Legal View: Tools to manage current clients and drum up business

By Rebecca Boyle The Daily Record Newswire Customer relationship management software can help attorneys manage clients, calendars, tasks and more, either in one application or a suite of applications. Here are some examples that can help you drum up new business, manage your current client base and make sure potential customers know where they can go for help. InterAction Highly customizable with various software modules; prices vary http://www.interaction.com/ interaction/Legal/ One of the most popular customer relationship management software for attorneys, especially in larger firms, LexisNexis' InterAction aggregates and manages various types of data. It enables activity logging and data mining to see firmwide trends. Also, it tracks relationships among clients and other information. The newest version integrates with Microsoft Outlook. InterAction onDemand is a Web-based system targeted for firms with fewer than 250 attorneys. Microsoft CRM4Legal Highly customizable with various software modules; prices vary http://www.clientprofiles.com/CRM4Legal/product_overview.asp This software is built for Windows users and integrates with Microsoft Office. It offers a set of modules organized by area, including marketing, business development, client care and more. The marketing add-on helps to track client leads and see them through. Its business development aspect includes tools to manage partners and revenue forecasts. Daylite $189.95 for a one-time purchase and permanent software license; $29.95/month for pay-as-you-go services. DayLite Touch for iPhone and iPad is $49.95/year or $9.95/month for pay-as-you-go. www.marketcircle.com/daylite/ This CRM software is designed for Mac users and categorizes cases by project, opportunities, tasks and contacts. J. Benjamin Stevens, an attorney in Spartanburg, S.C., who runs the website The Mac Lawyer, wrote in a review that it's intuitive and easy to use. "The Daylite Productivity Suite offers full integration with Apple Mail, and automatically links all emails to the appropriate person and/or file," he wrote. Lawyers Client Management Application by Solutions 4 Lawyers $99/month for 10 cases and up to 5 GB storage; up to $149/month for unlimited cases and 15 GB storage www.s4l.com This simply named product can serve as a general office management program, handling cases, clients and finances in one place. Attorneys can give their clients a login, allowing them to access court dates, track the progress of their cases and even check the balance owed or the number of community service hours they still have to perform. Attorneys can manage and share documents, track time and finances, and communicate with clients and coworkers. Captaloans Plans start at $21/month for individuals; 3-user subscription starts at $48/month www.Captaloans.com This Web-based service provides lead tracking and client management for attorneys, paralegals and others who serve clients with debt problems. Users can track a case from the time a lead is generated until the case is closed, tracking documents, dates, court actions and other data. Facebook and LinkedIn Facebook is free; LinkedIn professional account rates vary, from $19.95 for a business plan with some premium search functions, to $99.95 a month for advanced functions Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com Attorneys don't necessarily need specialized software to track and find clients. Social networking sites can be a useful platform for connecting with customers, said blogger Jonathan Metcalf, who runs the blog LegalCRM.com. "All we have to do now is make sure we are linked to our favorite clients via LinkedIn and Facebook at the very least, and we can contact them anytime, anywhere we want," he wrote in a blog entry. Avvo Free Avvo.com This site allows clients and fellow attorneys to rate lawyers, and it gets 2 million hits per month. Larry Bodine, a legal marketing blogger, said in a recent post that he knows many attorneys hate Avvo because they can't control it and they don't like to be ranked with a number. "But you don't have to like Avvo to benefit from it," he wrote. It lists more information than FindLaw or Martindale-Hubbell, and it's free. Attorneys can use it by requesting reviews from satisfied clients, he wrote. "Your profile already exists. Claim it and beef it up," he wrote. Evernote Free Available on Android, iPhone, Mac and Windows evernote.com Evernote, a popular storage service accessible on a user's hardware or in the cloud, can prove useful for keeping track of cases and clients. Blogger Erik Mazzone, director of the Center for Practice Management for the North Carolina Bar Association, said he creates a "summary" note for each contact and uses it to keep all the emails, notes and PDF documents associated with each contact. "I can input data in a bunch of different ways, tag each 'note' in countless ways and search and sort the data very easily," he wrote. Contacts Journal for iPad and iPhone/iPod $4.99 on iTunes www.zaal-llc.com This app is integrated with your contacts list. It bills itself as a diary and to-do list for each of your contacts. It's not specifically designed for attorneys, but it could be used by any business. Users can log all interactions with your contacts, including emails and calls; add to-do items for contacts, reminding you of upcoming events like court dates; and can save directly to DropBox, a popular cloud-based data storage system. Published: Tue, Jun 28, 2011