Karl Folkens on Working with TimeMatters
I recently received an e-mail from my good friend Karl Folkens. Karl is head of the Technology Committee for SCTLA and has been gracious enough to give me a spot to talk about technology at the SCTLA Convention for the past four years. Karl has been around computers since the first days of the IBM PC and I really value his opinions concerning computers and technology.
Karl and I have both been using TimeMatters for a number of years and have been big fans of the program. However as I’ve moved to a straight litigation practice I’m about to switch to TimeMatters or Needles which are specifically designed for litigation practices. Karl has a general practice. I know over the summer, he was not ready to move away from TimeMatters, but also was no longer recommending TimeMatters. He was sort of in a holding pattern. Well, here’s an update from Karl:
As many of you know, for years I was a big fan of TimeMatters. However, at this past SCTLA Convention's Technology Seminar, I mentioned that because of persistent problems and unresolved issues with recent versions of TimeMatters and its companion, BillingMatters, I was no longer recommending it to my friends and colleagues, and was looking for something else.
I set about to look at a number of different case management software programs. Also, some mentioned to the people at Lexis/Nexis my displeasures with TimeMatters, and I had some rather healthy discussions over several months with some of their folks. In addition, with a slight push from Steedley Bogan, I met a TimeMatters Authorized Independent Consultant (AIC) named David Michael from Wilmington, North Carolina. I'm not a big fan of consultants, but as I discuss more later, in this case, I'm glad I met David.
After evaluating a number of other software offerings, and giving TimeMatters another hard look, I've decided to not only stick with TM/BM, but to upgrade to Version 7 which recently shipped. The decision to upgrade was a separate and distinct one which I will also discuss in more detail.
If you do solely contingency fee work, there are better programs than TimeMatters. I looked at Needles, Abacus, Amicus, PCLaw, and a number of others, as well as thinking about giving up and surrendering my first born to Bill Gates by simply using Outlook wrapped around a Microsoft Office self-designed template system, a thought which I personally detested! I am impressed by Needles and some of the others, but for me, I needed something that met all my needs, the needs of the other lawyers in the office as well as staff, and to do it all for $500! Ok, I realize the cost was unrealistic in these times, but I remember what a $25 DOS program could accomplish in 1986!
We have contingency fees, flat fees, Social Security fees, hourly billings, blended fees with hourly rates overlaid with contingency kickers -- you name it, just about every conceivable fee arrangement, we've got a file to match in our four-lawyer general practice firm! We needed to track our hourly time on family court cases, business litigation cases, and the like. We needed to manage workflow on all of our cases, plus we needed a very dependable calendaring system. We needed a system that would get the bills out, not just the time in. We didn't need a fully integrated accounting system, since I remain very locked in to QuickBooks for general office accounting and Quicken for trust accounting. Still, I wanted my non-accounting system to handle bill creation.
Anyway, Steedley sent David Michael my way. David is a former court administrator with extensive background in database management for court systems. He decided to become a TM AIC, and he does this exclusively. Some AIC's do consulting work with other case management software programs, not David. David came by and we had a friendly hour-plus chat about what he could offer. I told him all of my grave concerns about TimeMatters and Billing Matters. He acknowledged many of them and offered some thoughts on rectifying most of them. I liked his style. He was very personable, not pushy. He was willing to acknowledge the programs' many weaknesses, but was also extremely knowledgeable about the buried treasures which lie beyond the lame manual.
I decided to pull the trigger and arranged for him to come to my office for two days to (1) tweak the system; (2) work directly with me in redesigning certain components, implementing new ones, and brainstorming on all things TM/BM; (3) work with TimeMatters' Tech Support to fix as best as they could that which needed fixing; (4) train the staff; and (5) customize each attorney and staff person's use of TM/BM. I also wanted all of this accomplished by the end of December so that we would start the new year with a clean, up-to-date, fully tweaked system.
Those two days went so well, I brought him back for two more days this past week, and he's scheduled for one more to help me fully implement the upgrade. Why did I do this? I decided that as much as I enjoy technology, the time I was spending troubleshooting such a complex program, and then training staff members who were apprehensive by their very nature to change, was taking away from more productive and lucrative time such as practicing law! I generally detest consultants, but I realized with David that he could do everything I had been doing (and enjoying to a certain extent) much more effectively and efficiently. For each day David freed me up to practice law, I could pay for two of his days. Plus, the staff absolutely loved him and were much more receptive to learning from him than from a guy (me) who would get visibly frustrated when they didn't get it the first time around!
We were able to standardize the whole office on certain routines, while at the same time customizing the programs to suit the particular needs, styles, and preferences of individual attorneys and staff members. We added many new triggers, form styles, and related features, most of which are transparent to the end user. We even implemented the Timesheet feature which allows the lawyers and staff to gauge their own individual productivity in a rather straightforward manner. We still have a few who are slower to come around than others; but we are light years ahead of where we had been. I figure we'll re-coup the cost of the consultant and the upgrade in the first 3 months of 2006. Not a bad return on that investment.
I decided to upgrade to Version 7 primarily because of the mass rate change capabilities, the In-Out List, as well as the new conduit for Matter and Billing items on our Palm-based Pads. Heck, if I just capture one extra hour of billable time a week on my PDA, that would fund my IT budget in its entirety! There are a total of 40 primary new features or enhancements in this latest upgrade, one-fourth of which are actually useful. The remainder range from being useless to quaint (that's a good term AG Alberto Gonzales resurrected!). Still, it's a decent upgrade.
So, if you're a current happy TimeMatters/BillingMatters user but want to get more out of the system, consider hiring an AIC for a day or two. If you're a current unhappy TimeMatters user like I was, look around and see what else is out there, but also consider taking another look at TimeMatters. To their credit, the folks in Tech Support actually do a good job. David, as an AIC, is able to access Tech Support on my behalf for no extra TM charge. If I call them direct, I get charged as much as $50 an incident, plus my lost time in having to troubleshoot. This practice is understandable since Lexis-Nexis is, after all, a for-profit company, but really chafed me since I was having to pay to rectify what I felt were in many instances program bugs.
If you're unhappy with your current case management software, and you're looking for something that appears to have the most application to a wide variety of cases within a practice, look at TimeMatters/BillingMatters. I'm back to recommending it to friends and colleagues, especially now that I have my dependable AIC backing me up.
If you'd like to contact David, his phone number is (910) 612-6774 and his e-mail is david@michaelfam.org or dam@soon.com.
Tell him Karl sent you . . . he'll roll his eyes, tell you what a real pain I was in constantly re-working the good things he was trying to accomplish, and then he'll tell you how much fun my staff was to him despite their having to work with such a tyrant.
Here is the Practice Management Face-Off between TimeMatters and Amicus Attorney (.pdf warning) from the ABA TechShow 2005.
This is an EXCELLENT review of case management software in general, and these two programs in particular.
If you'd like to join a TimeMatters listserv.
Also, one more tip. If you order TimeMatters or upgrade, do it through a Lexis-Nexis salesperson, such as Pat Clark (Pat.Clark@lexisnexis.com). There's no additional charge than you would pay if you ordered through the website; you get expedited service; they have families to feed; plus these folks are strong supporters of SCTLA and our convention. You can even complain to them directly and your comments are actually passed on to TPTB ("the powers that be") - I know.
I hope this was useful to some exploring case management software.
Thanks for the update. I am a long time Timematters user also--just purchased the upgrade but have not gotten it installed yet. Query did you investigate the litigation add on promoted by TM?
Robert,
If you're talking about the OTB (Out of The Box) add-on, I looked at it, but decided to go with my own AIC-assisted design. TM allows so much customization, even between staff in the same office, that an OTB just didn't suit our needs. Brainstorming with my AIC was, in my opinion, the best way to go.
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