PerfectLaw Podcasts

Episode #6 - A Long Road Ending in the Cloud (Part 2)

Valerie Williams of Pender & Coward spent time talking with Anthony Beasley about her law firm's experience using the new PerfectLaw^® DMS product. Val also talked about her experience working with the development team in the DMS project.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Anthony Beasley

Hi Val, this is Anthony again with perfect law. I wanted to circle back and I know we had a conversation with you concerning the web DM S product, but you and I met years ago on a phone call where you were considering some changes because you had a very high end billing system Elite where.

00:00:20 Anthony Beasley

You know making a change was going to be big, and I remember when we talked about it you had some some you know some specifics that you wanted, but one of the things that you also talked about was.

00:00:30 Anthony Beasley

Having more in a software system when you made the change from Elite, because obviously with the amount of money that you spent, you wanted more bang for your Buck. So if you could tell us a little bit about the transition and how you know you came to where you were at the time to make the decision to move to perfect law.

00:00:47 Valerie Williams

Happy to share that with you Anthony. We had at that time.

00:00:51 Valerie Williams

For firms that had joined into Pender and Coward an we had four systems that we were trying to bring all together.

00:01:01 Valerie Williams

The main firm pattern Coward was on the elite time and billing system an anytime we wanted to do something different with Elite. Whether it was bringing another firm's records or anything like that, it was an easy $10,000 on top of your regular maintenance, which was very high itself.

00:01:20 Valerie Williams

We started to look around for a product that would incorporate the best of.

00:01:26 Valerie Williams

Those four packages that we were working with, and we set up a team to evaluate various software products. Then you know, going through that process, we decided that of everything we had looked at, perfect loss seemed like it would be a good fit for us. We turned one of the things very important to our attorneys.

00:01:47 Valerie Williams

Is there reports and an how they look and what they do and so reporting was a big.

00:01:55 Valerie Williams

Thing that we were looking at an we actually took reports that we were using in the practice and sent them to perfect law and let them tell us what they had that mimicked what we had on our reports and.

00:02:08 Valerie Williams

You know they hit every one of 'em right on the head an after that showed us how we could modify, you know reports and create new reports and have helped us with a couple of special ones along the way. But that was one of the things that we wanted to have the most was the ability to pull that information from.

00:02:30 Valerie Williams

The common billing system and put it in the format that the attorneys are accustomed to.

00:02:36 Anthony Beasley

OK, now you know when we embarked on this at the time, if I remember correctly, the firm wasn't using a document management system per say. If I remember correctly, I know there was a couple of different systems we. You know some areas where we talked about some improvements and I think overtime.

00:02:52 Anthony Beasley

You know, it's like a lot of people when they purchased perfect law.

00:02:56 Anthony Beasley

You end up buying something that you don't really appreciate until you don't have it right now. The the You know the new features in new functions, how was that received in the firm? You know after the implementation.

00:03:11 Valerie Williams

Of the DM S product or the the perfect love.

00:03:14 Anthony Beasley

Perfect law aimed the original perfect laaame product.

00:03:17 Valerie Williams

It was very well received. There was a lot of time spent on training individuals in the firm to make the transition and one of our goals was to yet our attorneys to do things simple things like put things on their calendars and do their own time entries and.

00:03:34 Valerie Williams

Yeah, that that was always met with resistance an when they could see how easy it was and some of the the neat little features that they could do like cloning time entries and running the timer on what they were doing and and that type of thing. They gradually started coming on board and today we probably have.

00:03:55 Valerie Williams

For attorneys that still do not do their own time, but out of 40, I don't think 4 is too bad.

00:04:04 Anthony Beasley

No, not at all. Now. Let's Fast forward to from man. I can't believe I'm saying this, but from 2000, four 2005.

00:04:12 Anthony Beasley

To current day, the transition of course, with all that's going on in the world with the kovit situation and with people wanting to be more mobile, do things in a more mobile sense. You have since embarked on the transition to the perfect law cloud and you have been running our system. You run from Microsoft Azure.

00:04:33 Anthony Beasley

You're doing things that a lot of firms wish they could do, but you know it's that transition from. We have control of everything in our office or in our in our data. You know, in our own servers, to being in the cloud.

00:04:45 Anthony Beasley

How have you seen it that perfect law has now become for you guys, not just the system that you purchased to solve a problem, but, uh, a product for the future for you.

00:04:56 Valerie Williams

It's playing a huge role in that regard, are moved to the cloud, an installation of DMS, and the latest AIM product all took place.

00:05:06 Valerie Williams

Within just weeks of covert striking, at which point we had to send everybody home. And of course they didn't want to stop working. They had things to do and and you know, people were still calling.

00:05:19 Valerie Williams

I'm just grateful that we got it done before Kovit started. It has been our experience in the cloud with perfect law has been very stable. You know I I think there's only been maybe twice where I've seen it. I call it glitch but it just disconnects for a moment and then we'll reconnect it again, but.

00:05:39 Valerie Williams

Um?

00:05:41 Valerie Williams

You know, I can't say that that's not caused by something else, but it's been a very reliable product since we made the switch earlier this year.

00:05:49 Anthony Beasley

Great great, now the other area where I think you know the in in all the things that you've done, of course has been your involvement in our Advisory Board and user group an I think that's something that overtime.

00:06:01 Anthony Beasley

Will continue to grow.

00:06:04 Anthony Beasley

Just give us a little bit of.

00:06:06 Anthony Beasley

Background in you know what prompted you to really want to be a part of that understanding where you came from and where you are.

00:06:14 Valerie Williams

Yes, I had previously been involved in user groups and I'm a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel and all of us bring something different to the table. We have strengths in different areas and can assist each other and not have to go through the pain of growing it ourselves. I met with one of the firms.

00:06:37 Valerie Williams

Up in Chicago last year and what I saw at that firm was just amazing with what they've done with rules and their documents and so on and so forth. An you know, as far as I'm concerned, they're the experts on that now and.

00:06:53 Valerie Williams

There may be something else that someone else is very talented with, but by bringing all of that talent together in one place, we can share on the product growth and you know, hopefully, save a little bit of time. Make it a better product all the way around, yeah?

00:07:10 Anthony Beasley

Well, Val, I must thank you again. You have been a true true warrior and a true champion for perfect law for very long time.

00:07:17 Anthony Beasley

We certainly appreciated you as a client, but as I've always said, you know when people sign what perfectly, you sign into a family of users you know, no matter what.

00:07:25 Anthony Beasley

You go through in life families, family and you take care of them and we appreciate all of our clients. But when someone goes that extra mile they help us out. They help out all the other users. Of course we always love hearing from you as well. So I really appreciate your time today. I know it's that time of year when people are getting ready for end of year and a lot going on Christmas and vacations and other things so.

00:07:47 Anthony Beasley

We definitely definitely appreciate you taking a moment out. Sharing with all the other folks who are willing to listen. Both clients and non clients alike that are interested in perfect laws that are used in perfect law. So for them as well, I would like to say thank you.

00:07:59 Valerie Williams

My pleasure, and I hope everyone has a happy holiday.

00:08:02 Anthony Beasley

Alright, thank you Val.