Saving Money on Telecommunications

There was an interesting post recently on the SCORE Women’s Success Blog about small businesses saving money on toll free lines and dedicated fax lines. The writer posits,

“If you’re running a small business or nonprofit and are trying to cut costs, let the toll-free number go (or get a new number and limit its use…keep it off the Web!). And unless you have to send or receive tons of faxes, get rid of the dedicated line for that too.”

She offers the following money-saving tips:

• Get a flat rate plan with the phone company for unlimited long distance (the writer uses AT&T).
• Use your cell phone for long distance calls.
• Get rid of (or do not get) the 800 number with the catchy name (e.g. 1-800-lemon-law, used by a firm in my area). Most of the good ones are already taken, and with the rise of the Web, more people are Googling for your business than looking in the phone book.

She also advocates getting rid of your dedicated fax line for three reasons. First, if you get DSL for your broadband Internet access, the same line can be used for faxes, as the signals are different and do not interfere with one another. I have been doing this for years and have never had a problem.

Second, she says that oftentimes things do not have to get there THAT fast, so regular mail is just as good. In our profession, however, I am not sure that is the case. There is often an urgency to what we do that makes faxing practical, but perhaps the better alternative would be to scan and e-mail instead.

 

Tips on Buying That New Desktop PC for Your Office

In a post on PC World’s site, several good tips were given on choosing a new desktop PC for your office. These are interesting ideas to keep in mind and can save you money in the long run.

The first tip addresses the question we have been asking for the past year or so: Should I go with Vista? This is where the so-called “XP Downgrade” option can come in handy. As the post explains,

“You’re essentially buying Vista, but getting XP for free, and obtaining an upgrade disk for Vista when and if you want it. If you buy the Vista Business edition, models and makers that support this option will impose no additional charge; if you buy a cheaper Vista version, you may have to pay additional fees, or an XP downgrade may not be available.”

Wow, the best of both worlds! You get the Windows XP stability and compatibility, while investing in Vista for when you are ready for that step. This can be done at no additional cost if you buy the right system. Dell has been doing this for awhile.

“Dell’s arrangement is typical: by choosing its “bonus” edition of Vista Business or better, you can opt to have the factory install Windows XP and include an upgrade DVD for that flavor of Vista. Dell offers support through the computer’s lifetime warranty for both XP and Vista. You can even downgrade back to XP if you choose.

Since most businesses haven’t standardized on Vista, you’re unlikely to have problems with coworkers or other companies you work with if you stick with XP; operating systems rarely affect compatibility, either, only tech support.”

 

Less Hassles Carrying Laptops Through Airport Security

On August 8, there was an interesting post in the blogosphere on a site called Cool Aggregator about laptop bags that have been approved by the TSA.  The important thing about this news is that travelers using these approved bags will not have to remove the laptop from the bag before having it x-rayed.  This certainly saves time and hassle for the busy traveler!  According to this post, the firm Mobile Edge will be coming out with three bags later this summer, a briefcase, backpack, and messenger bag.  Unfortunately, only the backpack can accommodate a laptop larger than 15.4″.  That 17″ HP model I bought a couple of years ago is really shaping up to be not the most mobile of solutions (although it does make for a great desktop replacement machine for the road warrior).  Keep an eye on these products as they come out; it may be a wise investment if you travel quite a bit in your practice.

 

Road Warriors: Plaxo Helps Keep You Up to Date

With an office, a home office, and a laptop that I take with me on the road, I have been looking around for quite some time for a solution that will keep my contacts, calendar, and to-dos synchronized on all machines. My Palm T/X helps, but maintaining data and dealing with e-mails was a bit cramped and frustrating with their Grafitti handwriting system, plus I wanted to maintain the same information on all machines. I tried Google Calendar and some of their other apps, but I just couldn’t get it to sync properly with Outlook on my home machine. I also opened an Exchange Server account with my Internet provider 1&1, which also allowed me to have access to my e-mail from anywhere. However, that limited me to Outlook, and I wanted something that would work with several desktop and web solutions. Then recently I found the answer.

My home broadband provider, Comcast, had purchased Plaxo to create a Universal Address Book, Calendar, etc., for its users. I started playing around with it and found it to be just the thing in many ways. First off, it downloaded and installed an Outlook sync plug-in without a hitch and proceeded to synchronize everything between my computer and its server. Not only that, it has synchronization tools for several apps including Outlook Express, Vista’s Windows Mail, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, and Mozilla Thunderbird. Since this last app is open source and multi-platform, it also allowed me to use Plaxo on my Linux laptop. Thus this little gem is useful whether you use Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. Unfortunately, the Thunderbird version only syncs one address book, and I have several in Outlook on my Windows PC, which limits its usefulness. Hopefully this will be addressed in a future update.

Second, this is more than just an online personal information manager; it is also a social and business networking site (they call it Pulse) that actually has separate personal and professional profiles with separate security settings on who can see what information. This is quite a boon for people looking to network professionally without disclosing personal information (which is the case on sites like Facebook) and would rather not maintain a separate network for business (like LinkedIn). In looking at it, it has many of the network building features found in Facebook and LinkedIn, so it is a good hybrid.

Third, it keeps your address book updated dynamically for contacts in your address book that also use Plaxo. If one of your other Plaxo Friends changes something in their profile, it is automatically changed in your list!

Fourth, the online contact list has some enhancements to your local information. Each address book entry links to Yahoo Maps to show the location of the contact and give you the opportunity to get directions there from your home or office location (or another address that you type in). You can also place a call to that person from link in the contact info using the Jajah.com VoIP service.

Overall, this is a great tool for the road warrior or anyone working on multiple PCs.

 

Managing a Practice with Linux

There have been several posts here about Linux in the law office, both as a server environment and as a workstation. My main concern with it on the desktop has always been the lack of native Linux applications that would be needed for lawyers, such as time and billing, financials, and case management. One solo attorney, who also blogs on small law office technology, posted about what he currently uses in the Linux environment. It is certainly worth a read, and his blog, www.solosmalltech.com, is in my blogroll. Feel free to check it out.

In a recent e-mail to me, he indicated that he eschews practice management software like Time Matters in favor of other apps for calendaring, to-dos, contact management and the like. In the Linux world, from what I have seen so far, there appear to be three alternatives:

1. Native Linux apps (e.g. GNUCash for financials)
2. Online applications (e.g. Freshbooks for financials)
3. Running Windows applications through WINE on Linux (see my post on that)

Personally I believe option 1 to be the best, as it also promotes development of Linux (or multi-platform) apps, which can only help to strengthen Linux’s market share and make it a more attractive option overall.

As to option 2, I am skeptical of this because it makes you dependent upon an Internet connection to work, although it does have the added advantage of allowing to do work from anywhere (with a connection) using any OS you choose (Windows, Linux, Mac). It also makes you dependent upon the stability and security of a technology infrastructure that is outside of your control. This topic was the subject of a debate in August of last year on a blog site called The Inspired Solo run by Sheryl Sisk Schelin, a solo working in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In it, attorney William Paul Slough, who blogs on the Linux Law Office, takes the Pro Position, while Aaron Rittmaster, a Missouri attorney, takes the Con Position. Between these two articles, and their comments, the subject is covered very well.

Option 3 is a possibility as a stopgap until option 1 is viable, and, as Sam Glover of Solo Small Tech tells me, “Most practice/case management software is using pretty basic code . . . and will run perfectly in WINE.” I have been experimenting with Linux at home, and plan to test this assertion with Time Matters and my bankruptcy software (which uses the same database engine). A well-equipped Linux machine with WINE and some vertical market apps to complement OpenOffice, Firefox for browsing, and Thunderbird for e-mail, may just be the trick until option 1 becomes more viable. I will let you know what happens.