Practice Management

An Accident in the Heartland

/ Bruce Cameron

This weekend there was an accident in our community. It was one of those events where we learn yet again that there is a fine line between urgency and carelessness and where we are shown that the human body is no match for horsepower, physics and heavy machinery. It was also one of those events that brings a rural community together – when the calls of concern and the offers of help arrive on the heels of the emergency vehicles. Neighbors, friends and strangers band together to see that the crops are brought in, the chores are done and the injured are cared for. And it was one of those events where one senses a wave of palpable relief sweep through the community when the word comes through that, this time, there were no life threatening injuries, no serious trauma and the only injuries are those cured by time and rest.

Now that the moment has past, I am left contemplating my fragility, the wholly unpleasant thought of emergency planning for my practice, and asking if my ICE file (in case of emergency) will be adequate for the occasion of my injury. The very nature of being a solo means that, unless prior plans are made, no one will be there to care for my clients. So, I am spending some time reviewing plans made and thinking about what new plans need to be made.

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The Mutable Cloud

/ Bruce Cameron

Emmerson observed that “nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same”. The same observation can be made about web-based practice management systems.  In her latest screencast, Nicole Black does an excellent job in reviewing the mutable world of web-based practice management systems. She does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting the features of the 3 major players in the web-based LPM world (Clio, LawRD & Rocket Matter) with on-screen demonstrations of each of the systems. If you are thinking of investing in a web-based LPM service, Ms. Black’s screencast is a must see.

While Ms. Black does provide some general words of warning about the ethical traps and general risks involved with using web-based systems (in fact, I applaud her insistance that one checks out the service’s data backup and recovery systems before investing), I would have liked more in-depth information on these subjects. Continue reading →

Metrics That Matter: Data Loss

/ Bruce Cameron

It is estimated that data loss costs U.S. businesses average $12-418 billion per year and, on average, each hour of downtime costs $50,000. The average cost to re-enter 20 megabytes of data is between $17,000 and $19,000 and takes between 19 and 21 days[i]. The cost to recreate data from scratch is estimated to be between $2000 and $8000 per megabyte[ii]. A data loss event can be catastrophic occurrence; 60% of companies that lose their data close within 6 months of the event and 72% fail within 24 months[iii].

The leading causes of data loss are: hardware or system malfunctions (40-44%), human error (29-32%), software corruption (13-14%), computer viruses (6-7%), theft or data breach (9%), hardware destruction or natural disasters (3%)[iv]. The leading causes of data theft are: attacks from external sources (73%), theft by business partners (39%), and attacks from internal sources (18%)[v]. It estimated that: 1 in 5 computers will suffer a fatal hard drive crash within its lifespan, 15% of laptops are stolen or lost (approximately 2000 per day), and, on average, a hard drive fails every 15 seconds[vi]. Continue reading →

LPM Tools: Metrics That Matter

/ Bruce Cameron / 3 Comments

In Comparing the Cost of SaaS LPM Tools to Conventional: The Metrics That Matter Carolyn Elefant presents a well considered argument that simply comparing the cost of software as a service practice management (SaaS LPM) tools to conventional desktop ones (as I do in: RocketMatter & Clio) isn’t accurate as it does not incorporate the intangible benefits inherent in the SaaS model such as the reduction in IT support costs, office space requirements, hours lost responding to client requests for updates, etc. I do have to agree with her assessment that one should make this type of externalities-based comparison when choosing a LPM system. However, I believe that for all its positives, the SaaS model has some serious flaws to overcome.

Current SaaS LPM offerings are immature technology that require reliable a high-speed Internet connection and offer no off-line capabilities. Whereas desktop systems tend to be mature software offerings from stable companies with long track records and most desktop systems offer some form of mobile access. Buying into one of the current SaaS solutions means risking mission-critical software on the belief that you will have Internet access 24/7/365 and that nothing will fail in the electronic chain that connects your computer to the SaaS provider’s servers. Continue reading →

Thrive in hard times

/ Bruce Cameron

As a companion to his book The Power of Less, Leo Babauta offers us the free e-book Thriving on Less.

The common sense rules Mr. Babauta offers are not specifically geared towards businesses. Rather, he addresses what he sees as the more fundamental problem of rampant consumerism on an individual basis. While Thriving on Less is a mere outline of the material presented in the Power of Less, it does provide Mr. Babauta’s fundamental rules for thriving in tough economic times.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work — Thomas Edison