Method and system for the management of professional services project information

• US 8,935,297 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2002
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Patrick Joseph Coyne
• Original Assignee: Patrick Joseph Coyne
• Inventors: Coyne, Patrick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US10/315,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20030144969A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,417 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/237
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

A method and system are provided for the transfer and/or aggregation of data and, in particular, integrating data used in managing a professional services practice. The invention preferably transfers and/or aggregates data relating to the identity of clients and matters for whom professional services are being rendered with data relating to the work which data may be maintained in inconsistent, proprietary formats, comprising one or more of the following types of information: accounting; budgeting; docketing; time and billing; work product; word processing; records; project management; and/or other information relating to the professional services. The system of the present invention preferably comprises data storage and data processing means adapted to use the data in substantially portable and/or application-independent format, and/or and transfer or aggregate data between common, and/or proprietary data formats.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising:

a processor configured to execute a legal services case management software application, the software application for use in conjunction with a legal services project, wherein the software application is configured to;

receive data from a first distributed application, wherein the data from the first distributed application is received in a non-proprietary format and is associated with a client identifier and a matter identifier;

receive data from a second distributed application, wherein the data from the second distributed application comprises at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data, and wherein the data from the second distributed application is received in a proprietary format, wherein the proprietary format is application specific, and the data from the second distributed application comprises at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data and is associated with the client identifier and the matter identifier;

wherein the data from the first distributed application in the non-proprietary format comprises at least one of ODBC data, Cold Fusion data, relational database data, SQL data, HTML data, XML data, SOAP data, WAP data, IP data, TCP/IP data, HTTP data, FTP data, TIF data, JPG data, PDF data, ASCII data, Open Source data, ZMerge data, Windows-compatible data, Lotus Enterprise Integration data, or Lotus Notes data;

secure, on an automated basis via the processor, the data from the first distributed application wherein securing the data includes storing the data by requiring one of;

key entry, voice recognition, optical scanning, data or data transfer for access;

secure, on an automated basis via the processor, the data from the second distributed application wherein securing the data includes storing the data by requiring one of;

key entry, voice recognition, optical scanning, data or data transfer for access;

combine both the secured data from the first distributed application in the non-proprietary format and the secured data from the second distributed application in the proprietary format into a single record that is defined by the client identifier and the matter identifier, wherein the combined secured data is integrated in a portable format of the legal services case management software application, wherein the portable format is different from the format of the first application and the format of the second application; and

storing the combined secured data in the portable format in a database for access by the legal services case management software application.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the data from the second distributed application is legally-related data comprising at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data.

2. A method, in a data processing network for use in a legal services practice, the method comprising:

a. receiving data from a first distributed application, wherein the data from the first distributed application is received in a proprietary format, is associated with a client identifier and a matter identifier, and comprises at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data;

b. receiving data from a second distributed application, wherein the data from the second distributed application is associated with the client identifier and the matter identifier;

c. securing, on an automated basis via a processor, the data from the first distributed application wherein securing the data includes storing the data by requiring one of;

key entry, voice recognition, optical scanning, data or data transfer for access;

d. securing, on an automated basis via a processor, the data from the second distributed application wherein the data from the second software application is received in at least one of;

a proprietary format, wherein the proprietary format is application specific, and the data from the second distributed application comprises at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data, or

a non-proprietary format, wherein the data from the second distributed application comprises at least one of ODBC data, Cold Fusion data, relational database data, SQL data, HTML data, XML data, SOAP data, WAP data, IP data, TCP/IP data, HTTP data, FTP data, TIF data, JPG data, PDF data, ASCII data, Open Source data, ZMerge data, Windows-compatible data, Lotus Enterprise Integration data, or Lotus Notes data;

e. combining both the secured data from the first distributed application in the non-proprietary format and the secured data from the second distributed application in the proprietary format into a single record that is defined by the client identifier and the matter identifier, wherein the combined secured data is integrated in an additional format of a case management software application, the additional format being different from the format of the first distributed application and the second distributed application; and

f. storing the combined data in storage accessible by the case management software application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data from the second distributed application is in a proprietary format.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the combined data stored in the storage accessible by the case management software application is incompatible for use by the first distributed application and the second distributed application.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the case management software application is configured to secure the data from the first distributed application and the data from the second distributed application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the case management software application secures the data from the first distributed application and the data from the second distributed application via an ODBC-compliant driver.

12. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

g. accessing the case management software application; and

h. accessing said combined data stored in the storage accessible by the case management software application.

7. A system for accessing legal services related data from one or more databases in which the data is maintained in one or more proprietary formats, comprising:

a. a first database configured to retrieve data from a project management application in a first format on an automated basis, wherein the data in the first format is associated with a client identifier and a matter identifier and the retrieval of the data includes key entry, voice recognition, optical scanning, data or data transfer, and wherein the first format comprises a proprietary format that is application specific;

b. a second database configured to retrieve data from the project management application in a second format on an automated basis, wherein the data in the second format is associated with the client identifier and the matter identifier and the retrieval of the data includes key entry, voice recognition, optical scanning, data or data transfer, and wherein the data in the first format and the data in the second format comprises at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data, and wherein the second format comprises at least one of;

a proprietary format, that is application specific, comprising at least one of docketing, calendaring, accounting, or time and billing data, or

a non-proprietary format, wherein the data from the second software application comprises at least one of ODBC data, Cold Fusion data, relational database data, SQL data, HTML data, XML data, SOAP data, WAP data, IP data, TCP/IP data, HTTP data, FTP data, TIF data, JPG data, PDF data, ASCII data, Open Source data, ZMerge data, Windows-compatible data, Lotus Enterprise Integration data, or Lotus Notes data; and

c. a processor configured to execute a legal services case management software application, wherein the software application is configured to;

combine both the data received in the first format and the data received in the second format into a single record that is defined by the client identifier and the matter identifier, wherein the combined data is integrated in a format different from the first format and the second format; and

provide the combined data to a user interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the data in the first format is retrieved via an ODBC-compliant driver.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the data in the project management application is incompatible for use by the software application.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the combined data is in a portable format.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the combined data is in a non-portable format.