The MasterList

Rollout. Some Might Call This Chaos.
The practice of law has undergone many changes throughout the past century. From quill pen to typewriter to word processor to faxes to e-mail, each innovation allowed a competitive edge over law firms that had not adopted the latest in technology.

The year 2000 marks a clear demarcation for software technology in the legal industry. At the onset of the 1990's, the DOS operating environment spawned a proliferation of case management programs that were required by the limitations of DOS to try to handle all aspects of every practice within a single program. These programs typically had branches on branches of applications presenting a thicket of options, often impenetrable in terms of navigation and equally often only partially used, with low dispersion of total feature usage across the law firm. But, in a DOS world, they were indispensable and admirable.

At the close of the century, with the advent of Windows and the GUI operating environment, came an opportunity for re-invention and redefinition of practice applications in the law field.

The resulting explosion of specialized document programs, time and billing programs, case management programs, and contact management programs in the Windows environment has simplified the lives of everybody in the legal arena.

However, most DOS-based multi-modular practice management programs, rather than redefining their mission in light of this new software platform, re-emerged in Windows as reborn versions of the same old DOS-based multi-modular practice management programs.

The result is that your integrated practice manager may have a conflict system, but so does your time and billing program. You have a document management application, but so does your practice management program. You have a word processing automation program, but your practice management program has that application too. You have a contact management or address book program, but so does your practice management program. You have a preferred computer calendaring system, but your practice management program offers that component too.

Some might call this chaos.

But, we call it opportunity. In today's Windows operating environment, no one application has to be able to solve all your law firm's problems. You can choose the contact manager you like best, the expense program that suits you, the time and billing software that works for your office, the calendar you like to use and any other interface that helps you gain control over your workload and practice issues. All of of these separately purchased software programs can reside with total compatibility on the Windows launch bar to be easily accessed at the click of a mouse. And, these separate applications can be precisely deployed across the Windows environment to just those workstations where they are needed and just when they are needed. The result is a dramatic cutback of unnecessary application clutter at every desktop. Workstations will have only those applications that are necessary; and, they will have the best applications available that have been separately evaluated and purchased, tailored to fit the needs and style of the entire law firm. And, there is no application conflict when you elect to make a precision purchase of specialized software for a single workstation.

Multi-modular integrated practice management programs do not provide an organizing principle for law firm management. Rather, they are a substitution for and delegation of vision and choice. They offer many options, but little freedom. With maturing of Windows technology and availability of a myriad of great standalone programs spawned by that technology, the purchase of a feature-laden integrated practice management program is an outmoded technology strategy.

Why not choose and arrange application software for your firm in a way that compliments your own needs and style best?

Would you buy a toaster/coffee maker/can opener that has a tv and answers your phone? Programs that attempt to be all things to all people may end up being underutilized because no one likes using them. Do you get out your food processor everyday or is a knife often the better choice. Consumers in the 70's proved that they wanted to put together their own stereo system out of their choice of components. Recent economic history offers other stories of failures at integrated technologies, including the well-documented failures in the manufacturing sector with respect to multi-million dollar investments in enterprise wide software.

We at Sumac Consulting Group believe that 10 years from now, today's multi-modular practice management programming style will be obsolete. New programs will continue to emerge each with unique functions more capable than those bundled in generalist programs. Operating as components, they will work exceptionally well in combination with other specialized programs across the Windows launchpad.

Law firms which recognize this trend will hop aboard and handpick software that suits their firm's needs and style of practice, with a corresponding competitive edge. Legal software is no longer a black art. There are lots of good programs out there that can be purchased in the same buying mode as choosing a car or your furniture. Intellectual discomfort doesn't have to be a part of the process. If you use good judgment, and know your firm's practice needs, you will choose what works best for you.

It is true today, as it has always been, that if you choose what works best for you, you can do your best work.

The last century has seen steady advances in legal technology. The technical progress over the last decade has been truly dramatic. However, there is no reason to assume that today's standard practice technologies will survive any more than those of yesteryear. The true technological revolution in law office software is yet to come.

Founded on the cusp of a new era, Sumac Consulting Group offers you its maverick program, The MasterList, the goal of which is to provide you a specialized case management program that allows you to masterfully track and control your case and project agendas applying powerful, highly tailored and focused relational data base technology.

If you are looking for case management software that manages cases and is not attempting to service every other practice issue in your law firm, you may find that The MasterList system best fits you, your firm, and your style.

Ask yourself what are the 2 or 3 most important features you want in a case management program. What are your goals in purchasing a case management program? What is your firm's primary need in terms of a case management program? Then, buy the program that best fits those requirements. Don't allow yourself to be steered off course by extra features that do not go to the heart of your core concerns.

We at Sumac Consulting Group believe that our case management program is at the cutting edge of a software revolution that will make legal practice management easier by providing best of breed software that law firms can separately purchase as components to build tailored practice management suites that work, are less cluttered, easier to navigate, and more reflective of the unique management principles of each law firm.

I look forward to sharing The MasterList system with you.

Bill Neubert
The MasterList

White Paper: Rollout. Some Might Call This Chaos.
January, 2000

To Send Comments about The MasterList White Papers,
please e-mail: sumac@themasterlist.com