The 7 Second Blog

When you take a look around the current Practice Management vendors in the legal space, you will quickly find that no one stores their data in Canada. Although Clio is from British Columbia your data is stored in Amazon….which is not in Canada. The rest? not in Canada.

We will be launching a SaaS option with your data stored in Canada. Keep an eye out.

It seems that Mobility and a Mobile strategy are the craze in the IT press. I am not so sure what this really means but in the Legal vertical I have been dealing with it for the last 10 years.

Is Mobility – access using a Mobile phone? Is it accessing your information while away from the office?

In this conversation, there is not one size fits all.

It depends on the type of law business that you operate. Some firms work during business hours at the office. Some firms work during business hours away from the office. Some firms have users that work many hours after hours at home or on the road.

It also depends on what you expect to while while Mobile. If you just want to look at data or if you want to work as you would while in the office.

The cloud is by its nature Mobile. Your experience is the same whether you are in the office, at home of on the road.

If you want to use your work computer at home just as you would if you were in the office, there is a free solution called LogMeIn. We use the business solution daily. I have used the LogMeIn service for 8 or more years without issue. I can remember a few times when I was not able to access a computer.

If you need many users to work while away from the office and do not want them to access their own computer, then you should look at a Microsoft terminal server solution or Citrix. We have clients that use both. An interesting product is also 2X at www.2x.com.

Some applications have Mobile applications that are specific to your handheld or a website. I use the Salesforce mobile application often and as a consultant it is excellent. As I change the customization and configuration of Salesforce, the mobile app adjusts with those customizations. It is a rich environment and I am able to see all of my data. The same data set that is available when I log into Salesforce. I can also control whether I want a smaller set of data on my handheld device as I manage the mobile users. The data is available when I am offline and not connected to the Cell phone network. This is often the case while I am in Court as Cell reception is not available inside the court rooms.

Time Matters and PCLaw have release a Mobility portion of the version 11s of the applications. The Time Matters mobility product is limited in scope and is very much a first generation product. If you need access to fields on your Matter form, Time Matters Mobility does not allow this which is interesting as the ability to customize the fields on a Matter is a compelling feature of Time Matters. It also does allow access to all of the record types in Time Matters. Access to the calendar will be added in the future but for our customers calendar does not include our Key Dates feature which in my opinion is part of the calendar.

Our recommendation is to use MobileTM from Data Equity. It is mature as it has been in the market for years. All record types in Time Matters are available and you can customize all lists and forms to include any information that are tracking in Time Matters. For me, this is the basic functionality that is required of a mobile Time Matters solution.

In my opinion, Mobility should also extend to allowing your clients to access their Matters. Cloud applications by their nature will include this functionality. In the Time Matters world, this is only available from DataEquity. It is called GuestOffice. It is an eloquent solution with security at the core of the design and the ability to shape your clients experience as they look at their own Matters.  For other consultants that have not seen or used GuestOffice, it can be customized and configured. This means you define the data to which the client has access, the look and feel and you can extend the functionality.

So what does Mobile mean to you?

Once again I am working on a larger data migration project and I am reminded of the key points which are mostly forgotten.

What is the key? Data migration is a process and as a customer you need to engage your consultant. I would also be cautious of thinking a data import is a data migration. There are a series of steps and at each step you need to asses your progress and gauge success.

I can think of 2 distinct Data Migration examples.

1.Upgrading from 1 version of an application to another.
2. Moving from one Matter Management Application (Practice Management) to another.

Especially in Time Matters, when you upgrade from 1 version to another, you need to verify the data has migrated. At the very least you should do record counts and a random sample visual confirmation. If you are upgrading an accounting and/or billing application you should run your key reports before and after the conversion.

The easy stuff? Each application deals with dates and times in their own way. Some databases are more normalized than others.

Moving from one application to another can be difficult. You have to account for the differences in the applications and you have to deal with the integrity of your data. As we migrate clients away from Time Matters we have to be cautious of their data.

We have a team that has many years experience in Migrating data and a team with years of experience managing the process. We move clients to and from all of the applications that we support.

For all of our customers, we provide a step by step training manual that is always available and answers all end user questions. The materials are updated as we receive support questions. Our delivery is SaaS which has many benefits. We update the materials in one place and it instantly reaches all of our customer. No updating each site, no maintenance, no software installs…  Salesforce has it right.. No Software.

I will push some of the lessons out to the blog. Contact me if I am missing something, or I have not pushed the lesson you want to review.

http://7secondblog.ca/time-matters-basic-training/

The cloud is an interesting evolution. Defining the cloud is always a conversation.

We use the cloud extensively. So extensively, that as a computer dies, I am up and running (exactly as I was before) in minutes not hours, days etc. I do have high speed internet that is stable and consistent.

As a consultant – Our team stores documents in the cloud. We do project management in the cloud. Our help desk is in the cloud. Our training manuals/materials are in the cloud. Our email is in the cloud. Our mind mapping/thought management is in the cloud. We have online meetings and online training sessions. We remotely manage most of our clients so that we can work after hours. We support Matter Management applications in the cloud.

As a Lawyer. We store and backup documents in the cloud. Our collaboration is in the cloud as we are in different cities. Our Matter Management is in the cloud. Presently, we run the criminal business on Advologix. Being built on top of the Force.com platform we can do a lot with it, including scheduled reporting, anywhere access and take complete control over the interface.

The problem? Or a potential issue? Where is the data? It is not stored in Canada. It is in the North American cluster. NA7.

What does a Canadian Lawyer do when they want to use Matter Management in the cloud and have their data in Canada? Right now? There is no option. I looked into Clio and although it is located in Canada (British Columbia) there is no guarantee your data will reside in Canada.

With long ears, I hear there will be an option in the near future. If you are interested drop me a line and we can discuss or I can let you know when it will be announced.