Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a cloud-based legal project management application (see article below), an online service for Twitter direct messages, an iPhone GPS navigation app, an online store for volume iPad and iPhone app purchases, and a free social media strategy planning tool. Don't miss the next issue.
Legal Project Management Meets the Spreadsheet
Lawyers are world class crunchers. Litigators crunch facts and legal issues. Transactional lawyers crunch clauses. And all lawyers crunch dates, time, and lots of other data. So why do lawyers always wax poetic about word processors but not spreadsheets? After all, the latter excel (pun intended) at data crunching. The answer may lie in math — that is, the average lawyer's aversion to it. Because finance types were the first to adopt them, spreadsheets still have a reputation as tools for number crunching, not the type of data crunching — a.k.a project management — lawyers perform. One company hopes to change the way lawyers think about spreadsheets.
Smartsheet … in One Sentence
Smartsheet is an online project management system.
The Killer Feature
Smartsheet uses a spreadsheet metaphor for project management and other forms of data management. You essentially work in tables that look like spreadsheets. For example, with one click you can add a column specifically designed to contain dates. You can then sort your sheet chronologically. Smartsheet can display your data in a variety of formats, including calendars and Gantt charts. You can also generate reports.
Other Notable Features
Once you create a new sheet, you can share it with colleagues and clients — and also assign tasks and attach relevant documents. The Change History screen provides an audit trail of all work performed on a shared sheet. Smartsheet also features tools for email alerts and discussions. You can organize your sheets using client/matter folders.
Smartsheet essentially provides you with a blank slate, which gives you the flexibility to create exactly what you need. But why reinvent the wheel if it already exists? Smartsheet offers a number of templates for specialized project management tasks such as event planning, issue tracking, new hires, task lists, and more — including legal-specific templates.
To further lighten your load, Smartsheet offers what it calls Smartsourcing — integration with Amazon's Mechanical Turk. You can use this feature to outsource menial work such as data collection.
What Else Should You Know?
Smartsheet integrates with Google Docs and can import Excel spreadsheets. An iPad app is in the works. Pricing ranges from $15.95 to $149 per month depending on the number of sheet creators and sheets you need. All plans provide unlimited sheet users. Learn more about Smartsheet.
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