Upgrade to Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition

home | products | upgrade | premium edition

Upgrade to Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition

Introducing Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition - the software that lets you do things your way. With loads of new features, enhancements and customization options, the 2009 Premium Edition is the choice for legal professionals who want the best.

The following is a summary of some of the new features that you'll find when upgrading from:

Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition

If you are upgrading from a different version of Amicus Attorney click here.

Dashboard
Client Matter Intake Form
Improved Conflict Check
Communications
Mobility
Calendar
Files
Tasks
Favorites
People
Notes/Stickies
Documents
Advanced Technology
Other
Links

Dashboard

Decide what you want to see, where and how. Design your own screens - put the information and tools together that you want to work with. Work efficiently when you can have all the information that is most to important to you together in one place. Create as many dashboards as you'd like. With the Amicus Dailies Dashboard, you are in control!

	Enhance Visibility Easily design a visual display combining your Amicus data and external information, such as network files and folders or websites, in a single screen. Select data views needed to achieve your specific objectives, be it strategic, analytical or operational. Choose from a variety of data lists, summaries, new record items, tools and utilities, embedded browsers, etc. Mix several data types or create multiple Dashboards to support the different aspects of your practice.
	Customize Your View Design a screen to visually present data how you want it. Pick how many sections you want displayed in your Dashboard and use color, shape, size and borders to draw attention to important elements or to create visual groupings. And as your needs change, you can modify your Dashboard to reflect your new priorities.
	Interact with Data Easily interact with data right from your dashboards.

Client Matter Intake Form

Now firms can ensure that all pertinent file information is captured at the time a file is opened. When starting a new file, the optional Client Matter Intake Form walks you through a predetermined list based on file type. Minimize errors, save time and ensure all necessary information is captured at the time a file is opened.

	Customized Intake Forms Create personalized templates consisting of multiple screens with whichever fields your firm deems important when creating a new file. With the file intake form the administrator can choose to have specific information entered depending on the specified file type. A real estate case, for instance, would require totally different information than a personal injury case.
	Required Fields Mark certain fields as required so users can't continue with the file intake process without inputting the specified information.

Improved Conflict Check

Build a custom conflict check by picking what elements of Amicus should be searched, including custom fields, time entries, notes and more and save or print results in an easy to read report.

Multiple Name Check
Save time by performing a conflict check for multiple names in a single search session.

Advanced Search
A new advanced setting offers a broader range of searchable fields including custom contact and file text fields, file summary, file status, event title and notes, communications to/from, and many more.

Results Report
Conflict check results are output in an easy to read report including an outline of the criteria searched, a comments column, and a separate column indicating the field in which the match was found.

Print the report or optionally save the results and attach it to an Amicus File. Printouts include the searched names(s) and the user who ran the report in addition to comprehensive information about any matches.

Communications

	Preview Pane Optionally preview emails, phone calls and phone messages using the new communications preview pane. This resizable view allows for a quick display of record details including message type, sender/recipient information, date and time, priority level, associated file, whether there are any attachments and message content, all in the bottom half of your screen.
	Phone Call Dialog Now you can see who placed a call and to whom. You can also classify records using the new status flags and convert phone calls to messages.
	Resizable Phone Call Dialog Now you can resize a phone call window in the event that you need to be able to see underlying windows. A single click makes it easy to toggle between small and standard sizes. You can also use the drag feature to make it smaller or larger depending on your needs.
	Manage Email Optionally view your Outlook embedded directly in your Amicus Communications module. If you manage multiple Outlook mailboxes you have access to all of them. Cc and bcc capabilities have been added in addition to enhanced attachment handling and improved auto save settings. You can see at a glance whether an email is marked as urgent or if has been saved to Amicus, and to what file.
	Email Merge Create customizable email messages to one or more of your contacts using Amicus Attorney information. Simply select the appropriate template and have your Amicus data automatically merged into the appropriate fields directly into your email message. Everything you like about Document Assembly, but now accessible for email messages.
	Photos on Email If a contact or firm member has a photo included in their contact record, that photo will automatically display in the email dialog providing a nice visual reminder of who the message is from.
	Email Attachments Save document attachments to a file at the same time as saving the email message.

Mobility

	Integration with Amicus Mobile 2009 Amicus Mobile 2009, a Premium Edition add-on, is now available for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. Connect real-time to your Amicus server and work with your files, do time entries, make notes, schedule appointments, record phone calls and more. Your colleagues back at the office see your work right away and vice versa.
	Use Any Desktop In The Office If you need to use someone else’s desk, you can log into Amicus from any PC in your firm and have it behave as if you are at your own desk. So you’re not tied to any machine. Great for working from a boardroom, for people with two offices, or those who share desks.
	Connect From Anywhere You can install Amicus Attorney on your home PC, then connect to your office and use it across the Internet. Just set up your office network to allow secure remote connections (it’s built into recent versions of Windows). Then log in from anywhere you have installed Amicus and work with it as if you were there! Ideal for satellite offices as well.
	Private Networks Work over virtual private networks (VPNs). If your firm has chosen to implement terminal services (e.g. Citrix Systems), Amicus will be equally comfortable.

Calendar

	New Calendar Views New flexible views allow you to see up to a full 24-hour day. A new range view allows you to see columns for as many days as you like. Select a range simply by highlighting days in the calendar. And you have the option to set your range view to omit Saturday and Sunday.
	Workgroup Scheduling View group calendars on the fly. Instant workgroup calendars that make it faster and easier to coordinate with your colleagues. Even without a profile you can easily look after group scheduling. Simply check off the names of the people you want to include in your view. The list is located at the top left of your calendar. The default displays all the people you work with regularly, those in your workgroup, but you can add any firm members you choose.
	New Event Fields New fields for tracking location, duration, time zone and completion status have been added.
	Appointment Settings New all-day appointment settings can span up to a full 7 days.
	Default View for Event Detail Control the default view displayed when an event details dialog is opened. Select from files and people, change notification, repeat, links, assistance setup, main note, notes list, documents or history.
	Default File on New Events Preference If you work for extended periods of time on a single matter, an additional calendar new entries preference now allows you to specify a file to be automatically assigned to new appointments or to do's you create in Amicus Attorney.
	Default Type for Event Detail Select whether an event is a to do or an appointment by default when the event details dialog is opened.
	Automatic Histories on Events Now you will always be able to see who changed what, who rescheduled the meeting, who cancelled the conference call - because the Premium Edition automatically tracks histories and changes on all events.
	Appointment Reminders Automatically remind attendees via Reminder Alert or email message. Decide how much warning to give and the method. You can even decide the date and time of day when you want them to be reminded. Send up to three different reminders, via email or sticky alert. For example, you can send yourself a reminder two days before, send everyone a reminder the day before, and send all firm members another reminder the morning of the event.
	Improved Change Notifications Now you can set multiple different rules for automatically notifying others about the creation or changing of calendar events. Send firm members a Sticky and outsiders an email whenever an appointment is changed. All on a per-event basis.
	New Options For Linking Events The Premium Edition has an easier layout for selecting and configuring linked events. Link calculations can now include weeks, months and years. There are new link conditions, like scheduling an event if something else has not been marked done within a given period of time. Weekend and holiday scheduling rules can be specific to each individual link.

Files

	File Details Now you can open more than one file detail at a time.
	File Detail Take full advantage of screen real estate by setting file details to open full screen by default with the navigation pane hidden.
	Customizations Create an unlimited number of customizable fields with flexible layouts for each file type and track additional information with unlimited custom records.
	File to File relationships Create associations between related files.
	Chronological List Now you can optionally include note records in chronological lists on files.
	Expenses Record, review and post expenses on each file for some accounting links.
	More Powerful Precedents Many new features for managing your precedents, including a new precedent profile dialog that allows you to view a precedent's events in a "tree" showing linked event relationships. You can also create new precedents based on old ones, edit existing ones, assign firm members or firm groups to precedents and filter your list of available precedents to display only yours.

Tasks

	Custom List Views Choose which fields to include in every list view. Include as much or as little information regarding your tasks. A basic view could include simply the title and date, or add any of; Author, Category, Do Button, Done Checkbox, Due/Days, Files, Contacts, Initials (for who it is assigned to), Priority, Time Entry Icon, Repeat Icon, and finally Percentage Complete.
	Timeline Views The Timeline view displays tasks from left to right on a time scale. Use this view to display to do's in relation to time. Simply scroll to the left to see past items, and to the right to see tasks scheduled well into the future. The Timeline view is a great tool when mapping out a long term project, or just to provide a different perspective for scheduled tasks.

Favorites

If you use something in Amicus often, you can save it to your list of Favorites. Whether it is a File, Person, Note, Document, Library Page, or even a Search Profile, all this can all be added to your Favorites list for fast and effortless access. Commonly used items are never more than a click away.

Easy Access
It’s easy to add items to your Favorites list. Simply right click on any list and choose Add to Favorites, or use the option from the Edit drop-down menu. Your Amicus Attorney Favorites integrates automatically with all of your Internet Explorer Favorites to create a one-stop location for easy access to the information you use most often.

People

	Contact Drop Zone The new QuickEdit box on contact cards provides the fastest way possible to add contact information to your people. Simply copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop text from any application into this “drop zone” and it’s added to the contact card. Imagine – you can copy a person’s email signature straight into a contact record! Or you can just type an entire address and phone number into the drop zone – Amicus intelligently puts each element into the correct field, so you don’t have to type into all those little boxes. Amazingly fast and convenient!
	Contact Merge You might find from time to time that more than one contact record has been created for the same person. Team members can now combine information from two contact records into one directly from their own contact index, rather than having to rely on the team administrator.
	Firm Directory All users of Amicus Attorney automatically have contact cards with special attributes. This creates a firm directory in the People Module and makes it much easier to see all the people involved in a file.
	Pictures on Contacts The Premium Edition lets you put a face to a name. Include pictures of your contacts.
	Business Card Map Click on the map icon on any contact and see a map to your contact's location.
	Unlimited Addresses, Phone Numbers and People Groups Now you can list as much information on your contacts as you want. You can also have an unlimited number of people group designations.
	Designate Contacts as Individuals or Companies Designate a contact as a company, and then link the individuals to that company. If that company moves their office and changes their contact information, all you have to do is change the contact info for the company card and it will automatically update all the individual contacts.
	Chronologies on Contacts Chronologies of every type of record relating to the contact have also been added. So you can take a more "people centric" approach to your practice if you prefer.
	Firm Member Exchange to Outlook A new option in the Outlook contacts & calendar link enables you to now include firm members when exchanging Amicus people/contacts to Outlook as contacts. This is beneficial to those who use Outlook in a three-way configuration link with their handheld device.
	Customizations Create an unlimited number of customizable fields with flexible layouts and track additional information with unlimited custom records.

Notes/Stickies

	Date/Time Stamp on Notes Configure your system to automatically insert a date/time stamp when editing main note fields on file, contact or event details.
	Date/Time Stamp on Stickies Automatically include a date/time stamp on all new Sticky notes.
	Default Addresses on Stickies Now you can specify a default firm member to assign to new Sticky notes.

Documents

	Document Control Have more control over your documents through a feature called “Amicus Managed Documents”. By enabling the feature, you can have Amicus manage the location and the accessibility of all of the documents that are attached to Files, Contacts or Library Pages. This is controlled by a firm-wide setting so that you can make it mandatory for everyone to adhere to the program. Amicus will automatically create network file folders for each client/matter file. All of the documents you attach to that file will be stored in that folder, regardless of where they were created. Amicus will also manage the process of accessing those documents – making people “Check-in” and “Check-out” the documents they are working on. This ensures that a consistent version of the document is maintained when multiple people are working on a file. Managed Documents are fully indexed for fast full-text searching when you are looking for something.
	Documents on Contacts Now when you have documents that relate to a person, but not necessarily to a specific file, you can attach the document directly to the contact.
	Link Documents to Events Associate saved document records to an event in your Amicus calendar for quick and easy reference.
	Windows Explorer Folder View on Files Documents on files can be dynamically synchronized with Windows Explorer - just associate a folder (on your hard drive or your network) with a matter, and all documents placed in that folder will automatically appear in Amicus!
	Printing Print documents directly from a file without having to open the document.
	Full Text Search Microsoft Indexing Service allow for incredibly fast full-text searching and retrieval.
	Enhanced Document Assembly Options Document assembly in the Premium Edition uses a newly designed interface for greater flexibility and ease of use. Document templates can be made available for use by named individual firm members. There are new variables and more flexible document generation options, better template naming conventions and a new document template tree for easy selection.
	Smart Tags Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition is dynamically linked to all the applications in Microsoft Office. Word will recognize the names of your files and contacts as you type them, allowing you to call up their information without ever leaving your document. You can also do a time entry for drafting a document - right from the document.

Advanced Technology

	.NET 2.0 Built completely in .NET 2.0 – a more robust, mature environment.
	Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition is built on Microsoft SQL Server® 2005.
	64-bit Operating System Now you can run Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition Application Server on a 64-bit operating system.

Other

	Custom Information Add an unlimited number of custom fields available in over a dozen different formats including: Line, Frame, Text, Memo, Drop-down lists, Checkboxes, Numeric, Currency, Percent, Date, Time, Look-up (People, Files, Firm Members, Events), Path/URL, Email, SSN, SIN, Graphic. You can set default values and screen hints, and even choose to have certain custom fields included in conflict of interest checks.
	Custom Records Track any additional type of information required with Custom Records. A custom record is a group of custom (and standard) fields collected together for a defined purpose. You can have as many custom records as you like, shown in lists on each file. Use summary and total fields across lists of custom records for calculations. For example, Personal Injury attorneys could define medical expense records and see a running total on each file. Corporate attorneys might define special records for tracking specialized information on each shareholder in a company, cross-referencing them to contacts and producing a list of total shares.
	Access Amicus Attorney has multiple levels of access control so you can be confident everyone can see what they need to, but suitable levels of privacy are maintained. Access to Amicus itself is secured with two unique ID’s and a password. Once logged in, you can only access information that you have created or been assigned to. For example, only those who are assigned to files can see the contents of those files, unless you have specifically been granted access at the administrator level to see everything in the firm. Or if you want everyone to see everything, this can be set up as well, without the need to make multiple assignments.
	Security Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition extends security to the individual field and record level and makes it entirely customizable by your firm. Define security profiles for each individual or group in your firm, establishing what types of records they can see and what controls they can use. Allow everybody to see everything or create impenetrable "Chinese walls." Set up a "Senior Partner" profile for someone who can see and do everything or a "Temp" profile for someone who has minimal access. Allow people to see and work with information but not to add or change it. Restrict which controls are available to which types of people (e.g., restrict who can open files or who can assign others to them). In addition to these profiles, you can mark any of your own records as restricted so no one else can see them, or so others can see but not change them. Mark a personal contact private. Ensure personal appointments cannot be read by anyone. Keep special files confidential.
	Files/People Auto-Complete Feature When assigning files or contact records, you can now start typing a short file name or person’s name (instead of clicking the select files or select people icon), and Amicus will display a drop-down list of your matching files or people. Click one to select it. Very useful when you are adding a new phone message, adding events, associating selected notes etc...
	Date Entry Formats Date entry format options have been adeed allowing you to use whatever your regional settings are (e.g.: Day Month Year, Month Day Year).
	Currency Displays Expanded currency options now inculde Pounds and Euros. You can also choose where to have the currency symbol apprear and whether to use a decimal or comma separator.
	Help Center The Help Center provides ready access to a variety of useful information including user and administrator help, various guides, web update information and links to support, product information, consultant locator, training courses and the like.
	Many to Many Relationships Have multiple files or contacts on the same record. For example a single phone call can be related to 3 files and 5 contacts, even associate multiple firm members. Think how much easier it will be to track conference calls!
	New Amicus-wide Searches The Amicus-wide search will search across all modules and record types and bring back results in a single view. Find things no matter where they are stored. Or define and reuse sophisticated searches that give you insight into your practice.
	Group By The new "group by" feature allows you to manage large lists more effectively by breaking them down into categories.
	Audio Reminder Alerts We have added a variety of audio options to choose from or optionally select your own audio recordings.
	Automatic Spell Check Now when you type in Amicus Attorney, you will automatically get redlined spell check. Type faster and reduce errors.
	Text Expansion Amicus Attorney lets you define your own list of text shortcuts that expand into standard text when you type them. Save time on all the most common words that you type. Especially useful for time entries! You can also use this feature to create your own auto-correct lists for errors you find yourself making.
	Resizable Views in All Modules Now all the module views in Amicus can be sized to fit whatever window you want to put them in – with useful data areas, not just graphics.
	Colleague and Assistant Guest Access Two levels of guest access are now available to suit your needs.
	Customizable Floating Toolbar/Timer The Amicus toolbar is now customizable and (optionally) includes the timer!
	Administrative Functions Now administrative functions are provided within the same program as user functions. Administration can also be done from any workstation or even over the web given the user has sufficient rights. Many configurations are done through easy to use wizards. A flexible user management view, improved security profiles, a new licensing model and new utilities make administration a breeze.

Links

	Integration with Amicus Accounting 2009 Seamless integration with Amicus Accounting 2009.
	Accounting Links Integration between your practice management system and your accounting system ensures you never need to type the same information twice. Capture your billable time more efficiently and accurately in Amicus Attorney, then pass it to accounting electronically. Time entries get into your accounting system much more quickly, with less effort, and more time is captured. There is less chance of a bill going out without all the time being on it. These include dynamic bilateral links with Amicus Accounting, Timeslips®, QuickBooks®, and PCLaw®, where information is passed in both directions. So not only do time entries go to accounting, but so too does new file and client information. For example, open a new file in Amicus Attorney and it is automatically opened in Timeslips as well. (Click here for a complete list of compatible products)
	Custom Accounting Amicus Attorney offers links to many leading accounting systems and also offers the ability to create custom templates to work with other programs. Well beyond an import/export process, custom links work with anything from main frames to Access® databases, and configures Amicus Attorney to match your system's requirements. The easy-to-use custom accounting template wizard makes it so you can use virtually any accounting program in conjunction with Amicus Attorney. As long as your system has an import capability, Amicus Attorney can work with it.
	HotDocs® Integration Amicus Attorney 2009 Premium Edition integrates with the latest version of HotDocs® 2008. The new integration recognizes the actual field type in HotDocs – saving you time and effort on document creation.
	Amicus In Microsoft Office Amicus Attorney is dynamically linked to the applications in Microsoft Office®. So you can access all your Amicus information without ever leaving the document you are working on. Save your document to a file in Amicus from within Word® or any other Office application. Do a time entry for working on a document without ever leaving the document. Word will even recognize the names of your Amicus files and contacts as you type, creating links back to even more Amicus information. Many of these features are available in WordPerfect® too.
	In-Context Information The integration with Microsoft Office applications means you can access your Amicus Library information, even while working in Word. While reviewing a document, you can highlight a point of law, click the Search button in the Word toolbar, and you can see all of the Library information that your firm has accumulated on the subject. It could be a link to web research or maybe an opinion letter one of your partners had done on a similar matter.

Plus many more features that customers like you have asked for...

To order, or for more information: 800-472-2289 or sales@amicusattorney.com