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While a growing number of businesses are embracing the power of improving technologies, entities like government agencies are still catching up to speed. But why?

Given that government organizations should be striving for deeper engagement and more transparent communications, they haven’t always been as quick to seek ways to improve operations overall. This includes IT initiatives. Failure to keep up with IT trends has become problematic because citizens expect a modern government to implement some of the same innovations being made in the private sector. This takes form in mobile services, enhanced security and the ability to deploy government assistance faster and more efficiently.

Some countries, like Canada, are leading the way. The Treasury Board of the Government of Quebec recently published “Rénover l’état par les technologies de information”. This global modernization strategy has become the first comprehensive review of the organization’s IT workforce. Its publishing has paved the way for the organization to implement best industry practices. This has allowed for greater transparency and better continuity of services provided to Canadian citizens. Most notably, the report has encouraged the Government of Quebec to make the switch to a “Cloud first” strategy that will unlock the door to greater efficiency and functionality for the organization’s IT services.

Canada Embraces Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is one of the many technological advances government agencies are embracing. According to some studies, global spending on public cloud services and other improvements to infrastructure is expected to increase over 20% by the end of 2018. Tools like Microsoft 365 and other advanced services can hold a range of benefits for organizations in the public sector. Some of these benefits include connecting better with citizens, collaborating more effectively across departments and agencies, and increasing mobility.

Due to the success found in the Rénover l’état par les technologies de information, the National Assembly approved the implementation of a Cloud Broker, which was created to ensure an efficient and transparent process for obtaining cloud services.

Adopting a cloud-first strategy can be a big move for any organization. This rings truer for government agencies. It’s important that stakeholders fully grasp the variety of risks, challenges, and opportunities associated with a cloud-first strategy.

While there are a number of significant benefits to making the transition to the cloud for your organization’s IT, such as cutting costs, increasing scalability and providing more secure infrastructure, there are also areas that need to be evaluated beforehand. These include potential security, financial and legal issues. Once organizations make the decision to transition to a cloud-first strategy, it’s important they understand that cloud computing must operate under a shared responsibility model, with different parties responsible for different aspects of operations. This means that cloud initiatives must be run with top-down support. If all the moving parts fail to work together, you may run the risk of data breaches, missed deadlines, cost overruns, and other consequences.

Cloud Services Catalog

Implementing a cloud-first strategy is quite the undertaking and not one to be taken lightly. With projects of this scope, security is always an issue. To ensure a smooth transition for all parties involved, the CSPQ created a Cloud Services Catalog that would allow agencies to contract pre-qualified cloud services or vendors. These vendors are obligated to meet a mandatory set of requirements set forth by the Government of Quebec. These requirements contain a set of rules regarding privacy, operations, security and the protection of personal data.

Mass E-mail Migration

Microsoft Canada was among the first on the approved list of vendors. Since then, the company has joined forces with the Canadian agencies to provide guidance and coordination with the goal of streamlining operations and making the government’s IT operations more efficient. The organization has been working closely with government stakeholders to increase privacy, mobility, security, and capacity. In just 6 months, Microsoft has helped migrate 190,000 mailboxes to Office 365. The migration is among the fastest in the history of the organization. Since then, there has been a noticeable improvement and a range of benefits, including lower costs.

Canada isn’t the only country embracing Microsoft’s cloud services, and it’s certainly not the first. Major government agencies across the world have already made the switch. In June of 2014, Los Angeles County announced it would be deploying Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 program across over 100,000 employees spanning 30 departments. At the time, this transition marked one of the Microsoft’s largest state and local government implementations.

Making the switch to a cloud-first strategy is only the beginning. It marks the start of a long process of assessments and decision making. This shift, while arduous to implement, can pave the way for big benefits for large and small businesses alike. Cloud computing is the wave of the future, and a growing number of organizations are bound to reap the benefits by embracing this technology.

Libraries of legal tomes, rooms of cabinets full of case files, dusty desks, and ink-stained fingers—no longer do these images represent the legal profession. Modern law practices continue to evolve to meet current and potential demands. The use of IT is one of the primary ways in which they have adapted to an advancing society.

Legal clients frequently require more intuitive service. They want to ensure that the legal counsel they hire is equipped to protect their data. The legal sector has heard their requests and has scrambled to comply.

There are many ways in which contemporary law firms can utilize technology to improve their practice. Better, more user-friendly communication platforms ensure that clients can easily reach their attorneys. Security software that is updated as needed keeps their personal information out of the hands of criminals. Plus, there are many different managerial aspects that can be streamlined with the use of technology.

Law practice management software is quickly outdated though. Here are the basic categories of essential software for the modern law practice.

Productivity Software: What Does It Do?

Productivity software handles all of the basic tasks that an office assistant would do. These include—but are not restricted to—the following:

• Building databases and spreadsheets
• Creating digital presentations
• Drafting documents
• Typing and sending emails

Although Microsoft Office has long reigned supreme as the ultimate—and for a while, the only—productivity software, there are now several to choose from. The top contenders include Corel’s Word Perfect Suite and Google Apps for Work. In a range of price points and capabilities, the right software is available to meet the needs of any law firm.

How Does Customer Relationship Management Software Improve a Law Firm?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allows firms to collect data about how they convert leads into clients. It tracks phone-calls and social-media interactions. CRM also provides basic contact management tools, as well as the ability to add notes to existing files for better record-keeping.

Additionally, the reporting function presents data in the form of charts and graphs to make it usable at a glance. Lawyers can then use the data collected to analyze their marketing platform and improve their strategies. Investment in this type of software pays off in a larger client base.

What Are the Leading Document Assembly and Management Software Options?

Document assembly software is designed for adding specific details to customize existing templates. It allows for the addition of client information or even non-generic clauses. Some of the premiere standalone or integration options include the following:

• Draft Once
• FileMaker Pro
• HotDocs
• LEAP
• Outlook Signatures
• Pathagoras
• Smokeball
• Turner
• XPressDoc

Although many of these offer some level of document management, standalone tools provide more comprehensive control. Some of the top functions for these types of applications are check in and check out features, offline access, matter management, version control, global search capability, integration with related software, and integration with existing folder systems.

What Does Accounting and Billing Software Provide to a Law Practice?

Time and billing/accounting software is vital to the modern law office. Generally, even the most rudimentary options should perform a few basic tasks. It should have a convenient time-capture method and an invoice construction feature. It should also provide reporting tools that either are customizable or able to be integrated with trust account reconciliation management. Being able to track time and export that info to an invoice template that can be sent for billing is also a perk.

More comprehensive software offers more. Computerized spreadsheet tools like Quicken, Intuit, and GnuCash are well-known business accounting management options. These are useful in law firms. Legal-specific time, billing, and accounting tools, however, are more helpful. Tabs3/Practice Manager and PCLaw handle the basic tasks that the others do, but they have trust accounting features and other law-specific tasks as well.

What Are the Leading Case Management Software Options?

Case management software—or practice management software—provides a bit of an all-in-one for law firms. Many are cloud-based systems that require no additional purchases to supplement them.

Most include management features to handle calendars, contacts, documents, time, billing, and accounting features, as well as an email archive. There are a large number to choose from. Some of the top options are Action Step, Case Fox, Clio, Legal Files, Practice Panther, Pro Law, Tabs3/Practice Master, and Zola Suite.

Since many of these are cloud-based, users are able to access any updates or new features as soon as they are released.

In Conclusion

With comprehensive case management, document management, billing and accounting software, among others, a law office runs more smoothly. The monotonous and time-consuming daily tasks are handled effortlessly. The data is compiled for review without human interaction.

Using intuitive software and cloud-based tools, they can continue to adapt to the most advanced technology. By implementing a strong system of office management software, lawyers can focus their efforts on the aspects of the job they are passionate about instead.

Today people are busier than ever. Whether you are overloaded at work or have mounting commitments away from the office, facing a long list of to-dos can quickly overwhelm even the most productive person. Luckily there is a way to get things done when the number of tasks you need to complete seems never-ending. The next time you begin to feel anxious about how much you need to get accomplished, try a few of these simple tricks to keep up your spirit and conquer your anxiety of a full schedule.

Ways to Become More Productive

Write a daily agenda. Even if you keep a monthly calendar or a weekly planner, invest 5 or ten minutes in the morning to physically write the day’s plan. Throughout the day, after finishing a task from your list, cross it off. Many people find that it is more effective and satisfying to create your daily agenda with a pen and paper, but you may prefer using your computer or phone.

Prioritize the tasks and your time. Everything is essential, but not everything is equally important. Separate your daily agenda tasks into different categories based on how essential they are for you to complete by the end of the day. Some tasks may have a real deadline, such as enrolling your child in school or paying a bill, while others may have an artificial deadline like finishing a book or going to the gym. Tackle the tasks with real deadlines first, and only when they are completed, move start working on assignments with artificial deadlines.

Break longer projects into smaller tasks which are easier to complete. Sometimes just thinking about the enormity of a project is enough to stop you from starting it. When you are facing such a task, try to break it down into chunks which you can tackle more easily. Ideally, you can break the longer projects into daily or weekly tasks, or even into smaller mini-tasks which you can complete in under 30 minutes.

Work in quick sprints, not marathon sessions. Since the vast majority of people do their best work in short bursts of time, don’t force yourself to concentrate for more than an hour or so at once. Working in this manner highlights the benefit of creating mini-tasks can help your productivity. Set a timer between 30 to 60 minutes, and work without interruption on one or two mini-tasks. When the timer goes off, take a quick break to refresh yourself. You will be amazed at how many mini-tasks you can through during the day.

Focus on the task at hand. Smaller tasks and shorter work sessions mean that it should be easier for you to focus all of your energy on the job at hand. Give your undivided attention to what you are doing. That means eliminate distractions including as a messy desk, chatting with co-workers, browsing online or chatting on your phone. If you can, try to clear from your head any thoughts which are not directly related to the task. In the beginning, this may seem impossible, but over time it gets easier.

Create rewards and consequences. Some people are motivated by carrots, while others by sticks. Discover which type of motivation factor works best for you and use it to your advantage. If you are someone who works better when you know a treat is waiting for you at the end, use your break between work sessions to reward yourself with something you want, a cookie or checking social media. If you are the type of person, who needs a good scare to get you to finish things, design a penalty for not completing a task like giving ten bucks to your office mate.

Be realistic when it comes to your expectations. Face it. Things are not always going to go as you plan. Deadlines get moved up; people get sick; appointments are missed — life happens. When the unexpected occurs, what makes the difference between a smooth recovery and huge issue is your ability to recover and make the changes necessary on-the-fly. Learning to adapt when things don’t go smoothly is critical for staying productive while busy. So never overpromise results and always give yourself enough extra time in case of a disruption.

Be kind to yourself. Whatever you do, don’t wind up pushing yourself too hard physically or emotionally. Control your stress levels, take care of your needs, and always remember there is still tomorrow.

Staying productive no matter is a skill even the most talented businesspeople isn’t born knowing is, but the tips above can help.

As a business owner, executive or manager, you may use a lawyer for many different reasons. You may need a lawyer to look over your business contracts, to help when you buy or sell a business, to help you with any tax issues that may arise or to help with any personal injury lawsuits that may arise within your business. Friday, November 2, 2018, is Love Your Lawyer Day. This is a day that is set aside to honor lawyers and all that they do for individuals and businesses. On this special day, you may be looking to celebrate your lawyer, but you may not be sure how. Here are a few of the different ways you can recognize and celebrate your attorney on Love Your Lawyer Day.

Give Them a Phone Call

One of the simplest ways that you can celebrate Love Your Lawyer Day is by giving your lawyer a phone call on this day. The phone call does not have to be long and the conversation does not have to be in depth. Simply let them know that you appreciate the work that they are doing for you and you are grateful for the services they provide. A simple compliment and nice words can go a long way in brightening someone’s day and making them feel appreciated.

Send Them a Card

If you do not like to talk on the phone or you want to send something to your lawyer, you can send them a card. A thank you card or other similar note that lets them know that you are thankful for their hard work has the same impact as a phone call that praises them. If you want to do something a bit more than a card, you can always include a gift card to their favorite coffee shop or restaurant, or you can send flowers along with the card.

Post a Positive Review Online

Online reviews are important to businesses. When someone is seeking out a lawyer, they may do a Google search to see feedback on an attorney or law firm. You can help the lawyer who helps you by leaving a positive online review for the attorney this Love Your Lawyer Day. Unless we are mad or upset, many of us do not leave online reviews. Take the time to let other people know just how wonderful your attorney is and all of the positive things they do for your business.

Order Something for Their Business

Another gesture you can make when you are looking to celebrate Love Your Lawyer Day is to order something for their business. Have you ever spent time with your lawyer and noticed that they don’t have something that could help them get a little more organized? Or have they complained that they recently lost or misplaced something? It can be as simple as a business card holder or a Bluetooth speaker for their work desk. Personalized gifts that you put thought into are always appreciated.

Have Lunch Delivered

Speaking of items that are always appreciated, the last way you can celebrate Love Your Lawyer Day is by having lunch delivered to your lawyer. Who doesn’t love food being delivered right to their desk? If you know what kind of food your lawyer enjoys, consider ordering them a meal and having it delivered. Give them a heads up that you have a treat arriving and at what time to make sure they will be in the office though before you place the order.

This Friday, November 2, 2018 is Love Your Lawyer Day. This is the perfect day to recognize all of the hard work that your lawyer is doing for you or your business. There are many way you can recognize your lawyer, including giving them a phone call, sending a card, posting a positive review online, ordering something for their business or having lunch delivered. No matter how big or small, take the time to recognize your lawyer and let them know how appreciated they are this Love Your Lawyer Day.

We’ve read the hype about algorithms before. Now we’re reading the hype about artificial intelligence. Much of the real-world work falls under the umbrella of trade secrets, so we have very few examples of either making a difference. A health system in Wisconsin gives us a glimpse into a real-world application with some very positive results.

How Prevea Health Used Algorithms

Prevea Health is a large multispecialty practice with a rural patient population. It has 350 primary care physicians and specialists, 46 health centers, and it runs 26 employer-based clinics.

Many of its patients do not have an established relationship with one provider. Prevea Health was looking for a way to allow patients to schedule appointments 24/7/365. What it wanted was one solution that handled patient-driven appointment scheduling and directed the patient to the right provider. It also wanted the solution to produce enough data to allow redesigning patient and provider flows to eliminate inefficiencies and reduce costs.

Prevea worked with DocASAP to develop a system which allows patients to schedule appointments after querying them about their health needs. DocASAP handles a number of different scenarios.

Prevea found that in one of these, patients were coming to their providers through a Google search. If they click on the link (provided by DocASAP) for the individual provider’s booking, they are taken directly to the scheduling module. If not, they are queried about their health needs. This allows DocASAP’s algorithm to pick a set of providers and locations for them. It takes the patient to that provider’s scheduling page once they have selected one. Depending on the patient’s initial responses and provider preferences, the patient may be asked to provide additional information.

The database that is produced as a result of this scheduling process allows Prevea’s analysts to looks at the patient flows that are generated so they can continuously refine the algorithms to get the patient to the right provider. Once the appointment is booked, the patient gets appointment reminders as well.

Is the algorithm working? Prevea’s no-show rate has been driven down to four percent, which is very low and compares to a national average of 18 percent. Thirty-eight percent of appointments are booked after hours. While other metrics are still under development, it certainly looks like the effort is producing results.

What Can We Learn From The Prevea Experience?

“Information engineering” refers to the process of asking what information is flowing into an organization, who is getting it, what is being done with it, what the results are, and how the process can be improved. In this case, information is flowing into the system.

The patient needs an appointment for problem X – and flowing out – here are the providers best suited to treat him/her. The available appointment times are presented. The results of those two information flows generate data that Prevea can use to fine-tune the process and to provide further services, such as reminders. One of the lessons learned is that patients, when provided with the right information, will usually pick providers who are the appropriate ones to treat their problems.

The fact that a patient does not need to interact with the provider’s office staff is another advantage. Office staff may or may not be qualified to assess things like:

• Whether the reason the patient wants to see the provider is appropriate
• Whether the provider handles that sort of problem
• Who to refer the patient to

The algorithm, in contrast, knows all of this, and provides the right information without bother. If there are problems in the algorithm, they can be detected in the data generated, and the algorithm can be refined. Try doing that with a medical office staff and dozens of physicians.

The one possibly problematic link in the whole setup is the integration with Google. That makes a lot of sense if Prevea knows that a majority of its patients will use the system. But it has to rely on DocASAP to create and place the appropriate links to its scheduling system on its Google page. What about Bing or Facebook? Apparently, they are not integrated with the system the way Google is.

Conclusions

Scheduling is a major time-consuming operation in physicians’ offices. When the patient is in the wrong location, the office staff has very little ability to get them to the right one. Prevea and DocASAP have solved that problem by building the referral process into an algorithm. Judging by the no-show rate, it works. The weak point is its reliance on Google.

Pregnant women often suffer with blood pressure problems. One of the responses to this is to have the patient return to their primary care physician or OB-GYN after birth for at least one blood pressure check. High blood pressure is common after pregnancy and is a frequent reason for readmission after delivery.

How Can We Change The Way We Handle This?

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and its affiliated Magee Women’s Hospital have found a solution. Send every patient who has had blood pressure problems home with a blood pressure monitor and text them on their smartphones, prompting them to measure their pressure and report it.

The information goes to a team of nurses who triage the problem and let the women know if they should keep monitoring it. They can also let them know if they should see their physician or go to the emergency room. This information is fed to the EHR system so that medical staff always knows what the results of the home monitoring were.

UPMC saw this as an opportunity to expand their existing chronic disease monitoring programs, which use similar concepts for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The period of monitoring for postpartum patients with blood pressure problems is about six weeks.

It is well integrated with the nurse call center and the electronic health record system. It is noteworthy that UPMC-Magee has achieved success through the use of futuristic wearable or implantable monitors and automatic telemetry with a simple blood pressure cuff and a smartphone. The ingenuity went into the parts of the system that had to work together, not just the technology. The pilot phase of the program, which involved 60 patients, was judged a success.

Both unnecessary visits to providers and visits to the emergency room were reduced from the baseline. The same framework is being considered for patients with gestational diabetes. Slightly more than half of the women were able to avoid their scheduled one-week visit for a blood pressure check, and 80 percent showed up for their scheduled six-week postpartum visit, compared to 30-40 percent nationally. The program not only reduces needless encounters but also appears to have a very positive effect on compliance.

What Are The Lessons Learned?

The UPMC-Magee personnel involved in creating the program stress most of all that such approaches have to be a team effort. Everyone at every level has to be involved in the planning and efforts. It is also important that, as the program is rolled out, everyone involved feels free to report when things are not going well.

Particularly with programs in development, it is important not to let dismissal of concerns “bake in” methods and approaches that are just not functional.

The other prominent lesson is that one can get high-tech results with low-tech means. Rather than waiting for the development of wearable or implantable automatic monitors, the team decided that the current generation of automatic blood pressure cuffs was more than good enough to give them the information they needed.

Text messages on smartphones and their already-existing patient portals were more than good enough to allow for effective communication. So a program that is futuristic in its results got implemented now, rather than twenty years from now.

Information Engineering: A New Way To Think About Processes and Procedures

Generally, this effort is another attempt to apply “information engineering” to the daily operations of a healthcare provider, admittedly in a limited area. The team realized that a large number of visits were being done for no reason other than to obtain information (the blood pressure), and that this was a very inefficient way to do it. It required a high level of patient effort and compliance.

They also saw that existing technology was sufficient to get them the same information at a much lower cost. What was done under the old system once the information was obtained? If the results were normal, nothing. If they were abnormal, it depended on the provider.

UPMC-Magee replaced this with an algorithm, developed specifically for nurses in their call center, to tell patients to do nothing, see their provider, or go to the emergency room, depending on the information gathered. This led to information dictating actions in a clinically relevant, evidence-based way. Finally, the team made sure that the information was not lost; they interfaced it directly with the existing EHR.

Conclusions

To sum up, the lessons from this project can be characterized as these:

1. Ask what you’re doing with the information. Why are you collecting it? Who is acting on it, and why?
2. What happens when they act? Is what happens what you want to happen?
3. If not, how can you change the information flow to produce the outcomes you want?

Applying these questions to the fields within medical care is likely to produce a number of positive changes. We have the technology today to provide better medical care at lower costs, but many organizations seem stuck doing things “the way they’ve always done them.” This results in poor efficiency and inflated healthcare costs.

At the beginning of October 2018, Tabs3 Software announced that it had acquired CosmoLex. This makes it the most complete offering of its kind.

“We are thrilled to welcome CosmoLex to the Tabs3 family as we continue to build the leading platform for practice and financial management software for solo to midsized law firms,” President and CEO of Tabs3, Dan Berlin stated. “CosmoLex plays a significant role in our vision to be the software partner of choice for every solo to midsized law firm in the United States and Canada, whether they desire cloud, desktop, or hosted desktop software.”

Legal professionals unfamiliar with either the award-winning Tabs3 or the innovative CosmoLex may wonder the following: “What are they?” and “How can I use them to improve upon my existing legal business practices?”

Understanding what they are independently will help clarify what they can accomplish combined.

What Is Tabs3 Software?

Tabs3 is Windows-only software designed specifically for law offices. Among other things, it performs timekeeping and billing on desktops. It can be paired with certain add-ons to work with the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES). This specifies the file formats used to facilitate the safe transmission of electronic data in the legal industry. These help keep a firm compliant.

Although Tabs3 is fully-customizable, it is not portable, and it is a bit complicated. Generally, it works well for partnerships or firms that have onsite IT assistance. It is user-friendly, but can be a bit difficult to set up.

Some of its key functions are as follows:

• Billing options that include standard hourly, contingency, flat fee, retainer, split fee, and task-based methods
• Conversion tool to transfer information from Timeslips and other software to Tabs3
• Extensive report capabilities
• Security options that are tiered for user preference, and may include encryption for ultimate protection

Additionally, Tabs3 Billing provides seamless integration with other Tabs3 products like the accounting, financial, and report-writing software. It integrates with Quickbooks, Tabs3 Cost Recovery, Tabs3 General Ledger, Tabs3 Trust Accounting, and Practice Master, which is the law practice manager software.

It does not have an Android or iOS application at this time. An easy upgrade to Tabs3 Premium and the mobile interface Tabs3 Connect, however, allows users to access the programs on their smartphones or tablets.

What Is CosmoLex Software?

CosmoLex is one of the fastest-growing cloud-based platforms. It is very popular with solo practitioners and in small offices. As of 2018, it is used by thousands of law firms. Over 20 State Bar Associations endorse it, as well.

CosmoLex provides a comprehensive law practice management system. It offers the convenience and security of legal time and online retainer and invoice payments. The built-in accounting feature (LawPay^TM) takes care of the bookkeeping for every credit card transaction. CosmoLex also ensures that law office accounting is fully compliant.

There is no contract required for CosmoLex. For a small pay-as-you-go monthly fee, firms receive access to all of its features. For no additional charge, they also receive all of the newest features as soon as they are added. Plus, customer onboarding, training, and support are provided by CosmoLex’s in-house team free of charge.

Since it is cloud-based, it can be used with an app on iOS and Android. This allows attorneys to handle the business end of their practice anytime, anywhere.

How Will the Acquisition of CosmoLex by Tabs3 Benefit Law Offices?

Now that Tabs3 Software has acquired CosmoLex, what does that mean for the legal field and individual firms? With the existing customer-base of each, together they will be serving over 100,000 lawyers with locations in Canada, as well as the United States.

Combined, this becomes one of the most versatile legal practice management options available. It offers both cloud and desktop software solutions. This makes it ideal for solitary legal professionals, as well as small and mid-sized offices.

It offers the advanced features, control, and security of an established desktop product, and adds to that the lower-priced billing of a cloud-based product. Accounting, billing, practice management, and seamless integration are the key aspects that CosmoLex and Tabs3 together supply. In fact, that is what will make this a total solution for many law firms.

In Conclusion

With so much at stake in the legal sector, attorneys can expect more procurements, such as Tabs3 acquiring CosmoLex, to take place. Not only do these actions benefit both of the companies, but they make things easier for their customers as well.

“The combination of Tabs3 and CosmoLex brings together the market-leading desktop platform with the fastest-growing cloud platform in the legal billing, financial and practice management markets;” founder and CEO of CosmoLex, Rick Kabra stated. “We are now much better positioned to serve existing and new clients as law firms continue to embrace cloud technology.”

Trying to track your mileage for reimbursement and tax purposes can be a hassle for people who are naturally organized, and is even for worse for those of us who aren’t. If you have a smartphone, it has built-in GPS technology that can make the tracking process easier and automatic – but only if you have the right kind of app.

There are a host of apps out there that promise to help you with the process. However, if you are an Office 365 premium business subscriber, MileIQ can help you log, classify, and report on unlimited trips through their free app.

What Is MileIQ?

If you haven’t heard of it yet, MileIQ is a popular app for automatically tracking mileage. This app is available on both Android and iPhones – and, as mentioned, is included with Office 365 Business Premium subscriptions. It runs in the background of your mobile device and provides you with accurate, easy to classify mileage records. It automatically logs all your miles into individual trips which it refers to as Drives. You will be notified after a Drive to classify it as business or private. The app then creates an accurate record for reimbursable mileage and tax deductions and can generate customized reports for you.

Setting Up MileIQ

To set up MileIQ, begin by downloading and installing it on your device. Once the app is installed, open it. You will be prompted to log in or create an account.

Assuming you have not created an account, you would need to provide the email address you would like to use and password to secure your account. You do not have to use a business email address; in fact, the app suggests you use a more permanent personal address.

When that is complete, click on Sign Up. The email address you provide in this step will be the one where all reports and updates will be sent. As with most apps, you will need to verify your email address. After you have received and reviewed the verification email, the installation will be finished.

Device Permissions

In order to run properly, MileIQ will need certain device permissions, including access to your location. Without being able to access your location, the app will not work. When prompted for that permission, select Always Allow if you have an iOS device or Always if you have an Android device. Some people may be concerned that if they provide a business email address to the app that their employer will be able to track them. The app will not provide information to your employer unless you share your login information with them or mail them copies of your reports.

You will also be prompted concerning permission for reminders/notifications. The purpose of reminders is to help you classify a trip as business or personal while that information is fresh in your mind. It is recommended that you allow reminders on your device. It will make the process of classifying your trips much easier.

Accessing Premium Features through Office 365

After creating or signing in to your MileIQ account, you will be prompted for a work email to verify your company’s Office 365 subscription. Note that you do not have to use your work email as your MileIQ email. Once you have been approved as an eligible Office 365 subscriber, you will have access to a premium account that allows you to log unlimited Drives.

Classifying Drives

To classify a Drive as business, you swipe right. To classify it as personal, swipe left. You can also add any details that you need, such as toll or parking charges. Note that after classifying trips for a while, the system will be able to automatically classify your most frequent routes (e.g., to and from the main office or a workspace).

Drive and Mileage Reports

You can receive a report on your Drives at your convenience. The default is a weekly report, but reports can be generated at any time. In addition, the reports are highly customizable through the MileIQ dashboard. The dashboard for MileIQ can be accessed from just about any device you own – tablets, smartphones, laptops, and even in the cloud.

Conclusion

There are many people out there who are struggling with trying to track mileage, filling out stacks of reimbursement forms, hoping their mileage information is backed up, and working hard to classify business and personal travel separately. There are so many apps to choose from to help with tracking mileage than trying to select one can be a major challenge in itself. However, the only mileage tracking app that offers a premium subscription to Office 365 business subscribers is MileIQ. Fortunately, MileIQ is easy to set up and use, and it provides a great deal of supporting information on the MileIQ website which can be found here.

 

Microsoft just made your mobile life and computer life a whole lot easier and fun. If you love your phone, well so does your computer. Finally, you no longer need to dig around for your phone to send a text message while sitting at your Windows desktop. Plus, that extra step of emailing photos from your phone to your computer has ended. Thanks to Microsoft’s new “Your Phone” app for Android phones, 7.0 or later, you can now send text messages right from your PC.

What Should You Know To Get The New Your Phone App?

To get the Your Phone app, you must sign into your Microsoft account. Also, under your account, you can install the app on a maximum of ten Windows 10 devices. And as for installation, the Your Phone app must be installed on your internal hard drive. The size of the app is approximately 13.74 MB.

The Your Phone app does support Android 7.0 phones or later and Google’s newer versions of their mobile operating system. The Your Phone feature became available to every Windows user in October. By early to mid-November, Microsoft will extend support for the function to Apple/Mac devices that use Microsoft’s Edge browser.

Once the software gets installed, you’ll need to accept a connection request from your PC on your phone. That needs repeating for every Windows 10 computer you want to connect to your Android phone. Once you’re connected, there will be a grid of photos on your PC. One thing to note: what you will view will be a square image. To see the whole image, open your choice of photo viewer app or drag the picture onto your PC.

What Can You Do With The Your Phone App?

Microsoft’s new Your Phone app shows you the most recent texts and photos, which came from your Android phone, onto your desktop. From your desktop, you can drag, drop, copy or paste those items to your computer or other compatible applications.

Here’s how it works: with the Your Phone app, go ahead and snap a picture from your Android phone. Then check out your desktop. You’ll see that photo, you just took, right on your computer. The app gives you instant access to your Android phone’s photos, right on your computer. Now that daunting task of emailing yourself pictures can finally stop.

Does your presentation need a photo? What about sprucing up that embarrassing selfie you’ve been hiding from your friends? Then drag and drop it. Texting from your computer is not only possible, but it’s gotten a whole lot easier. The Your Phone app allows you to view and send Android text messages from your computer. You can use your computer’s keyboard to text friends and any group messaging. Now you can save your texting thumbs for online gaming battles.

Just remember you have to link your Android phone to your computer. You can do this by going into your Windows Settings or through Your Phone app. Once that is complete you will receive an app from Microsoft. You are required to download the app on your mobile phone also and follow the setup instructions. At this time the Your Phone app does need Android 7.0 or later to work correctly.

Does The Your Phone App Have Any Enhancements, Limitations or Warnings?

Enhancements – Besides supporting 70 languages, Microsoft also announced some related improvements, which launched in April 2018, to its Windows Timeline, which displays sites and accessible files you’ve recently gone to or used. The Your Phone feature rolled out to all Windows users in October 2018. Currently, emails, websites, and documents you’ve recently viewed on your Android phone will also get included in the Windows Timeline. As for other Windows timelines, Microsoft will notify you through your account.

Limitations – Microsoft’s Your Phone is a UWP app that links to software running on Android 7.0 or later devices to share only the latest 25 pictures on your phone with your PC. At first, the Your Phone app will support Android phones running 7.0 or later. It will also run on newest versions of Google’s mobile operating system. As for iOS users, Microsoft has not stated whether or when it would make the app’s feature available to those users.

Warnings – There is a photosensitive seizure, warning notice, you need to be aware of, especially if certain visual images, flashing lights or patterns trigger an epileptic seizure with you or anyone you know or work with. The photosensitive epileptic seizures have a variety of symptoms.

• altered vision
• confusion
• disorientation
• eye or face twitching
• jerking
• lightheadedness
• momentary loss of awareness
• shaking of arms or legs

Please be aware; some seizures may cause convulsions and loss of consciousness. That could lead to a head injury from falling or landing on nearby objects.

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As technology continues to evolve, those people threatening it adapt as well. This is also true in the legal sector where a breach in security can be devastating. Clients are demanding more from law firms by way of protection. Firms are scurrying to respond.

Unfortunately, those offices with even the most advanced IT teams are often deficient. They have weaknesses that they are unaware of. In a few months when cybercrime has made further advances, those vulnerabilities will have multiplied.

Individual law firms generally realize that the plight is not theirs alone. Cybersecurity works better when networks cooperate. Since it is about sharing information, it is essential that offices band together for their common good.

By taking a few small steps, law offices can enhance their organization, and utilize the more affordable security resources available. In this way, they can fight the problem together.

How Will Appointing a Security Leader Benefit a Law Firm?

Appointing a dedicated security leader and the team helps identify cybersecurity goals. It also encourages the development of actionable strategies. This is especially important in a law firm. The consequences of a breach in security here are not only dire and embarrassing, but they could result in charges of noncompliance.

A delegated Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) would run the security team. In addition, he or she would also have the following duties:

• Set precise cybersecurity objectives
• Assess how data is being used, as well as stored
• Identify federal and state compliance requirements
• Develop cybersecurity strategies

The CISO and security team are different than the IT department. They are security experts. Their responsibilities will have surpassed the IT department’s general abilities and purpose.

Why Should Law Offices Develop Cooperative Partnerships?

There is safety in numbers. By building strong communication security information-sharing communities, firms are able to divide the challenge of keeping up with potential threats. In this way, they are able to identify and eliminate weaknesses in their systems.

Cybercriminals sniff out vulnerabilities and strike. It is nearly impossible for any single office to remain on top of all of the conceivable problems. This is why it is advisable that they band with organizations that can help.

An important step would be to join the Legal Services Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (LS-ISAO). It is affiliated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It acts as a vehicle for announcements, updates, and threat alerts from the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, as well as other pertinent agencies.

Joining a strong information-sharing, cooperative partnership better allows firms to identify issues in their systems before it’s too late. Then, they can fortify their security when it needs it most.

How Will Partnering with Outside App Developers Improve Security?

Outside software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications enable law firms to beef up security without depending solely on their internal defenses. This allows them to improve their protection and adapt to ever-evolving technology.

Additionally, working with outside sources increases access to the latest developments. This is something that is difficult to do for even the most technically savvy CISO in a law firm. By working together, they may develop technology that is specific to the needs of the firm and its clients.

What Does a Layered Set of Security Technologies Include?

No longer is a one-layer system sufficient for securing a law office. Cyberspace has gotten complex. Hackers and other cybercriminals have become very sophisticated in their skills and knowledge. This means their approaches are also advanced.

Rather than just having anti-virus software, today, firms require a multi-faceted approach. There are several features that should be included. A comprehensive security plan should, at a minimum, provide the following elements:

• Encryption technology
• A firewall that includes phishing protection
• Intrusion detection systems
• Multi-factor authentication

Lastly, offices should invest in measures to improve resiliency, such as micro-segmentation. Even if intruders are able to initially access one or more servers, micro-segmentation puts a stop to it. It increases application visibility so unusual behavior is more quickly detected. This prevents intruders from being able to move laterally through a cloud environment across data centers to access all servers. It helps minimize the impact of a breach.

In Conclusion

Taking proactive measures to prevent clients’ data loss or disclosure is a vital aspect in the field of law. Failure to adequately do so is not only an ethics issue that could adversely affect a firm’s reputation, it could also result in noncompliance.

Unfortunately, the changing landscape of cybersecurity has left many offices vulnerable to attack. By following these small, but important steps, firms are able to fight to defend the data they have been tasked with protecting. Although the criminals might seem to be a few steps ahead of everyone else, by working together with the LS-ISAO and other agencies, the legal profession will prevail.