Many thanks to Adriana Linares who took these pictures of Tom O’Conner and I goofing off in the Amicus Booth. New Orleans attorney Doug Goff pretended to be interested in Amicus (He has had Amicus for years). I was lucky to have the wall to projected on, which during the breaks all the exhibitors and I watched march madness.
As we gear up for the ABA TechShow this week, I thought I would write about a couple of things that I am looking forward to, besides Kitty O’Sheas, the Irish Pub in the Hilton. Last week Fujitsu released the ScanSnap S1500, its replacement for the popular S510. If you are wondering why you can’t seem to implement a paperless office at your firm, you probably don’t have a Fujitsu ScanSnap. The beauty of the entire ScanSnap line is the one touch scanning, which allows you to scan documents with the click of a button and a moment later Adobe Acrobat pops opens with the documents you just scanned . I have been pushing the S510 line for sometime and have gotten rave reviews from my clients. The General rule of thumb is after one ScanSnap is placed in an office, 1-3 months later there is a ScanSnap on everyone’s desk.
Here are some of the details on the S1500:
•Color, Grayscale, and Black & White
•Double-sided Scanning
•Superior CCD Optics
•Optical Resolution up to 600 dpi
•Feeds up to 20 Pages Per Minute (40 ipm)
•Fast High Resolution Scanning (20 ppm @ 300 dpi Color)
•Holds 50 Pages in the Automatic Document Feeder
•One Button Scan Operation (PDF, S-PDF, JPEG)
•Compact Design with Footprint Smaller than an A4 Laptop
•Advanced Multi-feed Detection (Ultrasonic)
•Feeds Sizes from Business Card to A3 (Double Letter)
•Long Document Scanning up to 34 inches
•Carrier Sheet Scanning
And here is the Gravy:
It comes with Adobe 9.0 Standard which costs $299.99. The retail cost for the S1500 is $495.00.
Here is the bonus gravy, Intelligent Image Correction which allows:
I will have one of these soon, so I will give an official review in a couple of weeks.
I have been honored to be invited to speak and the 2nd Annual Louisiana Solo and Small Firm Conference which will be March 26 & 27 at the Sheraton in New Orleans. I will be speaking on the 27th at 8:30 am on Taking your Office with You Ethically and Professionally with James Province and Anthony Laverde. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with James a couple of months ago in Mississippi and James was such a good presenter that I went out and bought a tablet pc.
Here is the information below:
· REGISTER NOW!! Advance Registration: $150 available through Feb. 20
· The dual-track program has been approved for 12.5 hours of CLE, including ethics, professionalism and law office management.
· Keynote Speaker Ari Kaplan’s presentation on How to Stand Out in a Stagnant Economy will be featured on Thursday, March 26. He is the author of The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development (Thomson-West, 2008), a book advising lawyers about standing out in today’s stagnant economy. As the principal of Ari Kaplan Advisors, Kaplan addresses professionals internationally about the mechanics of getting published and dynamic networking.
· Registration includes electronic version of the conference materials for attendees to download, conference attendance, and coffee/refreshment breaks.
· To review the conference schedule, register online or download a mail-in registration form, go to: http://www.lsba.org/2007cle/seminardetail.asp?CLEID=111
· For further information or questions, please contact Eric Barefield at (504) 619-0122, toll free (800) 421-5722 ext. 122, or ebarefield@lsba.org
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
Recently there has been a lot of chatter going back and forth about patches that cause more problems then they fix. A couple of vendors have released some patches and service packs and have quickly pulled them when they realized that they caused problems. A lot of my fellow brethren have been up in arms over this situation. Here is a little secret that I have used to keep me sane:
I NEVER RUN ANYWAY UPDATE OR PATCH UNTIL IT HAS BEEN OUT FOR AT LEAST 2 MONTHS
I NEVER INSTALL A NEW VERSION UNTIL IT HAS BEEN OUT 3-6 MONTHS
Microsoft spends billions on research and they still release service packs that cause issues. Vendors in the Legal Market do not have billions to spend and their products are often buggy when first released. That is the reason I shut off all the automatic updates (for legal software) at my client’s offices.
There is a saying in war that “The best-laid plans work well until the first bullet is fired.” Well in the software world, “The most carefully researched and studied upgrades work will until the first piece of software is installed at your client’s office.”
Don’t be a Guiney Pig!
On August 1st, Law Office Technology along with Tom O' Conner from the Gulf Coast Technology Center, Digital Legal, and the Louisiana State Bar Association put on a seminar on how Law Firms could use Microsoft products in their practice. Law Office Technology was able to get Microsoft to send down the Microsoft Across America Truck which was full of Microsoft Technology. Attendees listened to three presentations and received CLE credit. The first presentation dealt with Essential Technology a new firm would need to purchase. The second, which in my opinion stole the show, was attorney Hector Lopez who described how his firm used Microsoft Hosted SharePoint and Hosted Exchange, along with a VOIP system to create a virtual office with none of the limitations of a traditional brick and mortars Law Firm. In my opinion, this is the future, today. The last presentation, by me, described how Outlook with Business Contact Manager could be turned into a Case Management System.
The Microsoft truck was filled with Smartphones, Servers, Tablet PCs, Projectors, Conferencing equipment, and an Xbox with Halo. After each presentation Attorneys were able to file into the truck and see the technology in action. With the success of this event, we hope to have the truck back in the spring.
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.
Partner Details on Microsoft Licensing Relief Program in Louisiana:
Microsoft and the state of Louisiana announced a License Relief Program for small businesses in Louisiana affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that launched October 1st. Through this Program, qualifying Small Businesses in Louisiana can be eligible to have their entire first year Open Value payment made by Microsoft on their behalf to allow them to benefit from the use of Microsoft technology as they strive to get back on their feet without having to absorb the up-front cost to do so.
What Small Businesses qualify for this Licensing Relief Program?
a. Small Businesses who meet ALL of the requirements below are eligible for this program:
• For-profit business with less than 200 employees
• In business prior to August 29, 2005, the date of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, or September 24, 2005, the date of Hurricane Rita’s landfall
• Business was located in one of the 30 Federal disaster designated Louisiana Parishes. (Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Calcasieu, Cameron, E. Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Iberville, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Vermillion, W. Baton Rouge, W. Feliciana, and Washington)
• Have applied for the following federal or state government business assistance programs: SBA Disaster loan, State Bridge loan, and State Small Firm Loan and Grant Program? (You need not have been approved for aid.)
• Must purchase a three-year Microsoft Open Value Software License for business software and bring the purchase agreement to a Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC) office and fill out the application.
• The purchase must be made between September 28th, 2007 and Sept 24th, 2008.
3) How does the process work?
• Qualifying Small Business purchases a new three-year Microsoft Open Value Agreement through any local or national reseller
• Business owner brings first year invoice and documentation of federal/state assistance application to LSBDC
• LSBDC enters agreement number and other pertinent information into Microsoft web-based application and faxes copy of invoice to Microsoft
• Business owner leaves SBDC with "receipt" for their application, printed off the Microsoft web app
• Microsoft processes the application to validate the agreement, etc.
• If approved, Microsoft issues a check for the 1st year payment and sends it to reseller with SBDC cover letter
• Microsoft informs the SBDC that the check is cut or, if it's not approved, the reasons why not
• LSBDC informs small business that the process is complete
4) What purchases qualify for this program?
a. New three-year Open Value License + Software Assurance (L+SA) purchases made between September 28th, 2007 and Sept 24th, 2008 by qualifying Small Businesses.
5) Do Software Assurance only purchases or renewals, or any other purchasing program except a new Open Value L+SA purchase qualify?
a. No, Software Assurance (SA) only, OEM, Retail Box/Full-Package Product (FPP), Academic, Charity, Open Business, Select, Enterprise Agreement, or any other licensing program would not qualify.
You can view some additional information on this program below:
Visit the Microsoft Partner Program Portal.
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I am using Windows Vista Speech Recognition to dictate this blog post in Windows Live Writer . I think it will give Dragon Naturally Speaking a run for its money, since it comes built into Vista and does not require you to buy any additional software. You still will need a good USB microphone. The Speech Recognition takes only 30 minutes for the basic setup. I still need to spend some time training my voice. I believe that we will hear about more law firms beginning to dictate this way.
Besides Dictation, you can also use it to control windows. When I say start calculator (had to type that) it actually opens the calculator. If I say print, it prints the document and if say close, it will close it.
Click here to view a Microsoft Demo
On a side note I don't believe that this feature will work with WordPerfect.
