Technology Connections - Spring 2010
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Welcome to this edition of Technology Connections, an e-newsletter designed to educate you about technology issues in the legal industry. Take a look at our upcoming events - we are holding over 75 courses throughout 2010! And I think you'll learn some helpful insights after perusing the articles about productivity, smartphones, and virtualization. |
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| 5 Simple Ways to be More Productive |
| By: Jennifer M. Ramovs, Esq. |
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2) Outlook options - Use the Auto Preview option or the Reading Pane so you can see the first few lines of an email without having to open it completely. This will help you gage whether it needs your immediate attention.
3) Turn off email alerts. De-activate the 4 bells and whistles that go off when you receive an email. These are distracting and most people do not have the willpower to ignore the notification until they are done with the task at hand. The message will be there when you are ready for it. From OUTLOOK, go to TOOLS > OPTIONS > EMAIL OPTIONS > ADVANCED OPTIONS.
4) Use dual monitors. Dual monitors dramatically reduce time spent toggling between multiple programs. They also enable you to easily review full documents on the screen, rather than printing them. “I can't think of a single desktop hardware upgrade that could pay for itself faster than adding a second monitor.” says Tom Mainelli, PCWorld.
5) Use a wireless headset. Headsets free your hands to write notes, create to-dos, appointments, and move around the office while on the phone. Not holding a receiver reduces muscle tension, resulting in a more relaxed user!
| New Releases: Time Matters 10 and Amicus Attorney 2010 |
Amicus Attorney 2010: The most significant changes in the latest version of Amicus are in the Calendar. You now have color coded appointments and to-do’s and the ability to select individuals to access your appointments – regardless of which file they’re assigned to. Gavel & Gown also created “progressive priority levels” meaning as a task nears its deadline, the priority level automatically increases. For a complete list of new features, click here.
For a demonstration of Time Matters 10 or Amicus 2010, please contact Katie McEowen.
| Why Should I Pay for a Maintenance Plan? |
While Maintenance Plans include technical support from the manufacturer, much more is included. The world of software is complex and constantly changing. Changes in operating systems and other integrated software products happen all the time (e.g. Word, Excel, Word Perfect, Outlook). When these changes occur, they usually require updates to your Practice Management or Billing program to maintain the integration. In order to receive these updates and continue to operate smoothly, your programs need to be up-to-date. Maintenance Plans are the most cost effective way to do this.
They also give you the ability to budget your software costs. The cost to upgrade to two or more versions of software can be expensive and time-consuming. A Maintenance Plan keeps you get the most current version.
Technical support is also important. A consultant cannot get technical support on your behalf if you do not have a Maintenance Plan with the manufacturer. And while highly experienced consultants are often able to address technical issues without intervention from the manufacturer, there are times when an issue goes beyond our expertise, or, turns out to be a bug in the software. With a Maintenance Plan, issues are resolved as quickly as possible.
Maintenance plans are always a good idea. They give you and the professionals you rely on, the resources needed to minimize your down time and help keep your entire firm productive.
| A Comparison: Smartphones |
| By: Mark A. Deal |
Let me start by saying that I have been doing a LOT of soul searching since I dropped my Treo last month as I was walking out the door to drive 13 hours. I’ve dropped it many times before, but this was the final drop and humpty dumpty could not be put back together again.
I say, “soul searching” because technology has made the phone decision much more interesting within the last year. The iPhone is a “gimme” with its incredible power, clean interface and there is almost always an app for that. Unfortunately, I hate, despise and abhor AT&T in general and my friends that blubber about how great the iPhone is always sound like they are speaking to me from the bottom of a well even when they are standing on Madison Avenue in the heart of New York City or Peachtree Street (any of the 14) in Atlanta. I like to make the joke that if you want to answer the phone with the iPhone then there isn’t an app for that because there is no coverage with AT&T.
So, what should we do? The Blackberry is a very nice alternative (when RIM is able to keep the service running) but, quite honestly, unless you are running the Blackberry Exchange Server (BES), you are rather restricted to a local sync to your Outlook which has to be running on your desktop at all times. In addition, let’s face it, there usually isn’t an app for anything like the iPhone has because there are very few good external developer tools for the Blackberry, in my opinion.
What about the Palm Pre? I have been in the legal industry for almost 20 years and know a lot of people carrying smart phones. Since the Pre’s release, I have come across one person, another CIC, who carries the Pre. They said that it was a killer phone with great features and the reliability of the Palm. Unfortunately, it does not support the traditional Palm conduits so they are, generally speaking, starting fresh. I think this is a good thing, but I cannot believe that there would be no backward compatibility options for the transitioning user. It would be like Microsoft launching a new operating system that would only run on processor chips that were not made by Intel or AMD. Oh, and it is only available from Sprint who has a coverage map that makes AT&T look like Verizon in comparison.
With all of that said, I decided to give the new Droid a spin to see if I could avoid the obvious choice of the iPhone even though it is on AT&T’s network. The Droid is a fantastic phone, GPS, email reader, web browser and it can help me hang pictures in my house. There is an app for that and many other great things. The best part is that I can actually accept calls on the device and dropped calls just do not happen with Verizon, in my experience.
Do any of these phones “sync” with Time Matters the way that the old Palm Treo worked with Time Matters? Not really. The Blackberry does allow you to synchronize data (but won’t let you easily dial the phone from your TM Contact List due to a Blackberry limitation) but the real solution is to synchronize Time Matters to Outlook or Exchange Server and then have the phone synchronize natively to the Microsoft solution. Of these solutions, the Time Matters to Exchange sync works great, with some minor issues, and my droid offers a number of opportunities to work with this data.
This is where all of the synchronizations are going with Time Matters unless you consider the alternative with DateEquity’s product, MobileTM, which I strongly endorse and recommend. I know that DataEquity is also about to release a sync between Time Matters and Google Apps which makes the Droid a no-brainer.
So far, I have been extremely happy with the Droid. There are great apps for it including GPS, native synchronizations with Exchange Server and Google Apps and everything else I use on a daily basis.
I had Alan Dratch with http://www.BestNetworkSupport.comin Atlanta setup my Exchange Server last weekend and am AMAZED at how great everything comes together with Time Matters Exchange Sync, Outlook, my Droid and remote access. I am now able to work from a phone, Time Matters, Outlook, and calendar transparently and truly device independent.
Tech Talk: Virtualization
[vur-choo-uh-luh-zey-shun]
To understand, you have to know that servers have historically been designed to run a single operating system (like Windows) while hosting multiple applications such as Exchange (email), your practice management system, financial systems, backups, etc. Unfortunately this simple approach leaves most machines extremely underutilized – many times operating at only 10-15% capacity1.
Benefits of Virtualization:
- Cost Savings – With virtualization, you can turn a single purpose server into a multi-tasking server.
- Management – Simply put, virtualization allows you to use fewer machines. Few machines require less time to monitor, maintain and upgrade.
- Redundancy – A virtual machine can allow a firm to restore a particular system (such as email) in a fraction of the time needed for a full physical replacement. And if one application fails, repairing it won’t affect any other operational applications.
- Energy Savings – Allows you to run machines at a higher capacity when powered on.
Drawbacks of Virtualization:
- Performance – While uncommon, some applications will run slower on a virtualized system. You should check to be sure your systems can be supported in a Virtual environment.
- Operating System – Your choice of operating systems can be limited.
Virtualization is becoming a standard practice among IT environments and should be considered as part of your IT operations. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our Network Services Manager, Larry Horvat at 216-662-3200 x105.
I hope you found this newsletter helpful for your firm. As always, I'm happy to receive any questions or comments you may have. Sincerely, Joe
| Joseph S. Marquette |
| President |
| Accellis Technology Group |
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| Sources: |
| http://www.vmware.com/index.html |
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