Method and system for the management of professional services project information

Abstract

A method and system are provided for the transfer and / or aggregation of data and, in particular, integrating data used in managing a professional services practice. The invention preferably transfers and / or aggregates data relating to the identity of client and matters for whom professional services are being rendered with data relating to the work which data may be maintained in inconsistent, proprietary formats, comprising one or more of the following types of information: accounting; budgeting; docketing; time and billing; work product; word processing; records; project management; and / or other information relating to the professional services. The system of the present invention preferably comprises data storage and data processing means adapted to use the data in substantially portable and / or application-independent format, and / or and transfer or aggregate data between common, and / or proprietary data formats.

Description

PRIOR APPLICATION[0001]This application is a division of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 315,160, filed Dec. 10, 2002 claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 337,158, filed Dec. 10, 2001, each of which applications is incorporated by reference, as if fully set forth herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a method and system for, and apparatus adapted to, manage information used in a business and, in particular, a professional services practice. The present invention preferably facilitates the transfer, compilation, aggregation, integration, and / or distribution of data. The data may be in: one or more software applications; common or proprietary, structured or unstructured, formats; centralized or distributed database(s); and / or compatible or incompatible formats.[0003]Data typically must be transferred, cleaned, converted, and / or coded from a native format into the recipient's format, before it can be used by the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention aims to enhance the transferability and portability of data between different software applications used in a professional services practice, such as in a law firm. This is achieved through a computer network system that includes data processing means and one or more distributed application means for storing data that can be easily transferred between applications. Additionally, the invention provides a project management system for managing professional services projects, which also includes a computer network for storing data and facilitating communication between different applications.

Problems solved by technology

These applications are not adapted to, and in many instances, are not capable of, cooperating or communicating with one another.

The architecture of computer networks has compounded the difficulties of managing these disparate systems.

Apart from the substantial challenges this imposes on network managers and systems administrators, it has made the ready transferability of data between components more difficult, if not impossible.

Typically the data was maintained in a format that was proprietary and, in some cases, exclusive to the single application, or at least not readily portable to other applications.

While these restrictions help preserve the security, integrity, and reliability of the data, they impair the transferability of the data.

Yet, these systems generally remain: proprietary; rigid in their formatting; and rigid in their ability to transfer or exchange information with other software applications and to accept related project management and / or financial information.

Extranets remain complex and limited in their functionality.

Web-based systems have not resolved the fundamental problem that pertinent data is stored in multiple inconsistent formats.

The rigidity of most docketing systems, however, impairs or prevents the data from being readily exchanged with other applications.

Consequently, data is typically manually transferred (cut and pasted) or simply key-entered repeatedly in each application in which it is needed, presenting multiple additional opportunities for errors and data corruption.

As a result, the same intended address now resides in multiple locations in the firm's computer network, each likely being different and possibly containing incorrect and inconsistent information, style, and formatting.

At each point where it was entered or used, time is wasted in reentering the same information.

At each entry point, there are new opportunities for additional errors being introduced.

Yet, while the data may be portable between the applications to a greater or lesser degree, incompatibilities remain, that have resulted in corruption or loss of the data, or general protection faults.

For example, errors and inconsistencies frequently result between Palm databases, Notes databases, and relationship management databases that purport to contain the same information.

The data is not reliably transferred between them in practice, due to software flaws and / or incompatibilities.

Moreover, the undue complexity of these systems makes them difficult for even sophisticated users to use competently.

In Applicant's experience, these problems extend to all of the types of data used in a professional service(s) practices.

Even these limited applications, however, encountered substantial problems in transferring data from one application to another prior to the present invention.

Docketing and accounting systems have generally been even more problematic with respect to the portability and / or application-independence of their data.

In a professional services setting, such as law and / or medicine, centralized database applications have generally been disfavored for several reasons.

First, the cost and complexity of these types of integration projects have been prohibitive.

Second, the rapid evolution of hardware and software further contraindicate the massive investment required for centrally integrated databases.

Third, the distributed nature of professional services, as well as security concerns, teach away from massive integration in a professional services setting.

Thus, there has long been an unresolved need for secure, reliable, simple data transfer between applications.

Prior known approaches have failed to meet this long-felt and unresolved need, particularly in a professional service(s) setting.

Professional service(s) markets, therefore, have had to rely on either mass-marketed software applications that are not adapted to their particular needs, and / or customized and / or proprietary solutions that are expensive, complex, and limited in their flexibility and adaptability.

This results in duplication in purchasing and training, while only certain programs or features of each application are actually used.

Rather, each software application is typically written in a different, and incompatible, proprietary format.

These proprietary formats are generally not compatible with other software applications.

In practice, however, this was not the case.

Transferring data was cumbersome, time consuming, and required manual intervention and conversion, typically, with specialized assistance from personnel specifically trained in the proprietary software.

Such incompatibilities regularly cause catastrophic failures.

Nor has the advent of Windows XP and other operating systems resolved these problems.

This marketing simply underscores the failure of prior known approaches to resolve this fundamental and long-felt need.

Moreover, Windows XP continues to suffer faults with a “Task List” interface provided to terminate the offending application(s).

These types of failures are unacceptable in a modern business environment.

Mass-marketed application software companies have not met these challenges.

In reality, mass marketed business application software of the type used in professional services practices has come nowhere near achieving these levels of reliability.

This is wasteful and introduces multiple opportunities for error in data entry, maintenance, and retrieval.

Typically, the more powerful the tool, the more rigorous the training requirements.

PC-based network systems have fostered the proliferation of incompatible, proprietary applications software.

These proprietary systems have resulted in: maintenance problems; undue complexity in systems architecture and design; excessive network systems support requirements; the need for duplicate copies of applications software; increased systems maintenance; increased cost; impaired access to data; increased training time and expense; diversion of professional time to non-productive uses; and, ultimately, impairment of access to the information needed to run the practice or business.

Training time must be balanced against the value of upgrades, which sap even more resources.

As a result, the paperless office never arrived.

The result has been information overload.

New technologies have enabled greater productivity, yet, have done little to guide that effort in a productive manner.

Automation alone does not make an organization more efficient or productive.

Lack of Maturity of the Software Industry

Rather, with the proliferation of application software options, the problem has worsened, markedly.

Nor do large-scale software integration projects offer a viable alternative.

And some three quarters of all large systems are ‘operating failures’ that either do not function as intended or are not used at all.

These include a pervasive lack of quality and repeated systems failures suffered by various software systems.

Among the software engineering failures Gibbs chronicles are: the baggage handling system at Denver International Airport; the loss of the Clementine space probe; the State of California's attempt to merge its driver and vehicle registration systems; the unsuccessful attempt to force the expansion of American Airline's successful “Sabre” reservation system to integrate hotel and car reservation bookings; the Federal Aviation Administration's replacement of it's air traffic control software with its failed “Advanced Automation System;” and other spectacular failures.

Nor have distributed systems approaches proved successful in overcoming the lack of maturity of the software industry.

In addition to the problems presented by order of magnitude growth every decade, undue complexity, lack of adequate documentation, and failure to integrate successive stages of evolution of a software product, the stresses imposed by “distributed systems” are substantial.

Often systems crash because they fail to expect the unexpected.

. . .’ The complexity and fragility of these systems pose a major challenge.” / d.

Gibbs emphasizes the lack of discipline and professionalism in the software industry.

Although some researchers are addressing practical, repeatable solutions, most of the industry is not.

Although Microsoft Corporation prides itself that its software is “beta-tested” by tens of thousands of users, this system is expensive, inefficient, and, ultimately, ineffective.

Most software developers cannot and do not secure even this ineffective, level of exposure.

The result is a continuing stream of defective and faulty products.

Unfortunately, these advances generally have not been adopted by producers of mass-market software, the type of software typically used in a business or professional service(s) setting.

It continues to encounter substantial resistance among the companies, managers, and engineers who produce these software products.

One glaring example of the lack of professionalism in software development is the presence of “Easter Eggs” in mass-marketed software programs.

The consumer is not offered the option to reject these deliberate and extraneous bits of software.

One expert in computer security, Ross Anderson, at Cambridge University in Britain, has stated: “Easter Eggs are a telling symptom of poor quality control at many software companies . . . . Purchasers are right to be concerned; the great majority of computer-security failures result from the opportunistic exploitation of vulnerabilities that are discovered by chance.

Unlike the computer hardware industry, the software industry has failed to embrace consensus performance standards.

Although researchers are investigating several promising approaches, these approaches are not yet generally accepted.

Significant technical and cultural barriers remain to the success of these approaches.

However, these expert systems have not been integrated with the other aspects of the medical practice to enable the physician to monitor the outcome of patient treatment, in terms of either the cost or efficacy of medical treatment.” / d. at 2, II.

There is no accommodation to integrate or accept data from the types of distributed applications that are otherwise used in a medical office, or to transfer information maintained in an office's legacy systems.

Whitmyer's approach, however, enables corruption of the data in the docket by enabling potentially incorrect or unauthorized information to be added to the docketing database.

The LawPack product did not fit within Hummingbird's core business strategy and Hummingbird announced in late 2001 that it was phasing out the LawPack product.

Although XML has won widespread support in recent years from Internet standard bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium, it too has drawbacks, namely: astonishing complexity {Id. at 26) and the impracticality of metatagging the entire contents of a page.

Although XML is beginning to address the issue of transferability of data in the context of web search engines, it is a limited approach and has not been applied among the various software applications within a machine to enhance the transferability of data within an application or between applications.

These standards have not found their way back into the PC or office network environment to help resolve the basic problem of transferring information between incompatible application software platforms within the same computing device or network.

Nor have these approaches yet been applied to distributed networks serving professional services markets.

No solution yet emerged with respect to the security issues facing internal networks (authentication; authorization; confidentiality; integrity; and non-repudiation), let alone the Internet.

Yet, these too are saddled with the drawbacks of undue complexity and being proprietary and, therefore, less flexible and more rigid that desired.

Although PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) systems, employing digital certificates are also gaining ground, particularly in banking and telecommunications, they are similarly complex, rely on third party involvement, and are not ‘well-adapted to use within an internal network to commoditize data between applications.

Its ability is limited, at present.

This is primarily due to restraints on access and the lack of generally accepted standards for data formatting.

None provided data in a substantially application-independent or portable fashion.

Moreover, none of the prior known approaches have resolved the unmet need to facilitate the transfer of data between outside professional service providers and their clients.

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