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.

Just back from this year’s Time Matters and PCLaw conference. My thoughts summed up. There are indicators that the future will bring some innovation and some updates and fixes to the applications. These are needed and a positive sign in the market.

The Time Matters exchange synchronization will support Exchange 2010 in the near future. It has been re-written. Let’s hope they have improved the logging of the application and deal with meeting requests in an affective manner. We all know meeting requests and the current Time Matters Exchange synchronization do not mix. If you are using them….read my previous blogs.

The PCLaw to Time Matters link is undergoing a re-fresh. In the future we will see an expanded and a reasoned approach. Sorry…nothing to add or change to it today, although with the release of PCLaw 11 the link now runs as a service and is not a process.

Once we have the products in hand..more will come.

If you have not upgraded to Time Matters 11 or PCLaw 11 or you have to renew your AMP in the near future, contact me and we can work on them together. Lexis has given consultants some incentive to assist in the upgrades and AMP that will benefit customers.

The 7 Second System has guaranteed training from its inception. We use a variety of mediums including onsite support, online meetings, help videos and manuals. We have added an integrated help system to Time Matters and also to all of the Speed Matters products. For existing clients we are making our way to everyone and updating your powerviews to include the help system.

We are also working on a help desk software implementation. We all receive so much email that it is difficult to ensure we have fixed your questions to your satisfaction when there are multiple consultants working on the implementation. In keeping with the one stop shopping approach we are implementing this help desk solution. It will allow you (and any of your users) to submit help desk tickets. Our team will monitor these tickets, utilize our best resources and be more responsive. We will also allow you to track all of your tickets for your firm regardless of who has submitted. Hang tight for our release.

For now, we have opened up some of the training resources for everyone to see. Take a look:

7 Second Training

We all know the love hate relationship that we have with the Time Matters – PCLaw link. Let’s just start with what we all know…if you are on an old version of Time Matters or PClaw (pre-version 9), I recommend that you upgrade. If that is not your cup of tea…contact us and we can discuss some of the issues that you need to understand.

Time Matters has fixed one huge issue with time entry. The description field in Time Matters was limited to 100 characters. Why was that a big deal? It made the Worksheet useless if your are verbose…and for those of you using it before the SR for 9… be careful.  Now we can enter long descriptions in Time Matters and send those to PCLaw.

Wait there is more!!!

They have updated the PCLaw worksheet to allow easier time entry and they have made it even easier to post that time to PCLaw. It acts similar to the Amicus to PCLaw link of years ago with some extra features. Users will like it. This feature alone may be worth the upgrade and adding AMP. 

Enter your time on the worksheet and watch the Matter summary information update. You can see the AR, the WIP etc for that matter in real time from PCLaw. (Note this does not include any time that has not been posted. ) When you are ready….post the time to PCLaw from the worksheet. You can also make time entries in other places in Time Matters and they show up in the worksheet….so capture the billing for all of those emails. Check out the demo video:

Clients and potential clients often ask me what they should expect when working with us, whether we are your

• Time Matters consultants
• PCLaw consultants
• HotDocs consultants
• Integration consultants

First and foremost we have to manage the project. As we look back over our years of implementations, an issues that we have typically stem from communication gaps. Email is not an effective communication tool when it comes to managing projects. Many times, emails are partially read or information is split across multiple emails.

We implement an online project management system where we track:

• Key Dates – called milestones
• Tasks – who is assigned the task and the current status
• Meeting notes
• Documents – we will upload your quote and key documents

Here is an overview video of our project management system:

New sales of PCLaw Pro now ship as a SQL version. In Ontario, most PCLaw Pro firms have been using the product for many years before the SQL version existed. As we receive new versions and new product keys, the option of SQL is there.

Should you use the SQL version?
An interesting question as usual. Moving to SQL does not mean a faster application in everyway. In theory the SQL data should be better protected and have better integrity. End users cannot navigate to the data folder and delete portions of the database.  To end, we have many Pro firms that use the non SQL version and have no issues and no added SQL expense, although you can use the free version of SQL.

Is it difficult?
No it is rather easy assuming you have SQL installed and have connectivity from the workstations. I upgraded my data and here is the video:

If you take a look at the TD Commercial banking site -( http://www.tdcommercialbanking.com/cashmgmt/cheque_fraud_protection.jsp), you will see they offer a Cheque Fraud Protection program.

We have developed a system for PClaw to offer an integration with this system. We support the positive pay with payee match. It is an application called CFP Converter. In essence we take your cheque information, do the calculations and formatting and prepare the files for you to upload to your Bank.  We support TD in production at present with other options in the near future. Let us know if you have banking requirements beyond TD.

Having a healthy client base in Ontario and Toronto, I deal with the Time Matters PCLaw link on a daily basis. I was exposed to PCLaw for the first time in 1995, Time Matters 1999. The first good sized firm that I linked was in 2002..there was 30-40 users. That was tough…there was many things we had to monitor and keep straight. When I was contacted by management at Lexis (well before PCLaw was acquired) to discuss the acquisition and the potential value statement to the end user….I worked hard to stress how important the link was and would become. My words were wasted.

Today…it is a different story. The link was been re-worked, re-thought out and changed over time. With the release of version 10 of both Time Matters and PCLaw, I can say that I may start promoting time entry in Time Matters to be sent to PCLaw. Wait I am getting ahead of myself.

Do the progams link?

The link has a lot of history. Today, the philosophy is that the link is real time. This means the second a change is saved in one application it is sent to the other. This is great, but can be troublesome. See below.  There is no need to manually run a synchronization between the programs. We used to do this in Time Matters (File Synchronize).

Yes they link – it is a real time link

What is the scope of that link?

Contacts and Matters flow both ways between the programs
Billing entries can go from Time Matters to PCLaw (but changes do not come back)
PCLaw reports can be viewed in Time Matters

What does this mean?

You do not have to open a matter two times.  BUT you do have to enter the appropriate information in each application for it to function properly.  PCLaw needs to know the billing details, rates, bill templates, Responsible lawyer etc.. Time Matters needs to know the proper MatterRef, the staff working on the matter and the related records – People on the Matter, key dates etc..  This detail is not shared between the programs so you have to complete the matter opening in each application.

IF you are on the latest release of Time Matters 9 (SR-3b) you can send time from Time Matters to PCLaw. If you are on a previos version, I do not recommend entering time in Time Matters especially through the timesheet.

You can view various PCLaw reports from Time Matters. An example you can open a matter in Time Matters, click the billing tab and run a time listing report for that matter. This is necessary as any edits to billing entries made in PCLaw do not make their way back to Time Matters. The billing list in Time Matters may not be accurate.  These are watered down PCLaw reports as you do not have access to any of the options.

So there is a link – now what?

You have to take a look at your data and decide the best approach to the link. I will go into this in more depth in another post.   But you should look at :

• Are there matters in Time Matters
• Are there matters in PCLaw
• Have you been prudent in closing matters in PCLaw?
• Do you use client addresses or billing addresses or both?
• Do you have duplicate clients in PCLaw?
• What is your re:line? Is that an appropriate MatterRef in Time Matters

I understand my data, now what?

Now you have to configure then activate the link.  I will go into greater depth in another post but for now:

1. Do NOT accept the shipping defaults for the link matching. Review each tab and template carefully.
2. Make sure PCLaw and Time Matters is installed on every workstation that uses either program.  If you have a billing person that does not use Time Matters, but opens matters in PCLaw…they need Time Matters on their desktop (and a log on) so the link can open the matter in Time Matters.

Hopefully this is a start. This is an expansive area with many things to consider. More posts to come…