Law Office Technology

Vista SP1 Recognizes 4.00GB of Ram in 32-bit Operating Systems

I have to thank Charles C. Hocker from Dog River Business Solutions for tipping me off that Vista SP1 fixes the issues of not recognizing all 4gb of ram in the operating system.  I was about to wipe my laptop and install Server 2003. 

 

SP1 defiantly makes Vista more stable and faster.

1st Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference

I will be speaking with along with Thomas J. O'Connor at  the Louisiana State Bar Association's 1st Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference which will be held in New Orleans on May 8th and 9th.  There a lot of national speakers coming to this event so I think it would be a great ideal to attend.  It will  in New Orleans at the Hilton Riverside Hotel.  Tom and I will be speaking on Low Cost Office Tech Essentials on Friday at 2:30.

Amicus Mobile

Besides the release of Amicus 2008 Premium, the most important announcement at the Partner Conference was Amicus Mobile.  This is an application for mobile phones or smartphones that basically allows you to use Amicus Attorney real time on your phone. 

My Take on the Best Features:

• Now, when your secretary sends you a phone message in Amicus, it actually shows up on your phone.
• You can send a sticky from your phone to your assistant and she will get  it real time.
• When you make or receive a phone call, Amicus asks you if you would like to record the phone call and bill for the duration of the call.
• You can open up files and view file information.

The big issue with this product is that it will only be available on Windows Mobile Phones and not Blackberry and Palm.  To me this is a no brainier.  Palm is been slowly dying and losing tons of market share.  Blackberry is a pain to develop and support software.  If a user of mine has a blackberry, I have to spend 2 hours setting up the Blackberry enterprise server and the client has to pay money to use it for real time synchronization.  The iphone is a really cool product, but not practical in a business environment.  Windows mobile takes about 5 minutes to setup and is very stable and user friendly.  If your contract on your phone is running out, consider getting a windows mobile device. 

Updates from the Amicus Attorney Conference in Toronto

I have been in Toronto since Wednesday at the Amicus Attorney Partner Conference.  These conferences are usually timed with the release of a new software and this year it is Amicus Premium 2008.  While previous versions of Amicus ( X and to a lesser extent 7) have been problematic, Amicus 2008 is the real deal.  It actually has been installed in the field and used successfully by law firms in the beta version and is know ready for wide release.  I have had many drinks with the consulting firms that implemented 2008 and have been impressed on how smooth the upgrade has gone.  For those using Amicus 7, it brings much need stability and some new features.  For those using Amicus V, this is a much needed upgrade, with tons of new features.  Note that Amicus V came out in 2001 and most Amicus Users are still on that version (At least my clients).  You have until March 31st to purchase 2008 with a significant upgrade. 

FYI for those installing TimeMatters in a Vista Environment

Shut off User Control, Install the program and and turn User Control back on.