present information.
You can also edit existing reports and create your own reports by dragging and dropping information from any area of ProLaw. Even creating "What If" reports don't require any programming knowledge.
"Building ProLaw XII on the .NET technology extends a law firm's investment into the future," Elite's chief operating officer Cary Burch told us. "The use of .NET makes ProLaw less costly and more reliable, and enables ProLaw to leverage the interoperability between Microsoft applications, as well as the powerful reporting tools built into Microsoft SQL."
Other Notable Features
Regarding Microsoft Office, you can save documents directly to client/matter folders from within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
ProLaw XII solves a problem that many lawyers find vexing — client-related email and attachments. Your matter folders appear within Outlook — just drag and drop to file and share. The Outlook integration works both ways. You can attach any document stored within ProLaw to an email message without leaving Outlook. You can also save receipts of your email messages to record the date and time recipients open them.
The new version of ProLaw also provides automatic time capture technology that works within Microsoft Office as well as other popular products such as Adobe Acrobat. When you complete a document on which you've worked, ProLaw prompts you to record the time it has captured for billing purposes.
What Else Should You Know?
In addition to integrated accounting to go along with its billing and practice management functions, ProLaw integrates directly with Westlaw, Westlaw Litigator, and Westlaw Legal Calendaring Rules (these require a separate subscription). Also available as an add-on, eBillingHub enables you to submit invoices from ProLaw in LEDES and other formats that corporate legal departments often require. Learn more about ProLaw XII.
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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.
