Does It Compute?

Hardware Guys and Software Guys

0131   Hardware guys and Softwrae Guys

Faced with a recognition that they need to upgrade their systems and work processes, small firms frequently have a tendency to start with hardware.  This is easy because hardware is relatively well-defined.  However, it puts the cart before the horse. Ross Kodner has a recent post that spells this out in great detail.

Ross distinguishes between classical IT (or Hardware Guys) and what he terms “Legal Technology” – “LT” (or Software Guys). The place to start in revamping a system is with the firm’s work flow. When asked about updating a system, one of the questions I ask is “what are the 5 things you hate most about your current system?”  Those are this issues you want to address. The obverse, “what are the 5 things you like most about your current system?” are the things you don’t want to lose in the process.

After defining the way you need to organize your work flow, then you need to figure out what software will accomplish that – what Ross calls “Legal Technology.” The last thing to address is what hardware you need to support the software. In designing any system, the only way you can know what you want to put into it is to figure out what you want to get out of it.  All too often, the traditional IT guys view end users as a disruptive inconvenience to the smooth functioning of their system.  I was again struck by this the other day when I noticed that when I plugged a USB mouse into my laptop and a small message popped up: “Human Interface Device Detected.” 

The perils of starting with machinery have been chronicled at great length by the science fiction sub-genre started by Karel Capek’s invention of the term “Robot” 90 years ago and which continues today in Terminator plots: man invents machines; machines become intelligent and attack man. 

So, always start with the human interface.

Support Maintenance Contracts

Every so often a client asks me about maintenance contracts.  This is a bit like leasing a car or hardware.

A maintenance contract guarantees a firm a fixed price for services. However, the price quoted is generally 20% or so above what the actual estimate of time required is. So if everything goes smoothly, the consultant comes out ahead; if things are rough, the firm comes out ahead.

In addition, when setting up a maintenance contract, it is critical to define exactly what is considered “maintenance.” Obviously an entirely new project, introducing software or technology that has not been used before is not “maintenance.”

Also, from a consultant’s point of view, you want to agree on a maintenance contract only after the site is running smoothly and you have a good idea of the time required to maintain it - typically 3-6 months after an initial installation.

An alternative, which I personally prefer, is to offer a block of hours at a discount in return for payment up front. This ways, both sides know that there will be no surprises. In some cases you want to set a time limit after which the unused hours “expire.”

LED Floodlight

I recently got a motion sensor drive outside floodlight. If you put it (for example) over your door, it comes on only when someone is approaching. It is battery-driven, so it is not always on, wasting power. The maker claims the 4 C-batteries will last a year.

We had to adjust the direction of the motion sensor to avoid “false positives” – cars passing by, etc.  If you live in the country there may also be an issue with animals setting it off.

But for now, it works extremely well. From www.solutions.com - $29.95.

Heckman's Laws - Redux

Last June, shortly after I started this blog, I set out several of what I call “Heckman’s Laws.” One of them states:

Any time you start a sentence about a computer program with "you would think that....," or "why don't they....", you know you are in deep trouble.

This struck home again when I was configuring a client that uses Practice Master (v. 14.2) to link with Worldox. The link is very smooth and quick. To see the documents in Worldox you click an entry that says “See your Worldox documents.”  Practice Master, like many programs, divides different areas with tabs across the top: Calendar, Notes, Documents, etc. 

“You would think that...” the Worldox link would work under the documents tab. Instead, it works on almost all the other tabs but NOT under the documents tab (confirmed by tech support).  Go figure.

Document Management as a Centralizing Force

Document management programs manage your documents.  Yawn. What else is new? 

One factor that many, even most, firms do not pay sufficient attention to is the ability of a document management program to act as a centralizing and organizing force that can result in a higher quality of documents produced.

It is not unusual to go into a firm and find that different attorneys use different versions of standard forms, letters, provisions in standard motions, etc.  Sometimes different attorneys even use different fonts for correspondence.  Why is this?  In some cases it is because the firm is dysfunctional to a greater or lesser degree and is really just a collection of attorneys who have banded together for convenience.  In most cases however, it is just laziness and the general tendency to become increasingly disorganized as time goes on.

In principle, however, it should be possible to determine the “best version” or “best language” for a given function.  So when there are multiple versions of what is essentially the same document, a document management program greatly simplifies the task of identifying them, putting together the best version and saving them into a forms bank or brief bank.

This not only leads to better and more standard output, but it is a great tool for training new attorneys: “this is the language we use for this motion,” etc. The time spent identifying and codifying the “best version” will be well-spent.

State of Legal Technology

Ross Kodner recently published a “state of legal technology” on his blog which is worth looking at. It was also picked up and republished by Technolawyer.

By and large I agree with Ross, although I am far less enthusiastic about Word 2007. There is a very steep learning curve, and although many things are easier, complex things (especially adjusting settings) are buried even deeper than they were. I have found the “Classic Menu” from Addintools  to be a lifesaver. This little program inserts an item called “Menu” in the Ribbon bar, which contains the default toolbars and icons from Office 2003.  The beauty of this is that I can learn the new setup at my own pace and if I am in a hurry to get something out, I can work at my own pace.

His rant about Vista also included one piece of information I didn’t know - if you put 4GB of ram on a Vista machine (which is needed for optimum performance of what is a dog-slow operating system), many times Vista only reports 3GB of memory!

Numbering Invoices by Year in PCLaw

Some firms may want to number their invoices by year in PCLaw. With some limitations, this is possible.

At the beginning of the year, create your first invoice. In the “invoice number” field, type in the invoice number you wish to start with, such as 080001. PCLaw will ask if you wish to use this as a starting number for subsequent invoices.  Say yes.

Note that there are some limitations: you only have 6 characters and you cannot use non-numeric characters. So 2008-001 will not work, but 080001 will work.

Every Installation a Snowflake?

“Every installation is a snowflake - unique.”  In a literal sense, this is of course true - every installation has tweaks and details that are unique.  However, underlying this uniqueness there is a structure and archetypal categories that, when understood, make it easier to get to the final “tweaking point” needed to round out a good installation.

Take document management.  When you implement a document management system, it is important to see how a firm organizes its currently existing documents.  If documents are organized in some fashion by client, it makes it much easier for users to understand the principles of a document management system.  If, however, each user organizes their “own” documents in their own way - and each one has their own system of categories with perhaps several dozen sub-directories, then it is much harder to accept the centralizing principles of document management.

Document management also serves as a centralizing force.  Thus it is to a firm’s advantage to have consistent form letters. But in the model above, if each user is responsible for their “own” documents, a larger firm can have literally a dozen or so versions of the “same” form letter.  This is not only inefficient but reflects badly on the firm.

I plan to develop on these ideas in a longer essay in the near future.

Frederick Douglass and ML King

As Martin Luther King day approaches, it is worth recalling Frederick Douglass:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.”

This is also the slogan of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union in New York City.

Time Matters and the Perils of Inheritance

Time Matters has featured what it calls “inheritance,” namely when you create a type of record based on another record, certain information is “inherited.”  Thus if you create a billing record based on an appointment, or on a given matter record, some of your fields are already filled in.

This is generally speaking a very convenient feature, but there is a significant glitch that has affected versions of Time Matters prior to version 9 (where it was fixed). That is, if you create a billing record based on a Matter record, the “staff” that is inherited is not the person creating the record (as it is elsewhere), but the attorney assigned to the matter. In many cases, therefore, this information will have to be changed.  And since people are used to having their own information filled in automatically, this is a door wide open to error - your time will be credited not to you, but to the responsible attorney for the case.

There is a workaround that may work for you, depending on how you have Time Matters configured.  Create an alternative field that will contain the Responsible Attorney information and empty out the Staff field. Set security so that you cannot enter information in this field. Then, when you create a billing slip, the information of the person creating the slip will be filled in automatically.

You will have to make other adjustments - to column displays, reports, possibly formattable clipboard, and so on, so you should through all the ramifications for your system before implementing it. However, it can in some cases plug a significant hole.