Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a new practice management system (see article below), and a new mobile scanner (article available to TL NewsWire subscribers only). Don't miss the next issue.
Practice Management Meets Document Management
Is January just another month or does the beginning of a new year deserve all the hype? While gym check-ins plummet after a few weeks, a new year can bring about lasting improvements at law firms. Most law firm fiscal years match the calendar year so there's no better time to start using a new practice management system. Without having to retroactively enter data, you'll have an entire fiscal year's worth of appointments, billed activities, documents, tasks, and everything else a practice management system organizes. One legal vendor recognizes the special nature of January. Like clockwork, it ships a new version of its popular practice management system shortly after the ball drops in Times Square.
Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 … in One Sentence
Released on January 3, 2012, Gavel & Gown's Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 is a practice management system with integrated document management.
The Killer Feature
Law firm workflow revolves around email and documents. While Outlook has a lock on email, there's no similarly dominant product for document management despite a deep hunger among law firms for a simple yet powerful solution.
Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 offers integrated document management via its new Documents module. Thus, you can quickly see a list of all documents associated with a client or file, and filter and sort the list based on various criteria.
Even better, you can run full-text searches for documents. Amicus Attorney uses Microsoft's Indexing Server engine, which handles all popular file formats, including of course DOC, DOCX, and PDF.
Other Notable Features
We only have one killer feature section in TL NewsWire articles, but vying for contention is the fact that Gavel & Gown has baked Google Sync into Amicus Attorney. With a free Google account, you can sync appointments and contacts in Amicus Attorney with Android smartphones and tablets, Apple's iPad and iPhone, BlackBerrys, and other mobile devices compatible with Google Sync.
In keeping with the focus on mobile, Amicus Attorney can email you your agenda every day, including phone numbers for contacts assigned to your daily events. Your agenda can take advantage of another new feature — Referrals, which enable you to see who sends you work. You can view and sort all client matter files referred by your contacts. If you also use Amicus Premium Billing (part of Amicus Attorney once you turn it on with a license), you'll also see the fees they helped you generate. You'll know for sure who merits some wining and dining at the best restaurant in town.
Other new features include the ability to output formatted information from unlimited custom fields and records, hyperlinks to files from appointments and tasks, email alerts when your assistant creates a phone message, and automated notation of returned phone messages on your phone records.
What Else Should You Know?
Gavel & Gown also shipped Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition 2012 last week — a less expensive alternative for law firms with 1-10 users. The web site provides a feature comparison chart. Both the Premium and Small Firm Editions run on Windows PCs. Learn more about Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012.
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