Review: Mozilla’s Free Thunderbird 3.0 – A Good Email Solution for Law Firms?
Posted by Joseph Ficocello in Product Review on February 2, 2010
I converted from Microsoft Outlook several years ago, and have not looked back since. Outlook is an excellent local email client with support for server synchronization, integration with the rest of the Office line of products and many mainstream legal document management systems. However, free and open source solutions such as Mozilla’s Thunderbird can offer the user many of the same features for a significantly lower price (free = $0 per license/seat/user). While many users would never divorce themselves from the concept of using Outlook, for small-medium size firms, solo practitioners, the newly formed law firm or if your Firm seeks to control licensing costs, Mozilla’s latest offering, Thunderbird 3.0, is one of the top alternatives on the market. Read the rest of this entry »
Early Overview: The Apple iPad & Law Firm Implementation
Posted by Joseph Ficocello in Hardware, Product Review on January 27, 2010
Today, to an eagerly anticipating crowd of journalists and insiders, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPad tablet to the world. In typical Jobs fashion, the venue was tastefully decorated and minimalistic to the core. The offering of the iPad/iTablet/iSlate has been one of the single most talked about technological offerings in years. It rivals only Apple’s previous offering, the iPhone, and is ironically just as important within the marketplace. If you’d like to view his presentation, please click here to play directly from Apple’s website via QuickTime.
On January 18th I posted an article inquiring whether or not Apple’s tablet would be a “game changer” within law firms and litigation technology. After reviewing the presentation today and observing the technology employed, the discussion is certainly intriguing. While many of our educated guesses couldn’t have been further off, some were right on the mark. Read the rest of this entry »
Law Firm Technology Solutions: Watch the Lights or the Cars?
Posted by Joseph Ficocello in Litigation Support, Strategy on January 25, 2010
If you live, work or frequent a major city you most likely walk a great deal and cross intersections on a regular basis. I am continually amazed, no matter which city I’m in, at how many individuals pay greater attention to the crosswalk indicator light than they do the cars speeding to the intersection. The light is just an indicator that it’s potentially safe to cross, it’s not a mechanism for stopping a car. Yet, for many, this is their personal best practice, often based on the group dynamic. It is a traditionally accepted option, but not the one that best guards their safety. It’s important to watch the lights, but it’s usually more important to watch the cars.
In litigation support, practice technology or law firm IT, we employ a wide range of solutions and products. However, many of these products end up largely untested, unchallenged and unimproved upon after their deployment with an organization. Unfortunately, and all too often, many firms select a solution only to realize that it might not fully meet their needs today or tomorrow. Abstractly, the eyes are on the light but could fail to observe any of the cars. Fortunately, there are multiple levels of organization-wide evaluation that can assist us in understanding which solutions to keep, how to plan for the future, and how best to maximize the safety of our existing resources. Read the rest of this entry »
