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Time Matters/CIC Conference

by | Nov 12, 2019 | Practice Management, Time Matters

Lexis Nexis recently hosted a Certified Independent Consultants (CIC) conference in Raleigh, NC, to brief us on the latest developments with the Time Matters product and with the company. This was the first meeting of CICs with the new company, now called PC Law|Time Matters, since the inception of the Lexis partnership with Leap US in June of 2019.

Time Matters

So what does this new joint venture mean for existing Time Matters users? Mostly good things, in our opinion, along with some options to consider, moving forward.

Perhaps the most important thing we learned is that, at least for the foreseeable future, Time Matters is NOT going away. The new company plans to continue with development of new releases for the product, and recently embarked on a series of customer visits to learn more about how the product is perceived, and used, by “real world” law firms. These customer visits surfaced with four key “takeaways”:

  1. The embedded workflow for email processing does not adequately meet the needs of many users
  2. The screen layouts that ship with the product are too difficult to customize without hiring a consultant to assist
  3. Upgrading the application is too difficult, and frequently breaks links that worked previously
  4. There is a surprising lack of feature awareness on the part of existing users, resulting in lower utilization of many features and capabilities

These findings will drive future development efforts for Time Matters, according to senior management staff. In support of this, management has formed a new “Innovation team” in the development department, focused on three key areas:

  • Mobile apps and remote connectivity
  • Third party integration
  • Workflow improvements

The new company is also promising a more predictable release schedule for future releases of Time Matters. Releases will be scheduled for 2-3 times per year, with less focus on “major vs. minor” releases; all new releases will be equivalent.

PC Law|Time Matters expects to release Time Matters 16.5 in the first quarter of 2020. Tentatively scheduled for this release are the following:

  • A complete “refresh” of the link to Sage Timeslips
  • A “refresh” of the TM-Exchange Synch utility
  • Improvements to email functionality
  • Integration with Microsoft Office 2019
  • E-filing capability from within the application

In the spring of 2020 we can expect to see the release of Time Matters 2020 R1 (note the new naming convention). This release is slated to address both usability and workflow issues, based on the findings from customer visits. By the end of 2020 we can expect to see the release of Time Matters 2020 R2, which will address enhanced report creation capability, along with improved “customer knowledge and awareness.”

From all of the above, it is apparent that the company plans to continue development of its on-premise software, assuaging concerns about the demise of Time Matters in favor of a Cloud-based application.

For those clients who are interested in a move to the Cloud, however, the presence of LEAP US as a core part of the new company suggests that a relatively seamless transition from on-premise to Cloud-based practice management software will become much more feasible in the coming months.

To that end, Crosspointe staff will be attending a 4-day training session for the LEAP US product this week (11/12-15). Following that we expect to be in a much better position to understand the options for moving Time Matters clients to the Cloud, and to provide a clearer picture of the pros and cons of doing so.

Stay tuned for our report on the LEAP US training conference, which we expect to write about later in November or early December. In the interim, feel free to contact us at [email protected] or call us at 877-357-0555 with any questions or concerns you may have.