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LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT "I'm everywhere, so I can't be e-mailing documents back and forth to myself. I just love to be able to quickly open a document and continue working." MERVYN VALADARES, VALADARES LAW GROUP LLP data will be stored in U.S.-based facilities and may therefore be accessible to law-en- forcement agencies under the terms of the Patriot Act. But Power maintains this is a non-issue. He says law enforcement agen- cies in any country may seek co-operation from online services regarding potential terrorism or other illegal activities so that the data is at no greater risk in the U.S. than in Canada. Both Google Apps and BPOS or Office 365 provide e-mail management and host- ing, as well as online versions of standard office productivity suites, including tools for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. Both services take advan- tage of the online environment by offering collaboration tools, such as secure web sites where many people can work on the same document at the same time. Google Apps, and particularly its e-mail tool Gmail, have long been used by consumers. It allows for up to 50 users in any one organization at no cost so it could be used by a small law firm for non-critical purposes, but most firms would likely prefer the security guarantees, additional hosting space, and business tools offered by Google Apps for Business, which costs $50 per user, per year. The Microsoft online business productivity tools come in different versions: small businesses with up to 50 users can purchase a service that costs $7 per user, per month, while larger enterprises can get a suite with extra man- agement tools at a cost of $11.75 per user, per month. As the two companies fight for market share, each one touts the advantages of its product in these complementary terms. Google positions itself as the expert in online services with years of experience in offering Google Apps to consumers. Microsoft maintains that its Office suites that were developed in an off-line environ- ment originally designed for business use are more robust and packed with sophis- ticated features that Google can't match. Microsoft also claims it has an advantage in offering an online product that is fully compatible with the off-line desktop ver- sions, which many people will still prefer to use while they are in their offices and don't need to access their data and tools remotely. As legal online marketing consultant Steve Matthews points out, smaller law O'BRIEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FORMS, ELEVENTH EDITION — COMPUTERS AND NFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, DIVISION X Editor: Louis H. Milrad INTERNET VERSION INCLUDED WITH YOUR PRINT SUBSCRIPTION O'Brien's — Computers and Information Technology, Division X is compiled by one of the country's leading IT practitioners. This service delivers all of the appropriate and up-to-date forms of agreements to help you conduct your IT business. It also provides checklists and optional clauses that assist in quickly customizing the agreements. Benefit from material on: identifying and protecting intellectual property Internet & Looseleaf (4 volumes) • $533 Subscription updates invoiced as issued (1-2 yr) • P/C 0886030000 Vol. 1/2/3/4 ISBN 0-88804 267-1/358- 9/436-4/467-9 Prices subject to change without notice, to applicable taxes and shipping & handling. • • • • • requests for proposals (RFPs) particularly for government-related procurement software as a service and managed operations online purchasing and other types of Internet transactions database and content licensing NEW Includes new chapter - "Software as a Service and cloud computing". Visit canadalawbook.ca or call 1.800.565.6967 for a 30-day no-risk evaluation CANADA LAW BOOK® CL0211 22 FEBRUA R Y 2011 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com