TechnoLawyer

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a document comparison and security software suite (see article below), a business-class VoIP service, speech recognition software for BlackBerrys, a court deadline calculator for iPhone, and a computerized pen that captures notes and accompanying audio and video. Don't miss the next issue.

A Rarity in the Software Industry

Email is a simple technology that creates complex problems for lawyers. For example, you may find that you need to compare multiple versions of a document, sometimes in different formats. You may need to collaborate on this document with multiple people. You will want to remove metadata before doing so and may even want to redact portions of the document. In short, you may find it necessary to use document comparison and collaboration software.

Workshare Professional 5.2 SR2 … in One Sentence
Workshare Professional 5.2 Service Release 2 (SR2) consists of a suite of tools that facilitates document comparison, multi-person document reviews and content security.

The Killer Feature
The software industry has a reputation for releasing products that don't perform properly. Many customers seem to have a high tolerance for these "bugs," but others shy away from upgrading or at least wait for reports from early adopters.

Recognizing that reliability is as important as any feature, Workshare underwent a reorganization about a year ago to improve product quality. For example, it beefed up its quality assurance testing protocols, expanded the number of beta testers, placed all software engineers on a single team, and hired a new VP of Engineering. Perhaps even more importantly, with quality being the priority it plans to issue fewer releases per year to lessen the burden on customers.

Workshare Professional 5.2 SR2 stems from this effort. "SR2 provides legal professionals with the customer experience they deserve," CEO Alan Fraser told us.

Other Notable Features
Workshare engineers may have focused on quality, but they managed to add many new functions as well. For example, in addition to comparing Word-to-Word, PDF-to-PDF, and Word-to-PDF, you can now compare embedded Excel tables, images, and image-based documents such as scanned and faxed documents.

Workshare Professional has long created PDF files. Now you can create PDF Portfolios. You can combine many different file types into a single Portfolio, remove metadata, apply security settings, organize pages, and export to a single PDF file while keeping the Portfolio intact should you need to make changes later.

New security features include redaction of Word documents, metadata discovery in password-protected documents and the ability to preview a document you've cleansed before emailing it. Workshare has also partnered with Safend to provide device control and USB port protection.

Finally, Workshare Professional now includes integration connectors for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007, Autonomy, and Open Text.

What Else Should You Know?
Pricing for Workshare Professional starts at $175 per seat. Learn more about Workshare Professional 5.2 SR2.

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So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a backup and sync service (see article below), an online service for securing digital signatures on documents, a Web site that helps you make decisions, a network security camera, and a GPS-based note-taking app for iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

Sweeten Up Your Backups

For a supposedly boring technology, backup software sure has received lots of media attention lately. There's a simple explanation. A talented public relations professional can make virtually any topic appear fascinating. Now that backup software has become a big business, big businesses have bought all the backup software companies — and invested heavily in public relations. So here we are reporting on the the latest media darling — but it may very well deserve all the hype.

SugarSync … in One Sentence
Sharpcast's SugarSync offers online backup of your files and file synchronization among multiple PCs and smartphones.

The Killer Feature
Increasingly, lawyers are traveling light with only their smartphones. A laptop makes you look like a drone whereas a smartphone makes you look like a master of the universe.

Recognizing this trend, Sharpcast offers a SugarSync app for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile. With these apps, you can access your files anywhere you have Internet access. You can also stream your music collection and wirelessly sync photos taken with your smartphone back to your PC. If you have a Palm Pre or other smartphone without a dedicated SugarSync app, Sharpcast offers a mobile-optimized Web site you can use.

Other Notable Features
SugarSync continuously backs up your files to a secure online repository, and stores the five most recent versions of each file (only the most recent version counts towards your storage quota). You can also archive files to preserve them no matter how many future versions you create.

SugarSync can also synchronize files among multiple computers, including Macs and PCs. Because your files also reside online, you can access them from any computer even if SugarSync is not installed. You can even upload the changes you make and SugarSync will update that file on your synchronized computers.

What Else Should You Know?
SugarSync also provides secure sending of files too large or sensitive to send by email. A free account contains 2 GB of storage and imposes some limits such as keeping only two versions of every file. The other four plans consist of 30 GB for $4.99/month, 60 GB for $9.99/month, 100 GB for $14.99/month, and 250 GB for $24.99/month. Learn more about SugarSync.

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So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Paul Strawinski reviews PaperPort, OmniPage, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Tom Trottier shares some Windows performance tips plus an excellent idea for those considering switching to a Mac, Sandra Adams suggests the best way to integrate Tabs3 and QuickBooks, Sebastian Carey compares eDocs to Worksite, and Chris Gierymski reviews SplitCourt for electronic filing. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: Just because you can create a PowerPoint presentation with flying text and a pink background to accompany your opening and closing arguments doesn't mean you should. But a professional looking slide show can have a significant impact. In this TechnoFeature article, trial presentation expert Ted Brooks offers ten trial presentation creation tips that you and your team can immediately put to use. Your adversaries will wonder what hit them.

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Using the Fujitsu S510 ScanSnap With Adobe Acrobat

Billing Options Have Paid Off for Tucker Ellis & West

Tag(line): You're It

This issue also contains links to every article in the July 2009 issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

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Coming today to Fat Friday: Nicholas Bettinger shares his tips for managing email overload, Theodore Borrego weighs in on Ross Kodner's BigSolo column, Bob Walsh reviews SherWeb for Hosted Exchange and Drobo, Samuel Matunog discusses social networking for lawyers, and Ann Vetter-Hansen reviews Rocket Matter. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to Answers to Questions: Mark Klarich shares what he has learned from running Windows on a Mac, Steven Polinsky reviews Stamps.com, Mark Deal comments on Dragon NaturallySpeaking and getting the most out of your tech purchases, Tom Trottier offers some tips for Microsoft Word's Styles feature for document formatting, and Todd Smith reviews GV Mobile for the iPhone. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: Working at home eliminates your commute. But apart from that obvious advantage, what other benefits does it provide? What about downsides? As with any endeavor, good advice from an experienced and knowledgeable source can help make the move to a home office successful. In this TechnoFeature, San Francisco attorney Grace Suarez draws from eight years in her home office to provide ten terrific tips. Don't set up shop in your house before reading this article.

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Originally published on July 6, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Documents, documents everywhere. But can you always find them? Do they all exist in one consolidated location? Can you share them with clients, co-counsel, co-workers, experts, or the courts? All fundamental questions we ask ourselves every day. As lawyers we are awash in documents, both in paper and electronic form. Add to that an unending pile of email. Lately, we've begun asking another question — can I access these documents from my smartphone?

The Historical BigLaw Document Management Advantage …

I've always considered document management systems, whether standalone products or the similar functionality built into a number of practice management systems, to be one of the four cornerstones of mission critical law practice tools. The other three cornerstones are billing/financial systems, word processing/document generation, and practice management/case information tracking/docketing/calendaring systems. Practicing any type of law, in a small or large situation, would be practically impossible without these technologies.

Large and mid-sized law firms have had a traditional edge over smaller firm practitioners in the area of document organization, management, and retrieval. The majority of these firms have long used document management systems such as OpenText e-Docs (f/k/a PC Docs or Docs Open), Autonomy Worksite (f/k/a iManage), Worldox, and more recently NetDocuments (documents management in the cloud).

This collection of applications provides a consistent interface and organizational structure for all documents (and email/attachments), often in a simple, file cabinet-like, client/matter format. They allow nearly instantaneous searching of work product — with full-text searching and searches based on "profile information" (i.e. client name, matter title, document type, area of practice, etc.).

But What About Smartphones?

Many smaller firms don't have a document management system — at least not small firms populated by lawyers who didn't come from larger practices that had long relied on such systems. But many small firm lawyers use smartphones — and increasingly they want access to their documents on these devices — a need that may result in a golden age for document management systems.

Let's say you have a shiny new smartphone — a new iPhone 3GS, or a Blackberry, a Treo, or Windows Mobile device. A client calls while you're driving (you of course answer via the Bluetooth connection built into your car), and asks for your opinion on the latest draft of a contract.

You just need quick access to see what your client is seeing. Safety dictates pulling over, but then what? If you have the small-firm friendly Worldox document management system and its Worldox/Web Mobile extension, you can securely access every single case-connected document and email on your office system from your smartphone. You can navigate your client/matter structure and conduct full-text searches, just as if you were in your office.

So you pinpoint the contract, pull it up on your smartphone display, review the question, and if you have a multi-tasking smartphone, call the client back and responsively address their question. If you need to edit, forward it to yourself, then use a tool like Documents to Go to edit the Word file on the fly, and then email it to your client.

That's just one example. Shop around and ask both document management and practice management vendors about their smartphone integration.

Take Advantage of Your Competition and Stand Out …

Clients in this economy are worth their weight in platinum. Giving the impression of responsiveness, leveraged by your investment in technology, is priceless. But don't let your clients take it for granted. Tell them that thanks to your investment in the latest document management and smartphone technologies, you can serve their case handling needs from anywhere, anytime they need your input. Given the number of small firms that don't invest in technology, you'll stand out and recoup your investment.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

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Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 51 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Stop Using Cell Minutes With Google Voice

Six Market Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore in 2009

6 Things Lawyers Can Learn From Billy Mays About Marketing

Don't miss this issue or future issues.

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Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.