Law Office Technology

Gulf Coast Technology Center Website

http://www.gulfltc.org/

Microsoft to help out Louisiana

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:

• Breaking News: Microsoft continues to expand hurricane relief efforts with help for Small Businesses through license reimbursement program
• Additional Details and Information about License Relief Program Announced Monday

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Visit the Microsoft Partner Program Portal.

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Speech Recognition comes built into Vista

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.

Why have I not been Posting

Besides being extremely busy adding new clients in the past couple of months, our firm has made two drastic changes, that in the short term, made us less productive, and in the long term made us more productive. I will address these two changes in more detail in the upcoming weeks, but will briefly discuss them below. The first change was that we got rid of all of our Palm based smart phones and replaced them with windows based smart-phones. I am writing this post on a Treo 750 from Cingular, which is way more superior than any palm based phone I have used. The second change is that our firm upgraded all of our machines from XP to Vista. We want to stay ahead of the curb in technology, which is dangerous but exciting. I am still not recommending that everyone switch to Vista and I only have one person in one firm using it. I love it and find it very fast but I am also using a brand new Dell Laptop with a Core DUO 2.0 processor and 4GB of RAM. Surprisingly, the laptop only cost me $1700, before the Vista operating System and Office 2007. The best thing about my laptop is that I am using Virtual PC 2007 to run a virturalized Small Business Server 2003 environment and two Windows XP Environments. When I go to demo products now, I can show potential customers the products in natural environments without messing up my main computer. All in all, both upgrades of the PC and Smart-phone were the right decisions, but the conversion was not as smooth as it could have been. However we have learned from those mistakes and will pass that knowledge onto our clients. Its good to be back.

SQL is Where it's At

Most good legal software programs are moving to SQL databases and this is a great step for the Legal Profession.  SQL databases make it very easy to link to other programs, are efficient enough to use over a VPN connection, and have virtually unlimited database capabilities.  SQL (Structured English Query Language)  Server was first released by Microsoft in 1993 and its latest version, SQL 2005, launched in Nov 2005.

SQL is a commonly used database and most programs are built with the ability to link to it.  A good example is HotDocs, a document generation program.  Some legal programs have a link to HotDocs, which sometimes I can find quite limiting.  If the program has a SQL Database I can use the HotDocs database to connect and link directly to the SQL database bi-passing the programs built in link.  This has two advantages for the user.  The first is that the direct link to the HotDocs database is usually way more robust than the program's link. And second, if the client has a program with no built in HotDocs link, you can just use the SQL Database Connect.

Lawyers (and just about anyone else) would love to work from home.  Back in 2002 I tried disastrously to run Amicus Attorney V and PCLaw 5 over a VPN connection that I had set up at a partner's home.  I wasted an entire day and it never came close to working.  Those versions of Amicus Attorney and PCLaw used a Ctree database and I have come to discover that it is pretty impossible to run a Ctree database over a VPN, regardless of the program.  Flash forward to 2006.  TimeMatters and PCLaw have Ctree and SQL versions, and Amicus has gone totally SQL.  From my home, I can VPN to my office's server and run Amicus Attorney, TimeMatters Enterprise, and PCLaw Enterprise like I was actually at my office.  Since I only make it in to the office about once a week, this is very effective for me.  If you have multiple offices, then they can all be connected together (SQL Replication) and you can work from home like you were in the office. 

Microsoft's newest version of SQL Server does have "some limitations".  Its maximum database size is 1,000,000 terabytes.  Now I don't have any clients with databases over 10 gigabytes and I would be surprised if there are a large number of firms with databases over 1 terabyte of data, but the ability is there and in the future more and more firms will move to the terabyte size.  The United States Library of Congress has around 20 terabytes of text.  In my experience, Ctree and other databases begin to crap out once you start getting into the 2 gigabyte range.  If you use a SQL database, you won't have to worry about space limitations for a long, long time.

If you are looking to purchase Legal Software, I would only buy programs that have a SQL database or have the ability to upgrade to one.  Unlimited linking, portability, and size are just to hard to pass up.