Recently in Software Category

If there is some all-knowing, all-seeing deity out there entering my every step into the Book of Life, I wish said deity would give me access to its pages now and then to assist with my time entry duties. The money I spent, time I labored, and pain I endured in testing, configuring, and managing time-tracking systems should have earned me such a boon. Tracking time is a necessary evil for Legal Project Managers, especially if they are practicing attorneys. Even if you do not bill by the hour, it is still important to track your time to understand how long tasks...

Onit is an on-line project management SaaS offering that that is targeted to the 1500 companies that are just under the Fortune 500. I first looked at Onit when I read that it was creating a "legal edition." I set up a demo account on the beta version and found it to be a simple-to-use collaboration platform, but I didn't see anything that made it particularly well-suited for legal users or anything that made it stand out from the myriad of other project management SaaS offerings.[1]  In a recent e-mail exchange, however, Eric Elfman, the CEO of Onit assured me that Onit would...

A recent post in the April 29th issue of Technolawyer's Answers to Questions e-mail newsletter represents the frustration that is typical of practice/project-management end-users: TechnoLawyer member Jeff Garvin asks: "I currently am using the old Amicus Client Server in a >small law office. I have a Palm Treo phone and would like to get a new phone, either the iPhone or another PDA from AT&T. The Client Server edition of Amicus actually works >well for me and would like to keep it. What is the best phone that I can get from AT&T and how would I make it link (without...

This post is part of a new series that will document my efforts to create healthier working environment.  The topics discussed in this series are not specific only to legal project management professionals.  They are applicable to any sedentary, knowledge worker. Due to years of spending far too much time on the computer, I've developed repetitive stress injuries for which I'm currently undergoing physical therapy.  As part of a holistic, long-term solution, I'm making in number of changes to my working environment, the equipment that I work on, and my work habits.  Among these changes is my attempt to once again...

Mark Gerow, Director of Application Development and Business Process at Fenwick & West, shares his first impressions of SharePoint 2010 in Law Technology News today (though the article is pre-dated for the 19th). [1] Of the "hundreds, if not thousands, of significant changes," he highlights the following new features as among the key benefits for law firms: large document library support, records management, flexible content storage, improved search, a more user-friendly workflow, improved page editing and wikis, read-write access to external databases, andoffline access via SharePoint Workspace (formerly Groove).Click here to jump to the article on Law.com.  [1] Mark Gerow, First Impressions: SharePoint 2010 for Law Firms, Law Technology...

Steven Levy discusses tools for process mapping and Gantt charts in today's post to his Lexician blog.[1]  As a once-ardent user of the Hipster PDA (between jobs, when I was blissfully free from a smartphone), I particularly like his suggested old-school process-mapping tool:  I think the best tool, if you have the wall space, is 3×5 notecards, thumbtacks, colored yarn, and a very large corkboard -- and then take digital pictures of it regularly as a backup! I've used this method effectively myself. I bought a bunch of one-foot-square tiles and glued them to the wall outside my office when I...

Lawyer-turned-social-media-consultant Jim Turner discusses how professionals should use project management tools to manage their social-media projects.[1] He particularly likes Basecamp, by 37 Signals. If you aren't ready to implement a project management tool just to manage your on-line social networks, blogging, and tweeting, then Mr. Turner recommends an old-school lawyer's tip: If you don't have a project management tool, my advice is to start small with a list on a legal pad. Years of working in the legal field taught me to always keep a pad next to me so I can track conversations, make notes, jot down ideas, and...

As anyone who follows me on Twitter (@paulceaston) knows, I'm a big fan of Hootsuite (@hootsuite), a Web application for managing your status updates. I use it to read and manage my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds, but I've never thought of it as a tool for collaborating among project team members. So I was surprised to find in my inbox an e-mail from Hootsuite asking me if I "need better methods for coordinating with project teams?" It goes on to invite me to: [j]oin us for a Webinar to explore HootSuite's team workflow tools and learn tactics for power tuning your...

A lot can happen in two weeks. Due to a number of positive and negative work-related and personal challenges, I've not posted for a couple weeks. In 2009, that wouldn't have been an issue. There just was not a great deal of news and analysis of legal project management on a month-to-month basis. If January is any indication, however, 2010 looks to be a much more exciting year for those interested in the subject. I was put back into a writing mood this past Friday as I started reading Stephen Levy's book, Legal Project Management, on the high speed rail...

In a recent post, I showed how SharePoint is a powerful tool for legal and litigation support teams to manage their legal projects.[1] I began using SharePoint five years ago, which is a lifetime in social-media development. In this post I look at a number of applications that may become SharePoint Killers.  I exaggerate. I say "SharePoint Killer" in the same way folks throw around the term "iPhone killer." These are viable alternatives to the SharePoint platform, giving much of the same functionality, and they will keep/take some marketshare away from SharePoint in the legal environment, but they'll no more kill SharePoint in law firms and corporate...