Amicus Attorney 2010 PE and Amicus Attorney 2010 SFE New Calendar Features
On January 2010 Gave and Gown Software has released a new version of its flagship practice management software Amicus Attorney 2010.
In this new incarnation Amicus Attorney 2010 Premium Edition and Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition adds some very nice features. The most visible one is in the Calendar module where now we can color code categories of events. For example we can have all court categories in read, all new clients meeting in green and regular client work in gray. By using colors the events stand out visually continuing on the ease of use and friendliness interface that Amicus Attorney built its reputation on.
Sating in the Calendar module Amicus Attorney 2010 PE and SFE now have Adjournments. This allows a user by checking a box in the appointment Event Detail window to keep track of any changes made to that event. If I move the appointment, a window pops up and asks to give a reason for the change before I can modify the event. Then after I move the event, a copy of that event stays on its original place but grayed out to leave a trace of the history of the changes. I can click on Details button in the Event Details window to see the list of the reasons of the changes.
To Dos also have been improved by having Progressive Priority Levels. This new feature allow a To Do with the progressive priority level turned on to change its priority level as it get closer to the deadline. For example I can create a To Do to file an answer and set my deadline then I can check the Progressive Priority check box and from the pull down menu select “20, 10 and 5” (if my deadline is 30 days from today)this will change the average priority to go to “High” 10 days before the deadline and to “Top” 5 days before it automatically!
An additional feature in Amicus Attorney PE will allow the calendar of a user to be shared completely with an assistant/paralegal so that even private events (events that don’t have a files associated) will be visible to the people selected. This is a big improvements on small offices where the assistant needs to log into the attorney office to see all appointments (because the attorney forgot to select the file…) Now is not a problem, the assistant can quickly open that event and fix it without the need of switching to the attorney office. This feature is enabled in the Office>>Preferences>>Calendar – Other on the attorney PC. In the middle section you can click on the blue head and pick the name of the assistant(s).
Amicus Attoeny 2010 PE Share Calendar
This is all for today. As I get some more time I will cover more new features. I do want to tell you that I had a chance of installing over a dozen of upgrades of Amicus Attorney 2010 PE and Amicus Attorney 2010 SFE. Upgrade time for the server for 2010 PE is about 4 hours since we need to upgrade also MS SQL 2005 to 2008. Amicus Attorney 2010 SFE is a much easier upgrade and the time depends on the size of the database (normally about an hour on the server for most small offices).
If you have a need to upgrade your Amicus Attorney please let me know and I’ll be happy to help you out with it. We now have a great tool do remote installations and trainings over the Internet. Contact us
Thank you.
Paolo Broggi, IT Engineer and Amicus Certified Consultant and Trainer since 1997
2b1 Inc. www.2b1inc.com
Gavel & Gown Software has notified firms using Amicus Attorney in conjunctions with CompuLaw that due to changes in the court rules a new CompuLaw engine had to be developed to accommodate these changes. The new changes are taking effect on December 1st 2009.
Who is going to be affected?
Every firm currently using Amicus Attorney and CompuLaw will be affected as early as Amicus Attorney IV to Amicus Attorney 2009 SFE and Amicus Attorney 2009 PE.
What needs to be done to have Amicus Attorney and CompuLaw working?
As of today we are been told by Gavel & Gown Software that only upgrading to Amicus Attorney 2010 SFE and Amicus Attorney 2010 PE will update the CompuLaw engine which allows the use of the new Court Rules. Amicus Attorney 2010 is not currently available. Gavel & Gown Software is hoping to release a version to the CompuLaw users before December 1st.
What happens if I don’t upgrade?
Using CompuLaw without the new engine update will cause to calculate wrong dates leaving the door open for malpractice issues.
How much will the upgrade to Amicus Attorney 2010 will cost?
As of today a price for the upgrade to Amicus Attorney 2010 with the new CompuLaw engine has not been announced. A memo saying that a promotional price of 30% off the upgrade price would be offered was sent to Amicus Attorney Consultants. If someone would opt for the 3 years maintenance plan the upgrade price will be 50% off the regular price.
Will be a CompuLaw Engine for earlier versions of Amicus Attorney made available?
From what I can understand so far due to the high cost of changing the engine in the earlier versions of Amicus Attorney an updated CompuLaw Engine will not be made available.
As more information will be made I’ll post it here
If you have questions you can call 2b1 inc at 415 284-2221
Paolo Broggi
Amicus Certified Consultant – since 1997 www.2b1inc.com
Recently we had to move QuickBooks 2006 from an old PC to a newer PC since we were taking to old PC out of service. We took the QuickBooks 2006 CD and we installed the program with the product number and serial number. After the installation we opened it and we get a messaged that there are upgrades that we need to download. We download the updates and we install them. About half hour later we see that the system is still installing these update so we start looking at the different messages Calculating Space, Copying File, Deleting Temporary Files and then we see that the process starts again and again.
After another 20 minutes of looking the installation process going in a loop we stopped it. We went on the Internet but we could not easily find help within QB site. We ended up calling support who with a strong Indian accent offered us to upgrade or get a $79 one month support plan. We chose that last option. The support person went on the download page of the QuickBooks web site and downloaded the QB 2006 update and installed it outside the QuickBooks program and that fixed the problem.
The thing that puzzles me is that Intuit puts in QuickBooks an automatic update tool that is not functioning. Then there is no information like a Frequently Asked Questions FAQ or a knowledge base site to look up these problems so that you have to get QB support and pay for the support plan. To top it of the following day I got an e-mail survey with a link that was not working
I know I am not the only one having this kind of problems. Any of you have a similar experience with QB?
I am back writing new entries in the 2b1 blog. We have been very busy in the last months to create new exciting services for the small and medium size law firms and learn about the new Amicus Attorney 2009 PE and Amicus Attorney 2009 SFE.
I would like to start by presenting the new 2b1 Backup Service. We have notice that in many small firms not much attention is given on backing up the data and documents on the server.Some have backup tapes others have external hard drives; however very few have a comprehensive approach that will better protect the firms data.
The weak points of the backup systems mentioned above are the human factor and the maintenance. We have seen that some firms do have tape systems but the people at the firm are not changing the tapes regularly or the tapes have no information on them. With the external hard drives rarely someone checks regularly if the backup is working and all too often we find out that the files needed were not backed up.
Another point that often is overlooked is that something can happen to the office like a fire or burglary then people realize that they dont have a copy of their data off site and the firm is forced to close.
2b1 looked at all these problems and came up with a clever way to resolve them. We have setup backup servers one in Phoenix, AZ and a second one in San Diego, CAon two datacenters with fast Internet connection. Now with the 2b1 Backup Service you can backup your data in a local hard drive and offsite on 2b1backup servers. Your data is compressed and encrypted before leaving the firm up to military/bank encryption. You can choose how often the backup will run and the information will be on two separate servers in two different states. You will get an e-mail status to let you know if the backup was successful. If something should happen to your office you can download your documents and data e.g. Amicus, Timeslips QuickBooks, PCLaw databases etc to any PC connected to the Internet and setup your office there.
We have had a great response with 2b1 Backup Service since with have a high end backup system at a fraction of the price. Please contact us to find out more about the special discounted rates we have right now on 2b1 Backup Service.
Yesterday I had a client that needed to see his To Do list in a specific way. He used to use Palm Desktop to print out a list of his trial events but once we upgraded the law firm to Amicus Attorney 2009 PE. He could not see the To Do list like it used to. After showing me the print out from the old system, we went to the Tasks module in Amicus.
There in the Show Custom Tasks Profile we selected Custom to get to the Tasks Profile windows. In the Who section we selected the attorney name. In the How section we selected the Simple view that shows us the Done, Date, Priority, Initial, Title and File field of the To Dos. We let the Sort on Date and secondary sort on Priority. Under When we selected the Next 90 days since today. Finally under What we selected all tasks for all files. We named that profile and set it as his default. The very final test was to print out the list on the screen. File>>Print Preview gave us a picture of what we wanted so we printed and that was very close to that list To Dos that he was used to.
There are many ways to customize profiles in the new Amicus Attorney 2009 PE. If you want more information please contact me by going to the Contact Us page.
Paolo Broggi
Amicus Attorney Certified Consultant www.2b1inc.com
Here is another short trianing video this time for Amicus Attorney Small Firm: How to create and manage an appointment in the Calendar module. For additional Amicus Training please contact us or call us at 415 284-2221
There are a couple of ways for you to connect back to the office with Amicus Attorney 2008 PE.
If there is a PC that you can log back in, you can use GoToMyPC (about $20/month) /LogMeIn (about $12/month) and other remote control programs (e.g. Remote Desktop or pcAnywhere) to control that PC or even the Amicus server. Since we can log into Amicus Attorney 2008 PE from any workstation, from the PC thatyou logs in,you can enter theyour credential and have access to allyour info (minus e-mail synch). Only the graphics travel though the internet making this solution a fast one.
The other option is to use VPN to connect back to the office and then open Amicus onyour laptop. Normally the bottleneck in this configuration is the upload speed of the office DSL/cable connection (256kbps – regular DSL about $49month) .You could update that speed (738kbps next level up about $79/month) and see a significant improvement in speed. Thenyou needs to have a server or a router at the office that allows receiving a VPN connection e.g. Windows 2003 server or most routers and firewalls.
Another option is terminal services ifyou have a server that can support that. In this case it is like having a PC running on the server and only the graphics travel though the internet making this solution also a faster one than VPN. It may require some technical expertise to setup the server in this configuration.
Depending of whatyou needsyou could use Amicus Attorney 2008 Offline capability or with AA 2008 PE SP1you can use Amicus Mobile…
I hope this help selecting your options. Contact me directly if you need more specific information.
2b1 inc. is creating free short training segments for everyone to see and learn how to use Amicus Attorney. We are starting with Amicus Attorney 2008 PE.For full Amicus Attorney training classes contact 2b1 inc directly (415)284-2221 oruse the contact us page. Training are create by Paolo Broggi a Certified Amicus Consultant and Trainer since 1997.
Today Gavel and Gown gave a webinar to us the Amicus Attorney certified consultant introducing the new Amicus Attorney 2008 SP1. In this update that should be available by end of next week, GG has combined a few fixes that are already available online to the Amicus Consultants with some more fixes. Then they added the interface to setup and configure Amicus Mobile.
Amicus Mobile will come as a separate program. You can install the Amicus Mobile module on the same server as your Amicus Attorney server or it can be installed on a separate server. If you want more security a server outside your firewall will do but it compromise speed. Microsoft IIS 5 (Microsoft web server) is required to make Amicus Mobile work as well as ASP.NET 2.0. You will need to get a new license from the Amicus Attorney User Manager interface to activate Amicus Mobile. Once that is done you will see an additional column in User Management. There you can check the users that need Amicus Mobile. You only need to purchase as many licenses of Amicus Mobile as the number of users that will have mobile phone connecting with it back to the main Amicus Attorney server. For example if you have 20 users but 7 of them wants to keep track of their phone calls and enter their time from their Windows Mobile 5 or higher(Amicus Mobile will not work on Blackberrys iPhones and Treos with Palm OS), you only will need 7 license of Amicus Mobile. For those of you familiar with Amicus Telephone Pro, you will be at home with Amicus Mobile.
2b1 was told that while the fixes will be available through the check for update option in Amicus Attorney 2008 on the server. A CD will be shipped out to the clients wanting Amicus Mobile.
Amicus Attorney SP1 is a free upgrade. Amicus Mobile is $149 per license. There is a special promotion right now until end of June: you purchase a license of Amicus Mobile and you can upgrade to Amicus Attorney 2008 PE ALL your Amicus Attorney licenses for a 25% discount. This is a great deal and highly recommended to all Amicus Attorney 7 users. For more details on Amicus Mobile check out my Amicus Mobile post of June 3rd.
Please contact 2b1 inc to get your upgrade today.
Paolo Broggi, Amicus Certified Consultant since 1997 www.2b1inc.com
415-284-2221
