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Legal Practice Management Software (LPMS) Series

lpms-word-cloudOTB has implemented LPMS for the past 2 decades. I’ve used some form or fashion of practice management software for the past 3 decades. This series of posts will draw on our vast experience and expertise in this area to help you determine whether LPMS is something that you need to invest in to drive efficiency and profitability in your law practice or business.

What is Legal Practice Management Software?

Why Does a Firm Need Legal Practice Management Software?

Legal Practice Management Software ROI Analysis

Legal Practice Management Software for Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys

 

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Legal Practice Management Software ROI

ROI Return on Investment Slot Machine WheelsExpense v. Investment – A General ROI Analysis

Having met with hundreds of law firms that were considering the implementation of Legal Practice Management Software (LPMS), we’ve seen our fair share of lawyers and law firms who view the cost of LPMS solely as an expense, failing to understand that it is an investment with a real return that will far exceed its costs. Let’s start with the cost.

When looking at the cost of a LPMS, there are two high level components: licensing and implementation. [Read more…]

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Why Does a Firm Need Legal Practice Management Software?

Website Slider shutterstock_177305249-croppedHaving defined what comprises good legal practice management software, why does a law firm need it? As with any decision a law firm makes when investing its limited resources, the firm should compare the total cost associated with the system against the economic return that the system brings the firm. If the return is greater than the cost, then it makes sense to invest in the system. With this in mind, what returns can a law firm expect from the use of a LPMS?

With just over half of all law firms in the United States utilizing some type of true practice management system (meaning a system other than Outlook or cobbled together applications acting as a LPMS), there must be a reason why law firms make this type of investment. The common advantages and returns of any type of LPMS are:

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What is Legal Practice Management Software?

lpms-word-cloudLegal Practice Management Software (LPMS) accumulates and aggregates all the relevant information about a case or matter – litigation or transaction – so that it can be easily accessed and used by lawyers and their staff. It is, in essence, an electronic case/matter file. While there is no set rule, basic practice management programs have four primary components: calendaring, task management, people management, and case/matter management.
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Backing up your SQL Data – SQLBackupAndFTP

SqlBakLogo_400x400While this post may be helpful to any user of software that stores its data in a Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL), it will be most applicable to OTB’s Time Matters users.

When you store your data in MS SQL, you obviously have to make sure it gets backed up. For many years, Time Matters did a fairly poor job at providing a robust backup solution. Most Time Matters consultants looked for alternatives outside the program, and many of us were pleased to find SQLBackupAndFTP. Even as the internal backup capabilities improved in recent versions of Time Matters, it doesn’t come close to what you can do with SQLBackupAndFTP and there is still no reason to use the internal backup solution when such a robust solution exists and is free.

There are a number of reasons this is a great piece of software, but toward the top of the list is that they provide a free version that will likely be sufficient for most time Matters users. At OTB we use their paid-for version as we need to backup more than 2 databases, want the expanded online storage alternatives, and want to encrypt our backups. But, if all you need to is to backup Time Matters, and perhaps one other database, it is free of charge.

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