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LEGAL SOFTWARE by seaBILL Co. www.seabill.com |
| Time billing software and conflict checking software - Free, Working* , Network-Ready Trial Programs |
| seaBILL Legal Software - Now in our 2nd Decade! |
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| BSA Pro legal time billing software - The Secret Weapon
"I consider BSA Pro legal time billing software a secret weapon and for competitive reasons I wouldn't want the secret to leak out. On the other hand, it's such a user friendly and comprehensive program that it would be a shame not to share this information. Only a practicing lawyer who knows the practical aspect of billing and trust accounting would be able to figure out what you have put into this program." |
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More about Legal Time Billing Software and Conflict Check Software
"How can seaBILL sell its products for hundreds of dollars less than competing products?"
BSA Pro legal billing software was carefully designed over a decade ago to be
the easiest to use legal billing software program ever developed. At the time, competing
time and billing programs cost about $300 and up. Once BSA Pro was
released, it was priced at $299.95 to compete in the market. Because BSA Pro was so carefully thought out, thoroughly tested and easy to
use, it was very easy to maintain. Unlike most software programs that are riddled with problems and bugs, BSA
Pro was rock solid and simple from the
very beginning. As a result, BSA Pro cost very little to maintain - both for our customers and us.
Over time, it became apparent that BSA Pro was meeting the needs and surpassing the expectations of virtually everyone who used it.
We quickly learned that anyone who bills for his/her time loved the program and the market for BSA
Pro grew much more quickly than anyone
anticipated. As a result, sales of BSA Pro continued to mushroom with almost no increase in the costs of support.
Since we at seaBILL did not plan to charge for support from the beginning, we crafted the most thorough help system ever written
RIGHT INTO THE PROGRAM. Then, as people asked for help, we simply posted the answer to every frequently asked
question (FAQ) we received on the web - for free. This meant that anyone could
easily read the built in Help system and, if they needed more,
they could quickly learn from the thousands and thousands of world-wide users
of BSA Pro by simply looking at the free web site information at any time.
Since technical support is very expensive, most software companies
charge dearly for it and ultimately see it as a way to make money. It becomes its own division in most
software companies and is expected to turn a
profit. In addition, it provides our competitors with a reason to release "new and improved" versions of their software and charge
for them. Not at seaBILL. We have always done everything in our power to do things correctly the first time and to make support freely available.
This keeps your costs (and ours)
as low as possible.
Today, we continue to expand sales at a rapid pace across the
globe as the internet is more and more widely available. As a result,
our volume remains high with sales increasing in all countries and we are able to offer the best
time and billing software program on the planet at the same price we did when it
was first
introduced more than a decade ago! While this approach to software development and marketing is unique, it has worked well for us and our customers.
We also offer Conflict Checker for Attorneys for only $300 while other companies charge $2,500 and more for similar (but less specialized) programs.
While we could target large firms that have large budgets, we have decided to keep our programs useful and affordable to smaller and mid-sized firms.
We fully recognize that Conflict Checker is priced at about 1/10th of what it could be sold for. We also know, however, that most law firms simply can't afford that
price tag. Rather than see smaller firms go without conflict tracking software, we have intentionally kept the price below the market value.
In the
long run, making a better product is the best way to make more money. While our competitors dream up new marketing campaigns,
deluge you with marketing ads, charge hundreds of dollars per hour
for support and are constantly releasing new versions of their defective
old products, we at seaBILL just keep selling the rock solid, simple
programs that work day in and day out. Our costs are low (and so are YOURS!) and we're
pleased to spread the good word around the globe - one
happy, new customer at a time.
"Why are seaBILL legal software programs so much more stable than competing products?"
seaBILL legal software programs
were designed from the ground up to be as simple as possible and still
accomplish the task. In the case of BSA Pro legal billing software for
attorneys, the program feature set was specified by practicing attorneys who
know what features are most-needed by most lawyers in small offices. Once the
features were set, the interface was then designed by lawyers and their legal
staff who actually used the program and were videotaped while using various beta
versions of BSA Pro.
Once the design goals were
set, the software engineers were required to use the simplest means to
accomplish these goals. All software decisions are reviewed by the
company's founders who are experienced computer programmers as well as
practicing attorneys. The software engineers are never allowed to
implement complicated or proprietary solutions that might make it easier for
them but harder for the user.
Further, the programs were
extensively beta tested by actual users with the sole purpose of eliminating
bugs and problems BEFORE the programs were released to the public. Sadly,
in the rush to compete that is the norm in the software world, this is almost
never done. Once the bug-elimination beta testing was completed, the programs
were released to the public.
Once BSA Pro was
released to the public, the feature requests started pouring in. Everyone
wants a billing program that runs exactly the way his office runs today but is
capable of changing the way it works in an instant. The problem with this
is that these customizations and changes will introduce bugs and unintended
consequences that interfere with the careful planning and testing.
And, the requests will change from day to day, making it impossible to stabilize
the program.
In many software companies,
feature requests are reviewed by the marketing department. If this is the
case, nearly every feature will be quickly added to a software program in order
to increase its sales. This causes the program to quickly lose any
relationship to its original design, introduces scores and scores of bugs and
problems and, in sum, results in a mess. In response to these problems,
the software company will add a 'technical support' department that becomes its
own profit center. Once this happens, there is no incentive to produce
trouble-free, easy-to-use software.
At seaBILL, feature
requests are NOT reviewed by marketers but by the original founders of the
company - attorneys who remember all too well the problems they had with other
programs. As a result, very few feature requests are approved.
As it turns out, most feature requests are either not a good idea for some
technical reason or are simply not common enough problems to warrant the risk of
introducing flaws into a program that works exceedingly well.
Once BSA Pro legal billing
software had been on
the market a few years, the program had been run by thousands of
users in thousands of offices around the world. The program was
battle-tested with millions of person hours of hard use in the first years.
During these first years, the only changes made to BSA Pro were to correct
problems. New features were not added to the program so that the program
could be thoroughly tested and become completely stable.
This unique approach allowed us to
quickly identify and correct problems and to rapidly see what issues were
commonly misunderstood by users. In response, we fixed the problems,
updated the built in Help system and
posted free answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions on this website.
This means that seaBILL software is extremely reliable and that users can find
free answers to their 'How-to' questions at any time at no charge. Since
we don't view technical support as a profit center, we have an incentive to
quickly fix problems and 'keep it simple'. Again, since our competitors
view technical support as a way to increase revenues, they do not have an
incentive to fix problems and make software that anyone can use.
Due to this unique approach
to the business of software design and marketing, seaBILL makes legal software
products that are much easier to use and much more stable and bug-free than
other legal billing software in particular and software in general.
Generally speaking, web-based billing is bad idea, especially for lawyers. The main concern is client confidentiality. Client billing records can easily contain client confidences. For example, just the client's name being associated with a certain law firm might be considered a confidence. Bill Gates of Microsoft, probably wouldn't want anyone to know if he retains a Las Vegas real estate firm today. One might conclude he is about to buy/build a casino and this revelation might be completely unacceptable to him. Also, the matter description for a client can reveal a confidence. Most criminal defendants don't want their name associated with a 'sexual assault' matter description. Further, billing detail can give away confidences and reveal legal strategy to an opponent. The list of potential confidences in client billing records is endless.
If your clients' billing records are kept on the web, they can be compromised. Don't believe all the hype you hear about 'secure servers' for back ups and billing data, etc. on the web. No matter what they say, SOMEONE other than you has access to the computers that run the back up or web-based billing system. And, that someone is almost certainly NOT your employee, NOT a lawyer and NOT subject to your control. Further, that person may be from another country since it's very common to outsource such services.
You only have to think for a minute to dream up many, scary situations where your billing records or your data are subject to review, copying and even dissemination far and wide if you place your data on the World Wide Web. Do you really want to take that chance?
Even if you can somehow get beyond that problem, you've got the problem that the web is not always available. With web-based billing, if you can't get 'on the web' for any reason, you can't get to your billing. The systems of computers and telecommunications equipment that get you on the web are not within your control and can be "down" at any time for any number of reasons. You don't want to find out your Internet Service Provider just experienced a meltdown when the judge is hanging on the line asking for the total attorney fees due in a case!
With stand-alone (non-web-based) billing such as BSA Pro Legal Billing Software, you only need your computer to boot up to get your billing done. If the computer doesn't boot, you can switch to another computer. YOU are in control of your billing and client data. There's simply no question whether some 14 year old Internet Whiz from Lithuania is having a field day rummaging through your clients' billing data tonight in a valiant attempt to learn English!
Until these problems are resolved, we won't offer web-based billing and it's hard for us to believe any lawyer would take the chance on it.
*Programs work for 35 days after which they time out. Minor features disabled during trial period for security reasons.
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