Author Archive

Attorneys Capture Time On The Go With LexisNexis PCLaw Mobilty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjlJEZhk59M

While LexisNexis PCLaw is one of the leading firm time management and billing software support systems they have now introduced PCLaw mobility. With Mobility, firm time trackers have the ability to capture billing and expenses on the go via their mobile device. They also have access to client information and other firm information that may help when an attorney is away from the office or on the road. The video above explains all benefits to PCLaw mobility for law firms.

Law Firm Software Amicus Attorney Overview

Above is a great overview of firm management software Amicus Attorney. It’s a great webinar showing you Amicus Attorney functionality and they also explain how this software can help organize your firms data, track more time, bill more, and take the stress out of time tracking. We have clients who use Amicus and they are happy with it’s functionality. They would truly be lost without this firm management software.

Internet Marketing for Law Firms

From Rekall’s inception and especially with our new TechTalk, we have worked on internet marketing in almost every facet.  We’ve been tracking our website traffic every day, multiple times a day with Google Analytics. Between our blog posts, interviews and podcasts, we find that it’s very helpful and keeps us motivated when we see people actually spending time on our site viewing our content. New businesses must create content because they cannot rely on word of mouth in the beginning. This is the same for law firms as well. Today, in order to get noticed, you have to blog or create original content with some consistency. It amazes me how many firms are not doing this and the ones who do, don’t track their website traffic. Many firms produce material but stop after some time because partners don’t see a quick enough return on investment. Unfortunately, growing your business this way is a slow process and it’s not cheap either. Blogging is free, but distribution of your content to a wider channel usually takes some bucks. Think of all of this as an investment for the future, do whatever it takes to grow your firm but also do this and stick to it, it does help. And when you finally see your traffic numbers start to rise each week, you’ll be motivated to invest more in your internet marketing campaigns. Keep this statistic in mind, 90% of blogs have only 5 posts, stick to your blog.

Blogging is an informal way to get information out there and show that you’re an expert in your field. One thing that a lot of firms don’t utilize is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices. The idea is simple, you post a blog on a topic, if “buzz” words are present in that article, your article will most likely be higher on a Google search. For this you can use theGoogle Adwords Analysis tool. By typing in words and phrases you can get a good idea of how often certain words are Googled in numbers per month and even searching in your area per month. Obviously the more obscure the word or phrase, the less times it gets Googled. The idea is to use these buzz words in your article so that it gets picked up higher in a search for that particular word or phrase. Your looking for the middle ground of a few hundred searches, maybe 1,000 max. Certain words gets Googled hundreds of thousands of times like the phrase “cloud computing” which gets Googled 450,000 times in a given month. Obviously writing about cloud computing is good but unless you rank for other words located in that same cloud computing article, chances are you wont show up on the first few pages of the Google search. This brings me to another point, if your not on the first page,your on the last page. People generally do not go past the first page of a Google search. If they cant find what they’re looking for they usually refine their search and again, don’t go past the first page.

Other than blogging there are other ways to get your firm’s name out there. Use social media and post every day, we’re talking about facebook, twitter, and linkedin, amybe even Google+. Use an email service like iContact to send email blasts to your email lists. This helps new business and also helps you stay top of mind for your current clients. If you have some money to spend, you can even write press releases and release them through PRWeb. They give you 2 releases a month for a year plus iContact for about $2,500. It’s a bit steep but it expands your reach for new clients and content coverage. Internet marketing is a lot of work, don’t get me wrong. In order to grow, your expected bill you time, manage your firm and do this work as well. You can always hire a social media person and pay them X amount per hour but the content will never be as good as you writing it because your the expert, not this hired person. It’s tough, and it’s a lot of work, but we do it because it gets fun, and you can get creative with it. It also helps when clients mention your posts when you speak to them. It makes you feel like your getting a return even though it’s not monetary. I suggest that all law firms do this, but since they don’t and probably wont, you should jump on it. You’re firm will stand out on the web while their’s will only be a home base for that attorney bio info. Join us in the 21st century, start marketing your firm on the internet.

What is Cloud Computing For Law Firms?

A question that we’re getting more and more is, “what is cloud computing?” There is no simple answer to this question because it encompasses so many different technologies and services. For the sake of not sounding nerdy, cloud computing is when a technology may it be email, accounting, billing, or a database is stored offsite in a server farm or a hosted server solution. People don’t really think in terms of server farms, so that’s why they call it the cloud, it’s just a buzz word that means stored somewhere else. In the magical place called the cloud, all updates, maintenance and monitoring is done for you, you buy no hardware because you running on someone else’s system may it be Microsoft, Amazon or your IT provider. You may still be confused so I’ll give you an example, a cloud email solution that a lot of people use today is Google Apps for Business, Google’s business version of GMail. It’s an email service where the access is web based and email is stored on Google servers, not your PC. Any technology where the data is stored on a provider server is a cloud solution. One major benefit is that if your computer were to crash, all data would still be accessible via your cloud solution web access. Since nothing is stored locally on your PC, there is no loss during a catastrophe.

Cloud solutions are also much cheaper than more traditional technologies simply because there is usually a very low start-up cost, and there is no special hardware to buy. If you wanted to host your own email, traditionally you would have to buy a server, warranty, licensing and software, plus pay someone to set it all up and monitor it. You would also need spam filtering services to filter out all the junk mail, that’s an extra monthly cost. Altogether, we’re looking at approximately $4,000 for hardware and labor plus $125/month for spam filtering and offsite/cloud backup. If you were to choose a cloud solution like Google Apps for Business, the setup may be 5 hours depending on how many mailboxes you want. If an IT guy charges $100/hr that’s $500 for the setup and then $4/user/month. Oh and spam filtering, it’s included, and so is support so no need to pay for monitoring or backup. When you hear all this buzz about cloud computing, this is what people are talking about. They’re talking about cloud services that take the place of traditional more expensive technologies that are cheaper and work better. By now you should have a much better understanding of what cloud computing is, but here are a few more examples that may be useful for your law firm.

We’ve covered email, but what about documents and saving them to the cloud? Sugarsync is a document cloud solution. With this cloud software you have the ability to share documents between your office users, updates occur instantly and there is even security on files and folders which you only want certain people to access. It’s a great solution for small to medium firms. There are even mobile applications through Apple and Android that you can use to open and edit documents on your mobile device. At the same time, if you at a computer without Sugarsync installed, you alwasy have the ability to log in through the web to retrieve documents as well. The beauty of this is that all data is accessible via standard windows folders and a local copy is saved on each PC. When a  document is changed, it updates on each user’s PC automatically.

For a firm of 5 it’s roughly $150/month when compared to google apps which gives you email, calendar, contacts, google drive and so much more for $4/user/month. Cloud billing systems are also popular. Quickbooks Online is an online version of Quickbooks giving you almost all functionality of standard Quickbooks plus the ability to time track on your mobile device. It’s a great solution for companies with multiple employees who must track their own time individually. No installation needed with Quickbooks Online, simply a web browser and your done.

Something that we are currently working with is migrating full systems to the cloud. In this situation the client leases space on a server or leases an entire cloud server. The clients information is then uploaded to this cloud server, profiles are created for each user and each user logs onto a server pre-built with a few or all pieces of software that the firm needs to operate. The benefit of this solution again is the lack of downtime. these cloud server hosts offer 99% SLA up-time. This is something we have just started doing, making office servers and downtime a thing of the past.

We hope that you have a much better idea of why cloud computing solutions are better for your firm, and why more traditional technologies are being left in the dust. If nothing else remember that they are cheaper, they hardly ever go down, and if your internet or power goes out, all you have to do is move to a different area to get reconnected. One thing that we will say is that all cloud computing solutions are not made the same. Make due the cloud computing solution fits your needs and make sure their phones support is acceptable. If they don’t provide phone support, run away.

Ditch Traditional Law Firm Software, Become a Google Law Firm

Years ago before the cloud computing game changer came to be, law firms worked with traditional hardware setups costing astronomical rates. Between software, licensing, and maintenance, not to mention the costs for the hardware itself, it was hard to start-up a law firm let alone maintain a small one. A lot of firms still work with these technologies. For the most part if you started out investing in these technologies your more or less married to them going forward, especially if you’ve already invested in firm management software or a document management system. I say this because of the amount of money it would take to change over a standard system, reteach your entire staff and for the productivity loss alone it probably doesn’t pay. For those of you with no document management investment, consider yourselves lucky. You can save some money and adopt a new cloud solution that will take care of your email, contacts, calendars as well documents. With this system you’ll be able to access you mail, contacts, calendars and documents from any pc, mac or mobile device. I’m talking about Google Apps for Business. It’s not as robust as some traditional document management systems that the large firms use, but at $4 per user per month how can you go wrong? Just to give you a good idea of what some of these firms pay, a good document management system may be anywhere between $15k to $50k for a 10 to 25 user law firm, sometimes more.

The reason why Google Apps for Business is a great solution for law firms is because it gives law firms everything they need, email, tech support, mailbox syncing, calendar sharing, mobile and remote access, plus a place to store documents, all for 4 bucks a month per user. One thing needs to be said, and to be honest, this is usually the deal breaker when we pitch this to clients. To get the FULL features of Google Apps for Business you MUST use the web version of Google mail. For those of you who don’t follow, keep this in mind. Google Apps for Business is essentially GMail with more options, the email interface is the same as GMail, it’s identical. Some people love Microsoft Outlook and hate the GMail interface. It is possible to do many things within the Outlook interface, but to get the major benefits of this product including, inter office chat, outgoing phones calls for free, video chat, easy document access, SMS text message sending, manage mail settings and widgets, stick with the web interface if you want all these functions. With that said, Google is constantly working on ways to make their web experience more enjoyable and even working on ways to make Outlook mail options better for those of you who hate the GMail web interface. I do feel your pain, I really do, I used to hate the GMail interface, but it grew on me. In the end, Outlook is just an email client, you can stick any type of mail in it, AOL, Yahoo, MSN; Google was meant to be used on the web and that’s how it will always be best used. Lets back up now, I know you probably love Outlook, but is Outlook worth your entire technology infrastructure costing you a measly 4 bucks per user per month?

There’s one other small issue with Google Apps that needs mentioning. I don’t want to bad mouth the cloud solution but I have to be straight with you. If you have a Blackberry you should probably get rid of it before you do the changeover to Google Apps. One thing we have found with Google Apps and Blackberry, they don’t really play well together.  You’ll get the mail no problem, calendar items might work, sometimes, same for contact sync. Viewing docs is probably an impossibility altogether. To be honest we stopped messing with Blackberry’s before Google Drive came out which is their document solution, so we just don’t know. Google will tell you that it works, but we know better, tricky Google. Good news though if you have an iPhone or Android, it all works perfectly.

Speaking of Google Drive, lets dig a little deeper. Google Drive is Google’s document solution and a centralized location for all your firm documents. It’s not a document management system but it’s pretty damn close. At some point in your career you’ve most definitely worked with windows folder trees like the picture on the left. Here are some problems with this setup that you already know about. People tend to drag folder into other folders by accident. They also delete things by accident and don’t tell anyone. We have clients with this setup and we restore data often. Needless to say, if you have this setup, you need a good cloud backup system because files will be moved and removed without notice. Another issue with this setup is the time it takes to navigate folders. In the pic on the left, the guy is 6 folders in for God’s sake. One functionality that I KNOW you wish you had was to be able to search within the text body. This is always wanted and only now becoming a reality for small firms. Searching within the text body means that you are no longer restricted to searching for file and folder names, you can now search for text WITHIN a document. It’s pretty awesome, I know. You used to have to OCR documents and make sure the scan DPI was high enough for a good transition……but that’s another article. Let me just say that with Google Drive it’s as easy as it sounds to search for documents. Google also saves revisions to documents. Lets say you type up a letter and your assistant makes a change. Google will store the original letter you typed plus the changed letter your assistant fixed. A document you may have for 4 years may go through 20 revisions. With Google, you will have them all without it cluttering your document database.

Now we’re back to the bad, unfortunately it’s not all puppys and kittens in the land of Google, there’s a catch. The catch is just like I said before, you HAVE to use the web interface for all these functions. Google has developed a tool to download that makes all your data accessible via windows file trees like your used to but that comes at a cost. You can forget about searching within the text body and I’ll tell you why. When you upload a document to Google Drive, the first thing it asks you is, “Do you want to convert this document to a Google format?” Now here is a crossroad and here comes some new information. Your most likely using Microsoft Office and Word or Excel to create your document. Google also provides their own Word alternative along with Excel, Power Point and Publisher alternatives online within Google Apps for Business. Ya see, they expect you to ditch Microsoft Office and use their online version for creating documents. If you do that, you’ll be rewarded with full text body searching, online editing, revision history, the works. If you decide to keep the file in the Word format, say goodbye to text body search, say goodbye to online edits and edits from your mobile device. The conversion is pretty spot on, maybe 95% for complicated documents. If your a patent attorney with formulas in your word docs, you will probably have to redo them within Google if it even support those functions. This shouldn’t be a deal breaker, you can still use this Google solution and still use word. At this point its a very effective cloud document solution.

You see now, Google wants you to use their stuff, they want you to uninstall Microsoft Office, remove Word and Outlook and take all the benefits of Google. If you make a cake and use half the ingredients, chances are your desert experience will be less than perfect; and that’s how it is when you use Google halfway. They want to monopolize your technology experience and frankly, they reward you for it. They have answers to all the costly Microsoft software and it’s only getting better. It’s changing the way you work, the way you produce documents and save them. Google is taking on Microsoft so hardcore, they even have their own operating system that no one uses. Google can’t win them all, but you have to admit if you threw away everything Microsoft went Google 100% it would be cheaper and easier to grow your business. A computer is $600, MS Office is another $200, licensing for your server usage, email address, spam filtering account, document management seat, plus all the labor for your I.T. guy comes to a crazy amount, maybe $1,200/user just to get started working. With Google apps all you need is a PC, maybe 1 hour in tech time and your done, $700 plus $4/month.

For my final plea, I want to tell you who is using Google Apps for Business. You may think this is a new thing to just come out, still working out the bugs. That’s not the case here, they have companies like Motorola, National Geographic and Konica Minolta. They have organizations like the American Red Cross, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Cities like the city of Pittsburg, Los Angeles, Orlando, Lewisville. The Bradford & Barthel law firm, Brown University, the largest television network in the UK, ITV. Needless to say, they have many, many more large and small businesses including law firms. These large corporations moved to Google Apps because their traditional infrastructure was too costly especially when compared to what you get with Google for $4/month. It’s a no brainier as long as your willing to give up some Microsoft Applications that your probably have a lot of experience with, but you know what they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Legal TechTalk Interview with Patent Attorney Bob Brush

Recently, Rekall had the pleasure of talking with fourteen year patent attorney Robert Brush. Robert focuses on patent prosecution within the electrical and software arts, he has worked within the private sector both as an associate and partner, and is currently working as in-house patent council for a large public organization. Robert is the epitome of a perfect interview due to his experience in the industry with various law firms and law firm software as well as Robert having an interest in technology and being tech savvy himself.

In this latest TechTalk interview, Rekall discusses the various law firms that Robert Brush has worked with and break down exactly what made these law firms run smoothly from a technology standpoint. Robert tells all in terms of law firm technologies that aided him and his staff the best in order to meet deadlines and communicate with clients. Robert talks about both the good and the bad so listeners understand what to avoid. There are mentions about practice management software, law firm accounting systems, and billing systems as well. The listener even finds out how a large public organizations legal department works when compared to small private firms. This interview is a cant miss for privately owned law firm owners and partners.

Law Firm Uses a Cloud Computing Solution Instead of Traditional Law Firm Software

When Rekall Technologies works with a start-up law firm, they are usually on a strict budget. Start-up firms are taking advantage of cloud technologies that provide all the features of a traditional setup at a fraction of the cost. In recent months Rekall Technologies has finalized Kluger Healey, an employment and labor law firm with offices in Red Bank and Florham Park, New Jersey. Kluger Healey attorneys have the ability to access firm documents, mail, billing times and faxes from their laptops and mobile devices without the need for remote access software. This is done without the investment costs of a traditional server. Kluger Healey is entirely serverless. They have the functionality of a large firm, with the technology costs of a small one. A major benefit is that as they grow, their technology will grow with them due to ease of expandability. With no server, there are no storage or space issues, there is no downtime, and there is no slowness or staggering.

When Rekall first sat down with Mark Kluger and William Healey, they were unsure when it came to their law firm budget. Due to this, Rekall gave them a standard server proposal with workstations and firewall. When the start-up came back with a budget that was much lower than anticipated, Rekall went back to the drawing board and came up with a cloud solution that suited large firms needs with all the bells and whistles at a fraction of the cost.

The first part of this serverless proposal was to provide a cloud solution for their email. After much discussion, the firm decided that Sherweb Hosted Exchange was the best solution over others due to their dependency on Microsoft Outlook. Hosted Exchange is approximately $9 per user per month. Hosted Exchange consists of a company that houses all firm email, supplies a spam filter that filters all spam & virus’ and provides each user with a 25GB mailbox, 24/7 end-user tech support, and webmail access utilizing the latest version of Microsoft Exchange. Hosted Exchange provides all the features of standard Microsoft Exchange without the costs or headache associated with owning a traditional server. Users can still share contacts, calendars, and mailboxes, as well as sync all mailbox items to mobile devices. For a 6 person firm, Kluger Healey pays around $50/month for Hosted Exchange email and all the features mentioned above. At that rate, the firm could pay for an entire Exchange server within 5 years, and be just in time for an upgrade. The firm will also have no downtime, no speed issues, and no connectivity loss with clients. A good Hosted Exchange company like Sherweb supports a 99% SLA (Service Level Agreement). This means that they guarantee up-time 99% of the time in a given month. Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon & the power companies don’t offer this level of service, and when internet goes down, law firms can be without email connectivity from minutes to days. For this reason alone is why hosted solutions work best for law firms.

The next step in the process was to organize firm data so that all users could access files from a centralized location without use of a server while still utilizing file and folder level security. For this task research was done on a product called Sugarsync. For those tech savvy readers, Sugarsync is like Dropbox but with folder level security. Sugarsync is installed on each PC or laptop and one user copies all the office data to a specified Sugarsync folder. That folder is then shared throughout all the user accounts, downloaded automatically on user login, and syncs as users make changes to documents on the fly. Sugarsync also allows folder level security. If a firm has 6 people and the partners want only 4 people to have access to an employee or admin folder, this can be done very easily by restricting access for the 2 other users within the Sugarsync web security console. Sugarsync holds the last 3 revisions of a document for security purposes. If one computer dies, the data is stored locally on the other 5. If all 5 computers die, the data is available on the web to be viewed and edited at all times. Sugarsync also has an iPhone app to access all firm data via mobile device. This solution provides better protection than a traditional server and has better capabilities. To add even more to the pot, this particular law firm has 2 locations. Traditionally, Rekall would have to install a Terminal Server to aid in remote access for data as well as a VPN firewall for security, perhaps a $6,000 solution. Sugarsync takes care of it all. All data is stored locally and available when there’s no internet connection. Once a connection is established with the internet, all changes sync up to the cloud and reflect in everyone’s shared folders. It is the perfect solution for traveling lawyers, multiple office firms and start-up firms. Sugarsync is $29/month for 100GB of online storage with 3 users. Each additional user is $10/month. Kluger Healey pays $60/month to have mobile and local access to their data as well as revisions, plus 100GB of cloud storage, not to mention folder level security. With Sugarsync these 6 users can access their firm data from anywhere using their laptops at any time. No power, no internet, no problem, these attorneys are completely mobile. With the use of law firm software PCLaw, attorneys can track time, accounting, and billing, and are able to bill and manage time through their mobile devices.

Kluger Healey is ready to run with corporate technology solutions on a small firm budget. They have the advantages that large firms dream about, but at a fraction of the cost. Their entire technology with the additional offsite backup costs them $160/month which is almost unbelievable when compared against a traditional law firm’s monthly I.T. costs. Kluger Healey is not like most law firms, they were willing to listen and take a chance on new technologies and they won. They understand the importance of their technology and how it affects them daily. When law firms have a respect for their technology and how it can help their firm productivity, they usually turn out to be very successful firms.

Rekall Technologies provides I.T. services for law firms and other professional service businesses within New Jersey. Rekall’s technology solutions are utilized in firms of all sizes. Rekall Technologies was founded by Ross Siroti after working extensively with law firm technologies for other I.T. service companies. Due to previous I.T. service experiences, Rekall’s core strengths revolve around reliability, responsiveness and results. Rekall is totally client driven preferring phone calls to emails and responding to support requests within 10 minutes on average. The overall goal of Rekall Technologies is that their clients grow and reach their goals without annoying technology setbacks.

Law Firms Be Wary of Web People…

Let me start right off by saying that an average website for a 5 to 15 user law firm should be around $2,000 to $3,000. If you want to get fancy it may be up to $5,000.  Only pay this if you need animation and updated content on your website. Most 5 to 10 person law firm sites have attorney bios, info on the firm, practices as well as contact info. Often when we speak to new clients, we are asked about website maintenance services. While we currently do not offer such services, in talking, we often learn of the all too typical problems that law firms have with their web people. Today I’m going help you stock up on B.S. repelant and give your some tips on picking a web company as well as qualities to look for.

Some of these web people have a lot of nerve going into business. They’re either terrible business people, unorganized messes, or artists whose work should not be altered. The mistakes I have seen can be pretty bad. Interestingly enough, the biggest issues I have faced are the exact things that Rekall does well, and this is not by accident.

The number one problem with web people is responsiveness. When you call, you want someone to answer the phone. If not, at least get a call back within a reasonable amount of time. I have seen cases where attorneys leave firms and demand their bio information be taken down from the previous firms site immediately. Unfortunately the web person does not answer the phone and all calls go straight to voicemail. In this situation, the attorney’s bio information was on the site for over 2 weeks before it was taken down. This delay caused headaches for both parties. If you’re interested in working with a particular web person or company, see how long it takes for them to get back to you. It’s a good test that means a lot.

The number two problem with web people is reliability and the ability to work within a time frame. You email your web person a list of things that need to get done such as adding new content to your site. Obviously if there are any questions they should be asked before the list due date. The most common problem I have seen is questions on the due date, and only a portion of the list being finalized. Another annoying thing is the web person needing more time and asking for it on the due date. If you find a web guy worth $2, because most of them are only worth $1, test them with simple tasks on your website. Make sure tasks are completed within an agreed upon time frame. If they cannot meet due dates, run away. Let’s pause for a sec, I know what your thinking, don’t sit there and say to yourself, “I don’t work with my web guy too much, if he’s late, he’s late.” Think about a worst case scenario where you need website changes to occur immediately, an address change, Verizon gives your phone number away (this does happen), can you depend on your current web person to get this done in a timely manner? Think about it, it’s not bad to have high standards when it comes to your vendors, these people are working for YOU.

Another major issue with web people is that everyone knows one and they’re all terrible. It’s tough to pick out the web businesses from the web guys. Ask to see previous work, and most importantly, ask to speak to previous clients. Clients are usually honest. For some reason firms that are unhappy with their web people stay and continue to work with them. I think this is out of desperation, or maybe they feel like it’s a necessary evil that they only have to deal with until the website is finished. In other words, terrible web people’s clients will be honest and let you know what you’re getting into. If your firm is issuing publications, chances are you’re going to be working very closely with your web person. Also, something good to keep in mind is that when you finally find a decent web person, don’t get scared off by higher prices than you expected. There is a certain amount of price inflation with web design, don’t get me wrong, but a good web person will be more expensive than the average priced people you’ll find. If you’re looking for a $500 website, chances are that a skilled web guy will not be interested in your project. Skilled web people today are not only interested in your website but are also interested in any content that you may create and search engine optimization.

Websites are only half the battle if you’re interested in moving forward with internet marketing, SEO & content fabrication. I’m not gonna lie, most firms do not do this. The ones who want to use the internet as an avenue to market their law firms will take total advantage of this option. A website is not only an internet home base for your law firm, that’s the old way of thinking.  It can be a fountain of knowledge, an oasis of experience and skill that is open to your niched market to come and lean about your law firm and it’s practices. A website used to be a landmark on a map, today it can be more like a stage if your interested in making that transformation.

Server Backup 2.0: Decrease Law Firm’s Downtime to 5 Minutes

Imagine an affordable technology that was able to get your crashed server back up and running within 5 minutes with no waiting for an onsite tech and no loss of data in the process. Essentially, you would never go down. This dream is now a reality. In the past few years a new technology has become affordable for small and medium law firms that help to decrease downtime and increase backup reliability; we are talking about BDR (Backup Disaster Recovery) solutions. Currently you’re probably backing up your firm data using one of the preferred backup methods found in Chapter 2 of Our Audio Book. You may be using a USB drive, tape drive or offsite backup solution which is most preferable. The problem with standard offsite backup is that if your server were to crash, time would need to be spent fixing the crash and in some cases reinstalling the operating system including all network applications. It’s a perfect solution that gives your critical data the ability to survive a network meltdown but depending on the network, this can take 1 to 2 days of downtime for a total server restore. Let’s be clear about something, offsite backup solutions will keep you in business, you will NEVER lose your data and it will always be retrievable, but we’d like to tackle the issue of downtime. One to two days of downtime is too much for most firms.  This downtime issue is fixed with the advent of server imaging. Imaging takes a nightly carbon copy image of your server. This image consists of the operating system, all settings and data totally intact. The purpose of the image is to be able to quickly deploy the image back on the server in case of a major crash. These images are stored onsite which is a point of weakness in case of fire or theft. Deployment time takes around 35 minutes plus the time it takes for a tech to get onsite because standard server images cannot be deployed remotely…..until now.

BDR solutions combine the reliability of an offsite backup solution with the small amount of downtime associated with server imaging. With a BDR solution, a BDR network device takes server images every 15 minutes which are then uploaded offsite for security. To recap, we now have your server images onsite & offsite consisting of all your firm data for each server. With a BDR solution in the event that your server were to crash, a notification would be sent to a Rekall technician. At this point the technician would remote into your BDR device and deploy your latest server image taken 15 minutes ago. The image will live totally virtualized on your BDR device for however long it will take to have a tech come onsite and fix your actual server. Your entire firm will continue to work as normal without skipping a beat. This virtualized version of your server can be up as long as needed. Once the actual server is fixed, data is restored back to the server from the virtualized server. The virtualized server is shut down and your actual server comes online again with updated data. This solution lowers your downtime to a mere 5 minutes and gives your IT provider the ability to remotely deploy an exact replica of your server with updated data within 5 minutes of your server crash. In case of fire, theft or act of god where your BDR device dies, a new fully loaded BDR device is overnighted to your firm. Within 5 minutes of unboxing, a virtualized server can be deployed, getting your firm up and running. With this solution, images are not only stored locally, but they are replicated and stored offsite as well. This is the ultimate in law firm downtime prevention and it can be yours for about $2,400 to start and about $600/month. Not cheap, but when your losing $9,000/hr in billing if catastrophe strikes, the unit pays for itself. These are average pricing plans, pricing depends solely on server and data size.

10 Tech Commandments for Law Firm Start-ups

Start up business owners have a lot on their plates, lets take legal firms for example.  They have to confirm work and new business, staff up, get office space, purchase computers and IT support, work out internet & telephone kinks, not to mention focus on billing to sustain the firm.  All this has to be done in a short amount of time and even shorter if a firm is splitting off from a larger firm.  Below, Rekall has compiled the 10 commandments for start-up businesses in terms of IT & technology.  As we all have noticed, we are relying more and more on technology to aid our work.  Technology has proven itself time and time again as a major tool in organization and safety.  Technology ensures our success in business and these 10 commandments for start-ups will explain why…

1. You have the option to view all office data & mail remotely from anywhere at any time.

There are many different ways to view office data and mail from anywhere both for free and pay services.  It helps if your out sick and have to get work done, or if you travel and must view an office document quickly.  With cellular data speeds increasing, mobility access is fantastic & cheap.  Large companies restrict this convenience, but that doesn’t mean you have to.  You have the technology and your the boss now!

2. Think of all your IT problems you faced at your old firm/company, ask your IT provider how they would fix them for you.

When choosing and IT provider for your new business, these are some good questions you can throw at them to see their skill level and also to get ideas for yourself and your new setup.  These are the people you will rely on for new and better ways to help you make money, you might as well learn as much as you can from them.  At the end of the day, theywant your businesses.  As long as you have questions, they should talk your ear off, and explain technologies in terms that you understand, no techno babel.

3. Consider secure offsite backup straight away, you should focus on billing, not swapping hard drives and hoping your data is secure.

Some companies like to buy 2 external hard drives, have someone in the office swap them everyday and take one home.  Some companies have no problem with leaving their office data backup responsibility to a secretary or assistant that they just hired last week.  Some companies backup their data every day with no viewing of backup reports to make sure the backup was even done successfully.  Some companies don’t realize that without securing their data, they might as well find a cup and go sit in the street.  Other companies choose secure online backup where a tech views daily backup reports, backups are done automatically every night, and there is no human intervention on behalf of the company staff or a tech whatsoever.  These companies prefer to focus on their business, not their technology.  We don’t have flying cars yet but technology has brought us the next best thing, automatic secure online backup, use it.

4. Tell your new IT provider what tech you hated about your old firm, and make sure you get exactly what you want.

The last thing you want is to get a whole bunch of tech that you don’t need because your IT guy thinks it’s cool.  Ask questions, get exactly what you want, be involved in the whole process.  Don’t leave it all up to a guy you just hired, he may be a screwball for all you know.

5. A big server investment is not always needed even though your old firm had one, technology hosting is more versatile & inexpensive these days when compared to when your old firm/company started out.

Depending on your users and software, in the beginning, you most likely will not need a traditional server.  Many times in an attempt to save money, a workstation is setup as an office server, shared out over the network, and is backed up on a daily basis.  Depending on your user base and the applications which you run network wide, there is no harm in this, and anyone who tells you different just wants your money.

6. Understand that you will be using technology every day to bill, work, contact clients and essentially build your business.  Do not go for the cheapest tech available.

We have seen this time and time again.  Clients who make technology decisions solely based on price.  If reliable technology was free, everyone would have it and we’d be out of business.  In the end you get what you pay for; learn about top tech then learn about the bottom tech.  Find yourself somewhere in the middle where functionality equals necessity.  At this point, see what the cost is compared to your IT budget and work from there.  Don’t start the process with a budget below sea level, and if this is really your budget, nothing beats a pen and paper.  Always remember, businesses spend more money in the long run switching and changing solutions than going with a good moderately priced solution in the beginning..  Not EVER has  IT services fallen off the back of a UPS truck like a DVD Player.  Don’t go into this investment looking for “the deal”, there’s a reason why Ron Popeil does not sell IT services.  The deal you should be looking for is a stable, suitable technology for you and your staff in the attempt to work, bill, increase productivity, and grow your business, that’s all.

7. Choose an iPhone or Android phone, stay away from the dreaded Blackberry.

Years ago when cellular mobility was hot and new, everyone went out and got a blackberry.  Business supported them and they cornered the market in smartphones.  Businesses didn’t mind that you needed to pay an extra $60 a month for corporate email services on your phone (Exchange) so they shelled it out because there was not really any other good alternative.  This was also the case because large corporations hosted their own blackberry servers to support all the handheld devices in the field.  Thank god times have changed, Blackberry sucks, their servers are clunky and take up space, and iPhone and Android are much more widely supported.  Their data plans are cheaper, their functionality is better and you don’t need a server to manage them.  If your leaving your firm or company to start a new one, throw your blackberry at your old boss and get an Android or iPhone.

8. If you’re coming from a large firm or company, understand that you will probably have to compromise on your technology wish list.

For law firms, some docket applications go for $100k and are generally adopted by large firms due to cost and added functionality.  For trade businesses, Autocad is $1,000 per user.  Technology is expensive and enterprise technology is even more expensive.  It is the job of your IT provider to find you cheaper equivalent solutions if they exist.  Be open to cheaper software alternatives, if your not flexible you may be out of business before you start.

9. Build a relationship with your IT provider, don’t be just another client.

Don’t let your relationship consist solely about your bill.  At the end of the day, you want to like who you work with and IT services are no different.  Having a good relationship with anyone goes a long way.  People like dealing with nice people, it feels good, and the positivity rubs off.  When you form a relationship with someone, that someone usually goes the extra mile, your on their mind often and are thought of as someone special not just another person.  Relationships bring on understanding during tough times and they make conversations easy and comfortable.  Now read those last few sentences over and substitute that person with an service company.  This is no different when speaking about a relationship with a service provider or specifically an IT provider.  Our work is very personal, we fix your problems, make your day go smoother, and provide relief during times of stress.  Let’s be honest, a good relationship opens door to advantages not had otherwise.  Perhaps a good relationship with your IT provider would get you better priority response, or even understanding on overdue bills in times of financial hardship.  There are no certainties with what you’ll get while having a good relationship with a services provider, one you rely on.  With that said, one thing is for certain, a good relationship with anyone can’t ever hurt you.

10. Reliable support is why you work with an IT company.

You choose an IT provider for their experience, track record, expertise in your industry, but most of all for their reliability.  Think about it, an IT service’s provider would not have any industry expertise, would not have a positive track record, and would not have much experience without being a reliable contact.  Reliability is the key to success in this industry and it separates the true professionals from the jokers.  How reliable is your IT provider?