Law-Firm-in-a-Box (or "How to Tame the Paper Monster")

Last millennium, we tamed the paper monster - jammed a bridle between its gnarly jaws and rode him into submission like a rented pony.

We installed PerfectLaw - an "All-In-One" solution that encompasses everything from Time & Billing to General Ledger to Accounts Payable / Receivable to Docketing to Contact Management to Conflict Checks to Document Management and beyond. I like to think of PerfectLaw as "Law Firm in a Box". And rightfully so.

What differentiates PerfectLaw from any other solution out there is that it does everything (and does it well). You enter client / matter information once and it is available across all libraries. Whether you are profiling a document, entering time, submitting an expense, scanning a document or generating a management report, the user interface is easy to learn and consistent throughout the suite.

And PerfectLaw is notable for what it doesn't do: because all of the varying components share a single SQL database, there are no synchronization problems. No delay problems. No corruption problems. No room for vendors to play the finger pointing game and blame another vendor when compatibility issues arise. It all just simply works. And works well.

Before you go out and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Elite, ProLaw, Interwoven, Hummingbird, Time-Slips or any other legal software - take a good long look at PerfectLaw. They make everyone else look like rank amateurs.

Camtasia Studio: Cool Tool for Training Videos

The lowest common denominator for every IT Manager is to keep the network up and humming along. Once that fundamental mission is accomplished - only then can you tip toe into the technological trifecta that distinguishes you from a mere techie: identifying, implementing and advertising solutions that allow your attorneys to more effectively represent their clients. Once initial training for a rollout is completed, the "advertising" component is too often relegated to a screenshot ladened memo or email entitled, "How To ..." That approach does a disservice to the time and effort you expended in indentifying and implementing the solution in the first place. Camtasia Studio places the advertising component on the front burner where it belongs, by allowing you quickly, easily and inexpensively create universally accessible training videos for your employees.

Camtasia Studio captures everything on your screen - from mouse movements to typing - and records your voice in the process. We use Camtasia to create short 3-5 minute training videos and make them available on the firm's Intranet. There are always questions that are hitting the help desk - and when the same questions arise repeatedly - they are prime candidates for Camstudio. Whether the question is about creating a table of authorities, changing styles in Word, running Easy Bates, tethering a Blackberry for use as a modem, whatever ... Camtasia allows you to create a video of the steps and save the resulting file in WMV, AVI, Flash, Quicktime, RealMedia, EXE, MP3 and even iPod format. Save the file to a network share, drop a link on the Intranet and you've brought advertising to a whole new level.

Camtasia Studio is available for $299 for an individual license - or $1,195 for a 5 pack. A fully functional 30 day trial version is available HERE. When you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on major rollouts, another couple hundred dollars is a small price to pay for ensuring the solutions you've efectively implemented are being effectively used.

The Bungled Jungle: The Perfect Gift for Computer Geeks

Every once in a blue moon, you come across something so uniquely ridiculous, you just can't get it out of your mind.

Perusing through an art festival, I recently stumbled upon a traveling display hosted by "The Bungled Jungle" - an art gallery based out of Salida, Colorado. The Bungled Jungle is best described as the marriage of "Where the Wild Things Are" to artists with too much time and creativity on their hands.

One particular display that left me chuckling was a gutted out shell of a computer monitor containing a handful of "Computer Viruses" - each virus meandering around inside the display's lighted shell. Viruses of differing shapes, sizes and colors - each clutching a piece of RAM or fragment of motherboard.