Product Trends and Updates (from LOS Spring 2022 Newsletter)
Posted April 5, 2022 to Legal Technology Trends.
We are continually evaluating both cloud and server-based solutions and can assist your firm if you are in the market to improve your firm’s use of technology. We can help you ask the right questions to be sure important reports or functions you rely on don’t get lost or overlooked. If you are interested in learning more about Zola Suite, Clio, My Case, Soluno, LEAP, Time Solv or Centerbase, call us! We go beyond a sales call to make sure it’s the right choice for your firm.
Over the last few years, venture capital firms have become the owners of cloud and server-based legal applications. Recently, many have introduced their own merchant account options. The venture capital firms aren’t focused on improving technology for lawyers and their clients. Their focus is to maximize profits. Charging for the transactions rather than using existing merchant account services is a way for them to control more of the dollars associated with their products. As an industry, we seem to go back and forth between “best of breed” solutions and “all-in-one” options. It seems like the cloud solutions are more of an “all-in-one” environment although there are many younger lawyers who refer to the products they use as their “tech stack.” The combination of these trends mean that the cloud solutions are trying to work for many law firms and often have weaknesses, particularly on the billing and accounting side. At the same time, the server-based companies have been slow to move their products off premise and have merged with cloud products that have different structure and functionality making transitions more difficult.
For our clients on Timeslips, they have changed their product options to tiers, based on the features your firm needs. Firms currently on subscription are automatically on the highest tier. Only the top tier includes the ability to undo multiple bills and the week view. Each of the tiers includes E-center licenses which add remote licenses to your database and can be used by timekeepers remotely. Some of our clients are upgrading with fewer database licenses and moving their timekeepers to e-center licenses. The e-center can also be used as a payment portal for those using LawPay. Timeslips is doing quarterly service releases including one just released which lets you change many of the screens to larger fonts.
Time Matters 2022 R1 Release is about to be released. 2021 service releases added integration with Info Track for court filings with secure e-signature functionality, improved calendar workflows, integration with Law Connect for sharing secure documents. For firms using the TM Exchange sync, PCLaw|TM recommends upgrading to version 2021 because of the ending of Microsoft support for TLS 1.0 which is used in earlier versions of the TM Exchange sync. Be aware that older versions of Windows Server and SQL have limited support so check the system requirements before upgrading. If you need assistance with your upgrade, contact us and we will be happy to help. Release 2022 includes encryption for Time Matters email and improved printing functionality. Time Matters now adds improved integration with LawToolBox and adds support for QuickBooks 2021 and 2022, 64-bit Adobe Acrobat and Windows 11. There will be a price increase beginning with May Annual Maintenance Plan renewals.