Big Things from a Small Company

Posted on September 11, 2017 by admin

You know the saying “Good things come in small packages”? Well, sometimes, big things come from small companies! I’ve been doing some work for a group of library technology consultants who I want to let you all know about. They have a small company called Law Library Management and, among other solutions, they develop custom applications for libraries using the Quickbase platform.

One of the applications they have developed is a complete library management system that’s fully customizable called HOLMES. It’s unique in that it’s built on top of the Intuit Quickbase platform, which is a very powerful application development environment that offers complete flexibility to tailor your individual application for your library’s needs. You may have heard of Intuit’s other applications which include Quickbooks and Turbo Tax. This solution is perfect for small and solo libraries and yet can scale for larger academic libraries as well.

They are also currently working with the library community to develop a project management application that will take into account the specific needs of librarians. And they are currently looking for beta testers, so if you’re interested please sign up here.

These folks are doing some pretty unique things. In addition to these two apps, they also develop specific custom applications for libraries according to their specifications. Quickbase is an incredibly versatile cloud application platform so the possibilities really are endless. You can find out more about Law Library Management and the HOLMES application here – and while you’re there sign up for the next webinar!

LegalTech: Bolstering KM Through User Experience Design

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Ellyssa Kroski

The Advanced IT track at the LegalTech New York 2014 conference discussed the use of UX (user experience) design in law firms.

The panel included Andrew Baker, Director of Legal Technology Innovations Office at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Tom Baldwin, Chief Knowledge Officer at Reed Smith LLP, Patrick DiDomenico, Director of Knowledge Management at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., and Kate Simpson at Tangledom Inc.

Kate Simpson set the tone by discussing UX as a profession, a practice, and a process, explaining that it’s about people, not devices. She mentioned Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” which is one of my favorites in this arena.

Tom Baldwin discussed “Driving Adoption Through UI and Gamification” and talked about what new initiatives they’ve been developing at Reed Smith. The most interesting was the matter profiling app they designed which uses leaderboards spotlighting the top profilers as incentive. They also improved upon their last app by illustrating that the user need only go through a 2-step process in order to successfully complete the matter profile. By using this new reward system, they’ve seen an increase to 300 matters profiled per month over the 130 with the old app. They’ve used leaderboards in their other custom applications as well as transforming their firm directory into a LinkedIn-like interface, and switched their display of financial reporting to using data visualizations for easier digestion.

Read the full post LegalTech: Bolstering KM Through User Experience Design on OEDB.org.

LegalTech: Legal Technology – Good Trends, Bad Combinations and Ugly Results

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Ellyssa Kroski

I’ve been attending the LegalTech New York 2014 conference this week and had the opportunity to sit in on many interesting discussions. The Advanced IT track had a very engaging talk on Legal Technology – Good Trends, Bad Combinations and Ugly Results. It discussed the details of the ILTA 2013 Technology Survey (now available for free) which gives great insight into what’s being used (or not used) in law firms. This is great for law librarians, as well as students of law and anyone else in the field to know about.

The panel included Gina Buser, Principal & CEO at Traveling Coaches, Inc., Scott Christensen, Director of Information Services at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, and Jim McCue, Director of Information Systems at Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A.

Good Trends

tablets_in_firms

The panel members talked about many trends that were seeing growth in recent years such as:

64% of firms now work in a matter-centric interface vs. an app-centric desktop.
Mailbox size limits are up with 62% of firms offering greater than 2GB storage due to newer versions of MSExchange.
Security is getting better priority in today’s firms with 11% now using a next-generation endpoint security solution.
Only 5% of law firms aren’t using any type of virtual server technology.
VOIP technology is growing in firms with 56% of firms employing it as compared to only 41% in 2010.
The primary word processing software in law firms is MS Word 2010.
Tablet devices are widely in use at law firms with 89% of firms using iPads and 39% using Android devices. Another 29% reported using Windows-based tablets.

Read the full post LegalTech: Legal Technology – Good Trends, Bad Combinations and Ugly Results on OEDB.org.

Law Librarianship in the Digital Age Giveaway!

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Ellyssa Kroski

In the spirit of the holiday season, the folks at Scarecrow Press have given me a copy of Law Librarianship in the Digital Age to give away!! Please enter to win on Goodreads!