Two Tiers in a Bucket: Time Management on Lock Down

My monthly contribution to Clio’s Small Firm Innovation group blog (on the October theme of ‘time management’) finds me offering a novel analogy for an ancient (and still effective) method of organizing tasks. I think I had the Panama Canal on the brain; I’ve been reading Edmund Morris’ “Colonel Roosevelt”.

You can read more, here.

Law Practice Management Software: A Holistic Remedy

I’ve chosen to broadcast my one really good idea for the month of November through Attorney at Work. Yup, there’s only one . . . and they have it.

This month, I write about the myriad options that attorneys have in law practice management software, broken down across categories of my own devising.

Read more here.

Chief Exports: Maneuvering Outlook Contacts

Last week’s Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers E-Journal Law Practice Management Section Featured Practice Tip comes from LOMAP. Last week's Tip suggests methods for moving your contacts list, or portions thereof, out of Microsoft Outlook.

Read the Tip here.

Xobni: Useful Even When Your Inbox Isn't Backwards

Xobni is a plug-in, working with Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, that adds a number of truly practical functions, and some superfluous functions, too, all located on one convenient, collapsible, expandable panel. Xobni is contact-centric, in that it displays information and tools specific to the sender of whatever email is currently selected. So, when I click on an email from Jared, his name, picture, and basic contact information become the Xobni panel header, and all the information and action options below it pertain to Jared.

When I began looking into Xobni, I found that a couple reviews (like this one and this one) charge it with being slow, and slowing Outlook, significantly, at times. Although it offers more than time-savings, Xobni is more of a convenience than a necessity, so it would be hard to warrant using the program if such accusations were true. But, Xobni works very quickly for me, and I’ve noticed no change in Outlook’s speed. But, I might just be blessed with an awesome computer and an IT guy who takes very good care of us. So, I’ve looked periodically at Xobni mentions on Twitter, and I haven’t seen many complaints; but, there’s always the possibility that such tweets happened to be fairly well buried each time I checked. Installing Xobni is as straightforward as installations go, sign up takes just moments, and the basic (yet quite comprehensive) product is free. So, it may be worth a trial on your own machine to settle any doubts. (Xobni Pro is available for $7.99 monthly or for $47.95 yearly, which is a nice 50% savings. The product comparison is available here; I didn’t see any reason to upgrade to Pro.)

If your system made it over the speed hurdle, you’ll find a number of tools available on your Xobni panel. Directly under the contact information, there is a relatively small area that will display one of six utilities, any of which will appear at the click of its corresponding button: Statistics, Actions, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Gadgets.

Curious who emails me more than anyone else? I didn’t think so; but, in any event, it’s Jared. How do I know that? Xobni ranks your contacts based on email volume. That’s useful in situations where someone asks you who you correspond over email with most frequently. And that’s probably about it. The other statistics are similarly impractical (like, a graph displaying volume of emails by time of day?).

Xobni Actions, however, are useful, though there are only three: Update Outlook Contact (handy), Email (no more handy than clicking “Reply” or “New”, really), and Schedule Time. The Schedule Time feature is brilliant. When clicked, this option opens an email, with default language to the effect of “Here is my availability over the next few days:”, and then it reads your calendar (!!) and includes any open time on weekdays, between the hours of 8am and 6pm. Even if you want to change the language and tweak your availability, this is a great time-saving starting point. Every time I’ve tested it, it works.

The buttons linking to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook do what you probably expect them to do. And then, there are, currently, somewhere between 15 and 20 gadgets to choose from; most are free, a couple run the whopping yearly fee of $9.99. One of the more exciting gadgets: Evernote (but, not Scrible).

The larger portion of the Xobni panel is dominated by my favorite part: a listing of any email conversations with the displayed contact. I, like most, if not all, people, keep my Outlook inbox arranged by date, which isn’t ideal when browsing for an email from a specific person. Although switching to arranging by sender involves little more than a mouse-click, I don’t like doing it; it feels inconvenient, or just slightly more time-consuming than I feel it should be. I might be the only one who thinks that way, but, if I am, then it seems Xobni was designed just for me. Having the inbox arranged by date, while having the Xobni panel simultaneously visible and arranged by contact, has true time-saving potential. This area also displays a listing of files exchanged with the displayed contact. I had no idea how convenient that would prove to be. But, apparently, I often find myself wanting to refer quickly to something someone, most likely Jared, sent as an attachment, and that little Xobni section is the first location where I think to look for it, and it is often the most easily accessed.

I also added Xobni to my Gmail account, which works almost exactly the same, and is equally as effective, and works quickly on my awful laptop at home, too.

Finally, I give Xobni extra points for the stunning chocolate lab included in the rotating header on its about page. Well-done. If only Jared weren’t allergic, Rodney and I could bring our labs into LOMAP and put pictures of them on our website. Maybe it’s for the best though; my dogs aren’t quite as sophisticated-looking as the one on Xobni’s page.

Second Coming: Firm Future Conference Returns for 2011 Edition; Free Registration for LOMAP Blog Readers

Sequels are almost always worse than the originals. Witness: Harry Chapin’s ill-advised follow-up to “Taxi”, uncleverly titled “Sequel”; “Back to the Future Part II”; and, (who could forget) Bobby Brown’s follow-up to the classic album, “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Bobby”--ain’t nobody Humpin’ Around indeed. I’m not even going to get into Louie Anderson’s hosting gig at Family Feud after “Life with Louie”; Richard Dawson you are NOT, sir. (Well, I guess I just did.)

Every rule has its exceptions, of course; and, there are some sequels that outperform their originals, most notably Godfather II being better than Godfather. And, the 2011, second edition of the Firm Future Conference, to take place December 1, promises to assert itself in that, more favorable, line.

This year’s Firm Future Conference, put on by the Warren Group and co-sponsored by LOMAP, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, the Massachusetts Bar Association and other Massachusetts legal stakeholders, will feature programs on social media marketing, business development (including practice start-up), mobile practice, alternative billing, work-life balance and more. Notable speakers include usual suspects Rodney Dowell and Jared Correia (hey . . . wait a second . . .), as well as nationally prominent experts: Larry Bodine, of Lawyers.com; Reid Trautz, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; Susan Cartier Liebel, of Solo Practice University; Jay Shepherd, of Prefix, LLC; and, Alan Klevan, of Klevan & Klevan, LLP. For the complete agenda, including a full roster of speakers, see here.

If this sounds like something you’d be into (and, honestly, how could you not be), perhaps the best part is that we can get you in at no cost, through November 17--so, be an early bird.

**LOMAP Blog readers need only follow this link to register for the conference FOR FREE: https://firmfutureconference.esecuretransactions.com/forms/attendeereg?company=Law%2BOffice%2BManagement%2BAssistance%2BProgram.**

Wait . . . You’re still on this page? What are you waiting for? Go register NOW. Firm Future promises to be the “Sweet Baby James” of futuristic-type legal conferences.

(“Sweet Baby James” was James Taylor’s second solo album. Bet you didn’t know that. This is his first solo album. (I know, that suit is dope, right?) Check out the original version of “Carolina In My Mind” . . . blowing holes in my sequel theory.)

Guest Post: CMS* in the Small Law Firm

Socratically wise enough to leave the high-level technology conversations to the experts, we are very pleased to offer the following guest post from Ken Leeser, who below weighs in on the effectiveness of public cloud tools for small law firms. Ken is the president of VarZero, and he has twenty-five years of experience working with professional service firms, especially law firms, in helping them to improve critical processes and to use information more effectively. Ken founded VarZero to assist small and medium-sized organizations in leveraging the flexibility, cost savings and environmental benefits of cloud-based computing. Prior to founding VarZero, Ken founded and managed multiple entrepreneurial companies. He founded and continues to serve as president of Kaliber Data Security, which assists businesses with security compliance issues. Kaliber focuses on educating and training employees in the proper use and protection of personally identifiable information through the use of online tools and programs. Ken holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. He has also earned an MBA, from the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University.

. . .

Not too long ago, in the law firm software space, the acronym ‘CMS’ generally stood for ‘case management system’, or, to some: ‘content management system’. Today, CMS has come to stand for the three legs of a modern technology platform: *Cloud, Mobile, Social.

I leave it to others to discuss the importance of and methodology for leveraging social media for marketing small law practices, so that I can focus on cloud and mobile applications.

So, what should solo attorneys and small law firms know about ‘the cloud’ and mobile applications, and how can they leverage these types of services to their advantage?

Let’s first define some terms. Cloud computing can generally be described as ‘computer services which are supplied over the internet on an on-demand basis’. Cloud tools allow firms to access storage space, programs and data that reside in remote resources.

The cloud is generally separated into two conceptual subdivisions: the ‘private cloud’ and the ‘public cloud’.

In order to establish its own private cloud, a law firm would contract with a hosting provider to install and maintain server hardware at a remote location. Ultimately, there are few, if any, shared resources. The servers are dedicated to the law firm, and the law firm saves on capital investment (the servers are rented by the month), backup management (which is provided by the host) and utilities (part of the monthly fee).

A law firm wishing to take advantage of the public cloud, on the other hand, would contract with a number of solution providers, each of which would offer a different technical solution. The law firm would be one of many businesses (other law firms, or other companies) sharing each solution provider’s resources.

In the public cloud, for example, a law firm could contract with a hosted Microsoft Exchange provider that offers email, contact and calendar management, instead of installing applications to manage same on a dedicated server. In the public cloud, a law firm could contract with an accounting solution provider to host its accounting systems, like QuickBooks. The law firm might also utilize a web-based document management system (to store, manage and backup critical work product) or a cloud-based practice management solution to assist in organizing day-to-day office tasks and deadlines. Even telephone services can be provisioned as a shared service over the web, so that the law firm can project a professional image without installing an in-house PBX.

There are distinct benefits for solo attorneys and small firms using the public cloud, as follows:

-reduced reliance on in-house (or contracted) IT support
-elimination of server costs (acquisition, operation, disposal)
-built-in backup management
-reduced energy consumption
-organic growth (upgrades are continuous and non-disruptive)
-access anywhere (requiring an internet connection)
-mobile enablement (most cloud solutions build in smartphone and tablet mobile access)
-cost certainty (IT becomes a monthly charge like utilities or rent)

The most oft-cited concerns, by law firms considering public cloud services, center around security and data control.

With respect to security, public cloud providers offer better security than any small firm can construct on its own:

-backups and redundancy are built-in
-hardware is located in secure locations, with excellent environmental controls
-mobile access means sensitive data need not be stored on local computers or laptops
-devices can be remotely erased
-hardware disposal is no longer an issue for the firm

As far as data control is concerned, attorneys should examine license agreements thoroughly, and should be certain that the firm can access its data anytime, and that exports of data are regularly scheduled, or ongoing. Cloud data escrow services (third-party sites that protect data archived/accessible on other sites) are beginning to emerge.

In summary, public cloud solutions offer the solo attorney or small firm location independence, integrated backup, advanced features and improved security, which combine to allow these small businesses room to grow, and to operate with reduced overhead and expense as they do.