AND THE SURVEY SAID....!

The results of the 2011 ABA Technology Survey have been posted. It would have been nice if the the sample set was >1000 but I still found this to be very telling. Of the 15% of all attorneys who use a tablet device, 89% report that they use an iPad, 8% report using Android. Read the full report by Jeff Richardson: SURVEY

ELECTRONIC PRE-BILLS DELIVERED TO YOUR iPAD? YES!

Reviewing Pre-Bills is a necessary and a very important evil in every attorney’s practice and is not a task billing attorneys look forward to every month. However, pre-bill review is vital to any law firm in order to achieve accuracy in billing, especially today as corporate clients adopt ebilling and auditing review systems. But timing is also important when reviewing pre-bills. The faster attorneys can turn them back to accounting the faster invoices will go out to the client and helping to shorten the receivables cycle.

Wouldn’t it be great for attorneys to be able to review pre-bills from his/her iPad, anywhere they are, make revisions and annotations (using a stylus or finger) and send them back to accounting? The firm will save thousands of sheets of paper, go truly paper-less, at the same time attorneys are not constrained to be at the office to work on their pre-bills.

iDocExplorer allows ProLaw firms to do that and much more. As follows I describe a workflow any firm can implement in a matter of minutes and is a start to a truly automated paperless pre-bills review.

- Accounting will run pre-bills for each attorney and instead of sending it to a regular printer, they will send it to a PDF printer. There are many good PDF printers for free (I’m serious). My favorite is PDF995 (http://www.pdf995.com/)

- Save the pre-bills to an admin matter in ProLaw for each attorney to access. You can choose one general admin matter or each attorney’s admin matter.

- From iDocExplorer, attorneys will be able to immediately access those pre-bills from their iPads by navigating to the appropriate matter.

- Use the “Open In” feature of iDocExplorer to access apps such as neu.Annotate (free!), iAnnotate or GoodReader, and start reviewing and annotating pre-bills with a Stylus or just a finger.

- Email pre-bills with changes to Accounting or to any other attorney for further review.

- Done, that’s it! This can be done while in the airport, waiting in court or on a Saturday from home (not from the office).

There is big difference in efficiencies by doing this from your iPad, versus trying other electronic mechanisms or software. The greatest advantage using your iPad for this function is that it can be done anywhere and it resembles the simplicity of doing it in paper, but with portability and without having to carry tons of paper.

Now, how about Conflicts Reports? You can apply the same workflow and get the most out of your iPad and your time.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us at info@bellefield.com and our support team will be happy to step you through the entire process so attorneys at your firm can successfully star reviewing pre-bills totally paperless.

Bellefield Advances Mobile Strategy With New Version of iDocExplorer iPad App

ProLaw users can now easily view, edit, and annotate documents on their iPads
PITTSBURGH, PA. JULY 6, 2011–Bellefield Systems, a leading innovator in Mobile Legal Applications, today announced that iDocExplorer upgraded version 1.4 is now available on the iTunes app store. The free to download app seamlessly integrates with the ProLaw DMS providing immediate access to profiled documents and emails. Users may also email, annotate, and save documents to their iPads.

“Each of the iDocExplorer enhancements resulted from user requests and help unleash the true potential of what the iPad can do. We remain fully committed to our clients and bringing the very best mobile applications to market,” said Gabriela Isturiz, Principal Bellefield Systems.

New iDocExplorer v. 1.4 features include:

• Browse the ProLaw Document Management System. Documents that are stored in the ProLaw Document Management System can be accessed from Recent Matters, My Matters, Assigned Matters, or full document searches.
• Email. Documents may be emailed from the iPad to any recipient in seconds.
• Open In – Documents can now be opened using third party apps.• Annotate / Save. Documents are easily annotated directly on the iPad and may be saved and or emailed with the annotations intact.• Matter level and Document level security. iDocExplorer honors ProLaw security hierarchy and document database restrictions.

"iDocExplorer has become an indispensable tool for my practice. It allows me to access and manipulate any document I created or received for any matter I am working on at any time and any place. That is a powerful tool for lawyers," said Eric Hughes, Attorney Hughes & Hughes

iDocExplorer leverages the Bellefield Connect Platform, Bellefield’s proprietary enterprise cloud data system, permitting seamless 2-way communication between Legal Management Systems and mobile devices. This ultra-secure platform provides bank level security and encryption of firm and client data.


About Bellefield: Bellefield is a leading innovator in Legal Mobile Technologies, bridging the gap between your enterprise software, mobile devices, and desktop applications. Bellefield’s mobile strategy is based on Bellefield Connect, the most robust and secure mobile data platform designed specifically for legal. Guiding the way in mobile computing for legal, Bellefield has released iDocExplorer and iTimeKeep. For more information Bellefield at www.bellefield.com

Download the PR  here

Why The iPad?

I am frequently asked if iDocExplorer, or our newest app iTimeKeep, will work on devices other than the iPad, XOOM, Rim Playbook, etc. The short answer is yes and no.

For the slightly longer answer you will need to understand what runs Bellefield's services. We have built a system called the Bellefield Connect Platform. This enterprise level platform allows us to do several things with relative ease:

1. Have seamless 2-way communication and integration with virtually all legal management systems, Aderant, ProLaw, Elite, etc.
2. Deliver data very quickly and efficiently with state of the art 2-way encryption schemes similar to the highest level of banking security.
3. Manage users and plans through the Bellefield Subscription Engine.
4. Deliver this data to any mobile device.

There is one other thing that needs a little clarification. Mobile devices are, for the most part, a pretty face to display the data it requests, pulls, and pushes over the web. There is very little computing done on these devices. The Bellefield Connect Platform dangles this data ready to be delivered to any device.

We have chosen to lead with the iPad for a very solid reason. Simply, they are everywhere! Sales are through the roof. To date Apple has sold over 19 millions iPads and there are about 65,000 apps, and some analysts predict 120 millions iPads will be sold by the end of 2012.The reason for this is that it is a superior device and looks to be so for a long time to come, it is extremely easy and intuitive, and requires very little training or maintenance, just to name a few of the reasons.

Apple’s iPad has the largest market share compared to any other tablet available. In a recent survey, the iPad has been termed as having a commanding lead in the U.S. tablet market with 82% of the pie. While we have witnessed a number of releases recently, specially by Android tablets with companies including, Motorola, Samsung and others, they still lag far behind in market share. While the Apple iPad has a clear lead over others, Samsung is seen following the champ with just 4% of the market, even after the release of much anticipated Galaxy Tablet. Others will follow, Dell and Motorola having a limited spread with just 3% and 2% of the market.

If it comes to pass that a another device starts to get some traction then we will, on very short order, provide an interface for it. Will it be the Droid, Blackberry, Google - or will the iPad maintain its dominance? With the Bellefield Platform we have the data ready to deliver to whatever device it is.

iRedLine's Success with Bellefield's API

Esquire Innovation iRedline tool has been integrated with Thomson Reuter's ProLaw. iRedline, which has been on the market since 2003, provides document comparison in Microsoft Word through technologies that enhance the native comparison process and tracked changes.

Esquire utilized Bellefield's API and integration expertise to achieve the seamless integration between the products.

New iRedline/ProLaw features include:

- Browse ProLaw Document Management System. Documents that are stored in the ProLaw
Document Management System can be accessed from a Recent Matters and Recent Document
Explorer and brought in to iRedline for document comparison.
-Redlined documents are profiled. Profiling the new document couldn’t be any easier as it
automatically pre-fills the ProLaw profiling fields with the information from the result document.
- Save as new version. This feature allows users to keep versions of their documents using the Parent-Child structure in ProLaw.
- Matter level and Document level security. If security set up is established in Prolaw either at the matter or document level, it will be honored by iRedline’s Document Explorer while searching for documents.
- Remember last settings. Using the Document Explorer or the Quick Profiler, the product will remember the last settings such as author, recent matters, and documents, and up to 10 document searches.

ABA TECHSHOW 2011

The 25th anniversary of the ABA TECHSHOW is being held in Chicago April 11-13. I will be prowling the conference area, supporting our partner vendors, and demoing our iPad app, iDocExplorer for ProLaw. I will also be excitedly unveiling and presenting our newest iPad app, iTimeKeep, the first fully integrated legal time entry system app.

Also at the show will be the prolific pundit of the blog Tablet Legal, Josh Barrett. Josh will be a speaker at two sessions. The first called “Slate Shootout” can be found in the Emerging Technology Track. The speakers will compare and contrast the iPad with an Android tablet and a Windows slate. The second, in the Smartphone/Mobility track, 60 iOS apps will be presented in 60 minutes. I highly recommend attending these sessions, as Josh knows a thing or two about these subjects.

To see a demo or to discover more about how Bellefield’s iTimeKeep or iDocExplorer can work on your iPad, drop me an email - john (at) bellefield.com. I hope to see you at the show!

Bellefield Moosletter March, 2011 & Upcoming Webinars

The March 2011 Newsletter is out, and it is called The Bellefield Moosletter.

You can access the newsletter by clicking on the following link Moosletter March 2011

Please see the list of upcoming Bellefield Webinars and feel free to forward this to anyone else may be interested.


Title: New Features Smart Profiler - ProLaw Edition
Date: Friday, March 11, 2011
Time: 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM EST
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/358586944

Title: iDocExplorer - iPad App for ProLaw
Date: Friday, March 18, 2011
Time: 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM EST
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/569630601

Title: New Features Smart Profiler - ProLaw Edition
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Time: 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM EST
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/236580809

Title: iDocExplorer - iPad App for ProLaw
Date: Friday, April 1, 2011
Time: 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM EST
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/660340048

I admit it, I held off but I am now on the bandwagon!

I really didn’t think I would get excited about the new iPad 2. Frankly I was getting a little tired of the non-stop noise postulating from every conceivable forum about what it will do or won’t, what will be new or stay the same, why Apple should wait and why they shouldn’t, yada, yada, yada Sheen, Qaddafi, Gaddafi, Kadaffi whatever, and iPad2 all day, all the time.

But, nonetheless, as I sat here writing an Article for iBusiness’s next issue I was watching the engadgets.com blog feed by Joshua Topolsky live from the event at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in CA. Slowly but surely my full attention went to the auto refresh of my second monitor as young Joshua did an outstanding job of giving the play-by-play of the presentation by Steve Jobs and friends. I found myself not waiting for the auto refresh but click manually on the refresh button to get the news quicker, faster, I was totally sucked in!

I will not go on about every aspect of what this, thinner, faster, sleeker, double camera, super fantastic device will do. You can read and see for yourself here:

Joshua's event play-by-play and commentary

Apple's sales video

Suffice it to say that my iPad v. 1 is being handed off to a colleague as soon as I get my hands on the v.2. Really, since we are iPad app developers we have to have all of the model types, right?

ARTICLE: Wexford startup launches an iPad app for lawyers

Lawyers are often among the last to adopt new technologies, says John Kuntz, founder of Bellefield Systems, a company that is pushing the profession into the digital age with a savvy (and secure) app for the iPad.

Bellfield Systems in Wexford partnered last year with ProLaw, makers of a software suite used by many legal professionals at mid-sized firms to manage business. Attorneys today need to be more accountable with their time, especially in their billings, says Kuntz.

"Clients are demanding that everything be more detailed and quicker. It has become more competitive now that clients are better educated and demanding greater efficiency."

Previously the founder of Labwerks, an early interactive website marketing company purchased by Engauge in 2005, Kuntz has assembled a diverse team that includes two other principals, Gabriela Isturiz, a native of Venezuela, and her husband Daniel Garcia, a native of Spain. The two were co-founders of eBillingHub and bring 15-20 years experience in software and legal IT to the company.

Bellefield's app and flagship product is iDocExplorer, which is available though iTunes, and securely integrates with the ProLaw document management system to deliver data through a wireless connection or 3G network. Attorneys are able to access case and matter-related documents with complete security, says Kuntz.

A second app in development, iTimeKeep, will help attorneys to track billing time on any practice management system.

"Pittsburgh, for being a small city, has some of the largest law firms in the world," adds Isturiz. "There's a big legal community here and we're trying to take advantage of that."

Link: Click Here
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: John Kuntz, Bellefield Systems

First ProLaw iPad App is Now Available through ProLaw and Bellefield Partnership

First ProLaw iPad App is Now Available through ProLaw and Bellefield Partnership

iDocExplorer Provides Secure Access to ProLaw Documents via iPad

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2011 – Bellefield Systems, in partnership with ProLaw, is launching its first iPad App for ProLaw at LegalTech New York, today. iDocExplorer, available for download from the iTunes App store, will give attorneys mobile access to their matters and documents securely and efficiently on their iPad tablet. This is the first of several iPad applications being developed by Bellefield in 2011.

“We are pleased to see ProLaw’s core functionality extended to the iPad through the innovative efforts of our partners at Bellefield,” said Matthew DeVoll, vice president and general manager of ProLaw. “An increasing number of attorneys and other professionals are using these great devices in the workplace. Getting access to matter information in ProLaw from the iPad is a big advantage for many of our customers.”

iDocExplorer seamlessly and securely integrates with the ProLaw document management system (DMS) and delivers data via a wireless connection or the 3G network. Attorneys will be able to access case- or matter-related documents anytime and anywhere, and do so more quickly since they are not using a VPN or Citrix environment, yet still maintaining security and privacy.

“Attorneys will have instant access to their ProLaw matters and all associated documents, emails, and events – directly from their iPad,” said John Kuntz, principal, Bellefield Systems. “The iPad and other tablet devices are becoming popular tools that are more functional than a smartphone, and easier to use than a laptop. We are helping law firms transform these devices into powerful business tools.”

“With so many attorneys now owning iPads, the iDocExplorer now makes this toy a necessary legal tool,” said ProLaw user Rachel M. Dollar, partner at Smith Dollar PC, a premier real estate and financial services law firm in California.

ProLaw is an integrated software suite designed to automate the practice and manage the business of law. Comprehensive features simplify, streamline and coordinate the work of attorneys and staff in small and mid-size law firms, corporate legal departments and government law offices. Built from the ground-up on a single database, ProLaw combines case and matter management, as well as time entry, billing and accounting capabilities, within a complete integrated solution. Bellefield became a member of the ProLaw Alliance Program last year. ProLaw is part of the Business of Law unit of Thomson Reuters, Legal.

For more information and updates, visit the Bellefield blog at http://bellefieldnews.blogspot.com/

About Bellefield Systems
Bellefield Systems enables ProLaw law firms to improve practice efficiencies in the areas of collaboration and compliance. Our next generation software products integrate seamlessly with ProLaw, helping you to work smarter, faster and more productively. www.bellefield.com.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs 55,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

Bellefield Newsletter, January 2011

In This Issue

Editorial Note: Welcome
New LinkedIn ProLaw Users Group
Got an iPad? Here's a ProLaw App

Take our iPad Survey

Smart Profiler New Features

Welcome to the first edition of the Bellefield Newsletter, Your ProLaw Partner.

Editorial Note

It is with pleasure that we bring you the inaugural issue of our newsletter. Your place to find out how to make your practice more efficient, learn new best practices, and to see what we are up to. We have been batting around many different names for this publication, which I will share with you, but first some background information.

The name of our company is Bellefield Systems. Bellefield translates to beautiful field; think pastures, fragrant flowers, honey bees, and green grass on a warm summer day. Our mascot is Belle the sweet friendly bovine you see here. Gaby, Dani and Myself are fun loving, hard working, problem solving, engineer types. We will decide by the next issue as to what to call this thing. The names to date:

The Bellefield Gazette

The Moos You Can Use

Belle's MoosLetter

Bellefield eZine

John Kuntz & Gaby Isturiz

NEW! Subscribe to our LinkedIn ProLaw Users Community Group

Please take this short survey and we will share with you the results once we close the survey. Feel free to forward to any of you colleagues. Take me to the iPad SurveyWe are very excited to announce the first ProLaw Users Group in LinkedIn. This group is targeted to users, vendors, consultants and other professionals that want to share ideas, exchange problems/solutions, make announcements and even post jobs. The group is NOT monitored and anyone can sign in (no approval required either).

Click here to go to the LinkedIn ProLaw Community Group and please, forward this to any other person that may also be interested.

Got an iPad? We have the perfect ProLaw App for you!

We at Bellefield just had one of those HIGH FIVE moments, we FINALLY broke the code and got our Ipad App migrated through ITunes to the Ipad and running! Driving document data from the ProLaw Back Office server to The Cloud to the Ipad - quickly and seamlessly.

Seeing your Matters in a matter of seconds - anywhere! This is monumental for us and the world of ProLaw users. They can now search and view their documents on their IPad, think about that! For a certain group of people we have taken the IPad from toy to tool, justifying the ownership of one of these fabulous pieces of technology. Want to learn more? click here

 Take our 1-minute iPad Survey HERE

You don't need to have an iPad to take this survey! We are currently conducting a study about how people in the legal industry are using or planning to use it in the future.

ProLaw Smart Profiler New Features

Profile multiple emails at once. You can really expedite your email profiling process by selecting multiple emails and profiling them seamlessly into ProLaw.

Send Prolaw Document Links. If you are collaborating with other professionals in your firm and need to exchange ProLaw documents back and forth, you can now just email the "document link" as opposed to the document itself. This feature will avoid the need to save, modify and re-attach. Clicking on the "document link" will immediately open your ProLaw document so you can start working with it right away.

Attach ProLaw Documents. Sending emails with ProLaw documents as attachments is now easier than ever. You will be able to browse to your ProLaw documents and select one or many and immediately be able to send your email.

Profile Attachment as children events. Now you have the option when profiling your emails to indicate whether you want those attachments as children documents of the parent.

Remember you can download it for free and try our products for 30 days. Ready to buy? Just go to our website www.bellefield.com or just email us at sales@bellefield.com

Thank you and let us know if you have any comments to our newsletter or if you want to contribute with an article.

Sincerely,

Bellefield Systems
www.bellefield.com

Bellefield IPad App - I feel like a kid again!

Since childhood I have been a tinkerer, always building and developing things, tearing things apart and at times, in a grandiose manner, blowing things up; think model rockets, motorcycles, computers, and the occasional very large firecracker in ponds, under trees, etc. Typical boy stuff. Fast forward to college and then to my careers and I have done the same things, but without getting a tanning from my strict Germanic mother.

There is a special feeling you get when you build your first engine and it finally turns over and starts, you develop a complicated piece of software and it finally runs without error, or the Steelers win the AFC Championship (or Super Bowl). These are all "gimme' a HIGH FIVE" moments in life. Very special and memorable moments, though they do become fewer and futher between as your personal threshold for success becomes higher.

We at Bellefield just had one of these HIGH FIVE moments, we FINALLY broke the code and got our Ipad App migrated through ITunes to the Ipad and running! Driving document data from the ProLaw Back Office server to The Cloud to the Ipad - quickly and seamlessly. Seeing your Matters in a matter of seconds - anywhere! This is monumental for us and the world of ProLaw users. They can now search and view their documents on their IPad, think about that! For a certain group of people we have taken the IPad from toy to tool, justifying the ownership of one of these fabulous pieces of technology. Thank you Steve Jobs, get well.
Stay tuned for more details.

More webinars scheduled for Smart Email Profiler

The response to the launch of our Smart Email Profiler for ProLaw has been unbelievable. We are being told by the firms using it that they are saving hundreds of hours of time and word is getting out about the ease of install and use. It is always a great satisfaction hearing that you are helping people work smarter and more efficiently.

We have been inundated with requests for demonstrations. The most efficient manner we have found is to have a 20 minute webinar showing the capabilities of the tool. We have added two additional events for the balance of October:

WEBINAR SCHEDULE

October 22nd at 3:30 pm EDT  Click to Register

October 29th at 3:30 pm EDT Click to Register 

We look forward to seeing you there!

See you at the ProLaw Users Conference!

Bellefield will be attending the ProLaw users conference at the Tamaya Resort in New Mexico on October 25th - 28th. (more info here).

The conference will serve as our formal launch for three new and exciting tools which have come out of Bellefield Labs; Smart Profiler, Document Explorer, and Launchpad. 

Come and see us at booth #6  for a demo of each of these products. We will be raffling off a loaded Apple IPad to anyone who downloads and installs a trial of any one of the three. Try the three of them to triple your chances!

ProLaw Announces Bellefield as Member of Alliance Program

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6, 2010 – The ProLaw Alliance Program has added Bellefield Systems LLC as its latest member to improve practice efficiencies in the areas of collaboration and compliance for small- and mid-sized law firms, corporate legal departments, and government law offices that are using the ProLaw software solution. ProLaw is a suite of financial and practice management applications, from Thomson Reuters.

From the founders of eBillingHub, Bellefield has launched a suite of tools including a smart email profiler, a document organization tool, and an application interface for integrators specially designed to work with the ProLaw financial and practice management software.

The Bellefield team has a combined decade of ProLaw integration experience and two decades of developing legal software applications. The company offers innovative and targeted solutions that enhance the capabilities of ProLaw, an integrated software solution designed to automate the practice and manage the business of law.

“Our partners at Bellefield bring a unique set of talents to ProLaw,” said Matthew DeVoll, VP and General Manager at ProLaw. “They have significant user experience serving ProLaw clients and we are fortunate to have them on board.”

“We are honored to be one of the first ProLaw Alliance Partners,” said John Kuntz, principal, Bellefield Systems. “Our mission is to help ProLaw users operate their practices in the most efficient manner possible. By listening to ProLaw users and understanding how they use the system, we have developed advanced, yet practical solutions that enhance their ProLaw experience.”

The ProLaw Alliance Program creates new growth opportunities for businesses with services and applications that complement ProLaw. The ideal partner provides technical and business support and/or software add-on modules that can be provided directly to ProLaw users.Once an approved member, partners have access to a variety of marketing, technical and training resources.

###

About Bellefield Systems
Bellefield Systems enables ProLaw law firms to improve practice efficiencies in the areas of collaboration and compliance. Our next generation software products integrate seamlessly with ProLaw, helping you to work smarter, faster and more productively. http://www.bellefield.com/

About Elite
Elite is a leading provider of integrated information solutions to professional services firms worldwide. Elite is part of Thomson Reuters and is a premier provider of financial and practice management systems to the legal industry and to other professional services markets, including accounting, marketing services, and management and IT consulting. For more information, visit http://www.elite.com/

About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minn., Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. For more information, visit http://www.thomsonreuters.com/