I and others have been writing about Rocket Matter lately. Rocket Matter is a newly released web-based case management and time & billing program. Aaron Pelley gave a very in-depth review of the program on his blog Criminal Defense Law With an Apple.
Like many of you, I have been frustrated with the lack of law office specific case management software for the solo and small law firm. Oh, sure there is software out there. And some of it is great. And you have to mortgage the house and first born to afford it. Now there is an alternative. And let me tell you this. I have tried this new legal software and it is quite wonderful.
Most solos and small firms have embraced the use of web based technology the last few years. By taking advantage of this trend, Rocket Matter has developed a web-based practice management software. It is accessible from anywhere with Internet access. You can use it on a Mac, PC, iPhone, or even a Linux machine. You can log on and bill time from the office, home, or on the road.
The crew at Rocket Matter designed it to be as simple to use as possible. Your calendar, contact manager, matter manager, and time and billing software is rolled into one integrated, enjoyable product. You can generate invoices for all your billable matters with a single click of the mouse.
Their "Bill as you Work"™ technology captures your billable time as you go about your day. There is no need to total up hours at the end of the billing cycle or to figure out where your time went.
Getting started is easy. You don’t have to buy servers. You don’t have to pay someone to install Rocket Matter. You don’t even have to buy licenses. You only pay for the number of users you want, and that’s it. Best of all, you can save the likely $8000 you’d have to pay for a traditional practice management setup.
With Rocket Matter, you can sleep well, knowing you have daily backups and security managed for you automatically. And since Rocket Matter's servers are in a redundant, premier data center, you have an instant disaster-recovery plan.
I encourage all of you to explore this great new product further. Sign up for an exclusive invitation and view a preview of the product at RocketMatter. Subscribe to their Product Updates to follow Rocket Matter developments.
Could .Mac Move to Google? This has been a conversation I have been having with others as of late. And, isn’t someone from Google on the BOD of Apple? I for one am not shocked by this. And with the moves Google has made lately in web-based applications, perhaps Apple is setting itself up to actually take a bigger piece of the pie in that market with a relationship with Google.
All of this will be interesting to watch over the next few weeks and months. Stay toned.
Google Buys PowerPoint Solutions. This is interesting news to say the least. I for one really dislike PowerPoint. In my opinion, PowerPoint is built too much around the bullet point presentation which is awful. And it is usually the presenter that uses such presentation who reads it to you. Yawn!!!!
But, even better than getting rid of PowerPoint. Having Google in the picture means just one more reason to trash another Microsoft program off my Macbook. With Google's new presentation feature, we should see another cross-platform program that anyone can use no matter what operating system you use.
This will be fun to watch develop.
Rick Georges has posted about Ten Must-Have Web Sites for Solo Practitioners should have. Rick’s list is great and he ask for emails informing him about more so he can add to it.
All of the sites mentioned by Rick certainly add to our ability to be “Connected”. Using more of the Web 2.0 and other websites available also adds to our ability to not only stay “Connected”, but better serve our clients.
I plan to do a post soon about using Web 2.0 in your law office and will include as many additional websites I can find to add to Rick’s list.
A fellow Kansas Stater, Michael Wesch recently published a great video on YouTube about Web 2.0.
The five-minute clip, set to techno music, helps explain Web 2.0. As he points out, Web 2.0 is the so-called second wave of Web-based services that enables people to network and aggregate information online.
I will be posting more soon on how Web 2.0 can actually help a solo/home office lawyer be more productive and work with his own virtual staff.
There has been talk about this now for a couple of years.
Google has launched a program with a number of research libraries in the U.S. and the U.K. aimed at ultimately scanning all the books in their collections. The result of the multiple-year project would be an online digital library of what could number as many as 30 million volumes. The program will encompass books in and out of print, in copyright, and in the public domain—all available for full-text searching and, for the public domain items, full-image viewing. Participants in the program are the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Oxford University, as well as the New York Public Library (NYPL).
Information Today goes on to state Google’s primary goal aims at out-of-print material, whether public domain or in copyright. Google maintains that it is meeting library copyright standards. Participants will receive no financial compensation from Google, but the massive digitization project will also cost them nothing, according to involved librarians with whom I have spoken. Each library in the program will receive digital copies of the books it has contributed, which it can then use to enhance service to its own patrons.
The Library Boy reminds us there are two questions we may want to ask:
● for more and more people, if it's not on Google, it does not exist and the fear is that Google will decide to digitize works that will allow it to sell ads. What isn't digitized will disappear, at least from people's awareness
● if Google should ever go bankrupt, to whom will humanity's digitized heritage belong?
Like many, I use RSS feeds to get information to blog about. In addition to that, there are other uses that lawyers can use RSS feed for. Google Docs & Spreadsheets features RSS so you can be notified if someone updates a document you are working on with others.
I also use Basecamp in my own practice. Basecamp provides RSS feeds. However to protect your security, your RSS reader must support authentication or be password protected. Newsgator products provide both.
The future of RSS looks wonderful. But, how long will we have to wait before higher courts will provide case updates via RSS? How long before state legislatures will use RSS to update the public on updates in Bills that are in those houses? I hope it is soon.
One of my goals for 2007 was to start using Basecamp in my practice to work with clients in the management of their cases. Well, I did not wait until 2007. I started using it last night. So far the response from clients has been nothing but positive.
The Greatest American Lawyer has been using Basecamp for a while now in his own practice.
Through the technology we communicate with our virtual workers, assign tasks to specific cases and do most of what make us high-tech; however, Basecamp is a technology not meant to revolutionize the way that lawyers do their work, but to revolutionize the way in which any project of any kind is managed.
In my practice, Basecamp will be used to manage cases. Each client will have access to their own case. By using Basecamp, each client will have access to all the documents in their case. They will know when court dates and other important dates are. They can leave comments or questions about their case and they can keep up on the progress of their case. I see Basecamp as a way to keep the client more involved in the process of the case. In addition, it allows them to track their case.
I see no downside at all with using Basecamp in my practice. As I discover how to use Basecamp more, I will post updates regularly about my own experience with Basecamp. I know I have only touched the surface of what it can do. And if any of you are using it now, please post comments here as to how you are using it.
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