|
Greetings!
This month we address a wide range of technology
issues that affect your practice.
We are very thankful to you our clients and to the
many great relationships which have grown over the years. We
want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Visit
this
Turkey Day site.
|
Amicus Attorney Tip |
 |
|
License Transfer Saves Important Information
It is a sad reality that lawyers and law firm
staff come and go.
If a licensed Amicus user is departing your
firm, you can opt to transfer his/her license to a
new employee rather than buying a new license from
Gavel & Gown. The transfer License feature allows
you to easily assign the license of a departing
attorney or staff member to his/her replacement. A
license transfer allows you to have the new
lawyer/staff person assume the departing employee's
former responsibilities.
For example, all the important files, contacts,
future events and outstanding messages for which the
departing attorney was responsible will be
automatically reassigned to the lawyer to whom you
have transferred the license.
You access the Transfer License feature from the
Amicus Administrator through the Transfer License
dialog box. Simply choose the new user from one
column, and the former user from the other, and
click the OK button. You will need to make sure that
the departed employee has no un-posted time. You may
also need to run the Unlock Records utility if your
first attempt results in an error message. Be
careful, the Transfer License process cannot be
reversed. Give us a call 513 312-8381, we can help
you through the process.
|
|
Getting the Most from Tech Support |
|
|
The best ways to get the help you need!
We are always looking for ways to improve our
service in solving your problems and answering law
office technology questions. You can assist us in
this process. Here are some simple ways you can help
us serve you better.
If you need assistance with an urgent problem,
don't send an email. Many of our consultants are out
of the office assisting at firms like yours on a
daily basis and they may not have access to their
email until the next day. Instead, please call 513
755-1377 with all urgent problems. If no one
responds to your call within the hour call Ron at
513 312-8381.
Calling the office will also result in a faster
response than calling the cell phone of one of our
consultants. Our consultants often conduct training
classes or they are performing on-site support
during which time they cannot take telephone calls.
It could be several hours before they are able to
check their cell phone voice mail. Calling the
office will give our staff the option of putting you
in touch with the first available consultant if your
problem is urgent.
If you have a problem or question that is not
urgent, consider making a note of it and waiting
several days to see if other matters come up. It is
often more efficient for us and cost effective for
your firm if we can deal with several minor issues
in a single telephone call.
|
|
Microsoft Exchange Server - A Better Email
Solution |
|
|
Speed, Security, and Remote Access
Many law firms are still using standard
consumer- level "POP3" email accounts for
communication with clients, courts, and counsel.
These accounts put you at the mercy of your email
hosting provider, may not be as secure as you would
like, and often cost more than is necessary. Also,
many POP3 email accounts are prone to displaying
duplicates of the same message over and over again.
If you have more than a few email users, you would
be better off taking your email "in house" with
Microsoft Exchange Server.
What is Exchange?
Exchange is software that runs on your
network file server to enable you to send and
receive email without using an outside email hosting
provider. It is designed to work with email client
software such as Microsoft Outlook.
What are the advantages of Exchange?
- Greater security
- Improved reliability and performance
- Lower cost over time
- Easy remote access to your email from
- In house management and control of email
How do I get Exchange?
The best way to get Exchange is to opt for
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2003
as the operating system on your next network
server. Exchange is part of SBS 2003. If you already
have a capable server, it can usually be upgraded to
Small Business Server 2003 with Exchange. Whether it
makes sense to replace your server with a new one
running SBS 2003 or upgrade its operating system to
SBS 2003 will depend on the age of your server, its
speed, the applications you run, and a variety of
other factors. Call Cooperative Network
Integrators at 513 312-8381 and we will
assist you with this decision.
|
|
Remote Access No Longer a Luxury |
|
|
Work from home or on the road - just like being
there!
In the beginning,there was PCAnywhere. We have
clients still using Symantec's remote access/control
product to connect to their offices from home. But,
depending on your needs, there may be better
options.
GoToMyPC has taken the mobile professional world
by storm. Given the competitive and economic
pressures of solo and small firm attorneys, many
work long hours at the office. Much of that work
could be done from home using remote access/control
services like GoToMyPC. A huge advantage of GoToMyPC
over PCAnywhere is its ability to connect to your
office PC from any Internet-enabled computer in the
world. PCAnywhere requires that the remote computer
have the PCAnywhere software installed, and
configuration can be anything but easy. Not so with
GoToMyPC, which anyone can have up and running in
five minutes.
Once you have experienced the freedom of remote
access to your office computer, its software, and
your files, GoToMyPC and similar services are no
longer a luxury, but a necessity. In 2005, more and
more lawyers will opt for remote access. Most will
use GoToMyPC.
Click here to sign up.
|
|
|
Do It Yourself Document Management
|
|
|
|
Organizing Your Documents on Your Network
We firmly believe that even the smallest firms
can benefit from a true Document Management System
(DMS) such as the award winning Worldox software.
However, if Worldox is not currently in your budget,
there are things you can do in the meantime to set
up a document organizational structure that will let
your find your files when you need them.
First, don't let users save and store their
client or firm related documents on their local hard
drives. If you have a server, these documents should
be stored in a shared "Documents" folder on that
server. If you have a peer-to-peer network, you
should designate one computer as your quasi-server
and save all documents to a shared folder on that
computer. In either case, make sure your documents
folder is being fully backed up every day.
Unfortunately, both Word and WordPerfect by default
save documents into the My Documents folder on each
user's local hard drive. You'll need to change the
default document folder in Word or WordPerfect on
each computer so that it points to the shared
documents folder or on your network.
Second, don't organize documents by user or by
attorney. Documents should be organized by client.
Some firms like to organize documents by practice
area. However, there is a problem whenever an
existing litigation client requests that you do
contract or real estate work for them. Where do you
save the documents? It is much better to have all of
that client's documents in one place.
Within each client's folder there will be a
subfolder for each matter handled for that client.
Within each matter subfolder there may be several
additional folders for different types of documents,
such as correspondence, pleadings, notes, discovery,
research, etc.
Great care should be taken in deciding how to
name individual documents. In the bad-old DOS days,
we were limited to an 8.3 naming scheme. Today,
however, we can use long filenames up to 256
characters. You should use as many of those
characters as you need to fully described the file
you are naming.
Start the name of each file with a single word
that describes the type of document that has been
created. For example, the first word in many of file
names will be motion, answer, complaint, letter,
notice, etc. Describe the particular nature or
purpose of that document. There is generally no
reason to include the date in the file name.
Whenever you create a file, Windows assigns a date
to it. Windows Explorer allows you to easily sort
files by date as well as name. |
|
