Gavel & Gown recently released an add-on to Outlook called “Credenza,” sometimes known as “Amicus Lite” or practice management software for people who don’t want to invest in practice management software. It is designed for up to 3 users (although that may be expanded a little) and costs $9.99 per user per month. So for 3 users, it would be $360 per year.
One of the central conceptual differences between Outlook and practice management software such as Amicus, Time Matters or Practice Master, is that Outlook is individual centric, whereas practice management software is matter-centric. In Outlook I see MY emails, calendar, tasks, etc. In practice management software all information is organized around the file or matter. I see all the emails, calendar items, tasks, etc. that are related to the matter, without regard to who has entered, sent or received them. This is obviously much more powerful than Outlook and you don’t have forward copies of emails, yell down the hall, etc. to find “missing” material.
Credenza is designed to overcome this problem by adding three modules to Outlook: Matters, Time sheets and Phone Messages. The Matters (or Files) module lets you link other pieces of Outlook to the Matter the way you would in a full-blown practice management system. Within the Matter you see tabs for Email, Time, Phone Messages, Appointments, Tasks, Notes, a Chron listing. You can even create a certain number of Custom Fields of various types (memo, number (but not currency), date, check box, drop-down lists). The options and structure of Credenza follow those of Amicus very closely, so a user wanting to upgrade to Amicus (as Gavel & Gown obviously hopes they will) would not have a major learning curve.
Links to your Outlook contact list, emails, etc. can be related to a given Matter. The functionality of Credenza is fairly limited. In particular, there are no links to billing and accounting packages (although you can export a list of time entries and then import it to a time & billing package) and no provisions for any document assembly (even simple things like fax cover sheets or retainer letters). However, many people use only a fraction of the functionality of Amicus, so this lack may not be perceived as a major issue.
Credenza adds two columns to the Outlook display: the name of the Matter with which a given email has been associated and whether or not a time entry has been made.
You can configure Credenza so that information from the various Outlook accounts are shared (with a current limit of 3 users) even if you are not using Exchange – which most firms with only 3 users would not be.
If you don’t what to invest significant time and money in a full-fledged practice management system, and if you are willing to live with (or even prefer) an essentially “out of the box” implementation, and if you have three or fewer users, Credenza may be worth taking a look at.
One of the central conceptual differences between Outlook and practice management software such as Amicus, Time Matters or Practice Master, is that Outlook is individual centric, whereas practice management software is matter-centric. In Outlook I see MY emails, calendar, tasks, etc. In practice management software all information is organized around the file or matter. I see all the emails, calendar items, tasks, etc. that are related to the matter, without regard to who has entered, sent or received them. This is obviously much more powerful than Outlook and you don’t have forward copies of emails, yell down the hall, etc. to find “missing” material.
Credenza is designed to overcome this problem by adding three modules to Outlook: Matters, Time sheets and Phone Messages. The Matters (or Files) module lets you link other pieces of Outlook to the Matter the way you would in a full-blown practice management system. Within the Matter you see tabs for Email, Time, Phone Messages, Appointments, Tasks, Notes, a Chron listing. You can even create a certain number of Custom Fields of various types (memo, number (but not currency), date, check box, drop-down lists). The options and structure of Credenza follow those of Amicus very closely, so a user wanting to upgrade to Amicus (as Gavel & Gown obviously hopes they will) would not have a major learning curve.
Links to your Outlook contact list, emails, etc. can be related to a given Matter. The functionality of Credenza is fairly limited. In particular, there are no links to billing and accounting packages (although you can export a list of time entries and then import it to a time & billing package) and no provisions for any document assembly (even simple things like fax cover sheets or retainer letters). However, many people use only a fraction of the functionality of Amicus, so this lack may not be perceived as a major issue.
Credenza adds two columns to the Outlook display: the name of the Matter with which a given email has been associated and whether or not a time entry has been made.
You can configure Credenza so that information from the various Outlook accounts are shared (with a current limit of 3 users) even if you are not using Exchange – which most firms with only 3 users would not be.
If you don’t what to invest significant time and money in a full-fledged practice management system, and if you are willing to live with (or even prefer) an essentially “out of the box” implementation, and if you have three or fewer users, Credenza may be worth taking a look at.
At current pricing, $300 per year, per person, for the team or pro product. But to answer an old comment / question, no you can't go backwards. Assuming your contacts and calendar have been synced to outlook, they would stay there; but your files can't be dumped into Credenza from AA Premium. (I'm using the SQL product for a two person office, and I'm trying to get away from SQl.)
FWIW, when I signed my three-year AMP contract (or whatever it's called -- all upgrades, releases, and unlimited tech support, in exchange for a 3 year enlistment) it came to $600 / year -- exactly what I would pay for my two-person office under the full support plan. So while it could be looked at as "po-tay-to v. po-tah-to" I can't go backwards, and I'm not re-entering all my files into CRedenza. Personally, I'll probably transfer them to PCLaw (fairly seamlessly) although if I were a solo start-up, this would be one of my top three choices....
Posted by: Fred Kruck | March 16, 2012 at 04:06 PM
With the new price of $24.95 per user, it would cost about $900.00 per year to use Credenza.
Posted by: searching for software | January 03, 2012 at 01:05 AM
It's great to have a cheap version of a premium suite. It makes it much more affordable for the attornies and the saving get passed on to the consumer.
At the same time, the software developer is still getting something - probably instead of nothing. It's a bit like Microsoft charging one price in the U.S. and a lower price in developing countries, or Adobe's student and teacher packages.
Posted by: make money online | July 18, 2011 at 05:14 PM
I'm thinking about getting a management software, we're, at the moment, a smell web business (4-5 people) but we might, hopefully, be growing.
Do you think this software can work for a growing business as well?
Posted by: forum widget | June 15, 2011 at 08:44 AM
Can I go backwards and export my amicus data into credenza?
Posted by: Rj Connelly iii | January 22, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Please tell me that this means improvements to Amicus SFE/Outlook sync are in the works!
Posted by: Michael J. Farley, Esq | May 24, 2010 at 06:50 PM