Solo Practice

New Web-Based Case Management System - Rocket Matter

By The Greatest American Lawyer

I saw over at law.com that a new online case management system has come out on the market.  This is designed for solo and small firms, which I love.  You can check out the Rocket Matter software, including a online demonstration, at the Rocket Matter website. 

As you all know, I'm a big fan of basecamphq.com, which we use as our online case management system.  Like Base Camp, Rocket Matter has discovered that simplicity is beautiful.  Their online demo presents a clear, intuitive, intelligent and simple online case management system.  I give the developers great credit for the technology which appears smooth and seamless.

A couple of items which I noted missing from the system are perhaps the most important items of all, however.  It does not appear that you can bring clients into the system in order to achieve transparency.  Transparency for a law firm is the best way to improve client service, cut down on possible miscommunication, and ensure efficiency.  The other piece is the inability to upload documents into the system (or at least I couldn't see it in the online demo).  Finally, the Rocket Matter tag line is "It's about time."  The suggestion here is that time tracking is the key to law firm success.  Unfortunately, Rocket Matter seems to have missed the boat on the trend towards value billing.  However, I did note that they do have a flat fee option in their system.  I wish their motto was "It's about value." as opposed to focusing on time keeping.

Regardless, I give great credit to Rocket Matter for taking a huge first step into the online case matter management field.  Over the long haul, they have a huge advantage over Base Camp in that they are focused on law firm management only, whereas Base Camp is a project management system with no features or components strictly designed for law firms.  My bet is that they will be continuing to upgrade the system as they move forward, and I wish them nothing but continued success.

Full post as published by The Greatest American Lawyer on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).