Does It Compute?

Amicus Mobile on Windows PDA

Gavel & Gown has announced Amicus Mobile, a miniature version of Amicus Attorney that runs on a Windows Mobile-based PDA.  I saw a demo of this product at the Amicus Consultants conference a month or so ago and it looks very impressive.

Amicus Mobile extends the concepts behind Blackberry push email to all areas, so that Amicus functions - calendar, contacts, emails, phone calls, time entries - synch up with the Amicus at the office in near-real time. So if a secretary adds an appointment to your calendar, it shows up on Amicus Mobile within a minute or two.

Similarly, Amicus Mobile keeps a record of all incoming and outgoing phone calls and offers to let you make a time entry for them on the spot (busy attorneys might want to make a “placeholder” time entry and flush out the details later).

The bottom line is that virtually all the functions that are available on your Amicus desktop at the office are available on Amicus Mobile. In addition, it will track changes when your cell phone is out of range and synchronize them later.

At $149 per user (and you only buy as many licenses as you have PDAs) is this too good to be true?  Well, it does have significant hardware requirements. You have to upgrade to Amicus Premium PE, which for older and smaller installations may necessitate a new server (Amicus is having a 25% off sale on the upgrade price for the month of June).  You need broadband access sufficient for the number of users (not usually a problem these days) plus a static IP address or a registered Web domain name. Lastly, it only runs on the clunky Windows Mobile 5 or better operating system (so you will have to ditch your Palm or Blackberry). But if those requirements aren’t burdensome for you, and if you are the type of person who is obsessive about staying connected with the office, this could be a very exciting product if it indeed performs as advertised.

Cheat Sheet for Amicus 2008 Small Firm Edition

I have just finished the Amicus 2008 Small Firm Edition Cheat Sheet.  As with other Cheat Sheets, this is not intended as a replacement for a manual.

It is intended to answer basic questions following training: “Oh, yes, he said something about that, now how do I do it?”

The Cheat Sheet can be downloaded from the Heckman Consulting web site list of cheat sheets or directly by clicking here.

Integration with Outlook

One of the major annoyances of practice management or other programs that integrate with Outlook is that when you send an email from the “other” program you do not have access to Outlook signatures. Since these are frequently fairly complex - graphics, endless disclaimers, etc., people find this a major annoyance. They do not want to have to take the extra couple of steps to manually insert the signature – and why should they have to?

One of the nice touches in Amicus PE 2008 is that email originating from Amicus can now access the Outlook signatures directly. This is the kind of small touch in the “ease of use” of a program that people really appreciate.

It’s too early to come to a definitive judgment about Amicus 2008, but this is the kind of small thing that is encouraging.

Amicus Attorney - In house Intranet

Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell’s new book on collaboration tools and technologies got me thinking. They talk about using Intranets for in-house collaboration. My first reaction was: “that’s way overkill except for the largest firms.”  But then it occurred to me: wait a minute, Amicus Attorney features the equivalent of a built-in Intranet, even if almost nobody uses it.

When you open Amicus, at the left of the “Dailies” page, there are customizable links to web pages - you can use it to link to the firm’s web page, to have the administrator put up important information, or for almost any other purpose.

This can let you link to your firm’s web page, internal documents, or other information. I had one client who used it to display all court appearances, for example.

A related function is the “Library” (also underused). This was originally designed to link to web pages. In this way it could serve as an organized repository for all the useful links that anybody in the firm uses. Since some users will obviously be more adept at Internet research than others, being able to store and organize these links can be a big time-saver. You can also use it to refer to firm documentation, HR manuals, practices and policies, or as a “brief bank” that lists links to the firm-standard forms, pleadings, contracts, retainers, etc.

Amicus 2008 PE Released

Gavel & Gown has announced the release of Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition, replacing Amicus 7.

As would be expected of a mature product, there are few “Wow” features - as in “Wow, I’ve wanted that for years.” There are, however, a couple of nice touches.
•    When creating new contacts, there is a “cut and paste” box - so if you paste, say, the signature block from an email into this, it parses the address into its parts - name, address, company, phone, fax, email, etc.  While you will obviously want to double check this, in my testing it works pretty well - and even with corrections can save a lot of time. It will not, however, accept .vcf files.
•    Another nice touch is the ability to see “tasks assigned to others by me.” So an attorney can track the progress being made by paralegals, assistants, etc.
•    The email integration has been improved to remedy some underlying design flaws. You can now see your unsaved emails, a major flaw in previous versions.

This last point is indicative of a number of other changes. Amicus 2008 has been rewritten for SQL 2005. While it no longer supports SQL Express or MSDE (or SQL 2000), the SQL licenses are included in the cost of the software - you no longer have to worry about paying extra for SQL licenses.

In addition a number of design flaws, oversights and “takeaways” in Version 7 in relation to Amicus V have been remedied. In fact, in my testing, virtually all the problems that clients were experiencing with Amicus 7 have been remedied. 

So I am recommending that Amicus 7 clients take advantage of the “March Madness” sale (25% off the upgrade price) and buy the upgrade, although unless you are currently experiencing extensive issues with 7, you may want to put off implementing until reports are in from people who like to live on the bleeding edge (the result of living on the cutting edge).

Posting Time to Amicus Attorney

Links between practice management programs and accounting programs have traditionally been somewhat iffy and limited. It is nice to see the very effective (although quite persnickety when you are setting it up) link between Amicus Attorney and Amicus Accounting. It does have one sneaking bump, however, that can be quite disconcerting if you are not prepared for it.

Accounting forces you to choose a default posting month. Although this seems like a good idea - it will cut down on data entry errors, entries to the wrong month or even year, it does bring with it one rather disconcerting side effect. If you are working in Accounting directly and try to post time outside the current month, it warns you but lets you ignore the working and do it anyway. 

However, if you are posting time from Attorney to Accounting you can ONLY post time in the current month, since the process hangs on the “warning” (which does not display) and the post will not go through.

This means that all time for the month MUST be posted by the last day of the month.  In a way, this is not such a bad thing, given how notorious attorneys are for not getting their time in on time. But it is certain to create confusion until people get used to it.

Amicus Accounting 2008 Released

Gavel & Gown has released Amicus Accounting 2008, the companion piece to Amicus Attorney Small Firm 2008.  When Amicus Accounting was first released over a year ago, it was a rough, quirky product that essentially demanded that users conform their firm standards to its needs (in particular it changed all a firm’s client matter numbers).

The new release not only has a significant improvement in the interface (I never could find anything on the first try in the old version), but has ironed out the bugs and rough spots.  It now includes integration with Payroll provider CompletePayroll; the ability to change client and matter numbers; simplified trust transfers (it used to take several steps); the ability to bill multiple clients and apply receipts to multiple invoices and last but not least Trust balances no longer appear as negative (which drove people nuts).

Although it is still limited by its FoxPro origins, Amicus Accounting 2008 is now a perfectly reasonable choice for small firms already using or adopting Amicus Attorney. The new version has unbundled Amicus Accounting from Amicus Small Firm, so that they are now purchased separately.

Amicus Accounting 2008 will integrate extremely well with Amicus Attorney 2008

Amicus Attorney 2008 released

Gavel & Gown has just released Amicus Attorney 2008 and Amicus Accounting 2008. These are upgrades for Amicus V, V+ and Small Firm.

They feature an overhauled interface with a “left pane” menu similar to Amicus 7, Outlook and a number of other programs. This makes more in line with many newer programs.

From a feature point of view, the new Tasks (ToDos) module greatly simplifies managing, organizing and tracking your ToDos (renamed Tasks in line with Outlook). 

In addition, there are a number of improvements in the Outlook link, incorporating some of the features previously only available in the higher-end Client/Server version.

Overall, this upgrade puts the older version of Amicus on a good footing to go forward - and through the end of September the upgrade price is 30% off, so the upgrade is not expensive. 

Timer Functions in Time Matters, PCLaw and Amicus

Most practice management programs include a timer function. This is very convenient since it allows you to record time accurately for phone calls, emails, the time spent drafting a document, and so on. The functionality available for these functions varies widely among the three main products of this time that I support, namely Amicus Attorney, Time Matters and PCLaw.

Time Matters includes a very primitive timer. Hit Alt-F10 (or View | Timer Control) and the timer pops up. Click the little green plus, type in a description and the timer is off and running. To add a second timer, click the green plus again. However, the timer suffers from two serious weaknesses. First, if you want to switch between timed items - for example if you are working on a document and get a phone call, you want to start a second timer for the phone call - you have to manually stop the first timer and start the second timer.  The timer lets two events run at the same time (sometimes known as “double billing”). The second weakness is that there is no way to associate the timer with a matter. If you want to transfer the time to a matter, you have to write it down, and create a separate billing slip.  So the timer is ok for “quick and dirty” things, but not very sophisticated.

The PCLaw timer is has much better functionality. You start the timer (Ctrl-Q) and fill out the matter number, the description for the work you are doing and any other relevant information. Click “New” to start a second timer - the first timer will stop automatically. When you are finished, click “Save” and your time entry has been recorded. No second step. The main drawback to the PCLaw timer is that it is takes up a great deal of screen space and is very obtrusive. In addition, you cannot easily “stack” the screens because the title bar of the Window, instead of displaying the name of the matter, just displays a generic PCLaw title. So if you try to stack multiple screens you have no idea which one is which.

By far the most elegant and useful timer is in Amicus Attorney. First, it is easily accessible from the Amicus “ribbon bar.” Click the “Information” button, select the matter and you are off and running. To start a second instance, click the blue Amicus “timesheet” icon and select the matter. Amicus automatically stops the first timer when you start a second one. A drop-down list shows all the timers running and makes it easy to switch back and forth. When you are done, click the “Information” icon for the entry you wish to save and the Time Entry screen pops up, all filled in. Make any adjustments to the description or time, hit OK, and your time entry is done.

Many of my clients who use Amicus use the timer. I even have one client who starts the timer before he picks up the phone to make a call! Few, if any, use the PCLaw or Time Matters timers.

Favorites in Amicus Attorney 7.1

One of the features in the new Amicus Attorney 7.1 that can be quite useful is the "Favorites" folder. Obviously modeled on a web browser "Favorites" or "Bookmark" it can be implemented from the Files or People modules.

For example, if you are working intensively on a file, simply right-click on the file and select "Add to Favorites."  The same goes for contacts ("people"). It would be nice to be add other features such as a given calendar view, but that option is not available at present.

Nevertheless, you can create a list of your currently most active contacts and files. The real beauty of this system, however, is that you can just as easily remove an item from your Favorites. Right-click on the item and select "Remove."  This means that the "Favorites" screen can contain a ROLLING LIST of your currently most active items. So that when a case or deal closes, you can simply remove those items from your list.