As readers of my blog know, I have for years been recommending that firms NOT opt for the annual maintenance plans from Amicus or Lexis (which now gives you no choice however). There are several reasons for this.
First, the “annual releases” tend to be increasingly incremental and buggy, so that there are fewer reasons to upgrade and some not to. Thus Amicus Premium 2012 was released in January/February 2012. Service Pack 1 was released in April. Three days later, there were bugs discovered in SP1 and it had to be re-released. Gavel & Gown is not alone: LexisNexis is still the leader (if that is the appropriate term) in offering the worst updates/patches.
Second, the AMPs are simply more expensive than buying normal tech support (which Amicus to its credit still offers, although Lexis does not) and then upgrading every third year, which is a more rational path in any event. This is especially true since firms typically support the current release and two previous ones. Thus Amicus will be stopping support for the 2009 version, and support only 2010, 2011 and 2012. For economic reasons, this is basically their only choice. Firms that insist on refusing to update really old software are just asking for trouble.
The reasonable question then arises: OK, I’ll upgrade from my Amicus 2009 to 2012. What new functionality/improvements will I be getting? Here is a list of what are in my opinion are the most significant improvements in the respective version (the list is not exhaustive). In particular I tend to give less importance to cosmetic improvements than substantive improvements.
Amicus Premium Edition 2010
• You can now track the history of adjournments of court dates or other appointments. This can be very important. The old appointment is still show but with “Adjourned to DATE” pre-pended to the title.
• You can now allow other firm members access to your calendar. This resolves the issue where for years attorneys had secretaries log into their office to see their appointments, or simply making the two calendar lists identical.
• New File Intake form. This lets you specify what information must be included when opening a new file. This is much more flexible and efficient than the old de minimus form.
• Firm member availability. You can now see who is in the office, out of the office, expected back, etc. Of course, for this to work, someone has to manually enter that information. However, this would be a reasonable job for a receptionist.
• Business Cards and cover letters. You can now easily generate a letter or envelope for a contact by clicking on the corresponding icon to the left of their business card display. Very convenient.
Amicus Premium Edition 2011
• New Time Entry Assistant. This lets you identify and select any items - appointments, notes, phone calls, etc. that have not been billed and bill them. You can also view your time entries for the day directly from the calendar. Another way to stop things from dropping through the cracks.
• As screen resolutions have gotten larger, the apparent size of type has shrunk and many people have problems reading some of the information. Multi-line text fields are now displayed in larger type. People with old eyes, like me, will appreciate this.
• Outlook link enhancements (on the other hand, virtually every version advertises this, so your mileage may vary)
• Much improved Worldox integration (lets you search by document type as well as client/matter)
• An Amicus toolbar is now available from within Acrobat, which facilitates some functions.
• Use of the SQL reporting services, introduced in 2011, is a mixed bag and initially just didn’t work very well (those pesky yearly updates)
• Additional options are available for the File view (although it is still not totally customizable).
Amicus Premium Edition 2012
• Amicus touts the “new documents module.” However, it is still not adequate for significant numbers of documents. Anybody using Premium would be better off adopting Worldox for document management.
• Amicus now links with Google Contacts and Calendar, which can be very useful for anyone using Google Sync with a mobile device. However, you cannot have both a Google Sync and an Outlook Link. You have to choose one or the other.
• The contacts referral function has been strengthened to make it more useful.
• You can send a phone message via email and there is better tracking of return Phone Calls.
While the upgrades for each version are incremental, together they make the jump from 2009 to 2012 worthwhile – even leaving out the fact that 2009 will be sunsetted and support will no longer be available.
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