Does It Compute?

Workflow Issues When Scanning

As scanning becomes more and more prevalent, there are a significant number of workflow issues that need to be addressed.

The first is the issue of large-volume vs. desktop scanners.  Copier companies are increasing selling scanning modules. These are very fast, and ideal for large volumes, but they suffer from two defects. First, they are inefficient for small volumes, since the user has to get up from their desk, go to the scanner/copier, reset it, scan (usually to the network, sometimes emailing the scan to themselves), then reset it back to copying, return to their desk, retrieve the document and save it.

The second issue is that while these modules claim to produce “PDF”s in fact they are producing image-only PDFs, which cannot be text searched. Therefore a second piece of software is usually required to OCR the PDFs so that they are text searchable.

There is software available that will considerably automate this process. Various software - from DocsCorp (pdfDocs), OmniPage and Abbyy, have the ability to use a “watch” folder to automatically perform the OCR process. In this case the document is scanned and saved to the “watch” directory on the network. The software then launches automatically and OCRs the PDF. The user is still left with the chore of retrieving the document and saving to a document management system or to some other specified location.

pdfDocs takes this process one step further. If you are using Worldox, it will pick up the document and save it to a Worldox profile. The next version (2.0), which should be out shortly,  will also have the option to delete the document once it is saved to Worldox. This represents a substantial improvement in the workflow process.

For firms that use the eCopy cost recovery software (which enables a firm to charge back the cost of copies or scans to the client), there is a Worldox module that bypasses the entire process: when you scan the document, the Worldox profile pops up and the document is saved directly to Worldox. While this module is not inexpensive, it is by far the most elegant solution to the problem.

For smaller volumes, a desktop scanner is more appropriate because the amount of “extra” time taken to scan a document is more than offset by not having to run around to the copier/scanner. In many cases, the desktop scanners will also produce searchable PDFs.

Worlflow issues - email

The dramatic increase in both scanning and email has led to a number of workflow issues that are still unresolved in most firms.

For email, the problem is simple: volume. Many firms use email for simple transmittal queries or assignments: “where do things stand on the Jones case?” “Please get the adjournment request out immediately.”

The result is that many people get hundreds of emails a day, many, if not most, of which are what I call “transmittal” emails with have very little substance.  Practice management products such as Time Matters or Amicus typically include what amounts to an in-house Instant Messaging client for this purpose. However, these are frequently not used in an optimal fashion (which is doubly confusing when you consider the number of people who keep an IM window open on their computer during business hours).

Just dealing with the volume is the first issue; organizing the emails is the second major issue that firms face.  The problem that firms face is that Outlook is a “person-centric” program: your emails are “your” emails and unless the firm adopts an elaborate system of public folders, email is not organized by client, but by individual attorney.

Half-way house programs such as Outlook4Lawyers try to get around this problem by making Outlook a little more efficient - but they still involve printing out and filing paper copies of the emails.

Document management systems such as Worldox resolve this problem by letting (or forcing) you to save emails to a given client/matter. This means that everyone working on a given matter can see all the emails about that matter regardless of who sent or received them.  Emails are also searchable (and MUCH faster than in Outlook). It also has the side benefit of relieving the burden on your Outlook/Exchange system.

The final step in resolving workflow is to create a set of norms for who stores the emails received. For example, a policy that the person sending the email (if it is going in-house) should save the email in the document management system, while the person receiving it should simply delete it (unless of course they need to reply). These rules will vary according to a firm’s needs, but are critical in properly managing email.

Stay tune tomorrow for some of the workflow issues scanning generates.

How Fast is your Internet Connection, Really?

How often do you say to yourself “gee, my Internet connection is really slow today.”  There is a great little utility available from Ziff-Davis called “Surfspeed” that lets you put numbers to that feeling. 

It accesses 10 commonly used web sites and measures your actual throughput. This provides a much more meaningful measure than the “speed” registered in downloads. You can also add items - for example your own web site - to be included in the test.  I use this at least once a week.

Paragraph Numbering in Word

A while ago I listed some of the major makers of macro packages for Word (see the July 9 blog). However, in many cases, smaller firms just want something to fix one of Word’s most annoying and hard to use features: paragraph numbering. As usual, if you are willing to follow the dictates of software according to Bill, no problem. But law firms frequent demand very specific paragraph numbering schemes.

There are two dedicated paragraph numbering packages that come to mind.

The first is Numbering Assistant, from the Payne Consulting Groups.  This includes 28 pre-defined schemes typically used by law firms, and Payne Consulting will add additional styles as part of an annual maintenance agreement which provides for 5 hours of development support.

The second is Numbering 2000 from Legal MacPac.  This is a custom-written package based on paragraph numbering schemes submitted by a firm.

Note that in both cases it is the software maker who actually creates the numbering schemes - a tribute (so to speak) to the advanced knowledge it takes to create advanced outline features in Word.

Worldox Cheat Sheet Update

I have updated my Cheat Sheet for Worldox GX to include some new features implemented in Worldox GX SR1. In particular, the Cheat Sheet now covers relating documents, creating “Projects” of grouped documents that belong together - all the documents for a closing, for a filing, etc. 

I have also added instructions for creating “Drag & Drop” folders in Outlook to simplify the process of moving emails to Worldox.

Check it out on my web site.

PCLaw 9 Bill Flow Manager

The PCLaw 9 Bill Flow Manager can be extremely useful, but it depends on one critical fact: that attorneys will be willing to review billing information electronically, on the computer screen, rather than by marking up a piece of paper. That condition may apply to only a quarter or less of firms.

However, if you can convince attorneys to use it, this is a really slick function.  You select a set of bills - for example, all the bills to be reviewed by a particular attorney. Then the attorney can call up that set of bills, review the time for each bill (again, on the screen), and move the bill to "review", "pre-bill," etc.  When you are done, you can print all the final bills, which moves the bill status to "final."

The next month, you select the same set of bills, change the date to the end of the next month (e.g., 9/30 as opposed to 8/31) and the set of bills updates.

This is a new function and somewhat rough around the edges. The most non-intuitive piece is that to move a bill from one status to another, you have to right-click on it and select "change." If you click the "change" button on the right-hand side, you do not get this option.

Women and IT

The world of IT and consulting is still heavily male-dominated. So it is worth recalling (once again) Mark Twain on the subject of women:

The people furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart ... No civilization can be perfect until exact equality between man and woman is included.
        Mark Twain, Notebook, 1895

This idea goes back to the French Utopian Socialist Charles Fourier, who in 1808 wrote:

“...the most corrupt nations have always been those in which women were most completely subjugated... As a general thesis: Social progress and historic changes occur by virtue of the progress of women toward liberty, and decadence of the social order occurs as the result of a decrease in the liberty of women....In summary, the extension of women's privileges is the general principle for all social progress.

PCLaw 9 Released

‘Tis the season ... of new software releases. PCLaw 9 has just been released - aka “Lexis Nexis Back Office Powered by PCLaw 9" or LNBOPBPCL9. Now there’s a catchy anagram for you!

As has recently been the case with Lexis products, the release is generally incremental (equivalent to about PCLaw 8.5), although PCLaw clients who are on maintenance contracts get the upgrade free, so that doesn’t really matter.

However, there are several major additions and improvements are worth the price of entry for firms that need those features.

1.  PCLaw now has an arrangement with Payment Processing, Inc. (PPI) a major credit card processing house to integrate credit card functionality in PCLaw at no additional cost. This means that using PCLaw lets you easily accept and process credit cards. Previously, it was very laborious since the full amount of the credit card had to be entered into the trust account, even though the firm payment had the credit card percentage deducted. This will be a tremendous advantage to small firms that need to accept credit cards.

2.  Lexis has also teamed up with ADP for payroll processing. This will replace the integrated PCLaw payroll module, which was old and somewhat clunky. Support for the old module will cease on January 1, 2008 (that is, there will not be any 2008 tax modules).

3.  There are two significant improvements in terms of billing. First, you now have the ability to define memo fields to print on bills or pre-bills, as well as the ability to override those fields on the fly. This is an option that has long been available in Quickbooks, for example.

4.  In addition, you can now define a group of clients to bill at once via the “Bill Flow Manager” (terminology borrowed from Billing Matters).  This lets you, for example, define a set of bills that a given attorney is responsible for and the attorney can review them prior to printing them - as opposed to manually marking them up and having somebody else make the changes.

Among the minor improvements, the bank reconciliation statement has been significantly improved.

As usual, it would be prudent to wait a month or so before upgrading to LNBOPBPCL9 (the software formerly known as PCLaw). I installed the new version yesterday.  Keep tuned for more information about how some of the new features work.

The Devolution of Word

Word 2007 reminds me of Henry Ford’s famous comment: you can buy my cars in any color you like, as long as it’s black.

Word 2007 has become dramatically more difficult to customize, ostensibly in the name of “ease of use.”  You have a choice between the new “ribbon” and.... the new “ribbon.”  Predictably, this has spawned yet another cottage industry that serves to correct the shortcomings of Microsoft products.  In this case, there are two products you might want to check out:

The RibbonCustomizer lets you easily customize the Ribbon, which lets you easily gain access to features on the top-line menu in Office 2003 but are not included in the Ribbon.  You can also restore the entire Office 2003 menu and default toolbars, which can be assigned to a new tab and can be accessed using the keyboard.  Available for $29.95 at www.pschmid.net.

If you simply want to get rid of the Ribbon entirely and restore the Office 2003 menus and button bars, check out addintools. $29.95 for the suite or 15.99 for individual programs.

Answers to Questions

Aside from giving me an excuse to rant about topics near and dear to me, one of the main purposes of this blog is to provide a service to users of the main programs I address.  The blog’s reporting services have indicated that there have been a number of queries that seem to be looking for information about issues that have not been addressed directly.

Therefore I would like to encourage readers to submit questions about specific functions or general issues that they would like to get information/answers to and I will attempt to respond to them. Since a given question is rarely relevant to only a single person, dealing with them in the blog would seem to be useful.