We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

Google Chrome OS casts a validating vote in favor of the Internet as the medium for future application delivery, echoing the benefits of Software-as-a-Service and the need to revisit the conventional computing model to provide greater simplicity, accessibility and security.

The shift from traditional desktop software to Software-as-a-Service, as evidenced by Microsoft’s recent announcement that Microsoft Office 2010 will be moving to the cloud and Adobe’s announcement of a suite of SaaS offerings at Acrobat.com, appears to be accelerating, and Google’s Chrome OS appears to well-positioned to take advantage of where computing is headed.

Rene Ritchie over at the iPhone Blog has posted a great overview of how to add calendar subscriptions (such as your Clio calendar) via the new 3.0 interface. The full article can be read here: http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/06/24/iphone-30-easily-subscribe-holidays-sports-team-schedules-movie-release-dates/

For Molder, the key benefit of Software-as-a-Service is that his practice management software is not tied to one computer: “Being in South Florida, from June to November, we’re on hurricane watch,” Molder explains. “At any time we could be locked out of our building because of a hurricane warning. It would be impossible for us to run this firm if we were five years in the past.”

For Yelin, who was going solo after retiring from a large Canadian law firm, getting up and running with a practice management system as fast as possible was a priority. Yelin, a Mac user, also selected Clio because of its compatability with his operating system of choice.

You can read the entire article here.

There are a lot of open questions around Software-as-a-Service, and here we’ve aimed to demystify the concept of SaaS and educate attorneys on how to evaluate the suitability of available solutions for their practice.

Part 1: What is Software-as-a-Service? A discussion of what exactly Software-as-a-Service is, and how it compares to the more traditional desktop computing model.

Part 2: Why (Or Why Not) Choose a SaaS Solution? Why SaaS offers compelling advantages over traditional desktop software solutions, and some of the compromises that have to be considered.

Part 3: Why Web-Based Practice Management? Why Software-as-a-Service is a perfect fit for practice management, particularly for solos and small firms.

Part 4: Security. An outline key concepts and terminology for web-based security, including SSL, server security, client security, and password security.

Part 5: Privacy. What you should be looking for in a web site’s privacy policies.

Part 6: Data Availability. An outline of the answers you want to be hearing when you ask your SaaS provider “What are you doing to ensure that my data remains available, even in the event of a natural- or human-induced disaster?“

Part 7: Total Cost of Ownership. An explanation of how to compare costs of SaaS to traditional desktop software via a Total Cost of Ownership calculation.

Part 8: Terms of Service. What to look for in the legal agreement describing the services your SaaS provider will provide you.

Part 9: Data Migration. How you can migrate your data from existing desktop software application to the web.

Part 10: Offline Access. Why offline access is important, and an outline of some of the technologies that make offline access to SaaS applications possible.

With this series of posts we hope we’ve answered many of the questions that exist on Software-as-a-Service. If you have additional questions, feel free to drop us a line, or suggest additional topics you’d like to see covered in the comments.

Dubbed Rich Internet Applications (RIA), these applications download and store a fully functional copy of the program data and controls which are then synchronized with the online data at the earliest availability of a reliable internet connection. With RIAs users need not worry about the consistency or quality of an Internet connection, and can rest assured that whether on a plane, in court or any other circumstance where the Internet is not available, access to their data is still close at hand, and will be transparently backed-up once internet service is restored.

Another method of achieving offline access is via synchronization of data with desktop products. For example, the calendar for many SaaS applications provide an iCal synchronization capability with desktop application counterparts (Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCal, for example). In the event of an Internet outage, it would be possible to retrieve your calendar via Outlook or iCal - as soon as your Internet connection is restored, the desktop applications will update as appropriate.

Google’s recent addition of Gmail offline functionality is an excellent recent examples of how SaaS applications are evolving to minimize the risk of Internet down-time. Now users can browse, search, and compose emails while offline, allowing continued productivity irrespective of connectivity. Similarly, Clio’s recent addition of Clio Express marks our first foray into the world of RIAs and offline functionality with the aim to provide Clio users with continued productivity independent of circumstances. Clio Express is an Adobe Air-based activity tracking application which allows all Clio subscribers to continue working with a logging time and expense slips regardless of Internet availability.

Prospective subscribers considering migrating to a legal SaaS platform may want to bring over data from any number of existing products:

• Contacts and calendars from Microsoft Outlook
• Matters and clients from Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, Amicus Attorney, or Abacus
• Financial data from QuickBooks
• Project lists from Daylight
• Calendars from Google Calendar
• Lists of matters and clients from Microsoft Excel

In many cases users may have years worth of data stored in one of the above systems, and the thought of manually re-entering this information is enough to make them feel stuck with their existing solution. For this reason, most attorneys and staff considering a switch to a SaaS solution want to ensure that their existing data can be migrated over to a new system. Luckily, Data Migration makes this transition possible. Virtually every program (even programs written 20 years ago!) can export data in at least one of the following plain-text, human-readable export formats:

• CSV (Comma-Separated Values)
• XML (Extensible Markup Language)

Both of the above formats are extremely flexible and platform neutral, meaning its possible to subsequently transform and import the data into a new software system, SaaS or otherwise.

However, this process isn’t always trivial, as the way one software description describes, say, a Contact, isn’t necessarily the same as another. This discrepancy is resolved via a process called Data Mapping, where fields from the application being migrated from are mapped to the fields of the application being migrated to.

To provide a concrete example, consider the migration from Microsoft Outlook to Clio: Outlook stores contacts in a slightly different format than Clio, so in migrating our user’s data from Outlook to Clio, we’ve created an automatic routine for mapping data from Outlook’s format to Clio’s:

With this field mapping in place, it is now easy to automatically import thousands of contacts, matters, calendar dates, and tasks from Outlook (or a variety of other programs) directly into Clio.

With the help of Data Migration, it’s easy to automatically transfer large volumes of data from traditional desktop applications to Software-as-a-Service applications.

So, what should a TOS document contain? First and foremost, the SaaS provider should indeed have a TOS document which is readily accessible to subscribers, and available prior to committing to any service agreements. The content of the document should specify the following:

• Usage License: the terms by which the software or service can be used, the law governing the agreement, and the latitude retained by the licensee to modify, suspend or terminate access to the product.
• Service Access: the terms detailing the scope of permitted service accessors, and the means by which access can be obtained.
• Security: the security protections offered by the provider, along with the expected security practices inherited and upheld by the user.
• Subscription Terms: the terms detailing payment amounts, methods and frequency, in addition to any limitations regarding refunds or subscription modification.
• Cancellation: rights extended to both the subscriber and the licensee to terminate the subscription agreement, and the protocol for information management or retention following service cancellation.
• Warranty and Liability: those limitations afforded to the licensee regarding service quality, security or availability.

In addition to the above (and sometimes contrary to what’s specified in the TOS), Software-as-a-Service providers may additionally provide their subscribers with additional protections and remedies in the form of a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which is intended to alleviate some of the common subscriber concern over data availability and continuity. These agreements typically specify a guaranteed uptime (availability) percentage - often 99.9% or greater - and frequently back these guarantees with compensation in the form of pro-rated access fees, or refunds.

Cost of traditional software: When evaluating the TCO of a traditional software solution, consumers are accustomed to factoring-in the off-the-shelf price of the software license, occasionally accounting for the cost of annual software updates and renewals, along with any required annual maintenance and support contracts. What’s often overlooked in the TCO calculation is the ancillary expenses that frequently accompany the purchase of more conventional solutions. Whether its as easy as an upgrade to an existing workstation, the installation of a server, or the implementation or expansion of a network, the cost of investing in any software solution is seldom limited to the purchase itself. Likewise, the more complicated the solution, the greater the probability of maintenance and configuration complexities which adds to the overall TCO in the form of ongoing support of a technical professional. In calculating the TCO of traditional desktop software, the following costs should be factored in:

• Original software purchase
• Annual software renewal
• Technical support contract
• Server(s), networking infrastructure
• Virtual Private Network installation
• Backups, data redundancy
• IT consultant to install/implement software on server and workstations

For larger firms with existing IT overhead and infrastructure, or smaller firms with more specialized requirements better suited to more conventional solutions, the above cost model may be the most appropriate and affordable. However, for many solos and small firms contemplating the merits of a SaaS solution versus a more traditional counterpart the above considerations are important to recognize prior to making any commitments with long term implications and potentially sunk costs.

The cost of Software-as-a-Service: The SaaS model has turned the concept of software licensing on its ear by introducing a service-based structure where, rather than paying a large up-front fee for software ownership, customers pay a low monthly fee for access to a web-based solution. The clear benefit to this type of model being that it affords subscribers a predictable monthly/annual cost of software ownership, without any of the variable expenses that typically accompany non SaaS solutions. It also lowers the barrier to entry, not forcing new graduates, young firms, and cost-concerned attorneys to budget for the aforementioned (often expensive) up-front costs of software purchase and implementation. For most, getting started with a SaaS solution is as easy as launching a browser and inputting a credit card number - all of which can typically be done with the tools most firms/attorneys already have on hand. There’s no computers to upgrade, no servers to install, and no networks to maintain; all of which helps to make the TCO calculation weigh in favor of SaaS solutions. The TCO costs to be factored in for a SaaS provider are relatively minimal:

• Software subscription cost
• Technical support (which is often included in subscription cost for SaaS applications)

Ultimately there are valid arguments to be made both for and against each platform, and the appropriateness of each should be evaluated in the context of firm requirements, available infrastructure, existing investment and product fit. Though traditional software can come with many hidden costs, to some businesses the control and customizability of on-premises softare installations are a non-negotiable requirement. Similarly, where some may be averse to SaaS subscribership and its long-term low-cost perpetuity, the ease of implementation and maintenance, along with low incidence of collateral costs, make it a compelling alternative for small business.

When comparing the TCO of one solution to another, the total cost of ownership over three years is often used as the comparison metric to help smooth out any significant up-front investments and to incorporate long-term costs.

Independent reports have confirmed Software-as-a-Service delivers significant cost savings over traditional desktop software. A recent Forrester report compared the cost of using Google Apps for e-mail, a SaaS solution, versus Microsoft Exchange Server, a traditional client-server application. The Microsoft Exchange solution cost on average $25.18/month per user, while the Google Apps solution only cost $8.47/month per user. In other words, the TCO of SaaS was just 1/3 of the TCO of traditional software.

We’re obviously advocates of the Software-as-a-Service model at Clio, and believe it will become the dominant computing model for small businesses within 3-5 years. The ever-increasing richness and responsiveness of web applications, together with the compelling cost advantages over traditional software solutions, make it, in our view, the obvious choice for small- and medium-sized businesses.

In asking a SaaS provider about their data availability strategy, you are essentially getting an answer to a very important question: “What are you doing to ensure that my data remains available, even in the event of a natural or human-induced disaster?”

The types of disasters that need to be contemplated in a data availability strategy are numerous - natural disasters could range from a lightning bolt that causes a simple power outage at one data center to an earthquake that wipes out power for an entire state; human-induced disasters could include a simple network misconfiguration to a situation where the SaaS provider must shut down for any number of business-continuity-related issues.

Although many of these scenarios are extremely unlikely, the value of the data that is being stored should motivate a comprehensive plan to mitigate the risk associated with the spectrum of potential disaster scenarios. Luckily, there are a broad range of extremely effective technologies and techniques available to both SaaS providers and end-users to ensure their data is safe and secure:

Geographic Redudancy: If a SaaS application or its data  is hosted in just one data center, this means there is a single point of failure that could, potentially, make the entire application unavailable. Geographic redundancy, or geo-redundancy, takes advantage of multiple, geographically distributed data centers. The impact of an outage at one data center can thus be minimized by automatic failover to addition data centers.

SaaS Provider Backups: The SaaS provider should, at a minimum, be performing daily backups of all data and storing this backup in a secure, offsite location. Ideally, backups should be performed multiple times per day, and replicated to multiple, secure offsite locations.

User Backups: While trusting the SaaS provider to conduct appropriate backups is acceptable to some Bar Associations, other Bar Associations require their members retain on-premises copies of their practice’s data. To meet this requirement, you should enquire as to whether your SaaS provider allows for a full export of your data from their system.

Data export can also be an important part of integrating your SaaS solution with other products such as document automation software. Data exports from your SaaS provider should be in a human-readable format such as Comma Separated Values (CSV) or Extensible Markup Language (XML), and, as such can be imported and used in other products to help automated repeatable tasks or eliminate duplicate data entry.

Data Escrow: While internal and external backups provide an extremely high level of protection against data loss, a question we’ve received from a number of attorneys considering using Clio as their practice management system is the following: “what happens if you go out of business?” While this is of course an extremely unlikely scenario, attorneys have the fiduciary responsibility to ask this question of any company being entrusted with their practice’s data.

Having an up-to-date external backup of your practice’s data is an acceptable way to address this concern. However, as we all know, performing backups can easily be forgotten. To help address this concern, we’ve established a Data Escrow policy, where we, on a regular basis, securely archive our data to a completely independent and bonded third party. The data will be held in escrow so that, in the event of an extended service interruption, users taking advantage of our data escrow service can securely retrieve their data from an organization completely independent of Clio.

These measures, taken together, make data availability one of the most compelling advantages of SaaS over traditional desktop applications. To achieve an equivalent level of data availability with desktop applications would be cost-prohibitive and technically challenging, whereas SaaS providers can make this kind of infrastructure available to users for a low monthly cost. For attorneys in geographic locations exposed to a high risk of natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes, SaaS can provide a compelling solution to the problem of data availability, as the SaaS application will remain accessible even if your offices are inaccessible or damaged.

What is the Privacy Policy?: Policies should be clearly stated, and disclose how information supplied to the service is housed, protected, shared, manipulated, or disposed of.

Who owns the data?: When entrusting your practice to a SaaS solution, it’s critical to understand the impact of the company’s privacy policy on your ethical requirements as a legal practitioner. It may seem ridiculous to contemplate a service where the user isn’t the owner of the information, however, a quick look at Facebook’s privacy policy reveals a disturbing lack of control over the data supplied to the service. In the case of status updates, and photos of the weekend BBQ, this may not be a contentious issue, but when it comes to sensitive client data hosted on a SaaS solution, there should be no question with respect to ownership.

How can the data be used?: When it comes to confidential client information, the privacy policy generally outlines how the SaaS provider can (or can’t) use the data you enter into the application. In general, all information you enter into a SaaS application should be treated as confidential, private information that can’t be used by the SaaS provider for any other purpose. Furthermore, the SaaS provider should only be permitted to view any of your private information with your explicit consent (say, for example, to troubleshoot a technical issue).

While in many cases this seems to be the only obvious and fair way of treating private data, there have been some high-profile cases of very popular websites imposing less-than-fair privacy policies on their users. For example, Facebook recently caused a virtual firestorm with an update to its privacy policies that apparently granted the company perpetual control over content posted by its users.

The above checklist provides a rough outline of the issues to be concerned with while reviewing a web site or SaaS provider’s privacy policy. However, reviewing privacy policies can be a time-consuming process, and diligently reviewing the privacy policy of every website you use can rapidly become impractical. Luckily, firms such as TRUSTe serve as a “privacy watchdog”, and provide an independent review of a website’s or SaaS provider’s privacy policy. If the website or SaaS provider complies with TRUSTe’s stringent privacy policy guidelines, they are allowed to display the TRUSTe privacy seal. Thus, if you see the TRUSTe seal (pictured above) on a website you use, you can rest assured the website is complying with TRUSTe’s “best practices” for privacy policies.