You want to get untethered so you can escape the confines of your office chair. There’s whole world out there for you – isn’t it time you actually took part in it?
I beta tested both Rocket Matter and Clio. To be honest, at the time I didn’t think Rocket Matter was up to snuff. The user interface felt nice, but overall the experience was like moving into a new home before all the wallboard was in place. I signed up primarily to take advantage of some early-adopter pricing and let the system gather dust. I figured I could either start using it or discontinue my subscription once I knew for sure if this thing was going to fly or go the way of the Apple Newton.
When I joined forces with my partner earlier this year I was shocked at his case management systems. They were antiquated, limping along from day to day. I decided right off the bat that we’d need to do some serious work immediately. I had a few challenges:
- My partner has never used a full-featured case management system in the past;
- We needed to get up and running immediately;
- I didn’t have too much time to train the staff on a new system; and
- This system needed to do everything we needed, without customization or fancy-pants consultants.
What did we do? We went with Rocket Matter.
Transitioning To Rocket Matter
Like I said, we didn’t have a prior system. That having been said, we had spreadsheets with client data and multiple address books on our machines. We had offers from some other companies to bring us on board, but they all came with headaches. Did I seriously want to spend all that money on upgrades every year? Did I want to hire a ridiculously expensive consultant who would show me which buttons to press when I wanted to get something done?
Yeah, I don’t think so.
We sent a few spreadsheets to the folks at Rocket Matter, told them what to do with it, and took one of their Rocket 101 webinars (they offer webinars more often than most people shower, it seems). Within a day or so, the staff was limping along and getting work done. You gotta walk before you can run, right? Over time, things became more fluid.
Dear Client, Please Pay Your Bill
Rocket Matter didn’t originally have a stellar invoicing system and, to be honest, I’m still not in love with the functionality it provides for a flat-fee practice that bills up front and takes payment plans for the balance due. But with only a minor amount of thought we got things to where we want them. Now a client comes in, pays part of their fee and the money gets credited. They’ve also got trust accounting and all that hoopla for those who use those things.
Every month we press a button, run a report and the system spits out all of our invoices. Stuff ‘em in the mail (or send them by email) and money comes in from clients.
There’s also a live timer that lets me bill hourly should I see fit to do so. I use it to track how long it takes me to handle a particular matter, which helps me price my services more accurately.
Call Mr. Jones Back
My receptionist used to insist that I bought those stupid little message pads. You know, the ones with fourteen carbon copies that come in little binders? Very cute, but I’d end up with a stack of the damn things and a mess on my desk. It was like the message fairy was sprinkling dust on my desk.
Screw that. Now when a call comes in my receptionist clicks a little button that looks like an old-fashioned telephone and just types in the message. It goes into the client’s file on Rocket Matter, I pick it up and respond. No more annoying little slips of paper to piss me off!
Where’s That Letter I Sent?
Once again, Rocket Matter had sucky functionality when it came to document management. Not because it didn’t work, but because I didn’t want to store my documents on their system. It’s reliable and all, but downloading and uploading takes time. I’m an impatient man, my friends. So I used Dropbox.
Apparently, so does everyone else (rightfully so). So Rocket Matter wised up and now integrates with Dropbox. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Save a file on my computer, Rocket Matter recognizes it as belonging to a particular matter, and I can access it as I please.
Court at 2pm, Intake at 3pm
The calendar was fine, but I’ve been using Google Calendar for two years. So I didn’t use the calendar, either. But not it syncs with the GCal for each of our staff members, eliminating the old double-entry problem. I won’t go intro greater detail because you don’t care about that. Suffice to say, it works with GCal nicely.
My Final Answer
Rocket Matter is awesome. It’s no more expensive than sitting on the phone waiting for some “support person” to help with another needless upgrade (Rocket Matter does upgrades automatically, most often when normal people as asleep), so if you’re of the “wow, I can’t believe I’m spending money every month instead of just buying it outright,” crowd then you need to seriously review your long-term financial strategy. Really.
I have my calendars, my to-do list, my tasks, messages, documents management and billing. It doesn’t draft my bankruptcy petitions or let clients gain access to their files, but that’s fine by me. It’s easy to use, they provide awesome support and training, and I don’t have to worry about maintenance anymore.
What Other People Say
Rocket Matter: It Is Finally Time For The FutureLawyer To Get In The Spaceship (FutureLawyer, February 2010)
Rocket Matter legal practice management software: still promising, still pricey (Lawyerist, July 2009)
A Quick Look at Rocket Matter (Criminal Defense Law With An Apple, March 2008)
Author’s Note: This article was originally written on March 16, 2008. The original article pointed out a number of flaws that Rocket Matter had at the time, but we’ve come a long way in the interim. So I changed the post, which is now entirely new as of December 7, 2010.
I'm currently reviewing PM software, and talked with the folks at Rocket Matter. While the service hits all of the major points one expects from PM software, the devil, as they say, is in the details, and there are a few large gaps in their application, in my opinion.
1. As you note, there is no API to integrate with a back office accounting package, whether its FreshBooks, QuickBooks, or some other software. Currently, Rocket Matter can generate invoices for each client matter, but there is no mechanism to integrate w/ the financial side of an office other than re-entering the data manually.
2. There also is no integration with Outlook. This is a major flaw, IMHO. Many of the 95% of computer users who use a PC instead of a MAC use Outlook as their calendering program. Sure, there are problems w/ Outlook, and I'm not going to address those or the PC v. Mac debate here. But to not have sync capabilities is a problem.
3. Rocket Matter's price point seems high. After their introductory phase, it will cost $90/mo per attorney, and $35/mo for staff. Currently, Lexis' front office and back office "suite" costs $770 (w/ a year of support) for the first license, and $400 for each license after the first. For a two lawyer office with one staff, Rocket Matter is $215 per month or $2,580 per year. The same number of license seats from Lexis is $1,570. Of course, when Lexis updates its software with a new release, you have to buy it, so major updates are not included in their price. But Rocket Matters seems to be overpriced for what you get and relative to the other players in the PM law market.
The folks at Rocket Matter indicate that syncing with Outlook is on the list of things they are going to work on, but it may be the end of the year or later before it's rolled out. Curiously, they say they have optimized Rocket Matter to work with the iPhone. I use Outlook to sync with my new Blackberry Curve, but can't sync between Rocket Matter, Outlook or the Blackberry at this point.
With the release of MS Outlook 2007, I’ve come to the conclusion that Outlook will only get bigger and more bloated with upcoming updates, patches and other resource hogging features.
I used Outlook faithfully since the 1997 release and was woefully dissapointed with Outlook 2007 so much so that I decided to move all email and calendaring to google apps (http://homeofficeenvy.com/google-tools/gmail-on-your-hosted-domain/). In addition to being completely web-based, the addition of Google calendering also allows for pop3 and imap access for Outlook junkies. This might prove useful as a workaround. Point is, IMHO I don’t think Rocket Matter needs to devote its time to Outlook sync. As for calendaring, they could work on a private xml/rss calendar feed in similar fashion to Google Calendar. That would prove useful to calendar junkies across all platforms.
And yes, RM’s price point is high, but I think if they implement the features we’ve discussed, it would definitely be better justified.
One more note on the sync…Don’t know why RM has targetted iphone sync and I’d like to learn more about the actual integration method. Is RM on the iPhone simply a 3rd party iphone application? Or does it use RSS or syndication technology?
Hi Folks:
This is Larry from Rocket Matter. Thanks so much for your feedback! I will try to address your questions one by one. We will be putting more of this information up on our marketing site soon.
1) How do we transition to Rocket Matter?
Right now we can import your contact and calendar data through vCard, iCalendar, and CSV files. Most systems will allow this kind of data export. This is the first request to import financial data and we would love to explore this subject more. Feel free to shoot me an email at larry@rocketmatter.com so we can discuss this.
2) Will there be a backoffice/accounting system?
We currently have a setup which works well for a small or solo firm. We have a ledger in our system which allows you to track credits and debits for your matters. You can print invoices directly from Rocket Matter, and when you do so, you debit that matter’s ledger. Invoices will also show a balance forward. When you set up a matter you can create an initial retainer deposit.
We offer integration with financial products. We allow you to export your ledger and billing information to the lingua franca of financial applications, Excel. This can then be imported into Quickbooks, Peachtree, Microsoft Dynamics, or other standard G/L programs.
3) Price
Our pricing is considerably less that quoted in the comment above. During our Pilot Program, we are charging $50 USD per attorney per month and $15 USD per support staff per month. After the promotion ends, the prices will increase to $75 USD per attorney per month and $37.50 USD per support staff per month. This is based on signing a one-year contract. You still pay on a monthly basis. For shorter-term contracts, prices increase from there.
Your investment in Rocket Matter will have significant ROI for your firm. Using a hosted solution eliminates many IT expenses, such as not having to buy various software or hardware components. We integrate Calendaring, CRM, Matter Management, and Time and Billing, saving you both the cost of having to purchase multiple applications and the time needed to flip back and forth between them to find your information.
In addition, Rocket Matter features “Bill as you Work” technology, which allows you to capture time while you work. Even if you capture an additional .1 a day, that’s 30 minutes a week or 25 total hours a year. At an hourly rate of $250 an hour, that’s a savings of $6250 a year.
4) What about a message and comment system?
Currently we have a feature called Notes which allow for online discussion and collaboration on a matter. These are analagous to Messages in Basecamp.
5) Document Management OR Document Automation
These will not be in our 1.0 release, scheduled for this summer. However, all I can say for now is…stay tuned!
6) Outlook, iPhone, and synching with Rocket Matter
For our iPhone optimization we have rolled out an optimized version of the application that allows for a native iPhone look and feel on the Safari browser. There’s no need to synch, use a tether, or install anything. If you lose your device, your sensitive data is not at risk. If someone at your office updates the calendar, you will see the new appointment automatically on your iPhone. Similar optimizations for Blackberry and Treo are on the horizon for us.
We are aware that Outlook synching is a concern for people and we will be addressing this as well. If we see that this is a make-or-break deal for potential clients, we will prioritize this ability.
I invite you to follow up with any additional questions. Feel free to email me at larry@rocketmatter.com.
Thank you!
Larry Port's last blog post..Adding the Rocket Matter Icon to your iPhone Home Screen
Solid response Larry.
I think that the export feature for G/L info is a good start. I'd still like to see you take a swing at a 2 way sync! Every extra mouse click counts you know.
How about a screencast of the conversation/notes system?
I find it somewhat odd that Rocket Matter hasn't provided a two-way sync, yet is optimized for iPhone. Apple won't have the market penetration w/ the iPhone that they had with iPod. There are a lot of players in the 3G phone arena. Blackberry is one, and it's market penetration can't be ignored. Many users, myself included, use Outlook to sync w/ Blackberry.
Features aside, the real issue (for me, at least, and perhaps for most lawyers) is security and accountability. Does Rocket Matter give a service level agreement? What does a customer get if the service level is violated? Is there bonded insurance to pay the consequential damages of the lawyer's client if the service level is breached (or if Rocket Matter goes out of business)? Who is Rocket Matter's disaster recovery vendor and what is Rocket Matter's disaster recovery plan? Network availability redundancy is nice, but is the data stored offsite in a second location (ie, not on the network in multiple places, but completely off) and on how regular of a basis is that done? Is it escrowed?
The nightmare scenario is attempting to log on one day and receive a 404 Server Not Found error. Phone calls roll over to a voice mail with the name and telephone number of the bankruptcy trustee. If web-based data handling is just as good as me having my data on my own machine, Rocket Matter should make warranties that everything is covered and my expectancy can be that I am as good with their service as I would be in my own office.
More good questions! It is important for anyone considering the use of a web-based hosted application (SaaS) to do due diligence and understand these issues.
It may seem odd from a user's perspective that iPhone optimization comes before Blackberry synch, but from a software development perspective it is a simple explanation: iPhone optimization was an easy win. This is from both a product development and automated testing scenario.
Some of these other questions I have answered on my blog. Please take a look here:
http://rocketmatter.com/blog/moving-to-software-a…
Larry Port's last blog post..Rocket Matter Questions and Answers
Hi Larry, one of our clients called me last week to ask if I had heard about your product, so I checked out your website. My company has been offering a hosted solution since January, and I am always interested in alternative options and sharing feedback. (I think our products are very different, so no risk of stealing clients.) I am curious about the speed and performance of your web-based product. I have heard from other clients that use web-based systems (by other vendors) that the response speed is painfully slow. Have you found that Rocket Matter is quick responding? Is speed impacted by the user's access method(PDA vs. computer)? Also, I am interested in the reaction to your product by non-users. We have seen all extremes of responses – from great idea, love it, to I would NEVER allow my data to reside outside my own office. Do you find in general that reaction is dictated by age, geographical location, type of practice, etc? Hope to be able to share ideas and info!
@Donna:
My name is Long, not Larry…and I don't own Rocketmatter, I was just reviewing it. You might want to address further questions on the RocketMatter blog.
Thanks!
Long
Has anyone tried Clio yet? http://www.goclio.com.
It was just launched – it's got a prettier interface than RocketMatter (IMHO), but more importantly, it has more billing and matter management features (such as timers you can run) AND it has integrated document management, with versions and unlimited storage. Plus, it's cheaper than RocketMatter at $50/user/month (as compared to RocketMatter's $75). I'm about to branch out on my own and I am definitely attracted to the idea of SaaS for my practice management – I'd be interested to here about people's experiences with Clio, since it seems like the most attractive option to me right now.
I am interested in other's experiences in syncing Lexis Nexis Front Offica and Back Office and locating an IT professional with experience at integrating the two. I've used PC Law for years in my 3 lawyer lawfirm and puchased Front Office a year ago. We still seem to be having trouble with the integration of the two. We have some lawyers using Front Office and others using Back Office/Outlook for time keeping and email. Any suggestions.
@Brian
I haven't done it. But before LN renamed all of these software items (back when it was just PCLaw and TimeMatters) I know it was easily accomplished. There's a PCLAW listserv group that might be helpful – I'm sure there's a few consultants on there in addition to attorneys wondering how to perform certain functions.
I dont want the group to get spammed so if you want the link, email me here: http://homeofficeenvy.com/contact-me/
I am going to switch from TM 9 to Rocket Matter. I have used TM for 7 years. TM's release 10 will not work on a Novel Linux server – so I figured they have put me out of their customer base. I evaluated HoudiniEsq and I didn't think it was quite ready although it is a great product. The one feature in RM that is missing is the email integration – I don't understand why that is since so much information in our cases is passed on by email. We should be able to park our emails in their directory with one click of the mouse. But, they have not provided information as the when that will be part of RM. It is integrated in HoudiniEsq.Lynn
I am going to switch from TM 9 to Rocket Matter. I have used TM for 7 years. TM's release 10 will not work on a Novel Linux server – so I figured they have put me out of their customer base. I evaluated HoudiniEsq and I didn't think it was quite ready although it is a great product. The one feature in RM that is missing is the email integration – I don't understand why that is since so much information in our cases is passed on by email. We should be able to park our emails in their directory with one click of the mouse. But, they have not provided information as the when that will be part of RM. It is integrated in HoudiniEsq.Lynn
I have tried them all. Houdini Esq is the best solution. I rank them according to features.1. Houdini Esq2. Advologix3. Clio4. RocketMatterthen rest don't deserve a mention in my book.