TechnoLawyer: Online/Cloud

This special edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire was originally published on December 15, 2010.

Ruth Edlund once described TechnoLawyer as a "collective mind" — one of my all-time favorite characterizations. TechnoLawyer is also a data-driven media property. We try to rely on data rather than anecdotal evidence whenever possible to guide our decisions. And nowhere is our reliance on data more evident than in TechnoLawyer NewsWire as we track the number of clicks on the 250 products we cover in this newsletter each year. Below you will find the 15 products you and your fellow TechnoLawyer NewsWire subscribers found most intriguing as suggested by the number of clicks they received.

1. Libretto W100

Was 2010 the year of the tablet? Yes, but not all tablets. We wrote about Toshiba's Libretto W100 (pictured above) and its two screens on August 18th. Remember, we just report on new products here (we review products in some of our other newsletters but not in this one). So how has the Libretto W100 fared? Has it sold millions of units? Not quite. The critics panned it and Toshiba quickly pulled it from the market.

2. Doxie

What can I say? TechnoLawyers love learning about scanners — even this consumer model with little hearts on the front that we covered on April 28th.

3. Snapdone Version 6

Document management is also a hot topic (download our free document management system buyer's guide if you don't have a copy yet). Snapdone, which we covered on November 17th, adds document management and document assembly functions to Microsoft Office. No wonder it ranked third.

4. TaskMerlin 3.1

This project management software, which we covered on August 25th, offers lots of customization options for those who like to tinker with their workflows. But despite its name, it cannot perform magic. You yourself must complete all the tasks you enter.

5. Square

This credit card processing company replaces all the inscrutable fees in typical merchant accounts with a single, albeit higher, discount rate. However, TechnoLawyer subscriber James McCorquodale subsequently reported that it's not a good fit for law firms. We covered Square on May 12th.

6. Pimero

We reported on this Outlook alternative on July 14th. I like that it offers true bulk mailing. There's nothing more annoying than an email amateur who uses BCC to send bulk mail.

7. Alfresco Enterprise 3.2

On March 24th, we told you about this open source document management system that can automatically archive your email. Despite being open source, Alfresco Enterprise is not free.

8. iPad

We usually report only on finished products that you can buy — but how could we have waited until April to tell you about Apple's iPad, the most anticipated gadget of the year? Instead, we covered this game-changing tablet on January 27th within hours of its announcement.

9. HotDocs 10

We reported on HotDocs 10, which makes it easier to transform your model documents into templates, on June 2nd. Six weeks later, document assembly guru Marc Lauritsen reviewed it in our TechnoFeature newsletter, awarding it a perfect TechnoScore of 5.0.

10. OnIt

On December 1st, we told you about this new online project management system that borrows from social networks like Facebook. The company seemed pretty happy with our coverage, tweeting "Thanks for the great review of Onit. Your article sent us a lot of website traffic." It wasn't a review but glad we could help all the same.

11. Law Charge

Do you sense a trend here? Yes, another credit card processing company though Law Charge, which we covered on May 5th, specializes in servicing law firms.

12. Stacks

Another Web-based task management system? Clearly, we have some busy subscribers seeking organizational nirvana. On July 28th, we reported on Stacks, which uses charts and data to help you visualize your workflow. I'm not sure if these charts will make you feel better or worse so keep some Valium handy and brace yourself.

13. Portal4Law 5.0

Portal4Law 5.0, which we covered on November 10th, offers Web-based practice management, including document management. Some legal vendors make it easy for us to cover their products and some don't. If we gave out awards for helpfulness, PortalSoft's Director of Marketing would probably win.

14. ADERANT Practice Manager

Expect to see more products like ADERANT Practice Manager in 2011 and beyond — Web-based practice management systems from established vendors. Thus far, scrappy startups have dominated the SaaS landscape, but this era won't last forever. Some of these pioneers will become major players in their own right, but others will be acquired or squashed by software companies with a large installed base of customers. We reported on ADERANT Practice Manager on October 6th.

15. Less Accounting

Last but not least (since it ranked higher than 235 other products), Less Accounting, which we covered on June 17th, is an online accounting system that imports data from QuickBooks and integrates with PayPal.

Read about the other 235 products we covered in 2010 in the TechnoLawyer Archive.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
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.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Clark Stewart explains how he started his law firm with less than $2,500 worth of technology, Paul Mansfield opines on whether law firms need document management software and reviews Worldox, Manuel Quilichini reviews dtSearch, Jeff Wyatt reviews VTC and LearnKey for video software tutorials, and Philip Franckel shares his tips for backing up and restoring Dragon NaturallSpeaking vocab. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

Thomas Hutto, Tips for Switching From Windows XP to Windows 7

Larry Southerland, Data Privacy Tips for Lawyers; Cyberscrub Review

Edie Owsley-Zimmerman, Field of Practice Management Dreams; PracticeMaster Review

Deepa Patel, Review: GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar

Andrea Cannavina, Tip: How To Use Your Phone as a Dictation Device

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

David O'Connell, Four Problems With Web (SaaS) Applications

James Kamp, Review: Olympus DS-50 DVR and Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred

Tom Trottier, Review: Pearl Crescent Page Saver Basic

Anthony Campbell, Review: Symantec v. AVG Antvirus Protection

Paul Supnik, Review: SpeakWrite Dictation for the iPhone

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on November 29, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Over the last ten years or so, the drive toward integration/synchronization has increased. Remember when Alt-Tab showed your open programs and you could switch from one to another? Today, we want one-click integration — send your time entry to the accounting program, save that PDF to your document management system, use information from your practice management program to generate documents, send an email message from any program, etc. With security concerns largely resolved, the future of Web-based (SaaS) practice management systems will depend not only on their maturing feature sets but also integration.

The Two Flavors of Integration

Whether server-based or cloud-based, "integration" comes in two flavors: synchronization of two applications or realtime direct access via an API/SDK. Synchronization — the transfer of information from one program to another, or bi-directionally in more advanced solutions — is easier to write, but realtime links are more powerful and usually more stable. Most of the mature desktop practice management and time billing programs now sync reasonably well with each other, and with Word and Outlook. Worldox, the leading document management program for small and midsize firms, will link with just about anything that generates a document. Realtime links remain a minority, but everyone seems to be developing them.

There is a lot of pressure on vendors to develop additional modules so that realtime integration takes place within a single code base and hence is presumably faster and more reliable. Examples include Tabs3 and PracticeMaster, Time Matters' now abandoned experiment with Billing Matters, PCLaw's basic front office module, and Gavel & Gown's ongoing development of a billing program that will become part of a single code base with Amicus Attorney. The problem with these efforts is that while the core programs are very good, the "add-on" modules are lacking.

On a Windows platform, integration is "relatively" straightforward, since the underlying platform is the same for all programs. However, it leaves out Mac users. And when you get to the cloud, the problem is compounded as the application must integrate with a local server or another cloud-based application. Despite the supposed openness of the Web, many Web applications are essentially closed because they lack APIs or SDKs.

Platform Fragmentation and Microsoft Outlook

The synchronization most in demand is between Outlook and various smartphones. When Palm was dominant, many software companies wrote direct links to their devices. However, as platforms multiplied (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, etc.), it simply became too expensive for companies to maintain links to all the available platforms, with the result that today most software links to Outlook and then from Outlook (or Exchange) to the smartphone. Some links are realtime — email and calendar items get pushed to the smartphone as they arrive.

Outlook has becomes the "glue" that holds integration together. Those who do not use Outlook are frequently left out in the cold, although syncronization with Google Apps Gmail (the enterprise version) is on the rise. And there is a little program called GmailDefaultMaker that will let you set Gmail as your default mail client.

What Links Do You Need?

So where do the various SaaS practice management programs stand in terms of their ability to link to other programs? They are developing links so rapidly it's difficult to keep track.

The big four SaaS offerings — AdvologixPM, Clio, HoudiniESQ, and Rocket Matter — started out as relatively self-contained and limited: Contacts, Matters, and Calendar. Integration with other programs, especially email and documents, was at best limited. The exception here is AdvologixPM which was built on Salesforce.com's Force.com platform so it already had some links available through the Force.com AppsExchange.

When looking at a SaaS product, how do you want to expand its capabilities to other programs and functionality? The following examples are not intended to be exhaustive by any means. For a more extensive review of the capacities of various programs, see Seth Rowland's TechnoFeature reviews of AdvologixPM, Clio, HoudiniESQ, and Rocket Matter (all available in the TechnoLawyer Archive).

1. Smartphones

Lawyers love smartphones so a dedicated app is a plus. Yes, you can always just log into the product via a Web browser, but Web sites don't often translate well to the small screen plus they're slower than dedicated apps. None of the big four currently offers dedicated apps, but AdvologixPM, Clio, and Rocket Matter offer mobile versions of their Web sites.

2. Document Management

Investigate links to a document store. How do you get your Word documents or Outlook email into your practice management system? Do you have to resign yourself to using a totally separate area? At present, document management is lacking, although AdvologixPM and Clio both offer synchronization with Google Docs (Clio places a "Clio" button into the Google Apps toolbar). If you are not ready to move to Google, HoudiniESQ offers plugins for Word, Excel, and Outlook that enable you to send documents to the cloud. AdvologixPM offers integration with NetDocuments, which is arguably the most robust option available, but it means an additional monthly charge for NetDocuments (a SaaS document management application).

3. Outlook

The big four provide a bi-directional synchronization of contacts and events between Outlook and the program. What about email? AdvologixPM installs a mini-app directly into Outlook that gives robust access to the main program. HoudiniESQ also automates integrating Outlook emails into the program. Clio's Outlook integration is limited and clumsy.

4. Client Access

Can you grant specific clients partial access to some of their matters? Both AdvologixPM and Clio offer this extranet functionality.

5. Offline Access

What happens when you are totally disconnected from the Internet (say, on an airplane)? Does the application have a desktop module with which you can work "offline" and synchronize when you again have contact? Clio has a desktop module with which you can enter time remotely.

Conclusion

If you are considering switching to a SaaS practice management program, pay particular attention to integration. Will you be forced to abandon Word for Google Apps? Will you be able to link the SaaS application to other specialty software you use?

The good news is that features offered by one application are often matched by the others. Also, since these programs were written using Web technologies, they can be updated and expanded much more rapidly than traditional desktop programs. Finally, these companies are "hungry" — that is, they tend to be much more responsive to customer needs than vendors with a large installed base. If a given program does not have a feature you want, discuss it with them. Generally speaking, you can still easily reach the founders and lead developers. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Written by John Heckman of Heckman Consulting.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

Christel Burris, Is Not Using Document Management Software Irresponsible?

Kevin Dunn, The Key to Negotiating Legal Fees

Breck Seiniger, Review: CaseMap and TextMap

Jeffrey Wong, Review: Sunbelt's VIPRE Antivirus and Personal Firewall Software

Stephen Seldin, Review: Parallels on a Mac

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Web-based project management system for law firms (see article below), an online expense tracking service, a time-tracking application, a Web-based managerial feedback tool, and a Flash-capable Web browser for Android and iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

Conquer Your Legal Project Management Demons

Lawyers have traditionally broken into a cold sweat when presented with a math problem. Nowadays, they're just as likely to start mopping their foreheads when someone mentions project management. With corporate counsel holding lawyers more accountable for their fees, it's no longer sufficient to use a court docket as a project plan and then scramble to meet each deadline. But lawyers have good reason to sweat because most project management software is as nonintuitive and joyless as a triple integral, and not designed for their needs.

OnIt … in One Sentence
OnIt is an online project management system for law firms.

The Killer Feature
Social networks excel at bringing out everyone's inner narcissist, resulting in a cacophony of status updates largely consisting of observations that no one would have the temerity to say face to face.

By contrast, OnIt borrows the tools of social media for a useful purpose — moving a project forward. For example, instead of emailing everyone on your team to let them know you've finished a task, you can instead use OnIt's status update function. Onit emails your update to your team and also updates the project plan.

And if you forget to complete a task, the project manager on your team can use OnIt's Nudge feature to remind you of your upcoming deadline.

Other Notable Features
Onit's Project plans consist of tasks and milestones that you can delegate. A budgeting tool enables you to track the costs of projects.

When you receive email related to a case you're managing with OnIt, you can forward the message to OnIt using a special email address. You can also cc OnIt on outgoing messages. Onit stores these messages within a project. Similarly, OnIt offers document management with versioning for sharing documents with your team.

Even small cases require organization. OnIt offers tagging for this purpose. For example, you could create a "Testimony" tag for all the deposition transcripts you upload and further categorize them with a tag for each deponent. You can also tag tasks and milestones so that you can see everything related to a tag in one place.

What Else Should You Know?
Onit is currently free, but the company will soon begin charging a monthly fee. OnIt works in all modern Web browsers on Macs, PCs, and smartphones. Learn more about OnIt.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
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.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: How would you like a Tim Ferriss-style four hour work week? Impossible you say? Not with legal process outsourcing. Just send that multi-state research memo to India and your eDiscovery review to the Philippines. Why hire overpriced American associates when you can outsource to cheap, English-speaking lawyers overseas? Although tempting, legal process outsourcing has a dark side that threatens the American legal industry. In this TechnoFeature, document and workflow automation expert and technology consultant Seth Rowland identifies the major LPO players, explains what they offer, and then lays out an alternative strategy that American law firms can employ to reduce costs and compete globally while avoiding the fate of American manufacturing companies that outsourced themselves into extinction.

How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Larry Bodine, ABA Proposed Ethics Rules to Regulate Online Lawyer Marketing

Harry Steinmetz, Review: TimeSolv Pricing and Conflict Checking

Michele Gressel, Tell-Tale Sign of a Bad Client

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

Lori Iwan, Starting A Law Firm With A $2,500 Budget

Jeff Stouse, How To Decide If You Should Use Multiple Monitors

Brett Owens, Review: GoToMeeting For Online Meetings

Dan Meyer, Review: Philips Pocket Memo 9500 And Olympus DS-5000

Kristin LaMont, Tip: Offline Access To Web Services

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.