July 2015 - Ontario Lawyers Directory

San Francisco, CA (Law Firm Newswire) July 28, 2015 - The latest issue of The Bigger Law Firm magazine provides an in-depth look at Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems for law firms.

BLF helps attorneys and law firm marketers take advantage of the latest strategies and technologies for connecting with clients. In this issue, Ryan Conley gives a broad overview of various types of CRM systems, from simple online tools to full-fledged CRM software suites.

When people think of CRM software, they may think of law firm management software, and that is certainly an important tool in managing client relationships. However, Conley points out that there are some simpler tools that can help with important client communication. He discusses two add-ons for Gmail that can help attorneys communicate with clients and manage their inbox. Boomerang is an add-on that allows users to schedule emails to be sent at a future date, or remind the user to reply to an email or follow up about one that has been sent. Streak is another add-on that has some of the same features as Boomerang, but also turns Gmail into a business productivity tool by moving contacts through “pipelines,” or series of categories, such as prospective clients or closed matter.

In the middle range of CRM products are law practice management solutions such as Actionstep and Rocket Matter, which provide more full-featured management tools but are not comprehensive CRM suites. Many of these products are “software as a service,” or cloud software, meaning that the software does not reside on the firm's own servers but is accessed solely over the internet. Conley addresses the issues that arise with this type of system, and concludes that a firm's data may be safer in the cloud than it is in the office, and its heightened mobility and flexibility mean that cloud computing is here to stay.

Larger firms will need a full-fledged CRM software suite, and Conley discusses the features offered by a few of the most popular solutions available, including InterAction, CRM4Legal and i/o Grow. While all the major CRM suites offer integration with the most popular email, invoicing and word processing programs, firms will need to research which software suite will best meet their needs.

Conley's article is one of many pieces in this issue of BLF that focus on helping law firms use technology to grow their business.

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San Francisco, CA (Law Firm Newswire) July 22, 2015 - The latest issue of Bigger Law Firm magazine offers cutting-edge analysis of technology issues relevant to law firms in the Internet age.

In this issue, Justin Torres examines HTML5, the latest version of the computer language used to create websites. This version was recently finalized and represents the first complete overhaul since HTML4 was finalized in 1997.

Torres starts by pointing out new, simplified “elements,” or discrete bits of code, that not only make the HTML language easier for humans to read, but also easier for search engines to distinguish between content and navigational elements.

New application programming interfaces, or APIs, represent great leaps in simplicity, security, and available features. The new audio and video tags allow site designers to embed media with as little as one line of code, eliminating the need for browser plug-ins such as Flash and all the security vulnerabilities they entail.

Torres touches on a number of other APIs: The canvas element allows the user to manipulate images within a website; Scalable Vector Graphics greatly increase load speed for simple images; web storage allows the browser to store data for offline use; and server side validation eases form submissions by validating data before it is submitted. And Torres wraps up with an explanation of how the latest version of cascading style sheets, CSS3, gives websites visually striking features that perform reliably on displays of all sizes.

Each article in the latest issue of Bigger Law Firm magazine is full of accessible information to help attorneys and law firms understand how the latest technology affects their practice.

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To learn more about how to build a Bigger Law Firm, visit https://www.biggerlawfirm.com

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Month: July 2015

Finding the Right CRM for Law Firms

BLF Magazine Publishes a Simple Guide to HTML 5 for Attorneys