Software mega-merger may be boon to law offices.

In the past year or so, lawyers have found significant value in "networking," hooking our computers to one another. In this way, we enjoy the benefits of sharing printers and modems; using interoffice electronic mail; and having files at a central location for access, storage, and backup.(1) Now, use of integrated software packages is coming into vogue.

These software "suites" usually include a word-processing program, spreadsheet, database, and sometimes presentation graphics, electronic mail, and a personal information manager (PIM).

Lotus Development Corp.'s Smart-Suite and Microsoft Corp.'s Office are examples. These two aggressive vendors seemed likely to erode WordPerfect Corp.'s solid base as a leader in the legal market because, up to mid- 1994, the company best known for its word-processing programs did not really have a software suite.

In the summer of 1994, however, Novell, Inc., acquired Wordperfect Corp. and bought QuattroPro spreadsheet programs from Borland International, along with 1 million copies of Borland's Paradox database programs. This major corporate acquisition and the recent, extensive integration of both QuattroPro and Paradox into WordPerfect's product line promise great benefits to lawyers.(2)

Indeed, WordPerfect Corp. has raised the standard when it comes to suites of products. Under the Novell banner, the definition of a "network" now includes the concept of connecting people to information via an integrated series of software products.(3)

Lawyers deal with information. We acquire it; work with others both inside and outside our offices to handle the information (thereby creating new forms of information); and dispense the information in the form of verbal advice, correspondence, pleadings, and briefs. The trick is to make the process of dealing with information easy for lawyers, and that's what the merger of WordPerfect Corp. and Novell is all about.

Until the WordPerfect/Novell Applications Group came out with the products described below, the process of learning to work with computer applications programs was much too complex. The novel approach by Novell changes this picture.

PerfectOffice

PerfectOffice 3.0 integrates WordPerfect's leading business applications, including WordPerfect itself, into one neat package.(4)

The software is easy to use, in part, because of a common user interface in which all the programs included in the suite share consistent tool bars, pull-down menus, and important dialog boxes. The programs look and operate similarly, making it easy for users to get them up and running.

PerfectOffice offers OLE 2.0 (Object Linking and Embedding) in many of its component programs. OLE connects parts of two files together. This enables you to transfer information such as a chart made in QuattroPro to a WordPerfect text file, or to edit a Presentations image while in a WordPerfect document, or to change the information in a Paradox database while working on a word-processing document.

Making changes to the spreadsheet or image or database while in the WordPerfect document also changes the spreadsheet or image file or database in other programs at the same time. The software products also share a common programming code so that, for example, the spell checker in WordPerfect also works in the electronic-mail program discussed below.

QuickCorrect provides automatic spelling correction, such as converting a typed "teh" to "the." Another feature cm do a global search-and-replace and change the different forms of a word. Thus, if you want to change the word "purchase" to "buy," the software will also correct other uses of the word in the document to "buy," "bought," and "buying" where appropriate.

GroupWise

GroupWise version 4.1 (formerly WordPerfect Office 4.0) is an integrated electronic-mail, calendaring, scheduling, and task-management application. You can schedule meetings, assign and track tasks for your employees, or write a note that appears on someone else's calendar on the date you choose.

Via the Universal In Box, you can see all incoming messages in one place, including E-mail and faxes, appointment requests, tasks, and notes. You can also "filter"--or sort and file--them in hierarchical folders according to client, matter, sender, or other criteria. (No more searching for the physical paper file.

For firm managers, you can check your Universal Out Box to see if a message has been delivered, opened, or delegated or if the task has been completed. You can even retract a message as long as the addressee has not vet read it.

Time management is easy, whether for a one-day or weekly event. You can check the schedules of others not only in your office but also on other networks with the same software.

A particularly useful feature is the ability to do sequential routing. You can send a message or task to several recipients in a particular order. As one person comments on an idea or document, for example, it is then automatically routed to the next person.

There are many applications here, including having a paperless office. As all incoming pleadings and mail are received in the office, they can be scanned into images, and the scanned documents cm be sent to those lawyers, paralegals, or others in the office who would normally receive them. Via optical character recognition (OCR), the documents can also be retrieved later via full-text-search-and-retrieval software like Novell's SoftSolutions.

For MacIntosh users who have suffered because Macs were not allowed in a DOS network, good news. The same GroupWise server supports Windows, Mac, DOS, and UNIX, and that support includes E-mail.

One of the most exciting features for senior partners is GroupWise's mobile computing resources. You can use the product via an outside telephone line and access information on your network as though you were sitting at your desktop computer. If a phone jack is not accessible, you can use wireless and pager remote-accessing services and even have new appointments "read" to you via a computerized voice. You can non, access your office while sitting poolside at your favorite vacation spot.

InForms

InForms is an electronic forms package that helps gather, store, and transport data. You can create your own data-input screens in a graphical environment, and you can store and retrieve data from 19 different database programs, including Lotus NOTES. You can use forms interchangeably on Windows, Mac, and DOS workstations.

SoftSolutions

Softsolutions version 4.0 is the most popular document-management software product. It indexes every document created with any mainstream application in your networked enterprise, whether on the file server in your office or on computers in other locations. It "remembers" who created the document and when, and who has retrieved, worked on, updated, doanloaded, or saved the document.

When you save a document, you can create a document profile. Part of the profile would include the client's name and a description of the matter or case you are handling. This means no more concerns about what subdirectory or folder a file may be in. Just search for the client's name or a description of the matter, and you will gain access to all the files and documents involving that matter.

SoftSolutions Document Desktop

This product is every senior partner's wish come true. Network users can create their own interfaces or graphical pictures (also called icons).

Icons on the computer screen, or "desktop," represent documents, applications, file folders, document searches, and database services. One icon could bring up your daily calendar, another a list of those to whom you usually send electronic mail, and yet another a folder with client-specific text files for current matters.

Any document managed by SoftSolutions can be placed on the desktop using an icon. These icons are references or "Pointers" to the actual documents being managed. Multiple icons for a single document can appear on your secretary's desktop so your files can be updated by others in the office.

Other Novell Products

WordPerfect has promoted many other products, whether of their own making or created by others. Among these products are Info Central (an excellent personal information manager); Express-Fax + for Windows (fax and data communications in a single package, plus OCR technology that allows you to edit the faxes you receive); and WP Envoy, a product that allows you to send files in WordPerfect or Pagemaker, for example, to people who don't have those software applications.

The Novell Applications Group and West Publishing Co. have also teamed up to create an integrated link between WordPerfect for Windows and WESTMATE for Windows. You can now complete a WESTLAW legal research session easily while using WordPerfect and then download information directly into a WordPerfect file.

WordPerfect also works with Jurisoft, a law-related software publisher, to provide a "legal bundle" of the Jurisoft products. In addition, because WordPerfect is so pervasive in the law office market, third-party vendors cater to it. Thus, every case-management software product I know that integrates with a word-processing program is compatible with WordPerfect. But until the leading case-management software programs all move into the graphical environment, the same cannot be said for any other word-processing program.

Networks allow us to share information. Lawyers can best serve clients' interests by improving communication and collaboration among individuals and groups in the law firm. The combination of Novell with WordPerfect Corp. creates a company that has the financial resources for the long haul-providing networking expertise, tools, and software applications that have revolutionized the way lawyers work alone and the way they work in groups.

Clearly, Novell has some formidable competitors. But the merger of WordPerfect and Novell, combined with WordPerfect's established focus on the legal profession, makes Novell a long-term player of great importance to law offices.

Notes

(1) Paul Bernstein, Are You Ready for a Network?, TRIAL, Apr. 1989, at 98; Paul Bernstein, Networking Computers to Manage Work Flow, TRIAL, Sept. 1994, at 103.

(2) Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) and WordPerfect Corp. announced the completion of their merger and the acquisition of Borland's QuattroPro spreadsheet business in June 1994. WordPerfect/Novell Applications Group, th resulting business unit within third largest software vendor after Microsoft and Computer Associates.

(3) The concept of "pervasive" computing has three components, according to Novell: making the program easy to use; providing user access to the network from any location (whether in the office or on the road) and from any type of device (DOS, Windows, UNIX, and Mac computers); and obtaining information from the network by providing a Universal In Box (for electronic mail, voice mail, teleconferencing, and fax) and by providing "workflow" software that moves information to the user from the file servers.

(4) PerfectOffice comes in three varieties: 1. Standard includes WordPerfect, a word-processing program; QuattroPro, a spreadsheet program; Presentations, presentation graphics; InfoCentral, a personal information manager; Groupwise, including E-mail, calendaring, and client-scheduling features; and Envoy, an electronic publisher and viewer.

(2.) Professional includes everything in Standard, plus Paradox, a database program, and Visual AppBuilder, a visual application development program.

(3.) Select is a CD-ROM containing everything in Professional, plus other information like Black's Law Dictionary, Steadman's Medical Dictionary, and TimeSlips. Potential buyers can sample each product before deciding to buy it. To buy the product, they call a telephone number provided by the company to pay for the particular software product, and then they receive a "code" to decrypt the software and make it fully available for use. This has become a very popular method of software distribution that offers customers almost instant access to any product.

Paul Bernstein is a CPA, practicing attorney, and law office automation consultant in Chicago. The opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not reflect an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA.