Law Office Technology

Use SQL to Change All Mobile Labels to Cell Labels in Amicus Premium Edition

A problem with Amicus Attorney is that it has too many labels for phone numbers

Having the labels Cell and Mobile ensures that half the firm will use one and the other half will use the other.  This becomes a big problem when setting up the Amicus Outlook Sync.  Outlook has a label for Mobile , but not one for Cell.

The iPhone has a label for Mobile as well, but not one for Cell

The end result is that I get clients complaining to me that they cannot find their customers numbers on their iPhones.  My solution is tell the clients to only use the Mobile Field in Amicus, which I have mapped to the Mobile Field in Outlook, which is mapped to the mobile field in the iPhone.  This is a great solution moving forward, but what about all the legacy contacts with phone numbers in the cell field?

Simple, we run a script in SQL that automatically changes all the Cell Fields to Mobile Fields.   

As we can see from above,  Cell is labeled 7 and Mobile is labeled 11.  Therefore when we run  the following script:

Use amicus
UPDATE dbo.Phone
SET PhoneLabelID = 11
WHERE PhoneLabelID = 7

All numbers labeled Cell will be changed to Mobile.

This is a lot easier then going into each label and changing all the contacts. 

Effective Email Management

I believe I have reached email nirvana using Outlook with Exchange and an iPhone 3GS.  Here is how I did it.

Work Flow:  As soon as an email is read, it is moved into a Folder with an a. in front of it.  Once an action has been taken, the email is then moved into either the Craig Bayer folder if it is personal or the Lawot folder if it is regarding work.

Create / Add to Ticket

When a client needs work done for us we create a ticket.  They should email support@lawot.com for this but if they happen to email me I move it into this folder.  My assistant watches the folder like a hawk and creates a ticket, assigns it to a consultant and moves the email to the Lawot Folder.

Workflow: Ticket is Created from the email immediately and then moved out of the folder.

Create Calendar

When some sends an email requesting an appointment I move it here.  Either my assistant or I will create a calendar event from the email by the end of the day.

Workflow: Calendar Event  is created from the email by the end of the business day and then moved out of the folder.

Create Contact

Anytime I receive an email that has a contact I need to create. 

Workflow: Contact  is created from the email by the end of the business week and then moved out of the folder.

Create KB

Law Office Technology uses an enterprise wiki called Brainkeeper for our knowledge base.  When I see an email that could be added to our knowledge base, like a best practices article I move it to this folder.

Workflow: Knowledge Base Article is created from the email by the end of business week and moved out of the folder.

Create To Do: Today, Week, Someday

Any email that needs a response is moved to one of following To Do folders.  If the email needs to responded to that day it is moved to Create To Do – 1.Today, if it needs a response by the end of the week, it is moved to Create To Do –2.Week.  If there is no deadline I  move it to Create To Do - 3.Someday.

Workflow: Today is responded to that Day, Week is responded to by the end of the business week and Someday has no time limit.  Once responded to the emails are moved to the Lawot folder.

Craig Bayer / Lawot

After the email has been processed, if it is personal, I move it to Craig Bayer and if it is business related it is moved to Lawot.

Facebook / Twitter

I have a rule created in Outlook that moves any notices from Facebook or Twitter to this folder.  I check it when I have time.

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. 

Reorganized Outlook for Iphone and Netbook use

Where I come from, Outlook is king.  I have rules, colored coded groups, you name it.  However,  I check at least 50% of my email on my iphone or netbook.  In Outlook, it is very easy to read an email and immediately create a To Do or an Appointment.  This is a lot harder in the iphone environment.  That is why I created 4 top level folders Create: Calendar, Contact, Ticket, To Do.  Therefore I can move an email into that needs to be an appointment into the Create Calendar Folder.  I have a rule attached to this folder which automatically sends it to my assistant so she can schedule the appointment. 

I get between 100-200 non junk emails a day and I always go to bed with no emails in my Inbox.

Add Outlook Signature to Amicus Premium

 

Go to Communications and go to Actions –> Outlook Email –> Set Outlook Signature

 

This will your outlook signature from Amicus

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. 

Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

Somehow I duplicated all my contacts in outlook.  This happens from time to time, especially if you have a third party link with a smartphone or a practice management software.  Microsoft's answer to deleting duplicate contacts is to select each duplicate by holding down the control key and hit delete.  When you have 900 duplicates, that is not really a good option. 

I found TeamScope's Contact Scrubber for Outlook by using Google and it easily fixed the problem.

The Contacts Scrubber™ for Outlook® provides a means of easily eliminating duplicate records from your Outlook Contacts. It works by processing your Outlook Contacts, looking for possible duplicate items. As it finds duplicates, it presents them to you, displaying field-by-field comparisons of item data, and proposing a logical way of merging the item data into one unique item. You may then merge these items; you can opt to use the program's proposed merge, or override it with your own personal choices, on a field-by-field basis.

 

 

http://www.teamscope.com/otherpro/utilities.asp

Steps to Configure Junk Email Options in Outlook 2007

These settings will help stop spam from reaching your inbox.

Actions --> Junk Email  --> Junk Email Options --> Safe Sender

Check "Automatically add people I email to the Safe Senders List."  This will help stop a lot of false positives.

International --> Blocked Top-Level Domain List

I block all countries except the United States and Canada. 

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

If you have workstations running Office 2007 in your office, it would be a good idea to download the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack.  It will allow users of Office 2000, 2002, and 2003 products to open up 2007's xml format.  I have started to install it on all client computers because users will start be receiving .docx from clients and other attorneys. 

A program is trying to access your outook.

Express Click Yes is a program that will get rid of the annoying outlook message that tells your a program is trying to access your data in outlook.  This is very good for Amicus, TimeMatters and PCLaw users who have links with outlook.