- A Little Ranting (11)
- Integrated Technology Services (2)
- Manging Partner Institute (4)
- Random Thoghts (10)
- Software (10)
- Uncategorized (4)
- July 10, 2008: eFax Redux -- If it works, it's great, if it doesn't, welcome to India
- July 8, 2008: eFax -- If it works, it's great, if it doesn't, welcome to India
- May 8, 2008: Nuance - Leave Me Alone
- April 5, 2008: More Hasler Hassles - And Still No Dealer Support
- March 27, 2008: A Funny Website - With Funny Tech Jokes, Too
- March 27, 2008: Never Train on Live Data (The Data You Actually Use)!
- March 20, 2008: Dell - Customer Service Issues
- February 21, 2008: Travel Tips -- And My Kindle
- January 13, 2008: People - Follow Your Gut
- January 13, 2008: Managing Partner Institute - Date Change
My favorite things (software)
So, what do I use in my office? That’s the question I’m always asked. I have a lot of answers.
My office is managed with Legal Files, a superb case management program I use (after testing 7 others, including many major names). While I like Time Matters, and recommend and support it, Legal Files is still a slight bit better for my needs. It isn’t perfect, however, and I wish it had Time Matters’ “formattable clipboard” and its “Packages” feature, but overall it wins by a nose.
In addition, I use Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 all the time, and Case Map, Time Map and Live Note have become keys to keeping my law practice going and growing. I don’t love Time Slips or Quick Books, but they work, so I’m not changing. I’m also in the process of integrating Hot Docs with both businesses. On the other hand, I still rely on a host of “non-legal” but key programs. Thus, I also use Word, Word Perfect X3 (the best word processor I’ve ever used), Access, and an array of other more common software.
Let’s start a dialogue — What are your favorites? Let me (and everyone else) know.
That should be fun.
4 Responses to “My favorite things (software)”
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February 5, 2008 at 11:31 am
I am curious why you made the change from TimeMatters to Legal Files? We are current users of TimeMatters Prof. & Billing Matters both version 7.0. We regularly have 10 users. The features in TimeMatters are great, but the past few months we have been crashing daily. TimeMatters service seems to offer “band-aid” solutions. Instant messaging features are great (the ability to link to client matters & forward through instant messaging saves alot of time and paperwork). However, instant messaging is very sensitive & TimeMatters sales can’t assure us that an upgrade will allow our instant messaging to be stable. Not sure if we should make an upgrade or make a change to another case management & billing software. Found it interesting that you made a change & wanted to know if you would give further explanation.
February 11, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I didn’t change from TimeMatters. I evaluated both, and found LegalFiles a bit more to my liking/style. As a consultant, I support both products because both are excellent. Plus, when I need a technical question answered, I’m comfortable that I will receive the answers when I call. Hope that helps.
February 11, 2008 at 3:03 pm
We think TimeMatters is an excellent product too. It has just been causing alot of grief for about 6 months with daily crashing. Can’t seem to get clear answers on which route to take when we contact TM directly for some reason.
1. Do you know if the instant messaging & linking capabilities are more stable with the enterprise version of TimeMatters? We often use this as a means to communicate phone calls, document review etc. back & forth between office staff.
2. We probably have 150,000 plus records - should we even be on Prof. version 7? We can’t seem to get any clear answers from TM about this.
3. Why would their own service tech’s recommend Prof. 9 rather than enterprise?
February 20, 2008 at 7:52 pm
You raise some excellent points/questions. My clients on Enterprise aren’t reporting the same type of crashing you are. Of course, it sounds like you are heavily using Messenger. My recommendation is to use the internal email because that gives you a permanent record of what was done, and Messenger entries just disappear when you delete them.
There is no set number of records for moving up to Enterprise. As the TimeMatters website says, “The Professional Edition is a full-featured, multi-user application that allows your entire firm to manage critical client and matter information. Professional is designed for firms that need the full set of practice management features but do not have the volume of data to require an SQL database. Customers can upgrade to the Enterprise version when their practice requires it.
“The Enterprise Edition includes the functionality of Lexis Front Office Professional with the scalability and performance gains of a Microsoft® SQL database. Data-intensive firms will benefit most from Enterprise with quick access to large volumes of information. Enterprise can also be used in tandem with World Server Edition to provide remote access via a browser.” In my experience, however, a Microsoft SQL database should be more stable.
And why their service techs recommend one version over another, I don’t know.
I hope this helps. Sorry for the delayed reply.