Jay Hennessy passed along the following advice for morepartnerincome.com readers:
Is your law practice contained in the confines of your office where all of your communication tools are within reach? By its nature, the practice of law is mobile. You attend meetings, you visit clients, you go to court and what attorney doesn’t take work home? According to a survey by Robert Half International, 87% of attorneys work outside of the office. There are several answers to the question, "Why are mobile handhelds (Blackberry, Treo, Etc.) inevitable for attorneys?" You need to stay competitive – 80% of firms in the AmLaw 200 use Blackberry; 90% of the AmLaw 100 do so. You work EVERYWHERE; you need to be connected – your clients expect it. You want freedom to leave the office, but not your work. And of course, it’s a very cool gadget!
Simplicity is the key for a successful mobile solution. Because of their nature, capturing the essentials is more important than getting every detail – complete the job back at the office, but get it down while it’s fresh.
The fact is that attorneys who have these devices actually use them! The ability to turn an e-mail message, phone log item or calendar event into a time entry is not only convenient, but helps you capture more time. The ongoing I.T. requirements of most handheld device implementations are surprisingly low – many applications (like TimeKM Mobile) can be deployed "over the air" by e-mail. Today’s successful products are designed with simplicity in mind. They allow you to capture the basics using the handheld device and finish using the keyboard on your desktop or notebook computer.
Measuring return on investment (ROI) is simple. How much new time per month does each fee earner have to capture in order for your mobile time keeping system to pay for itself? The answer is one time entry. One 10 or 15 minute time entry and you have usually more than paid for the monthly wireless service and amortized cost of the equipment and software. But that’s just the payback; the beauty of mobility is that it’s the device that continues to pay you, even after it’s paid for itself.
Today’s mobile devices increase partner income in a big way. Whether it’s staying competitive with your peers, being more responsive to your clients or capturing time that’s slipping through cracks, mobility is here to stay.
About Jay Hennessy: Jay is a Juris, Inc. vice president. He heads the Juris allied vendor program. Jay devotes his time to working with the other vendors who also provide products and services to law firms. His objective is to make sure that Juris clients can take full advantage of the products and services offered by others. Jay says "we want other software and services used by the law firm to connect to Juris for seamless operation– that adds value and increases partner income."
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