As a busy Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with a number of attorney-clients, I’ve been wondering, what kind of personal information management (PIM) software should I be using?
Monica R., RN, CLNC
Hi Monica,
That’s a great question. PIM software, depending upon the complexity, can do something as simple as manage your contacts and address book, calendar and even, on higher-end systems, keep track of your marketing efforts and client communications.
To answer your question I consulted with Tom, our tech expert. His response was pretty complex getting into things like databases and the kind of tech-talk that techies do – just because they can. He also did some pretty good research. (Give a man a fish and you feed him dinner. Give him an Internet connection and you lose him for hours.) Rather than give you Tom’s answer (and bore you to near-death) let me distill what I think he said leaving out the gigabytes, megabytes and overbytes.
ACT! and Goldmine used to be pretty good, fast and simple-to-use programs and were the leaders in the PIM field. Goldmine’s personal edition has been discontinued and in its last iteration ACT! added a SQL (pronounced Sea-Quill) database (you don’t need to know what that is) to help keep track of the immense amount of data it generates and handles. This has apparently slowed it down to the point where you need two things to use it – a fast computer and some good computer skills (more than switching it on and off).
In other words some pretty good programs aren’t nearly as pretty or as good anymore. Tom also gave me some SaaS (more than his usual) which means, “Software as a Service,” ideas – this is where the actual software is hosted somewhere in the vast reaches of the Internet and you access it from anywhere. Salesforce.com, uReach® and Google’s combination of applications are online only. Tom doesn’t recommend investing data in the “cloud” or with an Internet company that may not be there tomorrow (I keep telling him Google is safe). If you keep good back-ups you should be okay. Besides, that’s where all our data will be one day (go ahead and quote me).
What do I choose as a PIM? Well, I used to love the Palm Desktop (Tom says you can still download it for free from Palm, but check the license first.) before I started using Microsoft Outlook 2007. There’s a new Business Contact Manager for Outlook that will do everything the older PIMs do. We haven’t tried it yet but one of our vendors told me it was pretty good. We also have an enterprise-level CRM system that’s way too complex for most individuals (Tom’s words not mine).
My best advice for a legal nurse consultant? Save your money. Until you get over 50 attorney-clients I don’t believe you need to invest the time or money in buying, learning and programming a PIM. Outlook was free with our other software so why spend more money? We surveyed Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and the overwhelming response was that 80% of their revenues come from two to five of their attorney-clients. Don’t buy the geek software until you need it. Save yourself the aggravation and put the time and money into your CLNC® business.
3 thoughts on “Ask Vickie: Personal Information Management”
This info is very timely: I have ACT, which I used as a nursing home administrator, and loved its abilities. In fact, I don’t really use it to keep track of my active attorney-clients, though I could. I use it for all those I meet that don’t give me business yet, but I want to be able to contact later. However, Vickie’s article touched on something I didn’t realize, and am grateful to know. It has become slower to use, even though I don’t have the newest version – mine’s about two years old. I didn’t plan to update just because I don’t need the programs it has…but the little I do with ACT, I’m pleased with. Vickie, it’s always fun to read your posts…you do great at alerting us and keeping us up to date on things! And greetings to you, Mr. Tom – don’t let that woman discourage your techo-side…we love it!
I installed Act after Christmas. I communicate with over a hundred attorneys and it came to the point where I needed better organization. I keep track of my marketing campaigns and the kind of responses I get from attorneys.
Also, I offer CLE’s to attorneys and needed a system to follow up. Along with the ACT program, I ordered ACT for Dummies. It has made running the program very easy. I ordered both off of Amazon.com very inexpensively. Tom’s NACLNC® Conference audio on PIM’s lead me in this direction. So far, it is working very well for me.
I also keep track of office contractors and subcontractors. It is great to pull up reports on the various groups in the PIM. I know several legal nurse consultants from other programs and they do not get what we get technologically as CLNC® consultants from LegalNurse.com’s Certification Program. I get the word out to them and other nurses that Vickie’s CLNC® Certification Program is the best.
Thanks for the “save your money” wisdom. Microsoft Live does nearly free web-hosting and allows you to design and maintain your own site. The first year is free; the second – which you pay for up front – is under $15. My husband bought me an $800 4-in-1 office machine for under $130 during Christmas sales. I am careful to use the “good” paper only for marketing materials and print internal documents, forms and research only on “cheap” paper. I use Microsoft Publisher for my brochures and newsletter. I already had the software and they have very nice templates for all types of documents. If done well and printed on high end paper, they are impressive. I found a very inexpensive online business card supplier that had matching labels for almost nothing, and I got second hand furniture to fill in my needs for my home office. Although I obtained a library card to access their services as much as possible for everything from medical research to marketing information, I am finding I keep going back to the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting® textbook. It is a treasure trove for the new entrepreneur. Again, thank you Vickie.
Saving money now until the revenues allow is helping me get to 2 goals: to attend next year’s conference, and to upgrade to the VIP CLNC® Business System!
LegalNurse.com is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
The National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®) is the largest and oldest association of legal nurse consultants.
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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
This info is very timely: I have ACT, which I used as a nursing home administrator, and loved its abilities. In fact, I don’t really use it to keep track of my active attorney-clients, though I could. I use it for all those I meet that don’t give me business yet, but I want to be able to contact later. However, Vickie’s article touched on something I didn’t realize, and am grateful to know. It has become slower to use, even though I don’t have the newest version – mine’s about two years old. I didn’t plan to update just because I don’t need the programs it has…but the little I do with ACT, I’m pleased with. Vickie, it’s always fun to read your posts…you do great at alerting us and keeping us up to date on things! And greetings to you, Mr. Tom – don’t let that woman discourage your techo-side…we love it!
I installed Act after Christmas. I communicate with over a hundred attorneys and it came to the point where I needed better organization. I keep track of my marketing campaigns and the kind of responses I get from attorneys.
Also, I offer CLE’s to attorneys and needed a system to follow up. Along with the ACT program, I ordered ACT for Dummies. It has made running the program very easy. I ordered both off of Amazon.com very inexpensively. Tom’s NACLNC® Conference audio on PIM’s lead me in this direction. So far, it is working very well for me.
I also keep track of office contractors and subcontractors. It is great to pull up reports on the various groups in the PIM. I know several legal nurse consultants from other programs and they do not get what we get technologically as CLNC® consultants from LegalNurse.com’s Certification Program. I get the word out to them and other nurses that Vickie’s CLNC® Certification Program is the best.
Thanks for the “save your money” wisdom. Microsoft Live does nearly free web-hosting and allows you to design and maintain your own site. The first year is free; the second – which you pay for up front – is under $15. My husband bought me an $800 4-in-1 office machine for under $130 during Christmas sales. I am careful to use the “good” paper only for marketing materials and print internal documents, forms and research only on “cheap” paper. I use Microsoft Publisher for my brochures and newsletter. I already had the software and they have very nice templates for all types of documents. If done well and printed on high end paper, they are impressive. I found a very inexpensive online business card supplier that had matching labels for almost nothing, and I got second hand furniture to fill in my needs for my home office. Although I obtained a library card to access their services as much as possible for everything from medical research to marketing information, I am finding I keep going back to the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting® textbook. It is a treasure trove for the new entrepreneur. Again, thank you Vickie.
Saving money now until the revenues allow is helping me get to 2 goals: to attend next year’s conference, and to upgrade to the VIP CLNC® Business System!