Multnomah County is the largest county in the state of Oregon, with 735,000 residents. The county encompasses the cities of Portland, Fairview, Gresham, Maywood Park, Troutdale and Wood Village.
Tell us a little bit about the legal department of Multnomah County
Multnomah is an Native American name, like many names in the Pacific Northwest.
Our county attorney office is located in the city of Portland, Oregon, and have about 20 attorneys, 3 paralegals and 2-3 support staff.
It’s easiest to think of us as a corporate law office that handles internal legal affairs. We do a lot of contracts and that sort of thing along with research for elected officials and counsel to department directors.
What did you use before Clio?
We were using ProLaw. In the fall of 2010, we converted from Outlook Exchange Server to Google Mail (GMail) and wanted a system that worked with GMail. ProLaw doesn’t and they said they had no plans in the near term to modify or integrate with GMail. So we found ourselves in a bit of a bind. We wanted something like ProLaw but that integrated with Google Mail.
So how did you find out about Clio?
We found Clio through a Google search as we prepared to solicit bid proposals through our procurement process.
Really. How does that work?
We have a very defined purchasing process. In this case we needed to find three credible vendors, one of them a minority or women-owned emerging business, if possible. Sometimes there isn’t a minority or women owned emerging business in the business field, but we must make an effort to find one.
By doing a Google search we identified three vendors, Clio being one of them, and sent them all invitations to respond to our request for proposals. We also posted the request for proposals to our website. The responding vendors were given an opportunity for a formal demonstration, and then we selected the vendor we thought best suits the criteria.
What made you decide on Clio?
It is cloud-based and tightly integrated with GMail. We demoed Clio and the others. And then we brought in some other attorneys for more demos and a webinar with Clio training staff as well and it was clear to everyone that Clio was a great fit.Being cloud-based was a big selling point. With ProLaw, it’s a client-server system that we were finding increasingly costly to support.
How so?
With Prolaw we had to install the client application on user computers so they can communicate with the ProLaw application and database installed on separate servers. That means that, whenever we brought on a new attorney, or got new computers, we had to make sure to install the client application, and make sure it connects with the correct locations, and so on.
That sounds like a hassle.
It was. And to login from somewhere outside the office required more steps. In addition to an Internet connection users needed a VPN, or virtual private network, connection to get to their desktops at the office and then finally to ProLaw.
But since Clio is cloud based, we just need a Web browser and an Internet connection. So when we bring in new attorneys, or get new computers, we just give them Clio credentials and they’re set. No VPN. No client server app. They just open a Web browser and go.
And Clio’s integration with Google Mail is a cleaner integration, which helps a lot.
Has there been any cost savings from the switch?
Where we are saving money is through support and licensing costs. Before, with ProLaw, we had to run a host server and pay an annual support fee in addition to runing a SQL Server database instance. And we also had to run a server for Outlook Exchange. By switching to GMail and Clio, we don’t need to pay the ongoing licensing for Outlook Exchange Server, and our server costs are greatly reduced.
The savings is really in the total cost of ownership. By switching to GMail and Clio, we save on licensing and support. There’s an economy of scale in those savings. We don’t need to run dedicated servers, and we don’t need support a locally installed application by using cloud based services like Clio.
So how is it going so far?
We’re six months into it and have no complaints. Again, Clio is cloud based so our attorneys can work from anywhere. Clio has freed up our attorneys quite a bit. They can work from home, the courthouse, or anywhere else with an Internet connection and call up a document or contact information or an appointment.
And moving to Clio is part of a larger effort as well. We try to be close to the cutting edge to reflect our community’s interest in open source and cloud computing, and moving to Google Mail, and then Clio, is part of that.
How did you find the process of getting up and running with Clio?
It was pretty easy. We had Clio staff train a set of our paralegals, our training manager and an attorney. They learned a lot and we used them to train staff, a kind of train the trainer method. And all the training with Clio staff was done remotely.
Our only snag was with data migration. Our ProLaw database didn’t match fields 1 to 1 with Clio’s database, so we had to do a lot of data mapping since we wanted to bring as much history as we could over from ProLaw. We ended up merging fields to get it to work. We’re happy with it.
You know, the data migration and training were our two main worries. It was pretty easy after that. The user interface is pretty intuitive, and the Clio training group did a good job of training us.
However, it did take some people several days to transition. It’s best to think of it as a Bell Curve – a few picked up Clio with no problem, a few struggled at first, and most were in between those ends. For those who struggled it took a little more time to learn how to associate emails to a Matter, docket items, connect to Gmail and sync the calendars and generally feel comfortable with the application.
And reporting was a challenge, initially, for one of our employees. But we were taught how we can do a big data dump and import the information we need into Excel. That works fine. Clio doesn’t have a native report that suites her needs, but as long as she can download the information, she can report on it.
Have you had any experiences with Clio’s support team?
Just the matter number issue. Haven’t had to call for anything.
Mac or PC?
We use both. Staff are given Dell computers here at the office, but a lot of them use their own equipment including Macs elsewhere. I know of one attorney who uses an iPad all time, no doubt there are others.
