Law Office Technology

MiFi much Better then AirCard

Ditched my AT&T Aircard the other day.  The network was unreliable and my aircard was poorly made and kept breaking. I decided to join the sprint network and use the MiFi 2200 from Novatell, which is a small portable router that hooks up to Sprint Network.

Since I usually travel with two laptops and an iphone, now all these devices can connect to the MiFi for internet. I can also put the MiFi near a window in a hotel and then go back to the desk to work without having to worry about getting a good connection. Costs about $100 after rebates and the sprint data plan is $60 a month.  Seems to be much more reliable then AT&T. I am in car heading up to Oxford to the LSU Ole Miss Game and have only lost connection twice.  It is about the size of a deck of cards but much thinner.   This would be great for Clio users.

Advice for using Hosted Exchange

I have been getting a lot of questions about Hosted Exchange recently.  Law Office Technology has been using it for over a year and selling and setting it for client sites for the past 6 months.  If you are going to use hosted exchange, I recommend buying it from a company that does not force you to enter in your email password every time you open up Outlook.  I had a client that purchased hosted exchange that did that, and every time they opened Amicus, it would crash outlook.  Fortunately the hosted exchange that we resell does not ask you for the username or password when you log into outlook.  If you are linking ay product with outlook, whether it be PCLaw, Amicus, TimeMatters, Worldox, ect, you must make sure that you do not have to enter in your password every time. 

New Great way to schedule meetings

http://tungle.me/craigbayer

Added this to my signature line.  If someone outside of my office wants to know if I am available, it is very easy for them to find out.  

Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference

I will be in Missouri this upcoming week for their state’s Solo and Small Firm Conference.  I will be working the Clio booth, which is Practice Management SaaS for attorneys. 

For more info on Clio, click here: http://www.goclio.com/

For more info on the conference click here: http://members.mobar.org/sasf2009/index.html

ThompsonWest Webinar Series

 Tom O’Conner, Browning.Marean and I have been doing some Webinar’s on legal technology for ThompsonWest.  We did one on Basic Law Firm Technology yesterday and we are doing one on 1/21/2008 on disaster recovery.  Certain states will give CLE Credit. 

Here is the description:

Disasters come in many forms -- hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, power outages even terrorist attacks.  The best disaster recovery plan is a disaster preparation plan so that your practice can be back in business as soon as possible. Technology can assist this process but there are other important business decisions to consider as well: availability of equipment, access to data, staffing issues .....all these are supported by technology in today's law firm and this session will show you how to put the the right technology system in place before disaster strikes.

http://westlegaledcenter.com/program_guide/course_detail.jsf?videoCourseId=18196558

 

 

Fujitsu ScanSnap Makes it very easy to scan to Sharepoint

I was talking to someone from Fujitsu the other day and telling him that it would be great if my ScanSnap 300 would scan directly into SharePoint.  He let me know that Fujitsu has had that feature for awhile.  I simply needed to put the install cd back into my computer and run the setup.

I chose Scan for Microsoft SharePoint ®

Then ran the wizard

 

Now when I scan, I can choose Scan For SharePoint

And can choose the location in SharePoint

This is great feature and it works flawlessly. 

Office Communication Server

Our firm has begun to use Office Communication  Server for instant messaging.  We were using MSN Messenger but there was underlying concern about using a personal instant messenger for Business Communications.

Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and other instant messenger programs are not secure.  Therefore if you send messages with confidential client information you are potentially allowing your client’s information to get stolen.  I know many firms that use these type of instant messengers and this can leave an open door for a breach of client confidentiality.    

Office Communication Server is completely secure so when I am at a client’s office and ask my assistant through communicator what is the admin password for the client’s server, I do not have to worry about that information being leaked to the entire world. 

OCS give us three ways to connect:

1. Through Software downloaded on the workstation.

 

2. Through a web based portal available in Internet Explorer and Fire Fox.

3. On a Windows Mobile or Blackberry Device

Tight Outlook Integration

1. Conservations are archived and can be searched in outlook.

2. Easily allows you to send an Email Message through Communicator

3. When replying to an email in Outlook, you can send it as an instant message

4. Communicator will look at your Outlook Calendar and set your Availability Status depending on your appointments.

Advantages:

• Can send attachments through a secure network.  Attachments in Emails are not secure.  Ours allows files up to 50MB and is faster then an attachment on an email. 
• Can be used with VOIP and Video Conferencing

Disadvantages:

• Can only communicate with OCS Users
• Available only on Windows Mobile and Blackberry.  Not on I-Phone or Palm Based devices.