Basha Sytems WebDev Blog

Rediscovery

2010-03-15T05:00:00.003+10:00

Well ... It's been several years since I posted here ... but Google keeps finding this page. If you haven't realized already, we are still VERY ACTIVE in document assembly, but over at our new home, http://bashasys.info.

Step 1: Old Blog Gets It

2005-04-27T18:23:00.000+10:00

Yep, the old blog "got it" and got it hard. Unfortunately, blogspot are somewhat limited in the template department and its simply not worth it to spend the time to write an entirely new css to handle this site. Hence, it got a minor makeover and some content updates.

Well, step one is complete: no vestiges remain of Seth's undeniable stamp on this here blogspot! Seth and I agree on many things and disagree on few; for the most part, aesthetics definitely fall into the second category. I like smooth, sleek, non-violent color combinations. Seth likes...well...vibrance I guess is the way to put it.

At any rate, this blog has been updated, www.bashasys.info is up and running satisfactorily (look for a category overhaul soon!) and styled well. This blog will eventually turn into pure web udpates (like this one) and snippets of things to come.

Of course, www.bashasys.com has continued to grow and grow well. We've recently had a major structural overhaul, as it became apparent that we needed to conglomerate our document assembly content and our case management content into distinctive "portals"; yup, we had that much info. So, here they are:

document assembly
case management

Fun fun fun for everyone! Next step: Keep blogging.

Hijacked by Resident Geek

2005-04-25T17:01:00.000+10:00

http://bashasys.blogspot.com has officially been hijacked by the geek of Basha Systems LLC.

In case you haven't noticed, we have a brand new server & domain up for the blogging efforts of Basha Systems LLC: http://bashasys.info. Yes, an entire domain dedicated to a blog. Why you may ask? Because its not really a blog per se. We are taking the CMS avenue: a Content Management System.

We are already publishing articles at a fast rate to assist the general community with document assembly & case management issues. So why not create a domain for the purpose of making this a simple process? We espouse document assembly as a streamlining process for our clients to escalate profits. We would be hypocritical indeed if we failed to streamline our own practice!

Add to this ideas and thoughts that any blogger would post, and our contributions to the HotDocs list-serve and we have become quite the publishing fanatics. So, we implemented a system to ensure we can do this efficiently, with good search facilities and a clean presentation.

In future, this blog is going to be for me to write web develpoment reports, to give the public some insight into what's been going on and what's change. Consider this a "semi-feed" for our web efforts.

PC Magazine - Top Websites - My Favorites

2005-04-24T23:55:00.000+10:00

Bore Me (jokes)
Free Game World (games)
A9 (Amazon's metasearch engine)
Why Files (answers)
Tablet PC Post (tablet PC tools)
Sysinfo.org (registry hacks)
Process Library (understanding Task Manager)
You Send It (FTP/email engine)
Malek Tips (tips galore)
DLL-Files (missing DLL files)
DNS Stuff.com
Annoyances (Tips)
Woot.com (overstocks)
Answers That Work.com
Project Cool (web design)
En Gadget (new gadgets)
Slashdot.org (computing news)
w3 Schools (web design)
Webopedia (jargon explained)
Project Gutenberg (13,000 ebooks)
Bloomberg (financial info)
Gizmodo.com (gadgets)
Overstock.com (shopping)
Tech Bargains.com (shopping)
BBC (news)
New York Times (news)
Discovery (kids)
Pogo (kids)
Nickelodeon (kids)
Wired.com (news)

Moving soon ... to our New Home at bashasys.info

2005-04-17T07:54:00.000+10:00

We have gotten the taste of blogging and its potential. I have found Blogger adequate for getting information out quickly from anywhere. But for my readers, those of you who I hope will return, and use this as a resource, I need to be able to categorize my posts.

For that reason, we have recently launched bashasys.info using pMachines' ExpressionEngine. It is still under construction, but polished enough for an open-house. Take a look and tell you if you like the layout and the navigation.

Click here for a Visit

Your feedback will be appreciated.

Plain English Document Assembly

2005-04-15T23:58:00.000+10:00

Special Feature by Rose Rowland, Basha System LLC

A few years back, the SEC, in an attempt to make prospectuses and other stock offering documents intelligible to those without a financial degree, regulated that all main offering documents had to be written in "Plain English." They then created a manual to teach us all how to write in Plain English. Frightening thought, isn't it? At the time, I was a paralegal working in private securities offerings and I was rather impressed with this idea.

A few years later, I am a partner in Basha Systems LLC and I am striving to bring the concept of "Plain English" to our document assembly and case management systems. Basha Systems, as many of you know, creates wonderfully innovative and interactive document assembly systems that can pretty much create any kind of document you would like. The dilemma with complicated systems is how to make them palatable to the non-computer professional.

This is where I come in. While new to the world of programming, I feel that I bring a unique insight to Basha Systems that might well be lacking in other computer consulting companies. I have not forgotten how frightening and frustrating the learning of a new computer program or system can be. At Basha Systems, I am in charge of the Quality Control and Manuals for all of our document assembly and case management systems.

I am absolutely brutal - as both Ian and Seth will attest. If a prompt is not absolutely crystal clear on a first reading, out it goes! If I find that any part of our system seems to be the slightest bit difficult to maneuver, back it goes for retooling. No obscure computereze is allowed in any manual written by Basha Systems. My feeling is that if you can't pick up a manual, follow the instructions and begin to use the system immediately, we have not fulfilled the standards of Basha Systems. And, our standards are very high.

Not only do we strive to create systems with all of the cool technological bells and whistles the client desires, we also strive to create systems that anyone can use with an absolute minimum of training. A document assembly or case management system that's too complicated to use is a system that won't be used.

An Interview with the DocGuru (by himself)

2005-04-15T09:37:00.000+10:00

ABSTRACT: No one was calling me for juicy quotes. Some of you have started visiting the blog. I was getting tired of the lack of interaction in a blog (too much lecturing). So I thought I would do something fun, I would interview myself.

The DocGuru: Where does document assembly make the most sense?
Himself: Well everywhere! Anything you write, anything you type, any form you fill is a candidate for document assembly.

The DocGuru: Be real. Coding a template takes time. Should we really do everything?
Himself: Why not. It's fun. It challenges the mind. It beats billing time.

The DocGuru: Yes. You caught it: "billing time." Shouldn't we spend our time doing billable work?
Himself: Well for me, document assembly is billable work . But for you, I get the point, and the answer is NO!

The DocGuru: Who is going to pay for the office overhead? We can't hole up in a dark corner with a laptop and code.
Himself: I don't do it in a dark corner, I beg your pardon. I take the laptop out to the garden, and watch the Daffodils pushing up, hear the birds chirp. Spring is beautiful.

The DocGuru: You are avoiding the question
Himself: All right. Here is why you should "stop billing". Do an hour of billable work and you make money for an hour of billable work. There is no multiple; no extra reward for the effort, no return on investment. Yes, you make more than the typical wage laborer .... (have you talk to your plumber recently?) But say you make $400 and hour ... you need to work a lot of hours to get real rich. And then, you have to constantly justify your time. What is the "value" of your labor ... What is the value of your "workproduct"

The DocGuru: But that is what lawyers do, they bill
Himself: I disagree. You don't come to a lawyer for a few hours of his time .... Yes he may bill you for a few hours. You come for advice; you come for help out of a jam; but more often you come for a "document". It is the document you want, not the time; you want to take home a piece of paper, whether it be a partnership agreement, a lease, or a will; you want to know that it is well written and will survive the test of time.

The DocGuru: What does that have to do with document assembly?
Himself: Document assembly is all about documents; it is all about the creation of quality documents; it is all about the delivery of services. It is about workproduct. Invest 100 hours in template coding, and the return is equal to a thousand hours of billing. It allows you to bill for the document; not for the time. It is all about multiples; all about service; all about competition.

The DocGuru: You seem convinced about this? You have been doing document assembly for nearly a decade. It is easy for you; but not everyone can code.
Himself: Exactly my point; but all of you can markup documents. You markup documents day in and day out. Why not mark up your documents and send them to me to code. It will take less of your billable time to get the project done; and bring you closer to your the time you can reap the multiples from your investment.

The DocGuru: Aren't you being a little direct? This seems to be a sales pitch.
Himself: Think what you wish. Feel free to come back; I give away advice for free and tip. You will find me posting (uncompensated) on the HotDocs list and GhostFill list. Many of you have received a private email or a call when you got into sticky trouble. But I do make my money consulting and love my work. Did I mention my new document assembly and case management sections on my website?

The DocGuru: The DocuGuru: You are a hypocrite. Don't you bill by the hour?
Himself: Have you called me? You ask me to troubleshoot a template and give you "help" writ large; of course I bill by the hour. But, if you come to me with a set of documents, all marked up, and ask what will it take to turn them into a system, I will more than likely give you a fixed fee quote or a range. The quote will be based on a combination of the value of the documents to you, the complexity, and an estimate of the time it would take a typical coder to automate the documents.

The DocGuru: Well, our readers thank you for your candid comments and this opportunity to talk with you. Keep up the good work. Keep blogging.

Lawn Maintenance and Spring Cleaning (document assembly revisited)

2005-04-14T23:14:00.000+10:00

The key to a successful implementation of document assembly is an intelligent markup. The key to an intelligent markup is a solid understanding of the subject matter which is being marked up; as well as an awareness of what "can be done" with document assembly.

Of Forests and Trees

The old "saw" goes, "can't see the forest for the trees". And the converse is "can't find the trees, all I see is forest". In document assembly, you need both the "helicopter view" and the "hiker's view". You need to see the overall lay of the land, where the document is going, how it's flowing. And then, you need to get down on the ground and start sorting and culling.

Lawn maintenance

With the coming of spring, lawn maintenance is something on my mind. The sytems I built need a spring cleaning and refresh. Over the winter of use these systems can become stale. Like a lawn, you can let everything grow will. Better to run the law mower once a week. When cut to 2 inches height, weeds and grass look a like. You can rip up the whole lawn, an reseed with fresh kentucky bluegrass. Or, you can apply fertilizer and selectively apply weedkiller to find those troublesome patches.

In document assembly, you need to do a bit of everything.

Regular Mowing: Like the lawnmower, you need to sweep through the document, getting all the obvious issues and gaps. Run assemblies (if you have done partial automating) and identify what is missing.

Apply Fertilizer Go through you document on a regular basis and apply enhancements. Each time a new issues arises look where you could have addressed an issue better, applied more nuances.

Remove the Weeds There are portions of your document that will just not work. You try to tweak the code, a little here and little there. But there are some blocks of code that just don't work. They create eyesores that you are constantly deleting in the finished document. Remove these items, from the document, from the interview.

Reseeding a Patch Sometimes, an Article in a Contract just needs to be rewritten. The language is stale. There are too many codes in the paragraph for one to figure what the hell you ever meant. In these circumstances, it is better to start from scratch.

Extending the Lawn Look at your current systems. Did you go far enough. You are gathering data on a lease, but how come you haven't created a term sheet generator or an abstract generator. Take the next step and build on what you created. What is the next logical document to automate. There are economies of scale in document assembly, and there is the "marginal cost of production". The marginal cost of building the next document in a practice set is much less than the initial document cost.

Planting Garden Lawns are well and good. They are fun for croquet and games of catch. But gardens are what bring "fruits and vegetables" to the dinner table or "flowers" that bring value to the house. Consider taking what you have built and planting a garden. Let your clients know what you have done with these systems so they will want to give you more work and refer you to their clients as a lawyer who "gets it."

A Tool To Consider - DealBuilder

I have written extensively about HotDocs and GhostFill, but not said too much about DealBuilder. DealBuilder, as a webhosted platform, which ships with a product called DealBuilder Author and DealBuilder Express. These are the authoring environments for the DealBuilder Server. Until DealBuilder or one of its resellers offers DealBuilder on an ASP model, you will need to get a full license to DealBuilder Server and have the infrastructure and IT department to support it. Once you do, you will find that DealBuilder lets you do your infrastructure redesign right in the template. The Author engine validates the document, and renders conditional scripted dialogs on the basis of the nesting and scripting in the template. It also offers you the ability to "drop in" a data dictionary of terms, so that variables can be easilly reused across templates. As we evaluate DealBuilder more closely, we will post further information in the DealBuilder section (http://www.bashasys.com/dealbuilder/index.html) of Basha System's main site,

How to THINK Case Management

2005-04-14T10:48:00.000+10:00

Case Management is at its core ... management. It is management of information, management of resources, management of people. It is well and good to build a hundred custom fields. Anyone can do that. But it is far better to build to build 10 customs fields that are used all the time, than to build 100 custom fields that are never used.

There is a saying: garbage in ... garbage out. In database lingo, if you build a system with hundreds of fields for intaking case information, the users will rebel. And you will find that you are worse off than before, some users will have judiciously filled in the case management profiles, but many others will not. The result will be "bad data" ... the inability to actually get a report across all your cases based on the information in the case management profile.

So ... to THINK Case Management

In planning a case management system, ideas must be tempered by hard reality. Every field you change will be used hundreds or thousands of times. This means, the fields must be carefully laid out in a logical format. Related information must be grouped together. Good design makes use of drop-down lists to help the user put in a consistent answer that will produce valid aggregate data. And it also means "less is more".

In a case management system like Time Matters, the initial focus should be to get the information entered in memo fields (free form) and then properly profiled. To do this, extensive use of classification codes that have real meaning is the best place to start. From there, you can branch out. Some legal practice areas have specific data that is required in multiple form documents, or may be useful for negotiations or planning purposes. If these items need to be reviewed on an agregate basis, but them into the custom form. On the other hand, if they need to be used for a single document, which, once created, is never needed again, put them into a memo field, anecdotals style.

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Silly Simple ....

This is a system that real people use everyday. Count each second that it takes to get the process flowing. What can be reasonably expected from someone answering a potential client inquiry. Are you going to do a "social service worker" style intake that requires a 30 minute interview just to get someones name in the database. Or, are you going to get the essentials, and let the file build over time. Where do you want to take this system? Plan it out K.I.S.S. Test it out on the users. You will find they have an opinion ... Boy do they have opinions, opinions that you better listen to.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

It is very easy to build complex systems. You just start. Every time you think of an idea, you add to it. In time, the system grows beyond the original creator's ability to grasp the whole system and maintain it. And then, welll.... you know the story, strange things start happening. The solution is to build modular, test, and then grow. Solve the small problems. Don't try to engineer triggers for an entire case; take each element, one step at a time and automate it. Triggers, chains, and autoentry forms in Time Matters form the building blocks of a sophisticated workflow system. Since there is no wizard for visually laying out a workflow process in Time Matters, it is recommended that you use a tool like Visio to plan out your flow and the steps to reach it.

Case Management - How It Works (part 1)

2005-04-13T11:45:00.000+10:00

Lets Start At the Beginning

A case management system is a database. But unlike you typical databases it is specially adapted to handle contact and matter information Janel all related information. The database is designed not to store inventory, but to short information for rabid retrieval. The information is typically unstructured items that would normally form part of a physical case file. Unlike the typical database this information doesn't fit into fixed fields. Much of it is in the form of memo fields. By using categories and classification codes, unstructured information now becomes structured. When the classification codes are combined culls a power field based and full text search engines you new have the core of what is called a case management software system.

The Contact Form

Enter contact information in Time Matters in this form whenever you talk to someone, receive an email, or think of an idea. Over time, you will soon have a weath of information. If you simply log the person's email, you will have soon have a complete thread f you discussions with the person including attached documents. From the contact address, from a powerview in Time Matters, you can launch a Google maps search with a single click. A few more keystrokes and youhave full directions to or from the site.

The Matter Form

The same information that is linked to the contact form can also be linked to a matter or case form. However, now unlimited contact or actor records can be linked to the case. So the in one click, you can have a complete party list. The magic of the database is that you needonly enter the contact information once. Thereafter the links and the specified relations bring all the information together.

The Calendar

View the matters and the contacts as the thing that separate a Personal Information Manager ("PIM") from a Case Management System. Whereas a typical calendar in Outlook (or Outlook Express) is personal, the calendar in Time Matters is public. Every record on the calendar, when created is link to the "staff" member and also linked to a Contact and/or a Matter. With Time Matters 6 extended support for "specified relations" it can also be linked to any other record type (i.e. documents, notes, outlines etc.).

The calendar can be viewed as personal (day/week/month); as a project chart, to see blocks of open time across multiple users; or as a consolidated view of all activity in a given day or period. From a single calendar, group meetings can be scheduled, adding items to other peoples calendars and tasks can be assigned. The calendar can also track the status of a given item (done/not done or billed/not billed). And from a single click in the calendar, one can open all information related to that case or client. And for those who have PDA's the information on the calendar can be synchronized to that device and made portable.

The Journal

Time Matters lets each staff member decide what they want in their personal journal. It is personal, only in the sense that the way the information is displayed is personal, the layout. The information itself (subject to security rules applied regarding records/matters designated as private) is public in the database. All items on the calendar can show up in the journal. But the journals can also add phone logs, message logs, links to email for the user, and a tickler system for upcoming and overdue events.

The Powerview

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And if that picture contains a caption (and some words), it is worth even more. Time Matters, with version 5, introduced pictures. They are called Powerviews which are a mix of HTML and Javascript which allows the user of Time Matters to create their own display form, and even make it interactive. The Powerview takes the information from the selected record (and any information on other records linked to that record) and lets you display those items in a window as you scroll past the parent record. The "power" in the PowerView comes when you realize that you can summarize items, produce abstracts, provide links off the data (ie. run a Google Maps search), and launch other programs using the data. It is completely extensible. For those who might be limited by the fixed form size and layout, the PowerView give you complete freedom within the limits only of your imagination.

What is Case Management All About?

2005-04-10T21:05:00.000+10:00

Case Management for your law firm or business

Ya gotta have some. This stuff is addictive. It's better than crack. Once you have some, you can't go back. You are transformed. Life without, is just not worth living. No, this is not some miracle drug ... This is a piece of software that can transform your business or legal practice and the way you live your life.

Case Management software systems, like Time Matters, are the answer to entropy. Case managment programs will bring order to disorder. Case management software will put information at your finger tips, information that will bring you money. Case management systems will allow you to be David taking on Goliath. This is good stuff that every lawyer, every businessman, ever time-keeping profession MUST use.

A Beginner's Guide

We could write several novels on case management and its uses without exhausting the subject. If you already know what case management is but haven't yet purchased a case management package like Time Matters, please read on. If you have purchased a case management system like Time matters, but have not tweaked it read on. You may get some ideas. If you "get " you may still find some arguments to hells convince your colleagues.

Managing Expectations

Good habits are the key to getting the most out of case management. You need to begin wilt a sense of what process work. Prior to implementations or a case management system, these will be manual processes. A good system for intaking new cases, including gather detailed client information and details about all the actors in a case will translate into an actors and actions table in Time Matters. A system of regular job and task assignments, will translate wt an successful delegation systems.

The team to beat

2005-04-10T11:51:00.000+10:00

Ready to do what we do best. We came here to make some waves ... Raw talent waiting to meet the true test.

Document Assembly isn't quite as easy as it looks

2005-04-10T11:33:00.000+10:00

Out on a limb ... without a parachute.

Ever felt that you might be lifting off the ground, before you finished the groundwork. Lay your foundation, before you take flight. Learn to control your broom ... before they give you the wizarding laurels.

And now for some illustrations

2005-04-10T11:19:00.000+10:00

Picassa2 ... to Blog ... Me with some hair. My webguru during a recent website rebuild trashed my old photo ... You know the one from the Soapbox with the big open mouth. So now I am merely smiling in all my cueball glory ... Not the best mug, but it is what is inside that counts, ain't it?

BTW ... My webmonkey has restored my mugshot. Much happier.

Case Management - From A to Z

2005-04-10T04:25:00.000+10:00

Before entering into any endeavor, it is helpful to understand the terminology. This helps when reviewing the literature and marketing claims. What follows is an attempt to "define the terms" ... to translate the jargon into "legal english" that you as a lawyer or business person can understand.

Matter Form - A "matter" or "case" or "project" form is the core of the electronic case file in Time Matters. From a matter, you can see all notes, calls, documents, outlines, and linked contact records.

Feature Package - Used by Time Matters as a means to bundle up and deliver customizations that would otherwise take hours to implement manually in a customer's database. Basha Systems sells several useful features packages on the Basha Store that represent hundreds of hours of development, but resell for less than $100.

Contact Form - The contact form in Time Matters is the more than just an address book. It is the core of a robust relationship management system, which from a single contact form, lets you review all interactions with a particular individual or company, whether they be email, calls, notes to file, documents, research, outlines etc.

Trigger - For every action in Time Matters there can be a "reaction". The triggers allow the user to launch a chain of Events, ToDo's, Documents etc. from a single trigger. They can be automatic (i.e. triggered by a change in a field) or manual, where the uses chooses from a trigger list on the Time Matters form the action they want to take.

Outline Form - New with Time Matters 6.0, the Outline form is the beginning of a whole new approach to case management. When married with auto-entry forms, the outliner allows you to lay out the complete structured task list for an entire case. As and when the action items become relevant, with a single click, you can calendar them and track their status.

AutoEntry Forms - At the simplest level, click on an auto-entry from in our FLIP File Label Printer feature package, choose your area of practice, and you have a dozen file folder labels ready to use for opening a new file. Any data on a Time Matters form can be captured as an autoentry form, and then associated with a Form Style or Trigger.

Timer - The timer in Time Matters applies to any record type, except contacts and matters. Just start the timer. The timer will stop (optionally) when you close the record.

Timesheet - The Time Matters timesheet is perfect for those who wish to tally up their time at the end of the day. Just select the client, enter a description of the activity and put in the time. Away you go.

Powerview - Powerviews are unique to Time Matters. They use javascript and HTML to display information about a particular highlighted record. Their power, comes in the fact that they can (1) be edited in an HTML-editor and (2) that they can display any data on the selected Time Matters form and much of the data that is linked or related to that form. Basha Systems has developed a Contact powerview that displays all records related to a contact and a Matter powerview that displays all record related to a matter. These powerviews are available free from this site.

HotDocs Template Extension - These "templates" allow you to link Time Matters fields to HotDocs fields and then use this data to launch a HotDocs document. Basha Systems has developed many HotDocs templates for its clients and linked them to their Time Matters databases.

Formatable Clipboard - View it as an electronic clipboard that lets you gather data from throughout your database and store it into memory. Then simply, open a blank document or an email and click paste (Control-V). The Time Matters formatable clipboard is more about data, and less about formatting. But it does support some rudimentary formatting commands, including tabs, carriage returns, and bold/italic etc.

Fields - Every field in Time Matters can be changed. Underneath, Time Matters stores all data as variant data type. However, it displays in the forms as text, checkboxes, lookups, dates, numbers, etc. You can modify the prompt, the help text, and the name of the variable. But you cannot change the Core Variable name.

Core Variable Name - A number of options in Time Matters depend on knowledge of the Core Variable Name. This is the field that is used in Powerviews. This is the name of a field in the underlying SQL or Topspeed database. By editing the properties of the field, you can find the core field name. Apart from the main record field names, the core field name will tell you what form the field is one and where on the Time Matters form to find the field.

Form Styles - Every form can be modified. In a solo practice, you can get away with modifying the default form style (see above). But in a group practice, with different areas of law or practice and different data needs, the default form style should not be modified. Rather, you can create a copy of the default and associate it with a Time Matters classification code. Then make your changes to the form. When you change the classification code, voila, there are your fields.

Billing Link (User4 on Contact/Matter form) - This field on the Contact Form and the Matter Form is one field that should NEVER be customized. It is used to link a Contact or a Record to a billing or accounting system. This field is used by Quickbooks, or Tabs or PCLaw to provide a bridge between the contact or matter and the corresponding record in the billing/accounting system.

DMS Link (User5 on Contact/Matter form) - This field on the Contact Form and the Matter Form is one field that should NEVER be customized. It is used to link a Contact or Record to an separate document management system, like iManage or Worldox.

Default Form Style - When you right-click on a field that doesn't have a linked form style, and edit it, you are change the Default Form Style in Time Matters. This may be desired. More likely, you are messing up the forms created by others and potentially corrupting their data. Get general agreement from everyone before you edit the default form style, or you may regret it.

Form Tabs - New to Time Matters 6, Form Tabs allow you to add extra tabs to your Contact, Matters, Event, Note etc. form which provide a sublist of related data that can itself include special filters and quick tabs.

Quick Tabs - These are stored searches through a record list that are accessible at the click of a tab (or menu). The searches can be linked to a powerview and a special configuration of columns and colors. They can be created on a program level and on a user level.

Program Level Settings - Setting at the "program level" are visible for all staff members. They are a way of enforcing universal look and feel for the program. In a tweaked system, there will be numerous program level settings which functions as a baseline, which settings can be overridden by individual users, based on their login.

User Level Settings - These settings are personal to each staff member. In Time Matters they including something as mundane as whether they start with the calendar open when they login, or their task lists, to the more complex, special auto entry forms, quick

Related Records - From this tab on any record type, you can see specified and automatic relations between the selected record and all other record types.

Timeline - An ideal place to see a chronological list of all or just some record types in a case or contact.

Case Management - Taking it to the Next Level

2005-04-09T09:45:00.000+10:00

Case Management is more than just a "piece of software" like a word processor. The case managent sofware is not meant to sit there passively. It is meant to be integral to the way you practice your trade. It is best viewed as the "electronic assistant" who answers every beck and call. A well designed system is like a good Porche - zero to 100 in ten seconds flat. Within ten seconds of a client inquiry, you will have the answer you need to their question (or the question that you wanted the client to answer).

You Want Some Reasons
Here are some reasons to have a case management system like Time Matters

Care and Feeding of Existing Clients. What better reason than because your clients demand it. You may not realize, but most client believe (hell they know) that they are the center of the universe and that you are merely there to serve them. Because of this, they expect that when they call, when the e-mail, page or instant message, you can get back to them with the answer or status of their case. What an electronic file (like Time Matters) can do, is give you the ability to satisfy them. Within 2 click, you have the complete case history, another click, you can open any related document, another click and you can post a reply email and pop in a clipboard of data from their file answering their questions. Keep you clients well fed with information and services and they will give you more work.

Effective Prospecting of New Clients. At some point you will to gain more clients. Even if you are working full-out, you need to grow and have protection if that anchor client leaves you, a need to diversify. That is where case management software really helps. Every contact with your firm, whether via email, phone, snail mail or encounter is logged. Then, when you have a break from "real work" you have a list of prospects that you can "call". Or you can prepare a newsletter, and in a few clicks have an "email list" to send it out, or for the more traditional, generate a set of mailing labels to put on a printed newsledtter.

Consolidation of All Matter Information. Case management is sometimes called Matter Management .... because the matter is one of the central features of the case management system. In the old days, the secretary would open a file - a physical file folder with several subfolders for pleadings, correspondence, contracts, notes, reasearch etc. The file would sit in your office, or by your secretaries desk, and every piece of paper, note, call etc. would be placed into the file. Now, several peices never got into that file. And other pieces would get pulled out of that file, never to be found again. The solution is the "electronic file," a central feature to any case management system. From a "Matter Record" in Time Matters, with a single click you can see a complete timeline of all related files, or see all calls and their contents in a powerview, or view the billing history and status, or just check for the return dates for motions.

Better Work Product. When the case management system is integrated with document automation, either document assembly or merge templates, the work product that comes out meets minimum standards of quality often far greater than the average workproduct from scratch. Not only is the quality better, but the product takes just seconds (or minutes) to create. Link Time Matters with HotDocs, and you can just print money.

Organization of All Critical Documents. Whether the case management system is integrated with a free-standing document management system (like Worldox or iManage) or whether you use the built in document profiling schema, your document are now tied to your electronic file. From the Time Matters document profile, in a single click you can see all documents linked to the matter or just the drafts of agreements, or just correspondence or just memos to file.

Take Your Information on the Go. With all this power, you don't want to leave it at your office. Time Matters lets you take what you need with you to the court room, to your client site, into the deposition. With laptop synchronization and PocketPC synchronization, you can have what you need at your fingertips, whereever and whenever.

Case Management - What if you could gain 15 minutes a day?

2005-04-09T09:32:00.000+10:00

Wouldn't you like to gain 15 minutes a day ...

Think of what that would mean. A well tuned case management system, no ... any case management system at all, will give you 15 more minutes a day of billable time.

Each call, note, thought, email is tracked and timed, so you can now bill for it.
Mass mailings and Cards are now merely a "contact report" from your case management system, rather than a full -week production
Drafting a new engagement letter is a matter of creating a client profile and "adding" a new document, using a formattable clipboard to filling in the blanks in the letter.
Letters of transmital with Basha's FLIP for Time Matters, is as simple as "add a note" link the note to a contact, print the report and stick in a windowed envelope.
Opening a case file with "file pockets and folders" with Basha's FLIP for TIme Matters is as simple as creating a Contact Form for the case, linking it to the parties, and choosing an autoentry form for your practice areas

What Does 15 minutes Mean for your bottom line?

Lotsa money ... Just run the numbers for the average timekeeper:

15 minutes * 5 days = 75 minutes per week
75 minutes * 48 weeks = 60 hours per year
60 hours * $250 per hour = $15,000 for each TimeKeeper

That is $15,000 a year for each and every timekeep in your firm. And that is money that keeps on ticking and based on an assumption that you only gain 15 minutes of productivity per day. In reality, the amount of saving from a well-implemented system could be 1 to 2 hours a day. If you combine case management data with document assembly, you could find productivity gains in the hundreds of percent.

What are you waiting for?

Case management offers more than money. It offers the power of information at your fingertips. It offer the "electronic file" that distinguishes you from the rest of the pack. It is all about client service that keeps those clients coming back for more.

Case Management - Where to Begin?

2005-04-09T07:54:00.000+10:00

Take some lessons from Kindergarten .... "Stop, Look, Listen ... then Do."

These were the words of my son's Kindergarten teacher to her students on the first day of school. It is by these words that she managed a pack of 20 unruly kids. When she rang a bell, the kids were to "stop what they were doing," and "look at her" and "listen to what she said" and finally "do what she said". These words apply to evaluating whether case management system is for you and what you will require it to do.

STOP ...
For a moment, stop what you are doing. Take the time to read this page to begin with, and then take some dedicated time to think about this issue. That means, stop reading your emails, stop surfing the internet, and stop thinking about anything else. Take some dedicated time to think about this issue.

LOOK .....
Look around you. Look at your desk and how it is organized. Look at your computer desktop and how you structure your program files and your work product. Look at your secretary, your paralegal, your support staff and how they support you in your work. Look at how your colleagues interact with you. Think about all these issues. Think about how things are done by you and everyone else .... and how ... maybe, they could be done better.

LISTEN ....
It is not enough to stop and look around. Before you continue with your day, you need to listen to other views, consider other viewpoints, evaluate other approaches. Case Management systems are not PIMS (personal information managers). They are systems to manage your firm's law practice. These are shared systems. Their power is the ability to share, the ability for one attorney to pick up the electronic case file of a vacationing attorney and to provide quality service. They are the ability for a paralegal to answer your phone call and quickly get you a copy of the document or email that you need to close a tricky negotiation. These viewpoints need to be considered.

Then DO!!!!
It is time to get off your duff. After you have stopped, and looked and listened, you need to take some action. Otherwise, all the effort is wasted. If case management is for you, something of which we have no doubt, you need to stop dragging your feet. Go call a Time Matter consultant. Try us. For now, just read on, and learn how Case Management can bring dollars to your bottom line and make you a happier wealthier person, make your clients happier, and those other important persons in your life.

Law Practice Management - The Business Plan

2005-04-08T11:17:00.000+10:00

Practice management is different from case management. Case management begins once the client is signed up and the case is opened. Law Practice Management begins with at the door, at the web portal, as the auro that surrounds you in your everyday interaction. It is part of everything you do.

Just as you would invest in a product like Time Matters to manage your cases so that you can better serve your clients, get the necessary Time Matters training, retain the requisite Time Matters consultant, so you would wish to invest in growing your practice.

How many of you have written a business plan for your law practice? How many of you have sat down and laid out a P&L for your practice, identifying those areas where you would get the most return on investment.

I know these actions seem to be a thankless task. When you are already plugging away for 60 hours a week and trying to make ends meet, to have so "guru" tell you to take another 10 hours to develop a business plan.

But that is what I am doing. For if you look at your law practice with a critical "business eye" you will see that some of your activities are more "profitable". You may decide that other activities are more fun (and less profitable), so that you should budget time for those activities.

Any good business plan should include an strategy for processing leads ... a formal marketing plan that identifies where those leads are likely to come, and how to best turn those leads into paying (and profitable clients). One area, often overlooked in these plans, which call for fancy web sites, expensive "glossy pamplets" and strategic print adds, is the phone and email. Because the phone and email are perceived as "cheap" they are undervalued as a source of leads by many attorneys.

The phone call. Use Time Matters to log "every phone call". This will give you a wealth of information and a baseline to determine which phone calls get converted into paying clients. Every call that comes in should be logged, and every called profiled as a contact. If you haven't check, phone calls are now practically free with unlimited calling time phone plans. And if you get the person on the phone, they will listen for a minute or two.

The email This mechanism has been most over-rated. The V&*#iag#$ra ads and other tonic sellers have destroyed this as an effective mass marking approach. But if you build up e-Newsletters and have subscribers, you can create an awareness among clients and potential clients of your capabilities. Give them content and they will read. Time Matters lets you track the results of your newsletter campaigns. Take a field and convert it to a check box and label it Newsletter. You can then export a list to a mass emailer (or use a Time Matters groups for the mailing).

Is HELP text necessary?

2005-04-07T23:04:00.000+10:00

A well designed document assembly system NEED NO HELP text. Each prompt is group logically and clear. It states its purpose and can be understood by users. Why would anyone ever need help text?

.... because it is not so simple. In building systems, a polished dialog is a balance between information and data entry in an environment where space is limited. The term "limited real estate" means the amount of information that can be seen in a standard window WITHOUT scrolling. That is the real estate you are dealing with, because more often than not, the user will forget to Scroll before proceeding to the next dialog.

Now why do I care? I care because I want all my questions answered so that the assembled document will be complete. To this end, I use headers and short prompts to fit as much relevant information in a single window.

What about the help text? The help text is optional. The first time you run a template assembly with HotDocs or GhostFill or Dealbuilder, you want all the help in the world, until you figure out what the author of the system means. However, on the second, third and fourth time, you get it ... and now that detailed on screen prompt is weighing you don.

The solution - tiered help systems Our approach is a tiered help system. (1) Careful naming of prompts, headers and dialog titles, (2) optional on-screen help, (3) drafting tips that spawn dialogs, (4) buttons that launch web pages, and (5) integrated resource help. This approach lets you get the help you need, when you need it, but otherwise doesn't clutter up the real estate.

What does "integrated" mean?

2005-04-07T09:02:00.000+10:00

Case Management and Practice Management programs talk about "integration" with other programs, whether they be email programs, document management programs, or billing and accounting programs.

A good lawyer defines his/her terms. "Integration" is a feature. And yet, not all integrations are equal. Some are better than others. Even in the same firm, integration can have different meanings.

In deciding whether (1) two products are integrated, and (2) whether this integration is of value, is a matter of "managing expectations". True integration occurs when two programs share the same database entirely. This is the type of integration between Time Matters and Billing Matters, or Tabs and PracticeMaster, or ProLaw Front Office and Back Office. When a single vendor controls both programs, it is possible to have "consolidated data" so that an entry of a client for "case management" purposes is also the entry of a client for "billing and accounting" purposes.

Microsoft and Novell espouse "directory services" whereby programs share a common user-database of approved users. This works for security purposes (see use of Windows authentication for SQL server login and many other programs). However, this does not work in the much more data-intensive programs like billing, accounting or document management where the data is stored in separate databases.

So this gets me back to what does "integrated" mean. The answer depends on where you stand:

(1) As the Account supervisor, you want to enter a Contact as a client in your Billing program, and have them appear as a client in your iManage program and as a client in your Case Management program. If these programs come from 3 different vendors, contact information is stored in different data tables, and a "link" needs to exist between the programs.

(2) As the Attorney on the account, you want to create a document in your word processor, same it to your DMS (e.g. iManage) and then be able to see it listed on your matter in Time Matters.

(3) As the Paralegal on the case, you need to be able to review and sort a bunch of documents and notify the attorneys of any significant items that need their attention. You will likely be reviewing and reprofiling scanned documents in the DMS, and then seeing them on the document tab.

(4) As the secretary, you may be concerned about the Firm calendar, and want all the entries in Outlook to populate back into the Practice Management program.

Each of these items has a different "scope" of integration. Some of these items require user training. Other may require development of custom applications or dual entry of data. In reviewing claims of integration, do your due dilligence and check out the scope and manner of integration.

Do what I say ... not what I do

2005-04-06T11:39:00.000+10:00

Today I was called on to draft a consulting agreement for a new project. I had sent the client a Term Sheet in an excel file which laid out the documents to be automated, the terms of the project, the price for the software, and the phases of delivery. We had reached an agreement. Now, it was just a matter of formalizing the arrangement.

Now I had designed a Master Agreement and project schedule template in GhostFill to handle this very document type. The interview had a range of variants. The output came close to what was required. However, the result came short of "assemble and deliver". It required another hour to polish and clarify the terms. Now this is where I fell down.

I tell my clients, go back to the master template, make your revisions there, and reassemble. That way the system continually improves to meet new issues. Of course, I was in a rush to get the document out, and didn't take that wise step of "do what I say". The result is that I am doomed to repeat the same corrections for the next agreement.

Luckily, I have another project about to go to contract. If I am less rushed, I will tackle improving the template, rather than repeat my mistakes.

The death of the Software Manual

2005-04-05T21:43:00.000+10:00

It used to be that there was "money" to be made in writing a software manual. That was in the old days when:

- Computers were new
- There weren't too many programs
- Those programs didn't have too many features
- Program version upgrade cycle was every three years (not every six month)
- People would curl up with a book read
- Writers cared

Today, programs change too fast. By the time a manual is properly written, the pictures and illustrations are obsolete. It used to be that writers would get a beta copy of the new software months before its release and use it for the manual. Now, software is released as .0 version for sale when it is really still in beta.

And when you look at the programs, there are so MANY features, that manuals turn into feature catalogues, rather than something that one could actually use to learn a program. At the other end, manuals have become collections of tutorials (often on topics that are irrelevant to your intended use).

The best manuals I have found are the "Mere Mortals" series: "SQL Querries for Mere Mortals", "Database Design for Mere Mortals". These manuals set out the fundamental principals on which these programs are based. From there, an intelligent developer can "ask the right questions" when going through the online help and knowledge bases.

All are welcome to add comments for thought.

Application Support versus Software Support

2005-04-05T12:21:00.000+10:00

A recent conversation with a client has caused me to rethink the definition and scope of "support" in the context of delivering a "custom application" based on a publicly available software platform. Below are some of the different buckets into which support support terms can be categorized:

Software Support is ....
Software support is typically where software companies make their residual revenue. It is their reward for continually "tweaking the product" and making incremental revisions to the product. The typical support contract is an annual fee of 20%. Microsoft has its maintenance plans which entitles the user to both service releases and version upgrades under this plan.

Software support is sometimes viewed as "bug fixing" and "insurance". It is generally "passive support" ... The software is supported means that if there is something fundamentally "wrong" with the software, the vendor will fix it, and won't charge the licensed user for the fix.

Premium Support is ....
Applications Support is more active/pro-active. This support includes providing explanations and help configuring and maintaining the software in a given environment. As applied to case management, it generally means access to a call center to troubleshoot problems as they arise, problems that arise from the use of the software.

Custom Application Support is ....
Custom application support goes beyond premium support as it includes support for customization of the base software done by a consultant (e.g. HotDocs templates, Case Management feature packages etc). The scope of this support will typically include explanations, mini-training and minor customizations to address erratta in the original system.

Prepaid Consulting Support is ...
Prepaid consulting support is pro-active. It is consulting that is limited to the custom built applications, but anticipates and address changes in templates, data tracking and processes that are the result of actual use, these are issues that could not have been fully anticipated (and therefore are not errata), but fall within the scope of a particular project.

Practice Systems - Starter Kits

2005-04-04T23:48:00.000+10:00

In automating a collection of documents that form a "Practice System" there is inevitable overlap between the information required between the documents constituting the practice system. Properly attacked, there are two phases to such an automation project:

DICTIONARY PHASE: Identifying all the variables and organizing them into a series of dialogs/pages and grouping the dialogs/pages into logical interviews.

TEMPLATE PHASE: Using those variables to markup and code the templates. Many document assembly tools allow you to drag-and-drop from a dictionary/component file into a document and then save that document as a template in the practice system.

WHAT IF ....
What if the first phase could be eliminated? What if someone already had a taxonomy of variables and questions that covered most, if not all the questions you needed for the practice system? Would that be valuable? Could you use that object? And what would you pay for that convenience which could save you hundreds of hours (and tens of thousands of dollars of opportunity cost developing that dictionary)?

THEN YOU COULD ....
If you had this dictionary of variables, you could then take your forms and drag-and-drop or select-and-wizard, quickly replacing all you matter-specific information and your conditional text with codes. These could be processed through an automation tool ... and voila, you would be done with the automation project.

IS THIS A BUSINESS MODEL?
We are exploring whether this is a possible business model ... Is there a market for "practice systems" as taxonomies? Let us know.

Getting started in the morning

2005-04-04T21:54:00.000+10:00

With so many fun things to do (like blawging), it is hard to settle and get down to work. We have a few new automation projects coming in, so I thought it might be fun to do a progress journal to give you and idea of the steps in undertaking a document project proconsystematically(tm).

Today... the focus is on "help text". We are in the process of rebuilding a system with extensive help text stored in a database. Several SQL querries later, we have built a system to report out the data into an HTML file for each HotDocs dialog, and have built URL links into the HotDocs Component file.

The catch is that the entries in the database use different variable names than that found in HotDocs. So we have had to build a mapping grid to map from the current HotDocs variable name to the entry in the database. The tools are built, tested and debugged. But now, comes the manual process of identifying the mapping relationships for each of thousands of variables. That is today's task. Exciting,
huh?

The Value of "Polish"

2005-04-04T00:18:00.000+10:00

I was once approached by a young man to provide one-on-one HotDocs training, unconnected to a particular consulting project. When I asked why he chose me over the vendor-based training of LexisNexis, he said, "BECAUSE YOU GOT POLISH". I agreed, yes, I was Polish (my maternal grandmother was from Warsaw) .

This got me thinking, what he really meant. I know that I take time and care on my consulting projects to make sure the end-user experience is a positive experience, and that I make sure that the templates are readable by the content provider. I also take care to make sure that the formatting and style codes in Word and WordPerfect are consistent. My background as an attorney has led me to be detail oriented and thorough, removing any ambiguities in anything I write.

What is "Polish"
Polish begins typically when the template automation is completed (except the way I work, which is to complete the interview development before the template is automated). The typical user, creates their variables, give them each an explicit prompt (typically a long one), and then groups them on a dialog, and is ready to go.

But that is the point where "polish" begins:

Polish is redefining your prompts in context of the dialog to remove all extraneous words.
Polish is adding titles to dialogs, that may include variables, depending on the context the dialog is used
Polish is using prefixes in variable names to indicate the dialog on which the variable will be found
Polish is adding dialog scripts so that only relevant variables appear
Polish is requiring select variables be answered and adding a rule in the prompt to indicate which unanswered variables are required
Polish is adding additional text to a dialog that explains further how to answer questions or their implications
Polish is laying out your variables in a logical and compact order that maximizes the value of the screen real estate
Polish is thinking about the implications of unanswered variables

Polish is unnecessary ... since the templates WILL assemble without any of this being done.

The Value of Polish
Polish is not cheap. Polish can take as long as the initial creation of the variables and their prompts. I have spents tens of hours on polish for clients. But this was money well spent. Polish does not make the "template assembly" faster. What it does do is make the document assembly "more accurate" because the user fully understands the meaning of the questions and their implication. The user will not put in bad data or be prompted to enter irrelevant data.

The result is better documents: better because the right answers were given to the questions because these questions were understood.
The result is faster assembly: faster because the user only saw relevant questions and the user understood how to answer them.
The result is educational: educational, because the on screen help and linked help, plus the dialog and interview scripts guides the use as to both the relevant options and the correct answer so that junior associates and paralegals can create these documents with minimal training.
The result is more profits: profitable, because systems can be shown to clients to encourage them to send a greater volume of work to your firm, once they see the investment you have made in delivering them an efficient service.
The result is ancillary revenue: well built systems give the firm the option to offer the service directly to their clients or to market them as a commercial product to other law firms.

The choice is up to you.

Site Developments

2005-04-03T00:13:00.000+10:00

DocGuru adds Atom feed to the site
You can now get the site or pages using an XML fee. Try it out. Site Feed

Other Blogs to Consider

DocGuru has added links to other sites of note for those inclined to find out more about the intersection of Law and Technology.

Wells Anderson (Time Matters)
Focuses on tips for Time Matters users.

Dennis Kennedy (Legal Tech)
An attorney who has his pulse on developments in legal technology

Ron Friedman (Legal Tech)
Jeff Beard (Legal Tech)
IT Manager.net (Legal Tech)
Thomas Collins' Knowledge Aforethought
Jason Schultz (Legal Tech)
Lawyer Lounge (Legal Tech)
Tom Baldwin (Legal Tech)
yclipse (Legal Tech)
Jim Caloway (Law Practice Tips)
Bradley Huggins (Law Firm Management)
Matthew Homann's [Non] Billable Hour
Ernest & Dave's PDF for Lawyers
Kevin O'Keefe's Real Lawyers Have Blogs
Joy London's Excited Utterances

The R.O.I. for Case Management

2005-04-02T14:26:00.000+10:00

I was asked recently after a recent sales pitch for Time Matters, what was the R.O.I. for the services and software that I was recommending for a midsize firm.

I gave a FLIP response ... 15 more billable minutes per day. (a bit on the conservative side) ... since I was addressing issues of document tracking, client satisfaction from information at the attorney's finger tips, merge templates and clipboards, and a range of others major productivity gains.

Let's take 15 minutes a day for a 30 attorney firm with attorneys billing $300/hour, and lets say 10 paralegals billing $100/hour. We will assume 45 five-day weeks of work.

(.25hrs *5 days) * 45 weeks * $300 = $16,875 per attorney
(.25hrs *5 days) * 45 weeks * $100 = $5,625 per paralegal

For a Firm with 30 Attorneys and 10 paralegals, the annual ROI on case management would be a wopping $562,500, and that is a conservative estimate. What would you be willing to spend on software and consulting services to make $500,000 + per year? And that's the conservative estimates, before any real process automation such as document assembly.

Something to chew on.

What are you waiting for?

2005-04-01T11:13:00.000+10:00

Document Assembly is not some "magic bullet" that just happens. It requires work. It is the practice of law "writ large". It is also programming. And therein lies the rub. In academic circles, the mantra is "publish or perish". In legal circles, it should be "automate or perish".

But automation is not taking some dumb forms and putting in a few HotDocs fields or merge-codes. Automation is looking at your entire business process and reassessing how you work. It is the process of identifying what processes or redundant or inefficient. It could be getting rid of "unnecessary staff". It could be building out a case management system to capture information "once" that can be use throughout the case.

It could be as simple as a rule I enforce in my office, that no contact goes unlogged or unprofiled. Every email or call is logged. If it is from a new contact, I require that a contact profile be created and that contact be categorized and ranked based on its importance to doing business. Think of all the effort spent marketing yourself and your business to get someone to make that call or send you that e-mail. Are you going to throw away money by not capturing that contact. There may be lulls in your business when you focus on "marketing" that you can sift through those "leads" and follow-up. If not promising today, how about tomorrow.

Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at office processes that are ripe for automation, and invite you to participate. This is not "automation for the sake of automation"... but rather automation for profits. These are not vanity suggestions, but sound investments with a definite ROI.

This Blog is available for RSS streaming ... so you can come back as much as you like or arrange for notification in your inbox.

Cheers,

Seth

Google Maps ... wow!!!!

2005-04-01T10:07:00.000+10:00

Found a cool toy today when playing with Time Matters powerviews. Want to try it out ... give it a wiz to find my office Click here!

If you want to find directions to my office, just click on "To Here" and put your street address and zip code. If you want to find the nearest pizaria, click on "Local Search" and type "Pizza".

Want to see where I fit into the big picture, click on the zoom bar on the left and zoom out. Try dragging the map and recentering it. Google does it right ... that's all I can say.

ClearType and Fuzzy Screens

2005-03-31T22:42:00.000+10:00

As we are all getting bigger and bigger monitors and more and more ram on our graphics cards, I have found that the actual resolution of text on the screen is getting fuzzier, not sharper. I have dual 19'' monitors. A friend of mine has dual AppleVision 24" monitors and has far sharper/crisper text.

A tip from eWeek gave me the solution -- ClearType. This is a Display Property setting on WindowsXP. I made the change and I can now read the New York Times online without eye fatigue.

Open Display Properties from the Control Panel
Click on the Appearance Tab
Click on Effects button
Check "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:"
Choose ClearType

You will thank me for this one.

Relaunch of HotDocs CIC Program

2005-03-31T02:12:00.000+10:00

Well ... it took a while, over a year, but LexisNexis has relaunched its consultant partner program. Over a year ago, LexisNexis enforced its "minimum sales commitments" provision in its Partner Agreement and used this as a reason to eliminate all but 4 consultants from the HotDocs partner program.

A new enlightened management team has totally revamped the partner program. It is no longer a a "sales" program to drive HotDocs sales through its "channel partners." The new program, redubbed the Certified Independent Consultant (C.I.C.) program focuses on training, support and certification. It is modelled on the successful Time Matters A.I.C. program which Time Matters has used to build a network of hundreds of independent consultants.

We wrote over the summer stressing the importance of "independent consultants" to successful implementation of document assembly and case management systems. Someone at LexisNexis has listened.

F.Y.I. Basha Systems has applied to be a HotDocs C.I.C. and will soon be rejoining the program after a hiatus of over a year, and able to offer its clients HotDocs software in conjunction with the consulting and support services many of you have come to know and love.

Client Support Boards for Document Assembly and Case Management

2005-03-31T01:38:00.000+10:00

We have taken the next level in practicing what we preach. Basha Systems has instituted web-based discussion forums for maintaining client projects. On these forums, clients on support contracts are invited to post requests and report "errata". These topics are logged and addressed in published systems.

This new approach to client support, replaces endless emails, with threaded discussions. The discussions are open to all on the project team. They avoid the "email clutter" and give project managers and staff a central place to discuss template development and operations.

Check out the site, and register for the public discussion forums.

Feature Package Revolution appears in Technolawyer

2005-03-31T01:06:00.000+10:00

Synopsis of Article: Case management systems have always been either too simplistic to cover "your needs" or too complex to cover your resources and capabilities at customization. There have always been armies of consultants ready to provide invaluable advice for a price — a steep price. The revolution comes as enhancements to the leading case management products have laid the foundation for an emerging market of add-on products. These products can install in minutes or hours and replace dozens of hours of customization, leaving room in the budget for vital user training. In this article, case management expert Seth Rowland discusses the case management products that support "feature packages" and highlights some of the packages currently available. This article contains 1,775 words.

Read up on how "Feature Packages" are enhancing the opportunities for effective case management implementation. While you are are it, look at Basha System's special feature packages for Time Matters:

Record Room Management System
Litigation Files Management System
BlumbergExcelsior FLIP for Time Matters (File Label Index Printer)

Document Assembly Revolution appears in Technolawyer

2005-03-25T01:12:00.000+10:00

Synopsis In this article, legal technology consultant Seth Rowland explains why you should take a new look at "document assembly." According to Seth, document assembly software is better than ever, more powerful, and easier to use. With Seth's guidance, you'll find the perfect solution whether you want to work on the Web, share your templates over a network, or simply build a library of your favorite clauses. Perhaps most significantly, Seth discusses new services that enable you to pay for document assembly on a per document or subscription basis. This article contains 2,147 words.

Basha Systems is in the forefront of document assembly. For more information on the main products discussed in the article, click on the links below

General discussion of document assembly
HotDocs
GhostFill
DealBuilder

DealBuilder - Bringing Intelligent Markup Tools to Document Assembly

2005-02-26T11:32:00.000+10:00

Business Integrity's flagship document assembly tool, DealBuilder, brings intelligent markup tools to lawyers. It's analytic engine sets the bar for GhostFill and HotDocs to meet in its ability to identify logical inconsistencies in document assembly coding.

Basha Systems is now adding DealBuilder to its arsenal of tools for handling document assembly projects. We have entered into a Partner Agreement to offer DealBuilder Server and DealBuilder Author automation services to our clients. Click here for more details. Click here for more information about DealBuilder services.

Document Assembly - A New Way To THINK

2004-07-09T07:50:00.000+10:00

Did you ever wonder what it was like to "THINK" in a new language? Did you ever wonder why some people seem born with a natural affinity for languages. At a certain point, it just "CLICKS" and you are the document assembly consultant extraordinaire ... you get document assembly, it is in your blood.

How does this happen? It doesn't happen overnight. But it can happen fairly quickly. Document Assembly is structured thinking, much like law or other serious thinking professions. One needs to anticipate the obvious, state the obvious and then proceed to the oblique. Document Assembly allows you to be proconsystematic: Pro for proactive, Con for consistent throughout, and Systematic for an approach that looks at the whole system. Once you start thinking this way, document assembly becomes easy. Everything follows from some basic rules.

Further Information

Document Assembly at www.bashasys.com

2004-07-09T07:47:00.000+10:00

Well, my webmonkey has been whining for two days now, about having to throw up a new section on my website. Document Assembly doesn't look like that much work, but its a good effect, all things considered.

Boy is he gonna be unhappy when I refer him to my "future of XML in Document Assembly" article and tell him he has to expand that to more pages in the document assembly section. Oh well, I pay him on time, he can deal with it.

At any rate, if anyone cares, we've gone to the trouble of putting up a LOT of material regarding document assembly. This includes approaches, stratagems and methods to complete document assembly projects in a timely and profitable fashion. You can read all about it at:

www.bashasys.com/documentassembly

Latest Developments

2004-07-09T07:37:00.000+10:00

Matters to consider

This is something to consider.

Future of XML in Document Assembly

2004-06-27T01:24:00.000+10:00

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. XML is NOT a programming language. For those who do document assembly with HotDocs or GhostFill or DealBuilder (or any other document assembly language), you will recognize XML as a similar type markup language. It is only when the "template" is processed through an assembler, that the markup actually does anything.

Now why should you care about XML?

XML as a markup does NOT disappear during the assembly. Properly instituted it remains as a tag in the resulting document. With an XLT file the data in the legal document can be extracted and categorized based on its XML tag. What that means is that you can send a Contract out to another party, and rather than "reading" the document, the other party can "transform" the document into a summary term sheet or abstract ... proof that abstract, and then "transform" it back into the contract.

XML also means that the data in the contract can be "transformed" into an entry in a contract management database that contains all the "key" ... non-boilerplate terms of the agreement.

Some may say that an XML Answer file produced during a first draft document assembly is enough. That will work, so long as there is NO NEGOTIATION of the agreement. The magic of XML encoding of documents is that the document can be negotiated and the data can still be extracted.

In the future, document assembly systems will use industry standard XML markup tags based on data-type and property. We are looking into creating the add-on tools to provide this encoding as part of the standard document assembly package, whether you are using GhostFill, HotDocs or some other platform.

[We will try to make weekly posts on issues affecting document assembly. If you like what you see, post your comments]

State of Document Assembly

2004-05-22T06:48:00.000+10:00

I was recently asked to survey the existing document assembly software available. There is a perception in the United States market that there are only two or three viable document assembly programs: HotDocs, GhostFill and ThinkDocs. While it is true that these programs have the dominant market share, and have developed significant support organizations and loyal fans, this does not tell the entire story.

“Stop, Look, Listen … then Do” - The Argument for Practice Management

2004-05-21T07:11:00.000+10:00

When my son entered kindergarten last year, the first lesson he learned was the following: “Stop, Look, Listen … then Do.” When the Mrs. Lucas rang the bell, he was to immediately “stop” what he was doing and “look” around to see where the teacher was. He was to then to “listen” to what the teacher had to say. And only then was he to “do” whatever he was supposed to do.

Robert Fulghum said that everything you need to know, you learned in kindergarten. When it comes to assessing whether a practice management solution is for you, Mrs. Lucas’ advice should be heeded.

“Stop”. Most lawyers are too busy rushing from one important matter to another to give proper attention to yet another matter. There are so many hours in the day. You need to stop, before you can think. Dedicate a solid uninterrupted hour, maybe even a whole day when there are no client or management concerns.

“Look”. If you are in business, you are currently managing your practice. This doesn’t mean you are managing it well or couldn’t manage it better. But before you launch into a new practice management system that is going to turn your office upside down, “look” at how you are managing. Evaluate both your manual and electronic processes.

Whether you work with a consultant or brazen it out on your own, you will need to know what you are currently doing. Talk to the secretaries, the paralegals, the associates and your partners. Look at your billing records by category of work. Look at how current (or not) your colleagues are in entering their time. Document the current processes. Realize that any change should build on and extend existing processes.

“Listen”. You can, of course, listen to consultants. You should talk to colleagues at other law firms to understand the solutions they chose. Ask them how the implemented those solutions, not just what product they chose. Most of all, however, listen to your staff. Find out what they want. Find out what is missing from the current system, what processes “don’t make sense”.

“then Do”. After you have stopped, looked and listened, you need to act. This is the hardest part because it requires expenditure of time and money, with no immediate payback. Automation projects have a tendency to drag on. The longer they drag on, the more expensive they get. Once you have done your due diligence, come up with a project plan and start implementing it. The time to act is “now”.

Implementing a practice management solution is an investment in your business. Practice management is not a “must have” toy that you show off to potential clients, much as I show off the Alienware Area-51M laptop I am using to write this column. It is a tool that no client ever sees directly, yet impacts on every action you do for them. A practice management solution insinuates itself into the way you relate to your clients and the way you practice law.

By “practice management” I mean the care and feeding of existing clients. Practice management allows you to know every last detail about you clients. Through contact profiles and related notes, tasks, events, calls, emails, and documents, you can know at a glance what to report when the client calls. You can “data-mine” your database to know which clients would benefit from news about a change in the tax law, which incidentally would mean more business for you when they come in to get the appropriate documents drafted up to gain the benefit of the change.

By “practice management” I mean effective prospecting for new clients. Your database can store details on anyone you know or want to know. You can build marketing campaigns to approach certain groups of contacts and use the system to produce letters and e-mails, with ticklers to remind you to make follow up calls. It may even be as simple getting in the business cards you picked up at your last seminar, and sending a thank you e-mail.

By “practice management” I mean the consolidation of all information relating to your cases into a single place. Most attorneys will carefully create a redweld when they open a case with folders for correspondence, pleadings and other matters. More than half of the relevant information will never get into the redweld. More often, it will be inconvenient to grab the redwelds and thumb through them looking for the information you need. With a database, all the information in the redweld is a single click away. Just open the matter, and click on the timeline. You can see all documents, notes, events, tasks, calls and emails, both by category and by date.

By “practice management” I mean the production of consistent, high quality work product. There is no reason why your regular correspondence and basic legal documents shouldn’t be error free. Rather than hunting for precedents, you should standardize the forms and then automate their creation using a mix of formattable clipboards, merge templates and document assembly tools. How many investments will let you “print money”? With document assembly you can get documents drafted in a fraction of the time it would take to word-process them, and then charge clients for the value of the services rendered, rather than the time.

By “practice management” I mean the capturing of five to ten additional billable hours per week. How many attorneys can account for every minute of their day when it comes to drawing up the time sheets? With a database that can track the time spent on calls, documents, notes, e-mails, research, as well as tasks and calendared items you will never lose another billable dollar. All items in the database can be timed and billed.

By “practice management” I mean the ability to find the document you need when you need it. All client documents are profiled by client and matter, available with a single click. Precedent documents are not sitting in some subfolder of your partner or secretary’s “my documents” folder. If they are profiled, they can be pulled up by category on the document list. You can even do a “full-text” search of the contents to find the appropriate document.

Finally, by “practice management” I mean mobility, the ability to hit the open road and take it with you. This may be done by synchronizing your calendar and contacts with a PalmPC and PocketPC. It may mean downloading a subset of the database to your laptop before you head off-site. It may also mean accessing the complete database over the internet. One case management system lets you send an email to the database and get back a full contact report on a client and calendar.

Effective practice management will improve your life, improve the way you relate to clients, and improve your bottom line. If the catalog above matches your vision of legal practice management, I encourage you to “Stop, Look, Listen and then Do.”

For more information visit
our website.

Summer is Here - The Heat is On

2004-05-18T00:01:00.000+10:00

The Heat is On
As the mercury rises with the coming of summer, changes are brewing in the document assembly industry. The battle has yet to be fully joined, but the opening skirmishes bode well for those hearty soul who have invested their time and efforts into building a skill set in document assembly.

Why would you care about independent consultants?
The key reason is service and support. Independent consultants goal is to service their clients with the best solution possible. They need access to vendor training and early access to vendor software and API's so that they can better serve their customers. Independent consultants also tend to have advanced professional degrees and good business sense. They have sacrificed well paying jobs for the vaguaries of consulting practice. Many of them have years of experience in the vertical industries which they serve. They also have a vested interest in being responsive to support calls which is good for everyone.

Independent consultants are likely to give you a straight answer to a support question, rather than a scripted answer. They will also give you workarounds and alternative solutions. And, for repeat problems, they can aggregate issues and present those issues to the vendor and be heard.

Why shold Vendors Care about Independent Consultants?
The answer is cost and client service. At the very least, independent sellers move software product. However, this number alone doesn't not tell their value. In fact, software markups are less than 5% of my profits, and if you value the full cost of the software as a percent of Gross Revenue, it never exceeds 10-15%. There is little money in the software for the consultant. However, the ability to deliver the software as a package with services and the endorsement of the vendor, do drive sales.

The more significant reason is support costs and software renewals. Clients who are working with a consultant are more likely than not to upgrade their sofware when new versions come out, because they are actually getting value out of the software and because their support questions are being answered by their consultant. Happy clients are likely to recommend the software to their friends. The current CRM systems do not track those sales that come from a referal by a client supported by an independent consultant. Also, a significant value is reduced support costs. In a typical sale, if internal support exceed several hours, the entire profit from the sale has been overwhelmed by the fixed staff cost of responding to those support calls.

Closing Remarks
As the summer progress look for these new initiatives. Think about what document assembly could do for you and your work. Support your local, regional or national document assembly consultant.

**** ADVERTISEMENT ****
View some of our recent product offerings

Opening Thoughts

2004-05-13T06:34:00.000+10:00

Document Assembly is at a cross roads. After ruminating for 20 years, it is finally coming out the back offices and into the front office. It is no longer that dirty little secret that lawyers and knowledge workers hide from their clients.

The documents produced using expert drafting systems reflect the expertise of the designers. And, while the technology has existed for a long time, the willingness of the knowledge workers to share that knowledge with other is coming to new fruit. Several initiatives are under way to bring systems which raise the bar. The expertise is now available in the creating of a wide range of documents.

In these pages, I will be exploring my thoughts on the current state of document assembly technology and the future of that technology. Some of my expressions will be ones of hope, others of frustration. If this is an area that interests you, read on. More information is available at http:\\www.bashasys.com.