The ABA TechShow 2020 conference is the venue where lawyers, legal professionals, consultants and technology come together.This year ranks as one of the best yet from the perspective of the exhibition hall, with attendees able to meet face-to -face with representatives of those products we support.
So, grab your favorite morning beverage,and continue reading to get the latest news we gathered about your favorite product(s).
The ABA TechShow 2020 Exhibit Hall was crowded this year and small wonder with several prominent vendors, quality staff and excellent demonstrations. There was a surprise appearance by representatives from Sage Timeslips (more on that below). Another surprise was the absence of representatives for LEAP, PCLaw and Time Matters.
Centerbase – While not present at New York’s LegalWeek conference, Centerbase more than made up for it with a large booth in a prime location.at this year’s ABA TechShow 2020. This cloud-based application deserves its reputation as an enterprise-grade, cloud-based practice management application and showed off its latest features: Additions to alternative billing arrangements, this time for Project-based and Subscription billing. Tighter integration between budget and actual figures for improved Matter metrics. Time Entry approval to allow timekeepers to easily review, edit and approve – or get approval – for their entries. There are also new features within their optional accounting module: account segmentation to allow tracking by location, department or team in financial statements; and general ledger budgeting.
CosmoLex – Their mantra is, “Everything Your Law Firm Needs, All in One Place”. In the past year the development team has added 16 new features to this cloud-based, all-in-one application, which combines time and expense tracking, billing, trust account management, and general ledger accounting. The biggest achievement this year is integration with NetDocuments. Other features include: the ability to send multiple bills attached to one email; flexible billing party options for third parties or insurance companies; simple or compound finance charge calculations; expanded financial productivity reporting; and more.
NetDocuments – According to last year’s ABA TECHREPORT, solo and small firms continue to lead the way in cloud adoption at approximately 60%, with the lowest reported adoption in firms with 50-99 lawyers (44%). This award-winning, cloud-based document management application has attained gold-standard status as the one with which third-parties want integration. To our knowledge, NetDocuments now has quality integration with Microsoft Office 365, ActionStep, AdvoLogix, Centerbase, Clio, CosmoLex, Nuance CopiTrak, SymphonyOCR, TimeSolv and many other programs and applications. This year they are proud to show off their latest features – dynamic profiles, which simplify filing a document, based on earlier selections; and sub-versioning, which allows users to track internal “turns” of a document to sub-versions while allowing clients and stakeholders to track clear progress using standard version numbers.
Sage Timeslips – There was buzz in the hall around the Timeslips booth with its first appearance at the ABA TechShow in several years. Timeslips Premium now delivers several new features in its cyclical year. And they announced their newest – and most welcome – feature to be released in March: the long-awaited ability to Undo Multiple Bills for one client. We will delve more into this new feature in another article, but the demonstration was both elegant and impressive, with a process that we’ve not seen in other time & billing products. And once we saw it we thought, why haven’t the other products thought of doing it this way? Stay tuned.
TimeSolv – It’s been interesting to follow TimeSolv’s progress and physical location from a small start-up in the back of the Exhibit Hall only a few years ago, to a prime position in the hall. It reflects TimeSolv’s success as a time tracking, billing and practice management solution. This application increased its footprint over the past 12 months by integrating with AccountEdge, Affinipay, CPACharge, Dropbox, LawPay, Microsoft Office 365, NetDocuments, QuickBooks (Desktop and Online), and Xero. It’s data migration from Timeslips is second to none, capturing all data including transactions and history. Those among our clients who use it are very satisfied with its features and mobility options. Expect to hear more from us in the future about this application.
Worldox – My colleague, Andrea Prigot, wrote an article about her impressions of Worldox at the LegalWeek conference in New York last January (see the link below) and I can only echo her impressions of Worldox Web 3.0. Their mobile offering is sleek and comprehensive. A user logs in with their username and password, and is presented with their documents, favorites, and views that will seem familiar. The manufacturers of Worldox, World Software Corporation, acknowledge the need for mobility and, with Worldox Web 3.0, continue to move this gold standard product forward.
And now, introducing…
Soluno – if you like PCLaw, you’re going to love this! Soluno is a cloud-based, all-in-one, time and cost tracking, billing, trust account management and general ledger package. It was created by the same people who brought you PCLaw years ago. Now independent, they created Soluno to be the PCLaw program they always wanted it to be; and a first look shows the features users want and need, along with features (such as better reporting!) they’ve always desired.
This is a brief overview of the products we support and you will hear more from us, and in depth, on what we’ve written here and more. The expansion of new products, application and support services is exciting – but also confusing to the average lay person. Our team keeps abreast of these developments and is here to advise you on how to get the most from your existing technology, or how to move forward to attain your desired goals. We provide support in the areas of product analysis and comparison, implementation and training. Want to know more? Contact us at [email protected] or call us at 877-357-0555.
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Dana Riel is President and Founder of Business Solutions, Inc., serving the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area since 1985. Her firm is the authorized training center for the region for Time Matters and PCLaw by PCLaw|Time Matters, PLLC; Timeslips and Sage 50 Accounting by Sage Software; and QuickBooks by Intuit Corporation. She also serves as a consultant for Caret Legal (formerly known as Zola Suite), CosmoLex, Soluno & TimeSolv. As a trainer, Dana has provided training services to organizations such as the DOD Defense Logistics Agency, Judge Advocate General’s Office (JAG)/Department of the Navy, University of the District of Columbia School of Law, U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as with small‐ to mid‐size law firms in the Baltimore‐Washington D.C. area. In 2009, she participated in the series of day‐long seminars sponsored by the District of Columbia Bar Association Practice Management Section, titled “Basic Training: Learn About Running a Law Office”. Ms. Riel also served as an Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s Paralegal Studies Program, having taught the course, “Legal Ethics/Legal Technology” in 2009; and “Legal Technology” for the Spring and Summer Semesters of 2010. She presently serves on the Advisory Board for PCLaw|Time Matters, PLLC.