INSTANT MESSAGING

INTRODUCTION

There are occasions when a user needs to send an urgent message to another user to tell them to do something, remind them of something or to bring a “real time” event to their attention (e.g. the debtor has made a payment at the front desk or the Mortgagors are waiting in reception to sign their documents).

In these cases, Reminders and/or Email messages are not ideal because there is sometimes a delay in the delivery and/or receiving of these messages.

As a result, LegalSuite has added an “Instant Messaging” feature which allows users to send messages to one another from within the program.

USING INSTANT MESSAGING

The Instant Messages button is located on the main toolbar.

Hint: It can be called by pressing Ctr+Alt+M

Select the Recipient by choosing an Employee from the drop down list.

Optionally select a Matter that the message relates to. If you select a Matter, a File Note will be made from the Message.

Type in the Message and Press 'OK'.

Note:

Use the Lookup Button and tag multiple Employees to send the message to more than one person.

The Matter field is an "auto lookup"field, i.e. type the first few characters of the File Reference and it will find the Matter for you otherwise use the Lookup Button to search for the Matter.

You can view who is currently logged into the program by clicking on the “Logged in” button. You can select Employee(s) from this list if you want to.

When you click on “OK”, the recipient(s) will receive a message like this:

If you registered the message, you will receive a reply like this showing you when your message was read by each recipient.

It is as simple as that.

LOG FILE

All messages are logged and stored in a log file. It can be viewed here.

REMINDERS

When inserting a Reminder, you can now optionally decide to send an Instant Message or Email to the recipient based on the Reminder.

Sending an email is quite useful especially if the users are syncing their mobile phones with their email. They will then get the message even if they are out of the office.

EVENT NOTIFICATION

You can also request that a user receive an Instant Message after an Event has occurred. This forms part of the Notifications settings of an Event.

This can be used in conjunction with other notifications (such as SMS) to ensure that the recipient receives the message one way or another.

SHUTTING DOWN THE PROGRAM

Sometimes the program has to be shut down for maintenance purposes or to do a Live Update. The Instant Messaging system has been adapted to enable ‘special’ messages to be sent to users to log them out of the program. You can either kick them out of the program immediately or display a warning message which will allow them time to save their work and log out themselves.

If you choose to warn the users first, they will receive a message similar to this:

The user can click on “Exit Now” to exit immediately or “Close” the message screen, save their work (e.g. if they were busy taking on a Matter) and then exit the program normally.

The program will now be in a state of “ShutDown”. If someone tries to login while the program is in “ShutDown” mode, they will receive the following message:

They should choose “Exit The Program” and wait until they are told they can go back in. If they do not respond to the message within 30 seconds, this screen will close automatically and they will be kicked out of the program.

Once you have finished program maintenance or the Live Update, you can run the program and when faced with the above screen, choose “Load The Program”. The “ShutDown” state will be removed so that other users can now also login to the program.

SETTINGS

Two settings are available from “Setup | Program Settings | Instant Messaging”:

Message Checking Period

The Instant Messaging system functions by checking the SQL Server at set intervals (to see if there are any messages for a particular User). Although this has been optimised, it still uses resources on the server and across the network and may impact slow or under-powered systems. If you suspect that it is degrading the performance, you can either increase the interval (to say 60 or 90 seconds) or set it to zero to disable instant messaging altogether.

Increasing the interval will improve server performance, but there will be a corresponding delay in the users receiving their messages.

Message Expiry

Since Instant Messages are meant to be read ‘instantly’, the program will delete old, unread messages from the system. This is to prevent a user from logging in after being away for a few weeks and being swamped with hundreds of messages – most of which are no longer relevant. You can set the expiry period here or set it to zero to turn off message deletion altogether (not recommended).

Note: Registered messages will not be deleted by the system until they have been read by the recipient.

CONCLUSION

Instant Messaging is an exciting new addition to the LegalSuite program. It should prove to be a well liked feature as it enables users to communicate with one another in real time - which is often a necessity in a busy law practice.