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Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

What if my firm just kept using Outlook and did not add IntelliPad integration?

To answer this question let’s consider what happens if your firm uses an outdated address to send something to a client. And for the moment let’s assume that your firm was advised by the client about the address change and that the new address was not updated everywhere it should have been. The cost of postage and/or shipping is not the problem. It is the embarrassment of already having been told about the address change and then using the old address. This could result in a delay of some needed action or information. Equally important is the message to the client is that your firm is not sufficiently organized or efficient. Instead of increasing their trust in you, they begin to question and worry. Will IntelliPad keep this type of problem from ever happening? We would like to make that claim, but cannot. However, you will dramatically reduce the possibility of such problems with IntelliPad since there is a single record for each client contact in a central database that is kept up to date with the latest changes as they occur in Outlook contact folders.

How does IntelliPad help attorneys collaborate and cross-sell?

IntelliPad provides a variety of features to help attorneys share their knowledge about the firm’s clients and prospects.

  • Firm-specific People Categories (multiples per contact): typically used to designate practice areas or lines of business.
  • Firm-wide relationships: Which attorneys know a contact, who else does the firm know at a client or prospective client organization, which mailings is a contact receiving, and which events have they attended.
  • Public Notes: Each attorney who shares a contact can provide notes about the contact in Outlook; these notes can be seen by other attorneys with the same contact in their Outlook and by the marketing staff. (Private contact notes are also available.)
  • Unlimited custom data fields, for contacts and companies can be created to track additional information. For example: Hobbies, professional organization memberships, family information; company annual revenue, number of employees, private or publicly traded.

What about personal contacts in Outlook?

When new contacts are added, an organizational option controls the default setting of the Marketing Database checkbox, whether or not the contact will be shared. Also, with our automated conversion, we offer an option to add contacts to IntelliPad that are not marked in Outlook as “Private”. For shared contacts, IntelliPad automatically searches the database for both contact and company names, and shows the user any matches found. Users can select a match and download into their folders, if applicable, or ignore matches and add the new contact. When new contacts are added, an organizational option controls the setting of the Marketing Database checkbox.

How can IntelliPad improve the accuracy of contact information, with minimal effort?

IntelliPad provides options that enable each firm to customize the processing of new contacts, and changes to existing contact information, from Outlook (or imported from other sources).
  • If a contact or company is found, the match(es) are displayed and the user can select one and download to his or her folder, or ignore the matches and add the new contact if applicable.
  • Data cleansing rules can be applied to all incoming data: For example, two letter abbreviation for all state names. If new rules are added, they can optionally be applied to existing contacts.
  • When a user changes a contact’s company address, the program asks whether it is a correction of the existing address or a new address for the contact. If a correction, other contacts having the same address are fixed automatically.
  • Each firm can determine which data fields need to be looked at when changes are made, before these changes are propagated to other attorneys with the same contact in their Outlook.

What about creating Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and Avery-formatted labels?

IntelliPad also provides a Word Macro that automatically picks up the contact names from the user’s last run data view, or created mailing task, and produces address labels in any selected Avery format. In addition, there is a utility program that produces selected information into spreadsheets or Word documents that can be placed as icons on attorneys’ computer desktops.

Will IntelliPad make our Holiday Card process easier?

In our view, absolutely yes. And, that is true for both eCard and traditional Holiday Card productions. A major consideration for Holiday Cards is attorney signatures, whether on physical cards or by names shown on eCards. IntelliPad lets attorneys indicate their desire to sign, both in Outlook and in the browser view (ContactLink) of their shared contacts. To make it even easier, all attorneys linked to a contact can be included unless they indicate otherwise. Holiday eCards can be produced by IntelliPad directly, or the information can be provided to third-party companies like Vivid Greetings, which offer music and animated artwork designed for each firm. If using traditional Holiday Cards, IntelliPad provides a variety of solutions, including:
  • Mailing labels for contacts with only one attorney card signer, sorted and paginated by attorney.
  • Labels for contacts with multiple attorney card signers, sorted by contact, with routing slips for each contact showing the names of all attorney signers.
  • If a conference room will be used for signing cards, a list of all the contact names for card signature for each attorney.

What can be done to improve business development follow-up?

To improve the consistency of follow-up with client contacts on a per-attorney basis, IntelliPad provides an “Activity Log” in Outlook for each contact. The user-defined Activity Types are setup with the desired “Recurrence” such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, third Tuesday of the month, etc. Each Activity Log entry added for a contact in Outlook has a date, time, and comment. IntelliPad automatically produces notification emails to participating attorneys which provide them with follow-ups not yet completed and upcoming follow-up activities. The firm can set the frequency and content of these emails, for example: once a week on Monday containing all open activities for the coming week. Attorneys can share individual follow-up activities with all other attorneys, selected attorneys, or just with the Marketing department.

Who else in the firm knows a contact?

The IntelliPad Marketing page in Outlook optionally includes the “Users Sharing this Contact” section, which displays the names of all attorneys who have shared the contact from their Outlook folders. Optional information for each attorney is the “Strength” of relationship (user-defined codes) and the “Is Primary” designation (Yes or No) if this feature is used. The Relationship Strength, if used, can be selected by contact in the Outlook Basic Marketing section, or for all the attorney’s shared contacts in the ContactLink browser view’s Relationships function.
In ContactLink which is opened from Outlook, attorneys can also see all of their shared contacts and set each Relationship Strength.

What is the IntelliMap feature in Outlook?

Opened by clicking the “View IntelliMap” link on the Outlook contact page, this application shows a Google map of the contact’s addresses, and provides access to Google and Google News for the contact name and company name. Driving directions, from the user’s office address or any location, to the contact’s addresses can be requested.

Did a client or prospect attend an event?

Marketing staff will input or upload the ‘attended’ responses for contacts, based on a sign-in sheet or online login (webinars). The browser view (ContactLink) provides selection of Past Marketing Events with use of a response filter such as ‘attended’, as shown below.

Who do we know at a client or prospect company?

The browser view provides searching by company name; all contacts of the selected company can then be displayed along with who in the firm knows each contact, as shown below.

How do I add someone for practice area alerts?

Marketing staff will create Mailing Lists for all such alerts and other firm publications. Attorneys can link contacts to them right in Outlook, on the IntelliPad Marketing page, as shown below.

Versys Software, Inc.
870 Market Street, Suite 1051
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 415-693-1700 Ext 320
info@versys.com

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