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TECH SUPPORT Small firmsneed to L BY GERRY BLACKWE LL isten up small firms and sole practitioners: if you don't already use a computer-based practice management sys- tem, start now. A task force of the Law Society of British Columbia concluded last year that one reason for an epidemic of compliance issues among small firms — missed deadlines, inadvertent fiscal impropriety, insurance problems — was that few used practice management soſtware. Virtually all large firms and most medium-size firms do, and the most tech savvy among small firms started using practice management 10 or more years ago. Still, better late than never for the rest of you. Now is a good time to start because two new, Canadian- made, legal-specific tools have just appeared on the market: Clio from Themis Solutions Inc. and Virtual Bottomline (VB) from Virtual Bottomline Firm Management Solutions. What can a practice management system do for you? It lets you use the power of your computer to record, track, and monitor matters, clients, tasks, time, disbursements, documents, communications, bills, and accounts — some or all of the above, with more or less automation. And it will do it far more efficiently and effectively than is possible with whatever manual methods or collection of unintegrated computer-based tools you use today. The market already offers a number of mature solutions, including PCLaw from LexisNexis, ProLaw from Thomson Reuters, and Amicus Attorney from Gavel & Gown Soſtware Inc., another Canadian firm. So why do we need more? Both Themis and VB claim to differentiate themselves clearly from other contenders, not least on price. And both are specifically targeting small firms and sole practitioners. Clio is a soſtware-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. This means you store all your data — contacts, tasks, matters, documents, etc. — on an Internet server operated by Themis and access it over the Internet. You pay by the month: $49 per lawyer, $25 for staff. VB is licensed soſtware that runs on any Windows PC, priced at $350 per seat. It will also be available in the future in a server- based version that could be used even by large firms. "We're going to be the least expensive and we feel the most feature rich [practice management] program on the market," says VB executive vice president of marketing John Ryan. Competing products cost between $700 and $1,000 per seat, he says. Which one is better? VB has a couple of advantages: more com- plete features with, in particular, stronger time and disbursement tracking and financial functions, and a track record. Disadvan- tages? A cluttered user interface and general over-complexity. www. mag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2008 25 shape up ILLUSTRATION: JEREMY BRUNEEL